Introduction
Project management has evolved into a profession, a methodology for achieving the desired end-result and advancing toward strategic implementation. More importantly, it is a mindset for doing business.
Any and every challenge can be met with the project management approach given clarity of objectives, and the desired outcomes are realizable akin to the dream of landing on the moon for the first time.
Works related to project management began back in the 1950s with the creation of tools for planning and scheduling of construction projects In the construction and aerospace industries those enjoy the motherhood of project management. The old perception of project management as a planning tool largely hinders its acceptance by C-Suite managers as an effective management approach.
The value propositions help to understand the strengths and potential with the application of the approach to initiatives and endeavors.
Objectives
Project management has evolved into a management approach and a profession for implementing strategic advancement in business and industry. Its objectives are as follows:
Create acceptability among the corporate level top managers for the values it offers and for building professional competence.
Provide clarity as to how the project management approach fits well with the changing business requirements and trends.
Highlight how project management deals with the changing requirements of the customer and manages self-improvement?
How are changing requirements of the market captured in project management and addressed effectively?
Provide an understanding of project management that helps move in a strategic direction and sustain a competitive edge.
Provide an understanding of the project management approach that supports a knowledge-based economy and high-performing organizational culture and does away with the diseases of management satisfactorily.
Why is adopting project management approach critically important? See the following;
What is project management?
Project management history
Strategic Advancement
Project Management for Business Advancement
Stay away from Deadly Diseases of Management
Project management is a business management approach that has evolved into a profession, systems- based advancement, a structure for governance, and a methodology for holistic management to govern and control resources. It helps an organization to translate goals into reality, to conduct change management through implementing projects, to maintain strategic direction, and to reach desired outcomes successfully the first time and every time—reliably, predictably, and consistently.
Practitioners of project management have earned credibility and proven abilities to deliver value for sustainability of growth and capabilities such as the following:
A)Organizational Competence and Dynamism for Change in Strategic Direction
B)Mechanism for Self-Improvement
C)Structure for Governance and Control
D)Structure for Talent Management and Communication Channels
Organizational Competence
The framework, structure, systems, and practices of project management help build competence and dynamism for change. At the core, the strength of project management is derived from the processes and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals using a scientific approach. The management of projects stands in contrast to “business as usual” (i.e., operations), which are repetitive, permanent, or semipermanent functional activities to produce products or services.
In reality, operations management and project management systems are quite different, requiring the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.
In practice, the management of project management systems is carried out often under the control of operations, and that creates problems and impacts negatively the efficiency in advancement of projects in the required time frame and budget needed for strategic advantage.
Project management systems and practices when applied within a framework and mind-set help develop a project management culture that captures real value for an organization—the independent management of two domains of management, the operation and the strategic implementation to help build a competitive edge and sustain growth on a stronger footing.
Mechanism for Self-Improvement
Structured results-based management helps in developing an organizational learning culture, reinforcing a sense of domain learning that leads to excellence in performance and building a competitive edge. Organizational project management helps build domain strengths, adding to competitive advantage. The Closing Processes Group, as described in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), sixth edition, captures lessons learned that lead to corrective actions and contribute to improvement when incorporated for future project advancements.
Governance and Control
The structure—at the project, program, and portfolio levels—of project management frameworks provides effective governance through defined chains of command, roles and responsibilities, communication channels, and transparency of who does what and when it should be done to achieve the outcomes. Portfolio domain of projects provides a clear vision for management, resource application, planning and scheduling, and prioritizing in terms of strategic advancement. The corrective action may be taken proactively in changing circumstances when the need arises.
Talent Management and Communication Channels
Project management at the portfolio, program, and project levels for achieving business or organizational goals supports the development of a plan for talent needs. Translations of goals through required projects in the order of priority provide the focus for assessing the need for talent and include matching the right skills with the right job. They also help highlight the missing skills/competencies for identified training.
The defined management structure in a portfolio provides communication channels that help assess information flow to and from the stakeholders concerned.
1.1 Project Management History
Ever since the beginning of civilization, project management has been in practice in one form or other. Its recognition as a formalized body of knowledge was established in the 1950s, when organizations started to systematically apply project management tools and techniques to complex engineering projects. However, until 1900, it was applied in some form in civil engineering projects, which were generally managed by creative architects, engineers, and master builders themselves, such as Virtuvius (first century BC), Christopher Wren (1632 to 1723), Thomas Telford (1757 to 1834), and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 to 1859).
Project management as a discipline was developed from several fields of application, including civil construction, engineering, and heavy defense activity.
The two forefathers of project management are Henry Gantt (1861 to 1919) and Henry Fayol (1841 to 1925). Gantt is the father of planning and control techniques, who is famous for his use of the Gantt chart as a project management tool, and Fayolis known for his creation of the five management functions that form the foundation of the body of knowledge for project and program management.
Both Gantt and Fayol were students of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theories of scientific management, which are the forerunner to modern project management tools, including work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era, in which the core engineering fields came together as one. Project management was then recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline with engineering models.
In the United States, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis, with mostly Gantt charts in use, prior to the 1950s, along with informal techniques and tools. At that time, two models were developed, which were based on mathematical project scheduling: the critical path method (CPM), in a joint venture between the DuPont Corporation and the Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects, and the program evaluation and review technique (PERT), by Booz Allen Hamilton, as part of the United States Navy’s (in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program.
Although similar in approach, PERT and CPM present certain differences: CPM is used for projects that assume deterministic activity times; the times at which each activity will be carried out are known, whereas PERT allows for stochastic activity times; the times at which each activity will be carried out are uncertain or varied. This core difference makes for the use of CPM and PERT in different contexts. Based on value addition, these mathematical techniques quickly gained acceptance in private enterprise.
Concurrently, while project-scheduling models were being developed, technology for project-cost estimation, cost management, and engineering economics was evolving, with pioneering work by Hans Lang and others.
In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE-International—the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed. The practitioners of project management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, and cost/schedule control (i.e., project control) continued pioneering work, and in 2006, Project Management Institute (PMI), US, released the first integrated process for portfolio, progra m, and project management (a source for total cost management framework).
In 1964, the INTERnational NET Work (INTERNET) was founded, with participants from the Netherlands and Germany.
In 1996, the 13th World Congress was held in Paris. INTERNET got a namesake—a new international telecommunication system. The Executive Board (ExBo) renamed INTERNET the International Project Management Association, IPMA (the third and current name), but retained the logo.
IPMA maintains its federal structure today and now includes member associations on every continent except Antarctica. IPMA offers a four-level certification program based on the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The ICB covers technical, contextual, and behavioral competencies.
In 1998, IPMA started certification of individuals, and the first version of ICB, v.1.0., was published.
In 2002, IPMA launched the IPMA International Project Excellence Award.
In 2012, IPMA offered organizational assessment and certification through IPMA Delta.
In 2015, IPMA brought out Strategy 2020.
In 1969, the PMI was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Now PMI [www.pmi.org] extensively provides the following:
1.Foundational Standards in 11 major languages to assist global practitioners
2.Practice Standards and Framework
3.Practice Guides
4.PMI Lexicon of Project Management Terms
Project Management Professional Body in the United States
In 1969, the PMI was formed in the United States. PMI publishes standards, practice guides, and, primarily, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), which describes project management practices that are common to “most projects, most of the time.” PMI also offers multiple certifications.
Project-based management is increasingly adapted to systematically deliver strategy and consistently, predictably, and reliably satisfies the increasing demands of stakeholders and improved performance to achieve the desired business results to sustain growth.
PMI is a global leader in project, program, and portfolio management standards, practices, andguidelines that enhance and improve organizations’ performance, operational efficiencies, and strategic alignment. As a not-for-profit global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI is an advocate for project management as a strategic competency that implements an organization’s most important initiatives, delivering expected results, business value, and competitive advantage.
To perform best, organizations require an approach comprising project, program, and portfolio management, so as to:
1.Create efficiencies to drive organizational success
2.Focus on talent management and improve its role in project management
3.Employ project, program, and portfolio management practices strategically
4.Incorporate lessons learned for continuous improvement
Organizational competence is dependent on effective project management frameworks and maturity levels achieved with standardization of processes in place.
Research has revealed three standard project management factors as having a greater impact on project successes: standardized project management processes, standardized project management tools, and standardized skills for project leadership.
Project management is a leadership-intensive approach, where the role of leadership at every level is required to manage the right thing to happen at the right time in areas of assigned responsibility and align with strategic direction.
Varying levels of leadership for project management, program management, portfolio management, and the enterprise project management office (EPMO) create a combined impact in a coordinated manner for advancement in a defined strategic direction.
Project management is both an art and a science—an art because project management requires the skills, tact, and finesse to manage people, and a science because it demands an in-depth knowledge of an assortment of technical tools. It drives change to move in a strategic direction and demands leadership skills to manage the human factor most effectively, as illustrated in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Project management knowledge base
Implementation of projects is essentially change management, which requires the application of an assortment of technical tools, and managerial competence, where managing human aspects in the process is made possible only with effective leadership skills. Essentially, it involves a fit between managerial and leadership skills to effectively manage the advancement.
1.2 Strategic Advancement
The project management approach facilitates advancement in a strategic direction by translating strategic goals into projects at the portfolio level. The study of market trends and exploration of customer needs and expectations are carried out, and the implementation is done through program/project management. The periodic evaluation of changing scenarios in the market and comparison with defined projects help stay in alignment with the strategic direction.
PMI’s Thought Leadership Series: Talent Management: Powering Strategic Initiatives in the PMO, published in November 2014, revealed that 88 percent of executive leaders consider strategy implementation important, yet 61 percent also acknowledge that their organizations are struggling to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation. On top of that, only 17% see implementation efforts as strategic. This gap demonstrates a lack of understanding among executives that all strategic change happens through projects and programs.
Leaders define vision. A business turns vision into value. Project management drives the vision through projects that build the capabilities, transforming businesses.
Project management is essentially an effective enabler for turning vision into value.
To achieve this, businesses must build “value-driven organization” that is seasoned yet adaptive, structured yet agile, pragmatic yet innovative. This is not a simple feat.
Project management structure helps develop a “value-driven organization” through projects/programs/portfolios for attaining a desired goal with continuous improvement and building of domain expertise.
Further, the value of project management is captured increasingly through the following measures:
•Actively engaged executive project sponsor
•Aligning projects to strategy
•Developing project management culture
•Developing and maintaining project management talent
•PMO (program management office) establishing an effective support center, well aligned with the business
•Using standardized project management practices throughout the organization
•Establishing transformational leadership
1.3 Project Management for Business Advancement
The present knowledge economy needs more from organizations than grudging compliance with laid down standards and procedures. It is trust in the environment that gets the best from professionals’ engagement, rather than threatening them. Project management is a knowledge-based approach that builds the competence of an organization as well as teams of professionals.
Project management frameworks such as portfolios/programs/projects are not only heavily supported by the standards but also supplemented with practice guides, full of knowledge for action. Further, a number of individual certifications help professionals to build competence and confidence for application of the systems.
Organizations are increasingly learning that business growth and sustainability are managed effectively by the rigorous application of the project management approach, which starts at the portfolio level with the translation of a desired goal into initiatives and then cascades through programs and projects. What organizations do is less important than how they do it that becomes a competitive advantage. The lingering effects of the global economic meltdown have reinforced the value of project management. Organizations that recognize the value of project management understand that the contributions of professional project managers increase project success rates, create efficiencies, improve alignment with organizational strategies, and maintain the continuum of improvement throughout the organization.
Strategic implementation is aided by project management approaches and systems developed that increase the speed of implementation while adding success to advancement in a strategic direction.
John Kotter, an acclaimed author and former Harvard Business School professor, wrote:
“Strategy should be viewed as a dynamic force that constantly seeks opportunities, identifies initiatives that will capitalize on them, and completes those initiatives swiftly and efficiently.”
He further recognizes the inextricable link between strategy and execution, which is where project, program, and portfolio management deliver unparalleled value to organizations.
The reality in the market place is that a wide gap in strategic planning and effective implementation remains a big challenge for advancement in a strategic direction. The application of project management frameworks and practices is no longer a choice; it is now mandatory for the structured implementation of strategy that creates business strength for an organization to flourish.
1.4 Stay Away from Deadly Diseases of Management
The project management approach helps build framework, systems, and results-driven management. The approach critically does away with the deadly diseases of management.
The renowned management guru, W. Edwards Deming, advocates conscientiously staying away from the deadly diseases of management: What are the signs of trouble? What are the symptoms of losing direction?
Based on Deming’s ideas, “The Seven Deadly Diseases” are the things to look for—whether managing business or simply implementing projects.
1.Missing constancy of purpose:
•The purpose
of business is to stay in the market, grow, create jobs, and create value
•Lack of clarity in strategic advancement and the discipline to make it happen
Projects are implemented for a defined purpose and deliverable in a highly disciplined manner, to create value, meet future requirements to grow, and manage talent to stay competitive.
2.Short-term approach:
•No efforts to increase the size of the cake. “Paper entrepreneurs” only take a bigger piece of the pie; they don’t make the pie bigger.
•Focus on growth in terms of profits, sales, and revenues, not in building organizational competence, creating competitive advantage, and enhancement of customer relationships.
Project management for strategic implementation is a long-term approach to satisfy the future needs and expectations of the customer. It helps build the organization, enhancing competence and improving the stakeholder–customer relationship.
3.Emphasis on performance assessments or annual reviews:
•Ascribed to people in a group—differences that may be caused entirely by the group they work in, factors beyond their control
•Discourages teamwork—the greatest accomplishments by mankind were created without competition among team members
•Does the company hold onto talented people?
Project management is essentially result-driven management where team performance is evaluated after the desired outcomes of every process are achieved. Transparency in the system highlights the high performers and helps recognize them at relevant times. This helps hold onto talent.
4.Mobility of top management:
•It takes years to teach a company what it does
•People need time to learn to work together
•Does the company value “homegrown” talent?
Project management systems, portfolio/program/projects team members work together toward desired outcomes of a common goal. It enhances their engagement, and retaining the homegrown talent becomes the strategic need of an organization.
5.Running a company on visible figures alone (“counting the money”):
•It is impossible to measure the effect of a happy customer on sales
•It results in short-term, shortsighted vision
•Does the company have multiple ways to measure success?
Project management is result-driven management based on systems and teamwork. Where discipline and organizational building become imperative, therefore, health in figures alone becomes secondary. The focus on systems, discipline, team performance, and attainment of the desired end results automatically impacts positively on bottom-line figures.
6.Poor customer retention/high customer turnover:
•Customers have long-term memories (even when personnel changes)
•The cost of acquiring a new customer is four times that of keeping an old one
•Does the company dedicate itself to customer relations?
Project deliverable is driven by customers who remain the focus for meeting and exceeding the expectations. It helps in retaining customers and high turnover.
7.Excessive legal costs:
•For some companies, this is their single largest expenditure
•Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers that work on contingency fees
•The United States is the most litigious nation in the world
•Does the company strive to communicate proactively with employees and customers—to keep them aware of changes in policies or procedures (the “no surprises” rule)?
Project management is a customer-centered approach that helps in meeting and exceeding their need and expectation. Managing the team and customer proactively helps surprises to stay away. Further, managing the conflict at the cropping end does away with the litigation to set in.
Summary
Project management has evolved with the passage of time through experience-based learning that has now taken the shape of a management approach. The process of knowledge management is advanced by capturing the findings of research and best practices. There are a number of professional bodies engaged in research and knowledge management aimed at strengthening the project management profession, aligning it with market needs and expectations to help business and industry to move in their strategic direction, effectively and efficiently.
It is no longer merely a tool for planning and programming, as in the 1950s when the available knowledge was pulled together for the first time for practitioners.
Project management is a knowledge-based approach that satisfies the demands of a knowledge-based economy and increasingly helps sustain the competitive edge in the market. It also provides a system that works on many fronts with equal force and satisfies the changing needs and expectations of the customer at the relevant point in time.
The discussion in chapter one provides forceful reasons why the application of project management may bring high-performing cultural strengths to organizations, help achieve a competitive edge in business, and purposefully serve to control management diseases injurious to advancements for business.
PMI–Lexicon of Project Management Terms
PMI’s Thought Leadership Series: Talent Management: Powering Strategic Initiatives in the PMO, published in November 2014
PMI-Construction Extension to PMBOK-Guide
PMI-Government Extension to PMBOK-Guide
PMI-PMBOK, Guide 6th Ed.
PMI-Software Extension to PMBOK-Guide
W. Edward Deming, a management guru “The Deadly Diseases of Management”.