Consulting Journal: Trends - Project management

Trends: Project management

by David Blakey

Has automation improved the quality of project management?

[Monday 21 January 2002]

There seem to be two major myths in project management.

1. ‘Anyone can do it’

The number of failed projects should indicate that this is just not true. Projects fail in the construction industry, which is probably the oldest user of project management techniques. Projects fail at an alarming rate - still - in the IT industry, which is probably the second oldest user of project management techniques. Most of these projects fail because the people managing the projects are not professional project managers.

As a consultant, you can perform a simple test to find out if you are dealing with a professional project manager or an amateur. Ask for the project plan. If you get a project plan, you are probably dealing with a professional. If you get a Gantt chart, you are certainly dealing with an amateur.

2. ‘Any project manager can manage any project’

This is wrong for two reasons.

First, the basic elements of project management differ between industries. You have only to look at some of the ‘project management’ software available to see this. In construction, people usually have only one role. They are brick-layers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, and so on. Carpenters do not glaze windows. Painters do not install the electrics. Also, someone who has one role on one project will usually have the same role on another project. Someone who is a brick-layer on one project is unlikely to be a plumber on another. Most project management software is aimed at this model. ‘Resources’ - which means people - are assigned on the basis of these roles. In IT, people are often trained and skilled and experienced in a number of roles. It is not unusual to find people who can be business analysts, strategy developers, application designers, program coders and software testers. Someone who is a business analyst on one project may be a program coder on another. It goes further that that: a single person could be a business analyst and a program coder on a single project. Very few project management software packages are aimed at this model. Those that are tend to be specific to the IT industry and not marketed as generic products that can be applied to any industry.

Second, the techniques used can vary between industries. Within IT, it has been recognized that the traditional system development life cycle does not work in some areas, such as Web development. Instead, an iterative approach is needed. A project manager trained and experienced only in the traditional ‘waterfall’ techniques of handing over a complete product at the end of a project could have difficulty in adjusting to the iterative methods.

Actually, we can ill afford projects to fail. This applies especially to IT and Web projects. In the 1960s, when IT was first used to any significant extent in business, it was used to do existing tasks faster. If the computer systems failed, then people would go back to doing the same tasks manually. Business was rarely dependent on IT because it mirrored existing tasks and people could still do those tasks themselves, if they had to. At that time, IT was the equivalent of a coffee machine. If it broke down, people could make their own coffee. Today, IT does things that people have never done. There is no effective way of replacing Web-based international ordering, procurement, warehousing and distribution systems. IT is no longer equivalent to a coffee-machine in a corridor. Now, it can often be essential to the survival of the business.

Because of this, we really should have a more mature approach to project management. Sound project management is not about presenting a Gantt chart at a weekly progress meeting. It is about building relationships with people and working with them to achieve results of common benefit.

We need to look at the scale of project management. For a project that has a single time-line, that presents little risk, and that can be completed with disruption, there is no need for a complex project management regime. All that is needed is a focus on what needs to be done and a commitment to get everyone working together to get it done. In this scale of project, there may not even be a need for a full-time professional project management.

The secret of project management is that focus on what needs to be done. The main skill of successful project managers is getting everyone working together.

No software package can be a substitute for that leadership.

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