Can the inertia of project management be overcome? The editors of Project Management World Today Web Magazine say no.

We predict that the Project Management is going to change as little in the next 10 years as it has in the last 20. Oh, the project management "industry" will advance its knowledge and its products. And its numbers: Hoards of enthusiastic people will obtain some form of professional "certification".

We can hope for more standardization of nomenclature.. perhaps. And maybe even certifications that have some relationship to competence.But in practice, it's not going to change without a paradigm shift in management thinking. Unfortunately we don't see any factors - internal or external, rewards or consequences - that will precipitate such an order-of-magnitude leap in management awareness and commitment.

What do you think? Please share your view in a comment to this posting.

Conventional wisdom from PMI and others has us manage the time (duration) of project work. A strong voice disagrees. In Shaking Off the Shoulds and Pardon Sisyphus Johanna Rothman appearing in Software Development Magazine offers a set recommendations and questions for managing work not time.

1. Dump the Lead Weights
   Should this work be done at all?
2. Differentiate Between Your Work and Others'
   Should this task be on my personal to-do list?
3. Push Out Work That Doesn't Belong To You
   Should someone else do this?
4. Enable Your People
   Will the task help finish the project faster?
5. Focus on Business Value
   How does this task help you manage the business?
6. Choose Importance Over Urgency
   How do you spend your time?

Read more by Johanna Rothman at www.jrothman.com.

The Politics of Projects by Geoff Choo appearing in gantthead.com. Choo offers five questions for assessing your political readiness.

1. Do you know what matters most to your organization?
2. Do you know how your organization really works?
3. Do you work your network?
4. Do you know how to show and tell?
5. Can you lead without leading?

Politics on projects exist. Choo offers good practical advice.

I called Project Integrity Day a learning team. Let me explain. I set out with a rather grand plan to create this day that would be well-attended, that would in some observable way change the drift of projects, and would leave all participants equipped to continue to take similar actions for themselves. None of that happened. So what did happen?

We learned to look at project integrity from a number of perspectives. Mary Poppendieck participated in the call. I interviewed her during the last hour. We discussed Chapter Six: Build Integrity In of the forthcoming book Agile Toolkit for Software Development authored by Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Mary and Tom refine the distinctions of integrity offered by Kim Clark of Harvard Business School. They say we can conduct ourselves so there is integrity in the design (concept) of the product we are creating. They also point to the elusiveness of the customer recognizing (perceiving) integrity between the design that is delivered and the wants and needs how ever well those are expressed.

In earlier postings I suggested we look for issues of integrity in eight places. I don't think that was sufficient. Perhaps there is a small set of issues that collects the situations for assessing integrity on projects. I propose we can lump a number of the Eight Ps into just three classes. Further, for each class there is an organizing attribute and a performing attribute. (Does anyone see anything else?) While I still don't think I have described a taxonomy for attending to the issues of integrity on projects, I do think it is more useful.

• Product integrity: purpose, promise, and performance
• Conceptual integrity
• Perceptual integrity
• Process integrity: planning, practices, and place
• Structural integrity
• Procedural integrity
• Personal integrity: power, politics, and personality
• Integrity with our declarations
• Integrity with our promises

I must thank Steve Knapp for jarring me with his suggestion that power, politics, and personality all matter with integrity. He found those issues in the description of a seminar on project management. At least that validated the use of P-words for building a taxonomy!

Throughout the three hours we discussed what we can do about project integrity. I thank all the participants in Project Integrity Day for whatever value was created. I take all responsibility for any of the nonsense that might go along with it. Here's my take on what we can do.

I need to clean up this whole project integrity thing up so it can be more useful. While I'm doing that, please give the model another think and let us all know what you learn while you foster integrity on your projects.

Today we were a learning team…we learned more than we accomplished. We only worked for three hours due to the low turnout and the absence of project managers on the calls. I thought I would get a greater response than I did. Oh well, more learning.

We explored where to look and what to look for in project integrity. Mary Poppendiek helped tremendously. The distinctions conceptual integrity and perceived integrity are the what to look for. The Eight Ps are where to look. We were only left with what to do.

Our discussion reinforced my perspective that projects occur in conversation. By accessing the conversation of the project we get to work on the issue of integrity. (I'll say more in a coming posting.) For now I'll just report on the plus and deltas from the participants.

I'm convinced this is fertile ground for project management. Participants reported they see out-of-integrity situations on all projects. Keeping integrity seemed to be the challenge. (More to explore here.)

Thank you to Greg, Greg, Karla, Mary, Dean, Steve, and Amy for making the learning all possible. Anyone interested in participating in another Project Integrity Day? If I get a good response, I'll do one.

Am busy right now preparing for Project Integrity Day. If you haven't signed up, it's not too late. Send a blank email to project.integrity.day@getresponse.com. You'll get a quick reply with the call-in Tel #.

We begin promptly at 10:00 AM Eastern Time and then every hour on the hour wrapping up at 2:55 PM. Read some of the previous day's postings to prepare for the event, particularly the note on The Eight Ps of Project Integrity.

Hope to meet you on the phone.

I subscribe to the following discussion groups. I recommend you do, too. Click on the link to subscribe.

• NWLean (3,268 members)
  The NW Lean Manufacturing Network (NWLEAN) is an organization established to assist companies implement Lean Production and World Class Manufacturing programs. NWLEAN assists in understanding production systems, designing lean systems, and assuring successful lean implementations. [moderated group]
• Office Lean (142)
  To discuss the problems and opportunities associated with applying lean concepts to office or administrative environments. [Good group of people pushing the envelope.]
• SCRUM Development (225)
  For updates and interchange between the users of Scrum and those just beginning to use Scrum. [Participate with the folks who started it all.]
• Planner2Planner for LPS™ (68)
  The group provides a forum for LCI members and others to discuss questions regarding the implementation of 'Lean Project Delivery' and the Last Planner™ approach to project management. [You won't get better advice than from these people.]
• TOC Experts (352)
  Dr. E. M. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints has been shown to cut product development cycle time in half, while achieving on-time performance well above 90%. The people who participate on this list have experience in implementing this extraordinarily effective approach to the management of multi-project systems. [All these experts in one place.]

Five Direct Benefits from Subscribing

1. Quick answers from experts
2. On-going learning
3. Discover the concerns of colleagues
4. Early access to innovations
5. Test your own ideas

Hank Winters, gantthead.com, penned two articles on The Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail (Part One). He identified the top reason as Inadequately trained and/or inexperienced project managers. Surprise…people took exception to that! Read his follow-up in Part Two.

I think Winters is right. Only I will be more specific: projects fail due to neglect. That neglect results in projects drifting out of integrity. Who neglects? Certainly it is the project manager, but why stop there? Most team members are in the position to notice the inconsistency of words and deeds. If they notice, then where are they speaking about it (because we know they are speaking about it)?

• The meeting after the meeting?
• The conversation in the hallway?
• The side comment in an email message?
• The conversation with the trusted colleague?

These conversations move the project further out of integrity.

We need everyone in a position to notice to take action. This is where I agree with Winters. It is due to poor training that our projects managers and their teams are not noticing the inconsistencies and taking appropriate action. We need to set this as a standard on our projects:

We will do those things we say we will do, or we will take action to rectify the situation whenever we stray.

Let's use the up-coming Project Integrity Day to learn how to take action.

BTW, Tom Mochal at Builder.com offers a different perspective in Project failures are less common than you think. Both authors reference the same Standish Group's findings. In their 1998 report, The Standish Group cited the success rate for that year was only 26 percent. Mochal contends because project schedules and budgets are set arbitrarily and scope changes we need to give ourselves some slack when declaring success or failure. Still, projects do fail and Winters' Top Ten list is a great way to understand why.

This is a posting for readers who subscribe by email or get their dose of Reforming Project Management by RSS feed. Here are some of the links and features I've added to the weblog:

Blogrolls

• International Listening Association
  I s'pose there's an association for everyone. Haven't found a better site on listening.
• Leadership NOW
  Collection of resources for developing your leadership abilities.
• Project Management Forum®
  Visit often. All around resource for project managers.
• BusinessSummaries.com
  This is a great resource for all of us who are strapped for time, but still want to keep up with the latest business books. For $69.95 you get one summary/week delivered in PDF format by email. Check out the free four-week trial.
• CoachBlog™
  There's not enough going on in my life so I joined John Satta in publishing the Coachville blogging project. I do much of my work as a coach to project managers and executives. Blogging has been quite helpful for me in my practice. John and I explore how blogging supports coaches in their practice.
• Loosely Coupled
  So, now you know…I'm a geek. Phil Wainewright writes a blog on "Assembling on-demand web services to automate business, commerce, and the sharing of knowledge".
• TOC Experts
  Great group of people advancing the practice of the Theory of Constraints. And yes, they are experts.
• blogrollers
  Webring of people who use the Blogrolling service for managing links. It's fun.
• bostonites
  What can I say, I'm from Beantown!

Thanks to all of you who rated Reforming Project Management at HOT or NOT?. As of today 62 people gave it an average rating of 9.2 out of 10.0. Many thanks. Leave me a comment at the end of this posting or send me an email with any suggestions, questions, or criticisms. And if you haven't left your rating, please do so.

Awhile back I placed a Google It! link at the end of every posting alongside the the commenting link. Clicking on Google It! does a search on the subject of the weblog posting. If I've done a good job with the subject, then you'll find many useful resources. Other times the results are absurd. Oh, well! Try it.

Archives are working. That may not be big news for you, but I struggled with it for weeks. With a little help from Ev Williams at Blogger you will now find postings back to the beginning. I'm still working on an archive listing by subject.

Join me on this Friday for Project Integrity Day. Send your email today to project.integrity.day@getresponse.com. Let me know if you don't get a quick (less than 15 minute) reply informing you of the telephone number for the call.

Sign-up now for Project Integrity Day by sending a blank email (no subject and no email body) to project.integrity.day@getresponse.com. There is no charge for participating. It is an opportunity for us to learn together.

Projects get into all kinds of trouble. The usual commentary on this speaks to scheduling issues, cost control, changing customer requirements, etc. I have never heard a project manager say,

"We got into trouble because we acted inconsistently with our public declarations."

Perhaps you've heard people say, It's not what we know that matters…it's what we do. It's not quite true. Remember this: Saying is doing. When our actions are inconsistent with our declarations (statements, promises, standards) we create the setting for cynicism. When we are repeatedly inconsistent the likelihood of cynicism rises dramatically. Projects don't succeed when the project team is cynical.

Project Integrity Day is aimed at bringing words and deeds together again reducing the situation for cynicism.

To prepare project managers and their teams for participating in Friday's Project Integrity Day I am sending lessons by email during this week. Participants will be using the Eight Ps of Project Integrity to identify where your project consistently has integrity and the opportunities for producing more integrity.

Please join us!

Sign-up for Project Integrity Day by sending a blank email (no subject and no body) to project.integrity.day@getresponse.com. You will get a response with a tel number. More details will follow. There is no charge for this.

Eight P's of Project Integrity

You might ask, "Where did these come from?" Good question. I made them up. But there's a method to my madness arrogance. We assess integrity situationally. We see it in one setting and not in others. We also assess integrity as it regards those things we care about. So, looking at projects I began looking at what could be out-of-integrity. That it nicely fit into a list of words all beginning with "P" makes it easy to remember, even if it is suspicious.

1. Purpose
   Why are we doing the project? or For the sake of what does it matter that we succeed? Purpose changes or evolves through time. We learn; conditions change; clients' views change. We must talk about purpose to maintain integrity of purpose.
2. Promise(s)
   What is it specifically that we will produce? One way to think about a project is as a collection of promises that when fulfilled will satisfy the customer and the purpose of the project. Promises may need to change as the purpose changes. Further, as we learn, we see we can make better promises than those made early on. Revisiting our promises produces integrity.
3. Process
   How will we go about delivering on our promises? We've all learned there is more than one right way of doing something. What looks good to begin may not work at all. Further, we may agree to all do something one way, but find that we are not following through.
4. People
   There are two issues here:
• Are people well-matched for the roles they are performing?
• Are you doing all you can to have them succeed in those roles?
5. Planning
   By now you know my position is that planning is an on-going activity on projects. Are you doing that? And, are you embracing planning as an opportunity to incorporate learning and innovation on your project?
6. Practice(s)
   Each organization has makes their own declarations about the (best) practices that support successful projects.
• What are those declarations?
• Are you doing what you say?
7. Performance
   You can't improve if you are not measuring. What are the measures you say are important to project success? Are you measuring? Are you informing? Are you investigating and taking action based on those measures?
8. Place
   Is the work setting conducive to what we are doing? For instance,
• Is the setting clean and orderly
• Is material presented appropriately?
• Is it a safe place to work?

We'll use the Eight P's of Project Integrity as the basis for our work next Friday. In the meantime, begin observing your project with these distinctions. Look for both what you are already doing well and where you see what you could be doing better.

I'll write you again on Monday.

Discuss Project Integrity Day

I've started a discussion topic for the upcoming Project Integrity Day at the QuickTopic message board. Use the link above to get there, or use the Join the Discussion link in the horizontal navigation bar under the title of the weblog, or in the left-hand navigation panel. Follow the instructions.

Project Integrity Day is an experiment for addressing a usual situation facing project managers. I want to hear what you are expecting, what you want to accomplish, questions about how it will work, comments, assessments, and reactions to what was produced for you and your team.

Please drop by. Thanks.

Project Integrity Day - January 17

Even the best projects drift. The typical project management tasks can be consuming. We spend our time attending to budgets, schedule changes, status reports, change orders, and expediting. While we know what we believe, what we understand to be best practice, and what we've promised to our team and our clients, as we deal with the day-to-day issues we begin to stray.

Chris Argyris, Harvard Professor and author, claims we have an espoused theory and a theory-in-use. We will set out to bring our theory-in-use in congruence with our espoused theory. For the upcoming Project Integrity Day, I won't make any judgements on the appropriateness of anyone's espoused theory. The aim for the day is integrity.

How will it work?
We will all get together on a conference call. Really. (I've done this before. Trust me.) There are eight areas that I propose we examine to bring our projects into integrity. (I'll elaborate on the Eight Ps of Integrity in tomorrow's posting.) Each hour starting at 10:00 AM EST we will have a short conversation about one or two of the areas of project integrity. I'll ask conference participants to offer a situation that they see is out of integrity and the action that could rectify the situation. I'll invite five people each hour to offer examples and the balance of listeners to comment as they see fit. We will end the call by agreeing to go off to take action. At the top of the next hour we will review the progress made and then go on to the next topic.

By end of day Tuesday, January 17, I will post the registration process for the teleconference. Please don't ask me about it before then. The whole process will be free to participants except for the long-distance phone call. I will set-up a tele-bridge (robust phone line) for the call. (I'll cover the costs of reserving the line.) All you need to do is get ready.

I'll continue to make postings on Project Integrity to help you prepare for the event.

BTW, I'm inventing this as I go. For those of you daring enough to go along for the ride, we should have a good time.

David Curling maintains a project management website PM Forum® that gets more than 1.2 million page requests/month. He also publishes a monthly newsletter Project Management World Today™
Heads Up Newsletter with more than 5,000 subscribers and a weblog PM Connect. PM Forum is a great resource for project managers. Of particular value are Max Wideman's commentaries, dictionaries, and primers. Check them out.

In the January edition of the newsletter, out to subscribers today, Curling mentioned Reforming Project Management in the section Project Management World Today January 2003 - Notices, Papers and Reports.

I had the pleasure to reread Mary and Tom Poppendiek's manuscript of their forthcoming book Lean Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Leaders. While the authors are aiming at the software community, their message is relevant to all of us doing project management — particularly those of us involved in reforming project management. Mary and Tom are currently sharing the manuscript online with an invitation for readers to offer their comments. At the end of January they turn the manuscript over to their publisher. I understand at that time they will be removing the manuscript from their site. Don't wait 'til publication. Take a look at it now!

I particularly enjoyed reading Chapter Six: Build Integrity In. The integrity message is often oversimplified as "Walk your talk." Good advice; not followed. The authors go way beyond the simplistic advice by examining models, cases, and introducing distinctions of their own. While I promised not to quote them 'til they turn over the manuscript, I can't help but call attention to their unique distinctions: perceived integrity and conceptual integrity. Take a look at Ch. 6; you won't be disappointed.

So…reading Mary's and Tom's manuscript reminded me of the simple acts of integrity. I've decided to set aside Friday, January 17, 2003, to work with readers to bring their projects into integrity. I'll write more about it over the next few days. In the meantime, clear your calendars for next Friday. We've got some work to do.

Leadership is a shared responsibility in project management. Really. I know we often don't see it that way. The truth is our designated leaders can't be everywhere at once. They can't see where leadership is needed. To succeed on our projects we can't wait for the designated leader to act. We must take it into our own hands.

I've called for simple leadership. In my reply to a reader's comment I offered five dispositions for leaders:

1. Embrace uncertainty
   We can't know the future; stop acting like we can.
2. Anticipate learning
   The longer the project the more we will learn.
3. Anticipate failure
   If it must go right, then rethink it, because it just might go wrong.
4. Produce strength of relationships
   Nothing else really matters to human beings than being connected to other people.
5. Serve those being led
   We get the greatest results when we take care of ourselves and the world at large.

There's plenty of good advice on leading simply. Perhaps the leading thinker on thinking is Edward deBono. He offers these thoughts in his book Simplicity:

Complexity harms everyone. So simplicity is everyones business. So why not let everyone help out?

We can each help out…providing leadership where it will do good. deBono offers these ten steps:

1. You need to place a high value on simplicity
2. You must be determined to seek simplicity
3. You need to understand the matter very well.
4. You need to design alternatives and possibilities.
5. You need to challenge and discard existing elements.
6. You need to be prepared to start over again.
7. You need to use concepts.
8. You need to break things down into smaller units.
9. You need to be prepared to trade off other values for simplicity.
10. You need to know for whose sake simplicity is being designed.

Offer simple leadership on your projects.

A series of comments on Friday's posting prompted me to search out simple approaches to leadership. The article Want to Lead Better? It's Simple by Jill Rosenfeld caught my attention. (So, it's almost three years old; so what…that's what's great about Fast Company!) Rosenfeld interviewed Bill Jensen, author of Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage in a World of More, Better, Faster. She began this way:

Why aren't leaders better at being leaders?

Because they pretend that the challenges of leadership are rational and tactical, rather than emotional and conversational. Many leaders believe that if they just "pull the right levers," the organization will move in the right direction. But the most critical factor in the success or failure of any plan is whether conversations with the leader have some impact on what people do. It's during those conversations that people decide how to apply their time and attention.

There's another problem. Most plans are organized and communicated according to marketplace logic. But people don't listen to marketplace logic; they listen for meaning and purpose. Attention can't be bought. Attention is rich and complex because it comes in many forms: time commitment, recognition, guidance, caring, assistance in new skills. Before any interaction, ask yourself, "How do I want to make people feel?" Put yourself in their shoes. The role of a leader is to create an experience that will inspire people to take action.

Bill Jensen was interviewed by the folks at LeadershipNOW. This Q&A caught my attention:

Q: What's the big "Aha!" that begins your book?

A: Companies are horrific wasters of our time. Most employers and Teammates — even the well-intentioned ones — make things far too complicated and actually make it hard to work smarter.

Read the balance of the interview here.

Back to Rosenfeld's article…Bill Jensen says, "To simplify, you have to clarify. And the best way to clarify a new strategy or change initiative is to communicate in the form of a story." He identifies four steps for turning a plan into a compelling story:

1. Start by defining the conflict
2. A story needs to have a theme
3. Transitions move the plot along
4. The climax is the moment of truth

Call for simple leadership.

Yesterday I claimed most projects suffer from a lack of leadership. It comes to two issues.

1. We are blind to the need for specific leadership skills.
2. We ar