Context is Everything for Managing Projects Successfully
April 1st, 2003 by HalThe editors at Project Management World Today argue in their April editorial The Case of the Missing Domain that project managers struggle in a context-free project management process.
When business people take an interest in projects they ask different questions from project managers.
Any manager in a business organization these days will ask "(W)hen will this project be completed, and how much will it cost when it is?" as a start, but will also ask: "(H)ow will this project meet it's business goals, what risks are there to the business process? What value is delivered when we're done here? What does done mean?"
Those questions provide the context for shaping future action.
The author questions the relevance of project management that is context-free.
Missing is the acknowledgment that a "process" oriented approach is not sufficient. Putting the processes of PMBoK® to work in a context is not only necessary it is mandatory for the profession. But what context? Software development? Construction? Hard goods manufacturing? Aerospace? All have unique context dependent needs.
Concluding the PMBoK provides little value to the process of software development.
The editorial argues that practitioners want methods but aren't finding them.
(A)s a non-method, PMBoK leaves the PM professional without the tools to move forward. Methods are the means to problem solving. Without methods, the discipline of project management is simply a list of processes — it is context free.
People will continue to translate knowledge into methods and practice with or without the PMI.
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April 2nd, 2003 at 3:44 am
Outch !
The Project Management World Today april 2003 editorial is right on target. (it’s also a lot of fun listening to Mr. Curling in real audio).
Mr Curling echoes the comments I made to you, Hal, on another platform about the fact that one cannot manage a project with the PMBoK as a roadmap. Your title for introducing your comments on this editorial says it all : Context is everything. And this is particularly why agile and lean methods attract interest now and are bound to give better results than the traditional non-context process proposed elsewhere (!!!): Agile et al. are «context-friendly»!