Meet Claude Emond
April 12th, 2003 by Hal
Who is Claude Emond? Among other things he's made the most comments to Reforming Project Management. I just had to talk with him. I did and this is what I learned.
Claude is a mechanical chemical engineer, PMP®, active member of the Montreal PMI Chapter, and longtime project manager and consultant.
A few years back Claude started speaking of this time we're in as The Project Age. Companies' competitiveness will be determined by their responsiveness, innovativeness, and their ability to make adjustments to their practices. Claude says,
Companies will change and evolve thru projects. It's the management framework of the modern company.
Read more of his views in The Project Age Value Model.
Claude went on to caution us on the value of Project Management Offices (PMOs). Companies in all industries are setting up PMOs with an intent to bring some order to the projects they pursue. Unfortunately, PMOs have become hierarchical, centralized, and political. Claude commented,
PMOs are a fad responding to a collection of project failures. PMOs don't work for the same reason organizations don't work. Companies centralize when they don't trust. (It's time) to stop telling people what to do and start listening.
Alternatively, Claude encourages people to set-up a project support office. Provide tools, methodologies, and training at the pull of people on your projects. Help when asked to help. Impose nothing.
I asked Claude what he sees working in on projects and in companies today. Here's his list of eight best practices he observes:
- Participate planning (with team members)
- Planning that involves the final customer
- Planning that clarifies what is to be done
- Permission for project participants to say, "No."
- Creating collective responsibility for the promises of the project.
- Only make promises for tasks that can be met
- Face-to-face frequent project team meetings
- Free circulation of project information
Claude summarizes the practices this way, "You can't build anything top-down. Build collective accountability for projects and you can succeed."
I hope you enjoyed meeting Claude. Here are three of his recent comments: [1 Project Portfolio Management], [2 Lean Projects], [3 Listening]. Enjoy!
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April 13th, 2003 at 1:50 pm
Thanks very much for the topo, Hal. Quite faithful to our exchanges to this day.
Two small comments to keep the record straight:
a) I am a chemical engineer, not a mechanical engineer (must be my funny accent when I speak English). Not a big issue anyway wrt my project management vision.
b) For the PMOs, the ‘fad’ comment needs a little clarification. The fad is in putting an official box in the organizational structure BEFORE understanding what has to be done to deploy better project management in an organization. Many organizations put into place physical PMOs (desks with people)with no clear mandate and now official authority on anything. It is a top-down approach that just does not work, because deploying project management implies important cultural-organizational changes with many new roles and responsibilities. Even with formal authority, the work of these PMOs is often viewed as interference to business-as-usual (there has not been any cultural change coming simultaneously), is opposed and sabotaged, any of their directives are just not listened to and bypassed. After a few months, upper management just questions the use of this NEW BOX than does not seem to get along with anybody and has no measurable results for its justification. THEY then just close the PMO (the box) and project management as a core business process will have to wait the next crisis and the coming of a new upper management team. What is important, while evolving towards a project management culture, is to put in place facilitating tools, training, internal consulting, to SUPPORT people in their projects and help them to see by themselves the advantage of applying project management principles and putting in place true project teams working together. And if the organization has the resources, why not provide a ‘clearing house’ for this facilitating work in the form of a PSO supporting project management rather than that of a PMO taking over (only in its mind) the management of projects.
April 13th, 2003 at 4:15 pm
Bonjour Claude,
Thanks for the clarifications. The interview was fun for me.
I hope you enjoy my next little project on TOC with two bloggers. One I met in this forum, Frank Patrick. The other, Joe Ely, is a past client and now a good friend.
This whole blogging scene has been wonderful for my professional development.
A bientot!
June 23rd, 2003 at 1:31 am
PMO, PSO …
Are we talking about Programs? If so I think the PMO’s time will come, allbeit with a different name. Programs are business initiatives — if they are concieved correctly. If an organization wants to control corporate development, a PMO is needed. Wouldn’t be nice if companies could control how the money was being spent from the top down. Projects that don’t fit into a busines initiative, aka program, could be summerially canceled (off with their heads!) and costs controlled. This instead of the runnaway spending and projects with no business purpose that we see in major corporations today. But I guess I’m just a dreamer…….