Gantt, Earned Value, Critical Path, or Project Jazz?

by Hal on January 16, 2007

in PM practice, teams, theory

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Article Series - Using Gantt Charts

  1. Gantt, Earned Value, Critical Path, or Project Jazz?
  2. What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately?
  3. How Are You Using Gantt Charts to Brief Project Teams?
  4. Don’t Give Up on Gantt Charts Yet
  5. Use a Gantt Chart as a Conversation Starter
  6. Visiting Gantt Again with Apologies to Glen

What project techniques make the biggest contribution to project success? Gantt charts? No. Earned Value? No. Critical Path? No. The biggest contributor just might be "all that jazz." Read what these authors have to say, Playing the Live Jazz of Project Management.

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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Glen B. Alleman January 17, 2007 at 9:50 am

Hal,
The world has a vast variety of music. The PMs at DOE, DoD, NASA probably don’t appriciate the improvisation aspects of the “jazz” approach to project managment. More the classical orchestra paradigm I suspect.

2 Ed January 19, 2007 at 11:55 am

The Project Jazz approach looks to be very pratical! I have come to the realization that viewing any structure in life as enabling, rather than limiting, helps to foster continuous improvement. I believe that this outlook on life, in general, can lead to effective project management.

I wonder if a lot of PMPs rigidly follow the PMBoK knowledge areas, or if they are able to “go with the flow” as necessary.

Great article!

3 Pat Morgan May 21, 2007 at 6:51 am

The Jazz of PM is alive and well since we first founded Project Jazz, LLC. We are now practicing JPM in our systems I.T. startup, FSPS , Inc. Improv, during the “flow” of a project, has been regarded as a key strength in our projects. Enjoy the rifs, or enjoy the 80% and growing over time, over budget projects.
PM

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