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.Project management processes and techniques are usedto coordinate resources to achieve predictable results.How-ever, it should be understood up front that project man-agement is not totally a science, and there is never a guar-antee of success.Because projects involve people, there isalways complexity and uncertainty that cannot be ab-solutely controlled.So, project management is also partlyan art that requires flexibility and creativity to be success-ful as well.It is a science because it relies on proven andrepeatable processes and techniques to achieve project suc-cess.It is an art because it has a lot to do with managingand relating to people.Therefore the project manager alsomust rely on people management, good judgment, inter-personal skills, and personal intuition.A good project man-agement methodology provides a framework, process,guidelines, and techniques to greatly increase the odds ofbeing successful, and therefore provides value to theproject and the project manager.The value proposition for project management goessomething like this.It takes time and effort to proactivelymanage a project.This cost is more than made up for overthe life of the project by:" Resolving problems more quickly" Not working in areas that are outside of the scopeof the project" Resolving future risk before the problems occur" Communicating and managing expectations withcustomers, team members, and stakeholders moreeffectively" Building a higher quality product the first time 64 Building Project Management Centers of ExcellencePeople who complain that project management is a lotof overhead forget the point.Your project is going toface issues.Do you want to proactively resolve them orfigure them out as you go? Your project will face poten-tial risks.Do you want to try to resolve them before theyhappen, or wait until the problems arise? Are you goingto communicate proactively or deal with conflict causedby lack of project information? Are you going to managescope or let scope manage you? Are you going to buildquality into your process, or fix problems later whenthey will be more costly to resolve? The characteristics ofthe project are not going to change whether you use aformal project management process or not.What changesis how the events are dealt with when the project is inprogress.Are they dealt with haphazardly and reac-tively? Or proactively with a smoothly running process?After reading this, you might wonder why everyonedoes not utilize good project management techniques.Or you might think about yourself.Why aren t you us-ing them? There are probably a couple reasons.Good Project Management Requires anUpfront Investment of Time and EffortMany people consider themselves to be doers. Theymight not be as comfortable with their planning skills.Many times there is a tendency to discuss a problem,and then go out and fix it.This works when you have afive-hour change request.It doesn t work on a 5,000-hour project.Resist the urge to jump right in.The proj-ect will complete sooner if you properly plan it first, andthen have the discipline to manage the project effectively.Your Organization Is Not CommittedIt s hard to be a good project manager in an organizationthat doesn t value project management skills.For instance,if you take the time to create a project definition document,and your client asks why you were wasting your time do- Key Ingredients of a Methodology 65ing it, then probably you are not going to be very excitedabout the planning process on your next project.To be ef-fective, the entire organization must be behind it.You Don t Know How ToSometimes it s not a matter of will, but a matter of skill.Sometimes people are asked to manage projects withoutthe training or the experience necessary.In those cases,you struggle without the right tools or training to man-age effectively.You May Have Been Burned (or Buried)in the PastA common criticism of methodology is that it is cum-bersome, paper intensive, and takes too much focus awayfrom the work at hand.Sometimes this criticism is a fea-ture of the first bullet point.Other times, it is a legitimateconcern caused by not scaling the methodology to thesize of your project.For instance, if you were required todevelop a fifteen-page project definition even if yourproject is only 250 hours, you may have been turned off.This is not usually a methodology problem as much asit is a misapplication of the methodology.There Is a Fear of ControlMany people like to be able to solve problems and dotheir jobs creatively with a minimum of supervision.They might fear that formal project management tech-niques will result in tight controls that will take the funout of the work.Common processes and procedures doeliminate some of the creativity in areas where you prob-ably don t want it in the first place.Although these may be reasons to be hesitant about us-ing project management, they must be overcome.If you 66 Building Project Management Centers of Excellenceare new to this subject, you need to first understand thevalue proposition.If the result of project managementwere that projects would complete slower, cost more,and have poor quality, it would not make sense to useit.However, the opposite is true using sound projectmanagement techniques and processes will give you ahigher likelihood that your project will be completedon time, within budget, and to an acceptable level ofquality.That being said, when you use a project managementprocess, be smart.Don t build the project managementprocesses for a ten million dollar project if your projectis only ten thousand dollars.Consider all aspects of howto manage a project, and build the right processes foryour size project.Four elements of project management knowledge areas aretruly fundamental and critical to managing projects successfully
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