PM World Today Letters To The Editor
Letters to the Editor are comments on the Editorials, Viewpoints column or other project management notices that appear in issues of the Project Management World Today.
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Max Wideman Comments on the November-December 2003 Editorial - What's New
Max Wideman Comments on the November-December 2003 PM World Today Editorial.
Regarding your editorial, I think that progress is being made "outside the box" of traditional and institutionalized project management, although this is not necessarily a happy trend for traditional project management boffins. The general idea (though not the solid practice) of project management has been embraced by the business community in what you might describe as "business projects". "Business" projects go well beyond just IS/IT projects which are notorious for their poor performance characteristics.
Consequently businesses have discovered that having identified so many projects going on in their firms (often that they did not know about) now they have to figure our how to manage such a "portfolio". And, given so many, how to select and optimize a core set that they can actually complete with the resources that they have at their disposal. At the very least, this is a major mathematical challenge, even assuming that they have all the relevant information to enable the calculation. This process of selection to achieve optimum value is no trivial exercise.
Max Wideman
Email: max_wideman@sfu.ca
Regarding your editorial, I think that progress is being made "outside the box" of traditional and institutionalized project management, although this is not necessarily a happy trend for traditional project management boffins. The general idea (though not the solid practice) of project management has been embraced by the business community in what you might describe as "business projects". "Business" projects go well beyond just IS/IT projects which are notorious for their poor performance characteristics.
Consequently businesses have discovered that having identified so many projects going on in their firms (often that they did not know about) now they have to figure our how to manage such a "portfolio". And, given so many, how to select and optimize a core set that they can actually complete with the resources that they have at their disposal. At the very least, this is a major mathematical challenge, even assuming that they have all the relevant information to enable the calculation. This process of selection to achieve optimum value is no trivial exercise.
Max Wideman
Email: max_wideman@sfu.ca
David Pells Comments on the November-December 2003 Editorial
Reference PM World Today November-December 2003 Editorial - What's New?
As usual, your editorial is very well written, reflecting your global perspective and insight into the status of the PM profession around the world. On the other hand, I did not find your comments pessimistic at all.
I do not entirely agree with your conclusions, however. Whether project management is a "profession" in the broad sense or not, the PM discipline has been maturing along with what I call the "world of project management", which for me encompasses all of the elements that you mention of practices, models, PMBOKs, tools, practitioners and professional organizations.
In the context of a life cycle, as we learned at the very first GPMF, the world of PM is at a different level of maturity around the world depending on the geographic location and industry (combined). While theories, models and tools have matured (with few revolutionary changes in recent years), the growth and spread of moder PM around the world has been dramatic and significant. The politics, economies and technologies of the world of PM have seen significant developments (web-based PM collaboration, tools, practices; GPMF, asapm, GPMF, PMI chapters and regions; PM embraced by governmental orgs such as in South Africa; websites such as yours and that of APM). I see these developments as evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but important and positive in any case. At the same time, I believe that there is still a long way to go before modern PM really has the impact that it can have, on organizations, industries, economies and solving global problems.
I see PM as an enabling technology as much as a profession or management discipline. I also see it as a management philosophy, which then can lead to a different perspective on the enterprise, life cycles of products and organizations, approach to problem solving and many other psycho-social-economic endeavors.
Let us stand back and take a different look at the world of PM to see where things might go. Considering the politics of PM, I see growth and changes in professional organizations, but also increasing democracy and self determination. With regard to PM "business" and economics, PMI has been an interesting phenomenon to watch as it became more business-oriented under Virgil Carter. How are organizations and individuals in the world of PM making money or balancing "the business of PM" with "the PM profession"? Regarding PM "technologies", how will the increasing use of hand held devices, voice recognition, language translators, smart homes and offices, wireless technologies, increasing bandwidth from FTTH, new materials, DNA engineering, and other scientific developments and trends affect the PMBOK and practice of PM? From a social or human factors standpoint, have we really reached the limit in the PMBOK with regard to the people side or PM? For example, are there psychological or psycho-physiological strategies that might enhance organizational performance (or team performance) in project-oriented enterprises, just as such thinking lead to breakthroughs during the industrial revolution? I can think of many other questions about the technology, application or practice of PM in the future that we cannot answer today, but that lead to very exciting possibilities or implications. This is, I think, what has retained my interest in project management, the tremendous potential. But ultimately, the implimentation and potential of PM must be considered and understood in the broader context of the trends in all aspects of modern life, that is the broader and longer range technological, economic, political, social and human aspects of the ongoing civilization of the human race.
Are these challenges too great? For individual PM leaders, probably yes. For the PM profession or for the world of PM, I think not. PM professional are very bright, very educated and, by nature, leaders and explorers. I remain optimistic about the possibilities.
David Pells
Email: pells@sbcglobal.com
As usual, your editorial is very well written, reflecting your global perspective and insight into the status of the PM profession around the world. On the other hand, I did not find your comments pessimistic at all.
I do not entirely agree with your conclusions, however. Whether project management is a "profession" in the broad sense or not, the PM discipline has been maturing along with what I call the "world of project management", which for me encompasses all of the elements that you mention of practices, models, PMBOKs, tools, practitioners and professional organizations.
In the context of a life cycle, as we learned at the very first GPMF, the world of PM is at a different level of maturity around the world depending on the geographic location and industry (combined). While theories, models and tools have matured (with few revolutionary changes in recent years), the growth and spread of moder PM around the world has been dramatic and significant. The politics, economies and technologies of the world of PM have seen significant developments (web-based PM collaboration, tools, practices; GPMF, asapm, GPMF, PMI chapters and regions; PM embraced by governmental orgs such as in South Africa; websites such as yours and that of APM). I see these developments as evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but important and positive in any case. At the same time, I believe that there is still a long way to go before modern PM really has the impact that it can have, on organizations, industries, economies and solving global problems.
I see PM as an enabling technology as much as a profession or management discipline. I also see it as a management philosophy, which then can lead to a different perspective on the enterprise, life cycles of products and organizations, approach to problem solving and many other psycho-social-economic endeavors.
Let us stand back and take a different look at the world of PM to see where things might go. Considering the politics of PM, I see growth and changes in professional organizations, but also increasing democracy and self determination. With regard to PM "business" and economics, PMI has been an interesting phenomenon to watch as it became more business-oriented under Virgil Carter. How are organizations and individuals in the world of PM making money or balancing "the business of PM" with "the PM profession"? Regarding PM "technologies", how will the increasing use of hand held devices, voice recognition, language translators, smart homes and offices, wireless technologies, increasing bandwidth from FTTH, new materials, DNA engineering, and other scientific developments and trends affect the PMBOK and practice of PM? From a social or human factors standpoint, have we really reached the limit in the PMBOK with regard to the people side or PM? For example, are there psychological or psycho-physiological strategies that might enhance organizational performance (or team performance) in project-oriented enterprises, just as such thinking lead to breakthroughs during the industrial revolution? I can think of many other questions about the technology, application or practice of PM in the future that we cannot answer today, but that lead to very exciting possibilities or implications. This is, I think, what has retained my interest in project management, the tremendous potential. But ultimately, the implimentation and potential of PM must be considered and understood in the broader context of the trends in all aspects of modern life, that is the broader and longer range technological, economic, political, social and human aspects of the ongoing civilization of the human race.
Are these challenges too great? For individual PM leaders, probably yes. For the PM profession or for the world of PM, I think not. PM professional are very bright, very educated and, by nature, leaders and explorers. I remain optimistic about the possibilities.
David Pells
Email: pells@sbcglobal.com
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