Something Worth Celebrating
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
It’s International Project Management Day. In fact, it’s the 20th anniversary of International Project Management Day. The first observance was on the first Thursday of November in 2004.
An essential question that needs to get explored is, “Why do we have it?” What are we celebrating, and why?
A cynic might argue that project management isn’t something to celebrate. After all, you don’t have to look far to find criticisms and challenges.
For some, project management looks formal. Rigid. Entirely too bureaucratic. There are many who view the entire responsibility of being a project manager as filling out forms and templates and pushing paper (whether virtually or otherwise).
Projects are also still rife with failure. Research over a period of decades has shown a project failure rate that hovers stubbornly around 70%. Some 20% of projects fail outright to deliver, while the others struggle with delays, overruns and compromises to delivered results.
Even those that are successful are subject to significant change. We still battle with clearly defining outcomes and expectations. Projects gets started without the upfront clarity and commitment that should optimally be present. There often isn’t alignment of expectations across executives. Those expectations frequently change in the face of shifting political winds and emerging…
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"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Mark Twain |
