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No-How: Managing by PMBOK
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.
A checklist of standards does not a methodology make. You need to go beyond what should be done on your project and figure out how it should be done.
One of the (many) statements that drive me up the wall is the one I often hear in response to asking whether an organization has a standard approach to project management. "Oh, of course! We use PMI methodology."
Let’s be clear here. The Project Management Institute does not have, and is not developing a project management methodology. Yes, PMI has a standard: the Project Management Body of Knowledge, or, more specifically, they have the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. (Apparently, the body of knowledge itself is intangible, but guidebooks are provided.) But PMI does not have a methodology.
So what’s the difference between standard and methodology? And what’s the big deal? Fair questions — and both deserve answers.
For starters, a standard is nothing more than a checklist. It is a definition of the various practices that should be present within a specific discipline. A standard for project management, then, becomes a shopping list of things that you may want to pick up and apply to managing a project. It will tell you, for example, that status reports are an extremely good idea. You will not find out what is in a status report, the desired level of …
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"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." - Rudyard Kipling |