Out of the Closet
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.
Last month's column discussed a report of a task force investigation into the management of large IT projects published by the government of the province of Ontario, Canada. Many of the problems that the report highlighted would be familiar to anyone with more than passing familiarity with project management.
That the findings were reasonable and familiar should not be a cause for reassurance, however, so much as cause for concern; if we know the problems that organizations face in managing projects, why do they continue to persist? And if the recommendations are as reasonable as they appear, why do they not seem to be adopted by many organizations? Finally, what does this mean for us as project managers, and what can or should we be doing differently?
To be clear, neither the findings in the report--nor the recommendations--are unique to government projects. Even though that was the primary focus of the report, they are in fact universal to the majority of organizations carrying out large-scale transformation efforts. The report is as relevant to a private-sector organization as it is to the public sector. What the report describes is an environment where large-scale projects are undertaken--and are recognized as the desired vehicle--to accomplish widespread organizational change.
While presented as "information technology" projects, the projects being described are …
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