Finding Value in Project Management (Part 1)

Ian Whittingham, PMP is director of Calixo Consulting, providing project and program management expertise from initiation through to implementation, covering business transformation, workflow process re-engineering, and enterprise data integration. He is a regular contributor to ProjectManagement.com. You may contact Ian directly at [email protected].

  Governance   Stakeholder Management   Strategy  

“Worldwide, organizations will embrace value and utilize project management and attribute their success to it.”
– Project Management Institute (PMI)

As a project manager and a member of the Project Management Institute, PMI’s envisioned goal statement inspires me with the boldness and expansiveness of its claims for the importance of project management. It calls out those essential qualities I recognize as intrinsic to the value of project management.

It defines project management as something that is globally recognized (worldwide), not parochial and local in its concerns. It embodies practical application (utilize) to solve real problems in the real world, bringing benefit to both clients and stakeholders alike (value). And--most importantly--it is something that is valued highly for its ability to deliver results (success).

But while I am inspired by this vision of what project management should be, I am sometimes a little unsure as to what, exactly, the value of project management is. And is it really as valued by others as I feel it to be? Do they see the value that I see in it? Or is it perhaps less consequential--and therefore less valuable--than I think it is?

A very big number
An obvious answer to the question of value in project management is simply to look at what projects accomplish and then look at the benefits that …

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