Toward A Project Philosophy

David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.

  Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   ProjectsAtWork  

No recipe ever baked a cake. While we might rely upon experience and knowledge to guide our projects, something else bridges many of them. Consider the Operational Imperative: that all work must be tangible, time-bound and produce discernible results, and how little work today seems to be characterized in this way.

This is the fourth and final installment in a series on the unspeakable element of projects, the philosophy of project work. While much gets published about how-to techniques and methods, much less has been written delving into the often curious ways we talk about this work. The words and the music often mismatch in practice. Much remains unsaid, perhaps unspeakable.

The Operational Imperative

“Philosophy begins when you don’t know where to look for an answer.” — Philip Kerr

Anyone setting out to accomplish anything should encounter some daunting contradictions, otherwise they’re probably dozing at the wheel. When selecting a method, none available should very well fit the situation. When acquiring resources, some prove unavailable and others abundant but of undesired quality; ‘best’ remains tenaciously unachievable. Even deciding upon a goal should demand disappointing compromises. No recipe ever baked a cake.

Coping with these inevitable gaps seems to require a meta-understanding to acknowledge …

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