Managing MY Customers’ Relations

 

At the beginning of this month, with ProjectManagement.com’s theme of customer relations management, I discussed the contribution of Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, authors of In Search of Excellence, who directly challenged a management environment that had gotten away from working hard to fulfill customer expectations, or even attempting to find out what those expectations were. So, it’s only fair to use that standard when attempting to answer the question of what my readers – or any consumers of columns, articles, and blogs – want from the various project management societies and organizations. I think that answer is that practicing PMs are seeking insights and techniques, usage of which will increase the odds of managing our projects so that they come in on-time, on-budget.

On The Other Side…

However, as my regular readers are aware, I have previously written about what I consider to be two different types of project manager, whom I referred to as “processors” and “performers.” A quick synopsis: processors are more concerned that the processes of formal, rigorous project management are followed exactly than they are that the actual projects finish on-time, on-budget. Performers are the opposite. Sooooo, what happens when these two worlds collide? What happens when a processor begins sharing “insights” about how they think project management should be performed?

The results can be disastrous. I’m reminded of Michael Crichton’s excellent lecture, “Aliens Cause Global Warming,” where he discusses the reasons why the Drake Equation is invalid. For those of you who aren’t in to the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), the Drake Equation looks like this:

N = R* fp *ne *fl * fi * fc * L

where

• (i) the average rate of star formation, R*, in our galaxy,
• (ii) the fraction of formed stars, f_p, that have planets,
• (iii) the average number of planets per star, n_e, that can potentially support life,
• (iv) the fraction of those planets, f_l, that actually develop life,
• (v) the fraction of planets bearing life on which intelligent, civilized life, f_i, has developed,
• (vi) the fraction of these civilizations that have developed communications, f_c, i.e., technologies that release detectable signs into space, and
• (vii) the length of time, L, over which such civilizations release detectable signalsN = R ∗ ⋅ f p ⋅ n e ⋅ f ℓ ⋅ f i ⋅ f c ⋅ L {\displaystyle N=R^{\ast }\cdot f_{p}\cdot n_{e}\cdot f_{\ell }\cdot f_{i}\cdot f_{c}\cdot L} .[i]

The problem with this equation, which Dr. Crichton so brilliantly pointed out, is that none of the parameters can be known with any certainty whatsoever. All the Drake Equation does is to provide a facade of scientific methodology to what is, essentially, a guess.

Meanwhile, Back In PM Space…

I was struck by how similar the Drake Equation is to the formula for performing a single-tiered decision tree analysis (a common risk management technique) on project work. That formula looks like this:

C = ∑ (S1(p*i)) + (S2(p*i) + S3(p*i) + Sn(p*i))

Where C is the amount of contingency needed for the total of alternate scenario 1 (S1)’s odds of occurrence (p) times its impact (i), plus the same calculation for scenario 2, all the way through scenario n. As with the Drake Equation, none of these parameters can be estimated with any certainty. It’s just an accumulation of guesses, tripped out in pseudo-management science garb. As Dr. Crichton said of SETI, risk management is not a legitimate line of management science inquiry. It is, without a doubt, a matter of faith, a set of beliefs unsupported by observable and repeatable experiments.

Which brings me back to ProjectManagement.com’s February theme, of customer relations management. Do our readers really want to be preached to about ways some processors think they should be “doing” PM, even if their assertions are, precisely speaking, invalid from a PM science point of view?

My answer: ummm, probably not.

[i] Drake equation. (2017, February 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:42, February 22, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drake_equation&oldid=764988356