Project Management Pictogram

I have seen this before, but this version goes further than I have seen before. Thanks for sharing it!

Posted: Mar 24, 2011 6:08 PM

When I saw it for the first time, many years ago, it used to be funny. But you have made it more complicated by adding more pictures, and not any funnier. Humour must be short and quick.

Posted: Mar 26, 2011 2:16 PM

Yousef, I didn't add those additional pictures. They were added by the creator as the version evolved.

Posted: Mar 26, 2011 9:29 PM

I have seen this so many times, for so many years. At the beginning, I laughed. At the beginning, it must be as as an introduction for describing a new methodology. Now, I see it as an introduction for a contradictory approach. I'm pretty sure that the first book in which we find it defended a methodology that is now described as the example of what not to do by some newby. I saw it in many computing books, but also in marketing and business books, with different roles identified. I'd like to know who was the original author? And what was the original intent for it? He must have made a lot of money, just because of this cartoon.

This cartoon must be 10 or 15 years old, maybe more. Its popularity and long life has become a form a cynicism tempting to prove that things can't change: all of us identified under the images are doomed for always doing anything but was the customer really needed. I saw it on many walls in front of someone who is sure that _he_ (and only him) knows what the customer needs. It demonstrates that this cartoon doesn't serve anything good. It is anti-collaboration and cynicm.

On the contrary, I'm absolutely sure that things changed so much since its first publication. I'm newly CAPM certified and I'm proud to witness that things are really on good grounds with PMI. In this world, things changed so much, except this cartoon.

I'm quite fed up of seeing it published anywhere again and again served at any sauce, and be invited to rah-rah. I'm sorry, but when I see it I immediately mobilize the anti-cynism armada. Please invent something else.



Posted: Mar 27, 2011 3:35 PM

Dominic, appreciate your view on this cartoon. Actually, I''ve seen this many years back too and just revisited this new version lately. You are right that, on the surface, the cartoon looks like a satirical mockery on the weakness and failure to understand what the customer really wants from the perspectives of requirements engineering and business analysis. But to me, it also serves as a gentle reminder on the importance of getting the right requirements and how badly we can fail on this if this is taken for granted. This is just like how the popular Chaos Report from the Standish Group has been reminding us how badly IT projects had failed over the past two decades (although there are people who questioned and challenged the validity of the figures in Chaos Report).

It really depends on how individual perceives the cartoon (with a pinch of salt of course). To some people who are new to the industry or have not seen it before, this may be a good wake up call.

Posted: Mar 27, 2011 11:46 PM

I have seen this before too, but the one I saw is a shorter version. It was just up to the "What the customer really needed"

This is a funny yet very informative picture. It summarizes what Project Management should and should not be.

Kudos to whoever draw this.

Posted: Apr 10, 2011 9:54 PM