Part 7 of 7 - 2nd Book that Influenced My Project Management Career

 

This is Part 7 in a series about a second book that affected the development of my skills in the business of managing projects and program of projects    The book -  Human Factors in Project Management by Paul C. Dinsmore – published in 1990 by AMACOM-American Management Association.  

The series contains articles on:  1)  A Classical View of Project Management.    2)  Planning and Strategy.   3)  Project Interfacing.   4)  Using Managerial Time.    5)  Negotiations.   6)  Decision Making and Problem Solving.  7)  Managing Changes. 

This article summarizes the key points in Chapter 13 – Managing Change Across a Changing Frontiers and it provides commentary relating the content to PMI’s Project Management Book of Knowledge – 6^th Edition (PMBOK).

From the perspective of the 1990’s, Dinsmore cites several changes and challenges that the project domain will face including Technology, Environment, Economy, Energy and Politics.  These changes and challenges are just as valid in the 2010’s.   

Concurrently, project management strategies and tactics will evolve from the same project domains changes.   Dinsmore’s assessment is as true today as it was in 1990:

• Technology will continue to create new opportunities for improving product products as well as improving project management tools for scheduling, estimating, document control and knowledge management.  
• Environment awareness will continue to create a new stream of projects and government funding to improve and protect the environment for future generations, and introduce for use on projects better materials, alternate energy sources and more efficient equipment, systems and consumer products.
• Economic conditions will affect the size and frequency of projects.  Strong conditions normally generates more large projects.   Weak conditions normally generate lower scale small projects.
• Energy conservation will continue to create projects and end-user products that use less electric power and produce less bi-products and emissions that harm the environment. 
• Politics will affect availability of government funding and provide motivation to challenge schedules, create innovation, assist in streamlining statutory approvals, address community concerns, and to optimize and improve existing project processes. 

The closing paragraph, Dinsmore writes:

“People can always solve their own problems – particularly in project management, because problem solving is what project management is all about.   By drawing on the tools of the trade, such as planning, interfacing, training, negotiating and decision making, project managers can overcome event the most awesome barriers.  Although the project arena is complex, with many factors becoming uncontrollable, management tools can be honed to meet the challenges as they appear, especially when manager are attuned to the human side of project management.” 

Coincidently, the new PMBOK – 6^th Edition – Chapter 2 more explicitly than prior editions identifies the global environment that directly and indirectly affect the project life cycle from start to finish.   Many of the same topic presented by Dinsmore are part of the environment in which projects operate including:

• Enterprise environmental factors, such as organizational culture, structure and governance; facilities and resources; distribution infrastructure; technology software; resources availability and employee capability.
• Organizational process assets, such as processes, policies and procedures, and  knowledge repositories.
• Organization systems, such as organizational governance, corporate management elements, and organizational structure, including the Project Management Office.

Commentary:   Even after 30 years from Dinsmore’s book, the key environmental factors in the project and project management domains remain consistent.   However, the conditions, challenges, and problems change with the environment created by human progress and evolution.    Project management expertise in dealing with these factors will continue to affect performance throughout project life cycles in the decades ahead.   From my perceptive, knowledge transfer, knowledge management and project management fundamentals will continue to be essential for success.