I agree to a certain extent with George. You can't make the company fit the methodology. Also, as was stated before, there is no 'silver bullet' methodology - you need to select the methodology to fit not only the company but the project as well. The part I do not fully agree with is the statement about having to have the best PM on the project. You need the right team members (which obviously includes the PM). The entire team needs to understand the SDLC and PMLC and what their roles are in the various stages. You can have the most experienced and well trained project manager in the world but without the properly trained analysts, developers, testers, dba's, architects, etc.. you can use whatever methodology you want and the project will still fail. Saving Changes...
I would like to congratulate George Jucan on his response, which in my humble opinion is the most helpful in the replies to date. A number or respondents answered: "This is a big question" and frankly this is also a fairly honest response to a very open ended question in my opinion. Without wishing to sound insulting, I think the references to particular techniques (critical chain) or to consulting houses (Deloittes) are typical of the single-minded solution fixes that are too prevalent in our professional domain of project management. Personally I don't endorse them, as the domain is to broad to support such secular answers. The methodology must be solution-driven, and it has to fit the organisational culture. But I would add caution to the advice of slavishly adapting the method to the organisation (though I am sure that is not what George intended), as some organisations are so immature in project management that they should take a cold hard look at basic best practices (eg, PMBoK) and ask the question: "Why aren't we using some or all of this stuff?" The answer, once we get through the bluff and bravado of some organisations, is often lack of knowledge, the tamperings of enthusiastic amateurs, management indifference and occasionally corproate bravado. David Hudson, AFAIM MPD, Australia Saving Changes...
