BUBU TRIPATHYPM I| Siemens Healthcare Inc. USAFrazer, Pa, United States
So you sat for the PMP exam, came out with flying colours, Now you can suffix your name with that magicaa three letter acronym. And you feel a sense of assurance because now you have the 44 processes in your repertory...you feel enlightened and ready to take up your next project with lot of confidence of finishing withing time, cost, scope and acceptable quality...
True, Very True If you are a Project Manager
1. Setting up the fifth facility for a chain of shopping malls
2. Replacing the manufacturing lines in a Plant
3.The shutdown process for a nuclear power plant
4. To put up a new McDonald’s restaurant etc.
For the sake of this blog, I classify these projects as "Traditional Projects".
Read carefully the rest of the post if you are manage an IT or Software related project. Unfortunately PMP certification, PMBOK, PMI is of little help (I myself is a PMP) for the following obvious (but over looked) reasons:
1. You are managing the unknown. High change and High Uncertainity.
2. IT Projects are chaotic, messy, and unpredictable
3. constantly shifting throughout the venture in response to internal as well as external factors, such as competitive moves, new technology, shifts in customer needs, changes in regulatory requirements, and general economic and political conditions.
4. Not only is change the norm, change is the project.
Reality Rules !!! I think every IT Project Manager tattoo the phrase on his/her forehead and do so in reverse letters. That way in the morning, when you are shaving or putting on your makeup, you have an indelible reminder of this lifesaving, guiding principle.
If you follow the PMBOK Planning process, You are attempting to change reality to fit to your plan. However you should do the reverse. Your plan should be adjusted to reflect the reality !!! This is the only mantra to succedd in the highly volatile project business.
A traditional project looks like a waterfall, representing neatly cascading, sequentially flowing Gantt charts with eight levels of detail. Waterfall project management works well under conditions of relatively low speed and low uncertainty. It is well suited for traditional construction and engineering projects and others that have a well-defined, concrete goal and a proven path to get there.
In contrast, IT projects, characterized by changing requirements, dead ends, unpredictability, messiness, speed, and innovation, do not fit the waterfall model. An IT project looks more like a despondent strand of overcooked spaghetti.
Traditional projects follow the classic model of ready, aim, fire. In contrast, on IT projects, we shoot the gun and then attempt to redirect the bullet.
This is the reality that business managers, project managers, and their teams of professionals face. The bureaucracy, rules, and mechanistic practices that are characteristic of traditional projects backfire on IT projects, where uncertainty, improvisation, and spontaneity replace predictability, command, and control. This suggests that we apply a different approach to planning and managing an IT project, one that is change tolerant and adaptable, or, as some pundits like to say, agile. Saving Changes...
Hi Bubu,
I don't totally agree here. PMBoK offers soe very good techniques for managing all projects. The degree of uncertainty in IT projects varies greatly with the type of project. The most uncertain is the actual development of a new application. But most IT projects these days run by businesses not software houses have very limited new development, they are along the lines of systems implimentation or hardware installation etc. And of course the PMBoK technique for uncertainity is to allow plenty of contingency to permit those deadends and backtrack to occur without impacting the end date of the project. In effect you need to plan in incertainty.
Cheers Julie Saving Changes...
Although IT projects can appear as you describe, I'm thinking further about your initial choices -
1. Setting up the fifth facility for a chain of shopping malls
2. Replacing the manufacturing lines in a Plant
3.The shutdown process for a nuclear power plant
4. To put up a new McDonald’s restaurant etc.
Numbers 1 & 4 are things that have been done numerous times before- are they really projects? No.3 is something I have no knowledge of so cannot comment. But No.2, now that is like an IT project- existing equipment in place that needs to keep working until the new takes over, many legacy changes, old loose ends, and a real need to educate the workforce about the new equipment. Perhaps it is like new IT too, in that the new equipment never does quite what the salesman said...
As Julie said, contingency is the key, both in terms of time and money. And tie the salesmen into very strict contract terms.
...
1 reply by Saji Varghese
Dec 08, 2017 10:50 AM
Saji Varghese
...
I do not agree with the comment on point 1, setting up facility.
TATA failed in setting up their NANO Car plant in Bengal, India. does this mean they have not yet set up a plant anywhere in the world before?
The same exist for IT project implementations, especial by Product organisations, they consider each implementation a project. I agree ore or less they follow the same implementation plan, but the organisation, location, policy, customization requirement, vendors, data volumes required to handle, challenges across the borders mostly all vary in each implimentation
Bubu,
I don't agree with your conclusions about project management, partly because you appear to be talking more about the systems engineering / software engineering or technical processes than project management itself.
You talk about 'Traditional Projects' and IT projects. I like to describe projects as being on a spectrum, where one end are the engineering projects where timeless laws and typical elements allow one to predict the outcomes with high levels of certainty.
On the other end are the soft projects where there are many possible pathways and the population varies at any point in time and over time. While one should maintain a clear view of the ultimate goal, the only thing that can be planned with any certainty is the next stretch of path, not the whole journey to the goal.
IT projects are more like the latter. Clearly waterfall techniques don't work at the top level, because one needs to keep coming back and testing whether the changes that have been made are having the right effect, ie are keeping one on track to the overall goal.
The iterative systems engineering techniques need to be supported by the project management approaches used, which will need to have shorter planning horizons and more responsive customer engagement, possible different governance mechanisms, and so on.
So its not really project management that I think is the issue, it is choosing appropriate technical processes for the domain, and supporting the implementation of these with a sound project management approach.
Doug Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Bubu, if you are looking for disagreement, you won't get it from me. Forward thinking PMOs need to widen their perspective in support of the project-related needs that today's businesses face.
Today, many PMOs are only providing plan-driven approaches to the management of projects. The so-called "mature PMOs" are quite adept at the application of technical plan-driven project management techniques to the formal projects of the organization, yet at the same time they are not involved and seemingly oblivious to the wide variety of other projects and other project related needs that exist throughout the organization. How mature is that? IMHO, not very.
In addition to technical plan-driven project management maturity (deep maturity), businesses have "wide maturity" needs related to project management and project-related needs that are better suited to complex adaptive systems - not traditional project management.
You mentioned Agile. Great example, but be mindful that Agile is just one of many constructs that have emerged from the domain of complex adaptive systems.
Great post and responses. I hope we hear and learn from others. Saving Changes...
Bruce LoflandSoftware Developer| SprintLenexa, Ks, United States
I was a software developer for many years before I became a project manager in IT. Some IT projects are like R&D projects because the technology changes so fast there is a learning curve with every project that adds a high degree of uncertainty. This can be dealt with using the techniques contained in the PMBoK. "Waterfall" isn't even in the PMBoK because it is specific to software development. Since PMI will soon be offering an Agile certification, I don't think Agile itself is contradictory to the PMBoK.
Project management as it has been practiced in SOME IT organizations may be dysfunctional. This is not a product of the PMBoK or PMP certification as much as it is an attempt to reduce risk. Most organizations don't want to spend money on a project not knowing how long it will take or how much it will cost to get what they want.
Not all IT projects are as volatile as what you describe. If you are in an organization that are very competitive based on their IT capability, then they would have quickly changing requirements based on what the markets and competitors are doing. Not all, or even most, IT organizations are in that intense a situation.
Planning saves time, it does not cost time. It causes people to think about what they are doing before doing it. This prevents people from doing the wrong things and wasting a lot of effort. Plans are not static and need to be adjusted as the project progresses. Just because they will need to be changed does not mean that they should not be done.
Bruce Lofland, PMP
Saving Changes...
Saji VargheseSaji Varghese PMP| Virtusa (Formarly Polaris Consulting and services Ltd.)Thane, Maharashtra, India
Feb 23, 2011 6:34 PM
Replying to Tim PM
...
Although IT projects can appear as you describe, I'm thinking further about your initial choices -
1. Setting up the fifth facility for a chain of shopping malls
2. Replacing the manufacturing lines in a Plant
3.The shutdown process for a nuclear power plant
4. To put up a new McDonald’s restaurant etc.
Numbers 1 & 4 are things that have been done numerous times before- are they really projects? No.3 is something I have no knowledge of so cannot comment. But No.2, now that is like an IT project- existing equipment in place that needs to keep working until the new takes over, many legacy changes, old loose ends, and a real need to educate the workforce about the new equipment. Perhaps it is like new IT too, in that the new equipment never does quite what the salesman said...
As Julie said, contingency is the key, both in terms of time and money. And tie the salesmen into very strict contract terms.
I do not agree with the comment on point 1, setting up facility.
TATA failed in setting up their NANO Car plant in Bengal, India. does this mean they have not yet set up a plant anywhere in the world before?
The same exist for IT project implementations, especial by Product organisations, they consider each implementation a project. I agree ore or less they follow the same implementation plan, but the organisation, location, policy, customization requirement, vendors, data volumes required to handle, challenges across the borders mostly all vary in each implimentation Saving Changes...
