A search of the web reveals that there are scores of web sites dedicated to providing information on project management in one form or another. Some provide useful information, as we try to do, but most sites simply advertise their wares, sometimes with effusive descriptions of their services, and perhaps a little information to entice the visitor to return. So, who needs yet another web site? Well just maybe there is a place for all those checklists that you all keep developing in those fun-filled but time-consuming brain-storming sessions you hold every time a new project is started or a problem has to be resolved.
This appears to be the motive behind a new site by Max Wideman, the developer of the Wideman Comparative Glossary of Common Project Management Terms which you can find on this site. (1)
According to his site information, he plans to develop a number of brief bulleted checklists akin to project management FAQs but which he has dubbed "Issacons". As he explains, Issacons stands for Issues and Considerations and are sets of slides providing summary information responding to a specific question associated with a particular project management topic. Designed to save hours of searching amongst arcane texts, when all you want is a simple checklist, they should provide the reader with succinct coverage of the topic.
Of particular interest are the first two Issacons which try to map out fundamental areas of project management application and some form of hierarchical knowledge structure to which the Issacons will be tied. The information of itself could be very useful if you can find your way around as the list grows longer. But the whole attempt raises a broader issue, that of mapping a body of knowledge that we may refer to as belonging to the discipline of project management.
On this score, a prestigious group of about thirty international project management experts has been meeting yearly for the last three years under the able leadership of Professor Lynn Crawford. Crawford is the Director of Program, Project Management at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. The objective of the group is "To make positive contributions to map content and structure(s) for a globally agreed and applicable framework of project management knowledge and to find a global body of knowledge in project management." To this end, the group started out with a list of frequently-occurring terms, culled from various project management publications, and published international bodies of knowledge on which the whole group were generally agreed. The group then split into two and attempted to structure the terms into some form of relationships and/or hierarchies. Not surprisingly, two structures emerged, both of them legitimate, but nonetheless there appeared remarkable consistency. Considering that the group represents some fifteen countries on five continents this should be seen as very encouraging.
As its next step, the group plans "To develop a web-based public domain repository of project management knowledge which can be structured to address needs and views of multiple stakeholders." How useful could this structure be? The group justifies the effort with these objectives:
But how do you actually capture the knowledge in a useful, convenient, succinct and meaningful way for the average practitioner? That is the challenge. Perhaps Wideman's Issacons is one solution to this challenge and will become as recognized as his Glossary of Project Management Terms. How successful his approach will prove to be, how much it is used, and to what extent the highly opinionated members of the project management discipline are prepared to accept his structural concepts and content remain to be seen (2)
References:
(1) The Wideman Project Mangement Glossary