September - October 2004
Latest Publications and Newsletters

Words are not living creatures; they cannot breathe, nor walk, nor become fond of one another. Yet, like the human beings they are destined to serve, they can lead unique lives. A word may be born into a language with just one meaning, but as it grows up, it may acquire new meaning that are related but nevertheless distinct..." Edward Lorenze - The Essence of Chaos
"It just boggles the mind how you can take a perfectly good term, often out of context, redefine it, quote some source who may or not be speaking about project management, indeed may or may not know much about project management, quote that source as authoritative, and build a whole industry on it"....Max Wideman

UK Wasting Billions on IT projects
A Report of the British Computer Society

The British Computer Society (BCS) is the industry body for IT professionals, and a Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Technology (IT). With members in over 100 countries around the world, the BCS is the leading professional and learned Society in the field of computers and information systems.

http://www1.bcs.org

Brainstorming The PMBOK® Guide
By Muhamed Abdomerovic, Dipl. Eng., PMP

A book review by R. Max Wideman

Introduction

As most people know the Project Management Institute ("PMI®") has published the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ("PMBOK® Guide"). This guide is PMI's standard of reference for project management practice and documents the various areas of project management functional knowledge required. However, the descriptive content is structured according to classic systems theory using the basic and simple Input-Process-Output model. This approach involves describing a considerable number of processes that are encountered in the course of managing a project and that tend to be repeated for each knowledge area. It also results in describing an even larger number of inputs and outputs.

Understanding all of this in detail is a considerable challenge for any reader but especially for those studying the PMBOK® Guide with a view to adapting it to a practical project. Of course the Guide is not intended as a project management methodology, but only a statement of the things that a project manager should know about. Nevertheless, many people do try to apply the guide to their projects, in effect, as a methodology.

Now, author Muhamed Abdomerovic has undertaken the tremendous task of analyzing the complete PMBOK Guide to trace all those inputs and outputs and present them as logical sets and in chronological sequences of content. These sets he presents from several different points of view and adds comments, suggestions and advice. As Muhamed explains, in order for a project manager to plan, execute and control any project according to the PMBOK Guide, it is essential to understand the inherent sequencing of inputs and outputs.

[ Read Max Wideman's Book Review ]

From the Author: Muhammed Abdomerovic comments on the Max Wideman Book Report.

"Max,.

I am happy that I have made a contribution to the PMBOK Guide. I hope that this analysis will save time to numerous volunteers who try to improve the PMBOK Guide. If we do not close the gap very soon between the PMBOK Guide content and everyday practice we will be back where we were two decades ago.

From the ESA to the PMBOK Guide, I have always been in a situation to make comparisons between the PMI's framework for common project management knowledge and my experience in project management. And, whenever I wanted to suggest some changes to the PMI's documents I felt that I did not have enough information about PMI's documents to prove my suggestions. Now, when I know where an input is generated, where the input reappears again as input and where an output goes as the input, I have much more confidence and I can much faster document my suggestions for changes. I think we desperately need many more materials and methods that make easier, quantitative-like, assessment of "commonly accepted project management knowledge".

Regards,

Muhamed Abdomerovic

Effective Risk Management: Some Keys to Success
By Edmond Conrow

A Book Review by Max Wideman

Introduction

This book is about Project Risk Management, a point that should be emphasized as this discipline is not the same as business or financial risk management. The author, Edmund Conrow, has over twenty five years of experience in this field, a substantial part of it in, or associated with, US government departments or agencies such as Air Force, Army and Navy, Department of Defense and NASA. Edmund adopts the writing style of these people so it will appeal particularly to the US federal government market, the source of the many examples and recommendations contained in the book.

According to Edmund, "The purpose of this book is two fold: first to provide key lessons learned that I have documented from performing risk management on a wide variety of programs, and second, to assist you, the reader, in developing and implementing an effective risk management process on your program."i "In effect, this book discusses how to implement sound risk management on a wide variety of defense, commercial, and other programs."ii

[ Read Max Wideman's Review ]

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