On Understanding Project Management

As the Editor of the PM World Today, I get letters asking "what is project management?"

I suggest that rather than a canned response from me that it is better to undertake a short research excursion into some of the documents on project management, to gain an understanding of the extent and limits of the project management discipline.

A recent letter from Andrew Robertson of the UNOPS asked for suggestions that a colleague might take in ramping up to an overview understanding of project management. I sent a reply that was an approach to "reading in" to the project management literature.

Andrew wrote...

"One of the team of members was a Ph.D student from Germany, who previously to the Iraq contracts assignment worked for our Afghanistan Programme, out of the New York Office.The topic of her Thesis is a comparison of the approach and methodologies of UNOPS and the GTZ (German Development Agency) in their respective projects in Afghanistan.

I suggested that the topic would be a good opportunity to explore the issue of the value of Project Management. I am writing to you about this as I think you have the clearest thinking on the matter, and may have some suggestions as to the approach she may take."

I replied .......

Andrew

We discussed the opportunities for the institionalizing a project management process in the UNOPS during the August 2003 ESC Lille Workshop. I do not have any experience of the UN logistics environment. I am not in a position to comment on either the UNOPS or GTZ methodologies or particular processes. However, I have suggestions for project management research for your colleague.

  1. To appreciate project management processes and organizational structures read a recent paper by Russell Archibald, "The State of Project Management Art: 2003." This paper is a tour de horizon of the state of project management circa 2003. It is a formidable read in for anyone who wants to get a quick grip on the discipline without the current hype that seems to accompany much of the published books and articles on project management.
  2. Visit the Max Wideman web site at http://www.maxwideman.com for a review of project management basics and processes.
  3. Visit the PMFORUM and use the Site Search Engine to search the archives for papers that might be of interest.
  4. Review the past couple of years of the monthly PM World Today for articles and notices of interest.

As to the benefits of adopting project management best practices, these are simply stated by most as beneficial without qualitative evidence. However, I believe that the systems approach of project management does provide an intense visibility to the conduct of the work of a temporary nature (the definition of a project).

A project must have:

  1. A dedicated manager with agency and organizational integrative responsibility and accountability. The staff for this manager is a function of the size and complexity of the undertaking.
  2. A life plan that it is deterministic in time. It is not a program.
  3. Provide the Project Manager with an integrative project information and decision making system.
  4. A project definition stages process, phases and decision gates from conception to commissioning or phase out. When the project has completed the initial fielding of the system/material it then becomes a continuing program which is managed quite differently from that of a project.

There is the question of... what books to read? The North American based Project Management Institute has a comprehensive collection of books on project management and most are useful reading. The UK based Association of Project Management Group has a very good PM bookstore. Both of these bookstores are on line and books can be browsed through the [PM Library] --> Bookstore.

However, to start researching PM books start with Max Wideman's recommended first reading list of books.

Finally, the corporate projects management structure, at the Enterprise level, identified as "portfolio" management (PPM). This is the next level up from that of a single project to a consideration of the stream or bundle of agency/corporate projects. The current work on institutionalizing this corporate aspect of projects management would map nicely to your UN work. Much has been recently written on the topic of "Project Portfolio Management" (PPM) and can be located through the Site Search Engine.

David

"Connecting the World of Project Management"
David Curling Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
PMFORUM Webmaster
http://www.pmforum.org

[Back to Viewpoints Index]

Top of Page