Optimizing Project Management

Te Wu

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000063950
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

SHELVING GUIDE: Project Management

This hands-on guide is written for project professionals seeking to find an optimized way of performing project management. It provides answers to such critical questions as:

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• Why should an organization apply project management?

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• What is the value of project management in the broader context of an organization?

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• Is project management as successful as some advocates suggested or is it a waste of time and resources because of the many extensive and bureaucratic processes?

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• Which project management approach should our project team adopt: predictive or adaptive, waterfall or rolling water, extreme programming or Scrum?

This book aims to provide an optimized view of project management by balancing and blending competing methodologies (e.g., traditional versus Agile), lengthy methodologies and broad principles, processes and practices, and the need to understand versus the need to apply. It includes project management templates, an integrated case study illustrating how to apply tools and concepts, and a glossary of key terms.

Optimizing Project Management is for both aspiring and practicing project management professionals. It covers the core concepts, practices, and skills that are useful for developing new ideas, planning activities, implementing projects, and conducting planning and controlling of schedule, budget, and scope. The text is particularly useful for students, project professionals wanting to refresh their knowledge, and those pursuing project management certifications. This book is aligned with common project management standards such as the Project Management Body of Knowledge and the ISO 21502: Project, Programme and Portfolio Management — Guidance on Project Management.

1

Setting the stage

Chapter 1

Project Management – What and Why?

Summary

This chapter provides an introduction to and overview of the field of project management. In addition to describing what is project management, explaining why it is important, and portraying the role of a project manager, this chapter also discusses the various stakeholders and responsibilities involved in managing projects, the career progression of project managers, and the skills, attitude, and behaviors that make an effective project manager. We will end the chapter with an overview of the Project Management Institute^® (PMI). On completion of the chapter, you will better understand the why, what, who, where, when, and how of project management.

This chapter addresses these three sets of important questions:

1. Why! Why is project management important? Why is it worth your time pursuing a deeper understanding of project management? What value does it bring to organizations practicing project management?
2. What! What is a project? What is project management? What is project success? What is the PMI?
3. Who! Who is a project manager? What are their roles and responsibilities? Whom do project managers work for and with?

1.1 Importance of Project Management

1.1.1 Overview

Many organizations are not facing a shortage of ideas or even good ideas. Rather, organizations are struggling to turn their ideas into real, tangible results and to produce positive change that enables the viability and competitiveness of their organization. Project management is the discipline of choice that increases the likelihood of success and achieves positive outcomes.

A number of large-scale research initiatives have highlighted the need for project management and the value that this discipline holds in realizing results. In their 2017 Talent Gap Report,¹ the PMI^®, one of the most internationally reputable organizations for project management, projected that there will be about 88 million individuals in project-oriented roles globally by 2027, an annual growth of 2.2 million roles every year from 2017 to 2027 with almost 214,000 in the United States alone. Schoper (2018)² discussed the projectification of the developed economies and estimated that project-related work is roughly 30% of the total economy.

One of the primary reasons that project management is gaining such recognition beyond niche operations is that organizational leaders are starting to recognize their key weaknesses in poor strategy execution. As many as 47% of leaders believe business execution is extremely important to their organizations,³ and yet, 400 global CEOs have named execution excellence to be one of the greatest challenges they face⁴. This is probably because around nine out of every ten strategic implementations, which are mainly composed of projects, fail⁵. This is an astonishingly low success rate of just 10%.

The results of the 2015 Standish Chaos Report⁶ point to a similar poor state of information technology project implementation. Over a period of 5 years, their research consistently found that fewer than 32% of information technology (IT) projects are rated as successful. The research also uncovered a relationship between the size of a project and the likelihood of its success. In general, the larger the project, the more likely it was to fail; the smaller the project was, the greater the chance of its success.

¹ Project Management Institute, 2017. Talent gap: Job growth and talent gap 2017–2027, Project Management Institute, 2017. Retrieved from www.pmi.org/learning/careers/job-growth on November 20, 2019.

² Schoper, Y.G., Wald, A., Ingason, H.T. & Fridgeirsson, T.V. 2018. Projectification in western economies: A comparative study of Germany, Norway and Iceland, International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 71–82.

³ Strategic Business Execution Survey, August 15, 2014, PMO Advisory LLC.

⁴ Sull, D., Homkes, R. & Sull, C., 2015. Why strategy execution unravels—And what to do about it. Harvard Business Review, 93(3), 57–66.

⁵ Speculand, R., 2009. Six necessary mind shifts for implementing strategy. Business Strategy Series, 10(3), 167–172.

⁶ Standish Group 2015 Chaos Report—Q&A with Jennifer Lynch, October 4, 2015.

Furthermore, there is a wide recognition of the applicability of project management to various industries and functions. Since ancient times, project management activities have been utilized in large construction projects, military campaigns, and public works. The construction industry is one of the first industries to embrace project management dating back to the dawn of civilization. Starting in the late 1960s, IT embraced project management for software development. As systems became more complex, project management became more popular fueling the growth of the PMI^® and the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® certification. Today, project management is commonly utilized in nearly all industries and functions.

1.1.2 Project Management and Its Environment

Why has project management been identified as a solution to the broadly expressed organizational challenge of strategic implementation and a vehicle to implement change? In fact, how does project management even relate to strategy?

Prior to the 1980s, many organizations sidelined projects as a tool for incremental enhancements and viewed project management as a part of operational management. Resources were primarily dedicated to operations and planning. But the relationship between projects, their management, and organizational execution is much stronger than many would realize, as projects became the dominant mechanism for implementing change. And if Heraclitus felt that “change was the only constant in life” in 535 BC, then he might be astounded at just how acute his observation has become in the 21st century. Today, in a globally connected marketplace, rapid technological advancements, increased complexity around sustainability, social turbulence, and regulatory impacts have created a perfectly dynamic and competitive environment. This has led organizations to shift their focus toward continuously changing or risk-facing demise. The result is a corporate version of Darwin’s “survival of the fittest”, where the fittest organizations are agile, strong, and prepared for any range of changes that lie ahead.

Organizations perform three types of activities: planning, operating, and changing. Planning focuses on what organizations should do, which can take on a number of forms, from annual budgeting to strategic planning. From the simplest of organizations, such as a corner grocery store where the shopkeeper counts the quantity of candies sold and in need of replenishment, to the most complex global enterprises in which large departments of people work on short-, medium-, and long-term objectives, planning is always a primary organizational activity. To maintain their viability, organizations must also operate their core functions, such as selling candies in the case of a grocery store, to global organizations manufacturing, distributing, and delivering complex products and services. Operating activities are focused around the generation of revenue and funneling profits to improve and renew the organization through change. Changing is the last of the three main functions. Activities for change are now a necessity. These activities are focused on creating new products and services, improving existing processes to be more effective and efficient, and striving to be ever more competitive through creating sustainable advantages. Projects are the vehicle to undertake unique and temporary endeavors, and even though projects can occur during all three activities (planning, operating, and changing), it is in the changing activities where most of the project intensity occurs.

As organizations have embraced change for competitive survival, they have been experiencing a surge in the number of projects implemented each year. Projects are no longer reserved for incremental enhancements. Rather, they have become the active mechanism to integrate new technologies, apply systems for sustainability, and mobilize knowledge sharing and many other complexities required for effective change. The successful management of these projects, and how they are implemented, makes the difference between a good idea and an effective outcome. This is where the role of the project manager becomes so valuable. See Table 1.1 for examples of projects.

Table 1.1 Example of Projects

Day-To-Day Project Management	Managing Major Initiatives	Strategy Execution
Working on HR initiatives Developing and executing a marketing plan Managing initiatives in the supply chain Coordinating leg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Templates in Appendix A
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• PART 1 Setting the Stage
• PART 2 Projects in Motion – From Ideas to Results
• PART 3 Knowledge Domain
• PART 4 Beyond Project Management
• Appendix A: Selective Project Management Templates
• Appendix B: Case Study – Whole World Enterprise (WWE)
• Appendix C: Glossary of Key Terms
• Index