Are Project Management Methods Out of Date?
Why your project may be driving you crazy…
In this post, my colleague Barrie McClune reflects on a recent experience.
A construction engineer, in an effort to avoid repeating mistakes, dutifully documented errors through the years; he printed a hard copy to have onsite. For example, when a worker was injured due to a missed ladder rung, he recorded it as an on-site safety risk, leading to mandatory ladder training for all workers. Over time, the manual, consisting of multiple binders, became so cumbersome that it had to be transported on a dolly!
This approach to project management is one of two that business strategists like to suggest: detailed planning in an effort to predict all possible outcomes, often aided by expert consultants, computer simulations, or prototypes. The second approach involves replicating past successful projects with the assumption that what worked before will work again. And yet, as Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner report in their new book on How Big Things Get Done: “A staggering 91.5% of projects go over budget, over schedule, or both.”
Sounds like these strategies aren’t working so well.
Out the Window: Control and Predictability
