I'm continually amazed at how some very bright people - thought leaders in their field - fail to understand even the simplest concept that doing something wrong doesn't mean the underlying process is wrong. From David Schmaltz's Blog ...
"In a recent conversation, Howell remarked, “Current project controls increase risk in projects ... external risk is rarely the killer. Things most often go wrong because of the wreckage caused by the feedback and control used in current PM: control for cost, squeeze ‘em down, and the people will find a way to do just what you ask — reduce the immediate cost of their work. This reduces the predictability of workflow in the system, further reducing performance. Hazing managers in response to further cost increases puts projects into the death spiral.”
The singular role of Time Impact Analysis (TIA) is to determine the impact of schedule compression on the project. One of the primary rules of project management is to understand those impacts. Make a poster and put it in front of your desk
DO NOT DO STUPID THINGS ON PURPOSE!
The notion that Project Controls is the source of the problem is not only incorrect it is uninformed as to the role of Project Controls. If Project Controls mis-controls the project - by doing stupid things on purpose - then it's not project controls.
Howell's words may be misrepresented there, but when a project is "squeezed" in the absence of Time Impact Analysis you're headed for the ditch. Period, end of conversation, you've make a bad decision. It's not the presence or absence of project controls that's the problem, it's the lack of knowledge about how to use them to forecast the impact of the "squeeze" - or any change for that matter.
- When someone, anyone asks for a budget reduction, this budget reduction MUST impact something. It can impact the technical performance. Quality is one attribute of technical performance. It can impact the duration of the project by extending it.
- If the person (or firm) asking for the project to be "squeezed" does not want to hear the outcome of the Time Impact Analysis, then they get what they deserve - a busted project. One that will now be late, over budget in the end, and most likely unsatisfactory product or service.
So how can this be fixed? By tossing out the Project Controls Process? That's probably not a good idea. Then what do you have? A project which has no been "busted" on the budget side and now way to determine the impact of that budget reduction.
Doctor, doctor it hurts when I let my customer squeeze budget from the plan and force me to stay on schedule. Then stop doing letting them do that without full disclosure of the outcomes. If you do, you're not fulfilling your role as the project manager and you're certainty not using TIA and Project Controls in any way recognizable to the profession of project management.
