Jim Chapman's site provides many resources for project managers. My favorite is the Top 10 Reasons Not to Use Project Management. There are many other principles there. Some are simple restatments of the obvious - but so often overlooked. Others are good rules of the road - so often not followed. All good stuff, if only as a reminder that management projects is a profession
The Top 10 Reasons are restated here, with some slight edits with permission from Jim's site. (in David Letterman style)
10. Our customers really love us, so they don't care if our products are late
and don't work.
9. Organizing to manage projects isn't compatible with our culture, and the last thing we need around this place is change.
8. All our projects are easy, and they don't have cost, schedule, and technical risks anyway.
7. We aren't smart enough to implement project management without stifling creativity and offending our technical geniuses.
6. We might have to understand our customers' requirements and document a lot of stuff, and that is such a bother.
5. Project management requires integrity and courage, so they would have to pay me extra.
4. Our bosses won't provide the support needed for project management; they want us to get better results through magic.
3. We'd have to apply project management blindly to all projects regardless of size and complexity, and that would be stupid.
2. I know there is a well-developed project management body of knowledge, but I can't find it under this mess on my desk.
1. We figure it's more profitable to have 50% overruns than to spend 10% on project management to fix them.
9. Organizing to manage projects isn't compatible with our culture, and the last thing we need around this place is change.
8. All our projects are easy, and they don't have cost, schedule, and technical risks anyway.
7. We aren't smart enough to implement project management without stifling creativity and offending our technical geniuses.
6. We might have to understand our customers' requirements and document a lot of stuff, and that is such a bother.
5. Project management requires integrity and courage, so they would have to pay me extra.
4. Our bosses won't provide the support needed for project management; they want us to get better results through magic.
3. We'd have to apply project management blindly to all projects regardless of size and complexity, and that would be stupid.
2. I know there is a well-developed project management body of knowledge, but I can't find it under this mess on my desk.
1. We figure it's more profitable to have 50% overruns than to spend 10% on project management to fix them.
These may sound silly, but in fact they are all too common. Especially when the project Impresarios get into the act.
- We don't need Critical Path Analysis, because the Critical Path is changing all the time anyway
- PERT - never use it, it's for 1950's submarine projects. Besides I read a paper once that claimed PERT is wrong
- Risk Management - too much work. We'll deal with risks when they appear.
- Master Plan - planning is way overrated. Let's let the customer tell us what to do and we'll adapt to the emerging requirements as they emerge.
- Team Direction - naw, we're here for our our self actualization. Following the plan and provided measure able value from my actionable outcomes is way over rated.
