Hal Macomber posted a nice reference on "asking dumb questions" and presented "dumb" questions for project managers. Asking the questions is a good start, producing answers is better. The question's in Hal's post seem to be questions of a project that hasn't thought through much of the planning process. By a "Plan" I mean a "Strategy for the Successful Completion of the Project." Hal speaks many times about "show piping," and other issues with measures of project in construction. This is a symptom of a poorly formulated Plan. Why would a subcontractor be allowed to perform work out of sequence, work that "shows" progress when in fact there is no real progress, or "cook the books," on Earned Value to meet a progress payment?
Here in the Defense and Space business, which include major construction projects - and as well includes federal projects not defense related – the measures of physical percent complete are predefined in the Integrated Master Plan and are placed "on contract." Independent assessment of progress to plan are performed monthly and a full top to bottom review performed 90 after award (Integrated Baseline Review) and periodically during the program's execution.
Having spent enough time watching poorly managed IT projects and listening to all the remedies for these essentially "bad management" processes, I've concluded there is no real hope until management comes to understand that there are principles of project management independent from the practices. These practices can be conventional, agile, lean, or possible even magical. For projects in our domain these principles are:
- Capabilities drive requirements
- Requirements are fulfilled by work packages
- Work packages define the deliverables
- The Performance Measurement Baseline describes the sequence of work
- Measures of Physical Percent Complete for each Work Package are the only assessment of progress
- Work is performed in the authorized sequence
- Earned Value defines the progress measures
- Technical Performance Measurement adjusts the Earned Value forecast
- Past Performance is used to forecast future performance
If a project management method cannot be connected to these principles in some way, any way, then the result is usually disappointing.
