Ron Rosenhead posted a quote "Strict adherence to the project management methodology is more important than the delivering the project.
At first I thought - naw that can't be the right way to go. Then a second later I thought, "yes that's exactly what we do."
One starting point is to close the loop with the concept that "We adhere to the project management method over delivering the project outcomes" This of course depends on the domain and context:
- In FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) program, adherence to the PM method is mandated.
- At the enterprise project level for IT, adherence to PM method is usually mandated by the IT Governance policy
Now before all the agilest start foaming at the mouth, this approach is highly domain and context sensitive. Here's why:
- If I have a portfolio of projects in IT or a Program in defense then the underlying programmatic management processes need to be similar in some way to make comparisons of the performance of projects in the portfolio.
- On Defense and Space programs within the same company or possibly in the same business unit, business unit performance measures need to have similar underlying methods - again to have the same units of measure for all project or programs in the business unit.
- If I'm burning my own money (figuratively) then adhering to a consistent method over time is probably not that interesting. If I'm spending the public's money it's a different issue. By public this can mean tax payer - any tax payer - federal, state, local. Or stockholder.
- I'll go out on a limb a say that many of the "method wars" make no mention of the funding sources. They seem to be all about the developer or the individual.
In the end having one PM method works IF there are graded version of the PM method. These means:
- Methods are subsets of the largest set of process areas.
- Brookhaven National Laboratory produced a Graded Application of Project Management method based on Department of Energy O413.3 and PMBOK that we used at Rocky Flats.
- This graded approach allows tailoring of the PM processes to fit the needs of the project.
In the end the PM method in an enterprise or large project environment should be followed OVER getting the work out the door. Getting the work out the door is necessary but not sufficient for sustainable performance of a project-centric business.
