The further backward you look, the further forward you can see
- Winston Churchill
Those talking about the "new" generation of project management (PM 2.0) processes will be well advices to come fully to terms with what the conventional approaches have to say. These include the immutable processes of managing a project that are independent of any tools, version 1.0, 2.0, or any.0.
- What is the estimated cost of this project when it is done?
- When are we forecasting it will be done?
- Can we say with some level of confidence that the business case will be met?
- Are there any impediments to reaching done? If so, what is the plan to have these mitigated or retired?
The answers to these and other questions are contained in the cost, schedule, and technical performance baseline. This baseline is a conventional approach to managing the project. It "says" what is planned to happen, what is the outcome of the work, and how this work will be measured against the planned increasing maturity of the product or service.
In the absence of the processes that answer these questions no amount of cleaver PM 2.0 is going to increase the probability of success of a project.
