This isn't right. It's not even wrong!
Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!
— Wolfgang Pauli, called Pauli's proverb, in a comment about a student's paper
The use of well meaning principles, based on current understanding of the problem at hand can still result in falsehoods and fallacies. For example, Earned Value is only good for government contracts, or emergent requirements reduce risk, or maybe "we don't need to or even want to know the cost of the project because we have unlimited budget."
"When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."— Asimov's axiom, well stated in his book The Relativity of Wrong (Doubleday, 1988).
This is a common problem when the discussion turns the new or replacements for the principles of project management. A recent post asked is there one true way for managing projects? I answered "yes there is."
- What capabilities are needed to fulfill the business goals or mission?
- What are the technical and operational requirements needed to produce these capabilities?
- What work activities, the order of these activities, the risks that impede these activities, and the mitigations and retirements to remove these impediments?
- What are measures of physical percent complete that show we are making progress toward done, by producing the technical and operational requirements that continue to fulfill the capabilities?
If you have a proposed project management approach, a tool that supports project management, any theory about project management and it does not answer, contribute to the answer of these questions.
This isn't right, it's not even wrong
