Earned Value And Other Project Myths
A funny thing has happened to project management in the past few years.
What was once the province of people who were determined to deliver (and resulted in about 50% success) has become the province of people committed to algorithms and formulas (resulting in about 15 –25% success).
The study of project management and the never ending stream of mathematical and methodological developments means that there is now a prevailing belief that if you plan, schedule, track and adjust you’ll have project success.
The trouble is that what project managers now consider to be success is a far departure from what out clients, sponsors and employers think if as success.
Once, a project succeeded or failed on a shared definition of an outcome. Now, project managers think they’re successful if they correctly and progressively predict slippage and budget overruns.
Bosses, clients and sponsors haven’t made the move and still think success is defined by them.
And it should be. As an emerging profession we have adopted the medical definition of success, being everything technically right with the procedure – no matter what the patient thinks. I’ve even known doctors who think it’s a pleasant surprise if the patient is happy with the result.
This isn’t now, and never has been, a good model for us to adopt.
The cardinal rule for a project manager is to work out what your client, boss, sponsor believes is success and then work towards that. Do not determine that success is on time and on budget if success is really a specific outcome.