What Constitutes Project Business Management (PBM)?
The discipline of PBM spans the entire life span of a customer project from first contact until the project is formally concluded. The following diagram shows a typical life span of a project business:
Figure 7: Typical life span of a Business Project
For improved performance, PBM should focus on removing the fences between business development and project management and also between project management and after-project services. It should look at the business from both sides, i.e. both sellers and buyers, including the fact that some players will be both at the same time, such as prime contractors.
Project Business Management is not petty business. Its relevance in modern industry is enormous. There are no numbers on its impact on a country's economy, but with the high percentage of project managers in customer projects, it cannot be small. It is not only future business for project managers, but also for experts like book authors, trainers and researchers. Indeed, there is a lot for these experts to learn in this field, and its practitioners need a lot of help.
In my view, PBM is another knowledge area in project management, especially because of its strong connections to the periods before and after project implementation. I suggest that it is more than that. It must also ensure that the customers of a Business Project also reap the intended benefits.
For improved project performance generally, I recommend a concerted effort by project management professionals to develop a culture of Completing over Competing and for making decisions that apply the principle of Mission Success First.
Footnote
There is a new LinkedIn group for all those interested in project business
management: see https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13535464.
Please feel welcome to join.
Editor's observations
In this Guest paper, Oliver Lehmann provides valuable insight into the world of Project Management under Customer Contract (PMUCC), a world that is very different from those of typical "internal projects". In general, and in our view by virtue of the number of parties typically involved, successful PMUCC projects are more exciting, more challenging, more costly, involve more resources, and hence are more satisfying, to say nothing of being more fun.
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Managing Project Supply Networks (PSNs)