Chapter 1: Introduction
What is this book about?
Ever have one of those "stop the world I want to get off" moments? You have
a 5:00 p.m. deadline to submit the project plan. Senior stakeholders are
standing by in anticipation of great things. But, the pieces just aren't coming
together. There is a contextual flaw in the mindscaping for this thing.
Deadlines come and go. Credibility is on the line. So, you have followed what
the good book says — ticked all the boxes, conformed to policy and project
management practice. You were the good soldier. You did everything they told you
to do. You did everything everyone else is doing. You followed the consultants.
You are disillusioned and need to find a different approach. But, how could it
be that you are right and the world is wrong? Well, that is what this book is
all about. We too think you are right and the world is wrong.
Our intent is to deconstruct the management paradigm, paring it back to first
principles and then reconstruct it so that we can better understand our reality,
where the classical project management model fits, and where it doesn't. Through
some extrapolation and interpolation, we find the linkage between Process Management
through to Public Governance and between the two contextualize three distinct
frameworks for today's needs. In the end, we achieve a five-speed orientation
that is proposed as a replacement for the current operation or project choice.
Why was it written?
|
As we learn project management, we latch onto a paradigm that is quick and
simple. As H. L. Mencken said: "There is always an easy solution to every human
problem-neat, plausible, and wrong."[8]
We spend a lot of time in project management circles attempting to reverse engineer
reality — forcing the circumstances to fit the tools we are provided. We
may be favoring simplicity over accuracy.
|
I like Project Management because:
a. It gives me a reliable road map to success
b. I'm told to like it by my stakeholders
c. I'm an appallingly dull and boring individual
d. Everyone is doing it
e. All of the above |
|
Notwithstanding the fancy products, the tools are only useful where they apply.
It is suggested that Project Management (PM) practice is "sociolytic"[9]
— an application where social conformity has overtaken analytical integrity.
Unfortunately, for the project management industry, the truth doesn't sell and
thus, investment in consulting often brings us back to the familiar paradigm —
whether it applies or not.
8. "The Divine
Afflatus", H.L. Menschen, New York Evening Mail. June 6, 1917
9. Analysis of Analysis Introspectus Ltd. (AOAI), 2015 (ref www.aoai.ca)
|
Table
of Contents: 
