Chapter 7: Finding Levels 3 and 4
Interpolation
 The DBM
is a five level management model. We reduce management practice to the five nested
levels or horizons. Three familiar "anchor points" in the five-level continuum
are Management Science, Project Management and Program Governance, Levels 1, 2
and 5 respectively. The Level 1 management science is applicable to a production
environment. The Level 2 project management practice is applicable to a construction
environment. The Level 5 public management or governance is applicable to social
transformations.
Within this context, interpolation enables an enhanced definition, and characterization,
of the third and fourth levels — intercepting the practice appropriate for developmental
programs and enterprise programs respectively.
The first consideration in levels 3 and 4 are dynamic complexity and the -s
that apply.
Getting Real
By interpolation on the management hierarchy, Level 3 is an orientation based
on fixed objectives, where the Methods baseline is evolutionary — a dynamic Methods
baseline. The art and science of effective Level 3 management is considering the
implications of a dynamically shifting methodology, knowing where, how and when
to stabilize the proposition.
In this regard, Level 3 is not about building a product. It is about optimally
learning adopting, adapting and repositioning the plan. Much of the decision-making
in this regard is performed real time, on line. There is rarely the opportunity
to "go to committee". The ability to achieve an outcome at all depends on the
effective treatment of this learning process. As is often the case, the learning
may lead to the reality that the quest for the outcome becomes too expensive,
where cancellation becomes the prudent recourse. This result, though not what
is hoped for, is not be "failure" as you would rightfully indicate in such a circumstance
at Level 2. Rather, it was never meant to be within permitted funding.
Further, Level 4 is an orientation based on fixed principles, where the objective
is evolutionary — a dynamic Objectives baseline. The art and science of effective
Level 4 management is considering the implications of a dynamically shifting objective,
knowing where, how and when to stabilize the proposition.
Level 4 is also not about building a product or incorporating a product. The
product by which the initiative may be referenced is merely a catalyst in the
larger transformation that the product is enabling. Through the introduction of
the product, you are, in essence, "re-statusing the pond" as participants in this
new functionality enjoy different rights and entitlements. Their utility to the
organization is shifting in ways that will only come into focus through the roll
out and, in fact, the utility of the organization is being tested. Such is the
reality of external determinacy.
The project team at Level 4 is the instigator, a catalyzer in organizational
transformation. They are wittingly, or unwittingly, reinventing the organization.
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Editor's
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