Including Management by Projects
The issue of quality has been emphasized above, but how can the lessons
of one project be taken to the next? If we consider the process of delivering projects (the project
management system) as the business process then each project is one item
off the production line. Now
it is possible to apply 'traditional' quality management thinking
to a series of projects, or Management by Projects.
Quality is the paradigm that underpins customer satisfaction. As shown
above, the intrinsic cross-checking of this lifecycle model is akin to the
classic model of Quality Control. This is excellent for ensuring internal
consistency for a single project.
Modern management thinking goes beyond quality control and embraces the
principles of Total Quality Management (TQM). It is from these TQM tenets
that management by projects can discern inter-project quality methods. If
each project that is completed is considered to be one "product"
off the project "production line", then the Deming Cycle can be
applied to a project's execution:[6]
At the beginning of this paper we described a project as having Plan and
Do phases, two of the four steps in the Deming Cycle. However, it is
important to remember that now the "product" under examination is
not the project deliverable, but the project execution. The Check and Amend
phases can now be integrated into the Close-out of the project. Thus, an intrinsic part of the
Close-out phase is to review the ability of the project management
system/process to successfully deliver projects.
The potential for continuous improvement in the execution of projects
and the management of the engine of change for the corporation can only
strengthen the argument for a Project Department and a Chief Projects
Officer (CPO).[7]
6.
Oakland, J.S., "Total Quality Management — The Route to
Improved Performance", 2nd Edition, Chapter 15, 1993
7. Levine, H., Does Your Company Need a CPO?; http://maxwideman.com/guests/cpo/intro.htm
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The
Whole Project and Nothing but
