Organizations need a portfolio level investor’s mindset applied to their well being. There are differences between Direction, Management and Supervision that need to be clearly defined and executed if good governance is to prevail.

All organization seek to be in profitable (socially rewarding) dynamic equilibrium – in this state all that is needed is day-to-day supervision – maintenance of process. As change gradually accumulates or when sudden change arrives then constancy of purpose requires management to adjust process to maintain result. As affects of change invalidate purpose the organization needs direction to set new purpose which triggers management to create new process and allow operations to deliver new service but still in support of mission vision and values.

Do you see these crucial conceptual boundaries clearly defined in any other writings (EG MSP & PRINCE2 or PMBoK)? I suggest that is why their Relevance-2-Reality is poor – they are (in places) based on incomplete perception – written by people with limited insight and propogated by those with an interest in making money from exams without care that the business model returns value to the organisation.

Outside of exams PRINCE tells us how to structure the direct/ manage interface and the manage/develop interface. It is only its myopic idiocy that it insists on a clear-cut project end – business do want a “drift” into use – preferably a swift one but no bumps in the road so P2 should continue with stages after its currently defined end (it has a number of other major flaws as well as many great strengths).

PMBoK gives us all the tools P2 omits – like how to create a schedule. P2’s process ‘MP’ is a sprint by any other name and it is stupid of the agile world to eschew powerful tools like dependency networks & CPA & EV – and dishonest to relabel them and claim to invent anew – eg “Velocity”.

By the time D4, P2, PMBoK, Scrum, CAS, Lean are integrated we have a real-world solutions I call it #pm_ngt – New Generation Thinking – its pragmatic, flexible, inclusive, tooled-up and outcome (over process) focused. At board room it works right to left and at technician level it runs left to right and PM is the reconciller, integrator, message-switch in the middle translating both world’s realities for comprehension by the other.

If you want to be a slave to something be a slave to ‘outcome based management’ and install GPS in your project heads – whenever the process won’t deliver the result you must recalculate the route to suceed within constraints. The only real constraints are physics and politics, politics is escalation, eventually beyond the top of the organisation – ie shareholders or taxpayers

Simon

+44 84 52 57 57 07 B2B Training in Benefts Delivery through Project Based Change #pm_ngt

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