June 5, 2008

Dear David,

Firstly congratulations on an excellent article

My question is, with all of these challenges and changes will we ever transcend 'project delivery' to get to 'value delivery'? We commission projects to get benefits, but then ignore these benefits throughout the project delivery process.

Despite all of the advances in project management, tools and other aids, most firms are still stuck in trying to deliver 'something' from their projects (as your project failure figures show)

I conducted research for BCG and my own company Capability Management that showed when a "did we get the full available value from the project?" criterion is applied, the project success rate is around 5%!

A primary reason for this is that projects are not actually focused on delivering value. They usually work on the assumption that if you deliver the project, the benefits will come. They don't. (Just look at PMBOK and its lack of reference to business value delivery)

Is it, therefore, time to transcend project management, to refocus the project manager fraternity onto value delivery? To set up our projects to deliver the business outcomes that, in turn, will deliver the benefits and value. This will, in turn, change some dimensions of projects and project management. But, unless we do change business' frustration with projects and their lack of delivery of the results (read 'value') will continue and gradually the role of project manager will be discredited.

Time for a capability uplift?

Regards,
Jed Simms
Australia

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On the Subject of Fred Baker’s Letter to the Editor
in the June PM World Today

June 7, 2008

Dear PMWT

Fred Baker's comments on Lee Lambert's article, tasks and activities are the essence of the schedule and are not part of the WBS.  The WBS is products expressed as nouns.  Tasks and activities are expressed as verbs and nouns.  There are no verbs in the WBS!  Mr. Baker's letter to editor illustrates a very common error in the use of Project Management Tools. If WBS and CPM (PDM) are the same why do they have two different names?   

Bob Youker 
World Bank (retired)
Virginia, USA

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On the Subject of Emergency Project Management

June 14, 2008

Dear David,

I wanted to give you some follow up to our previous discussion of crossover between project management and emergency management.  Just this week, I taught the first of four 2-day courses in project management for hospital emergency managers in the northern New York City suburbs.  I have also designed and received approval for emergency project management as one of the core courses in the Graduate Certificate in Emergency & Disaster Management at Southern Connecticut State University. 

I continue, however, to have to fight to get people to understand that project management is NOT just managing projects.  But upside, particularly for emergency managers who manage grant-funded homeland security programs, is enormous. 

Regards,
Scot Phelps
Connecticut, USA