project management 2.0

PM 2.0?

A lot of discussions have been going on about “PM 2.0″ recently. It can get a

bit polarized, especially when well-intentioned proponents of new ways to run projects sell it like a panacea, and sometimes it comes across as if nothing at all was good about “traditional” project management”.

In response, some practitioners of “traditional” project management can get a little defensive. Like me, for instance although I love the new an innovative developments that are going on.  I just want some balance in the discussions.

One True Way?

Today I want to take a step back from the “conflict” and try to talk about what’s really important.  It isn’t a dogmatic assertion of the “one true way” to do projects, and at the same time it’s not a completely relative approach either.  I think the real question is “what is good project management?”

There are objective ways to judge a particular implementation of project management.  Sometimes it tends to get framed in a black or white manner….either it’s good or it’s bad.  Reality isn’t like that, it’s more of a continuum for various capabilities.

The shades of gray mean that you can have a great process (to some degree) poorly executed (in specific ways).  It also means you can have a great methodology and decent execution but never get better because you’ve done a poor job at working continuous improvement into your process.

I mean, Scrum is great unless you screw it up.  Then it sucks!

EVM is wonderful unless you act like you know how to implement it when you don’t.  Then it’s a pain in the a$$ for everyone involved!

General management and great new tools get screwed up every day by well-intentioned project managers.

This week I’ll be writing about capabilities that are universal and something that can be used to judge your own implementation of “getting things done” with projects.

I invite you to leave a comment with your own ideas.  What capabilities or attributes do you use to judge project management?

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