I came across this interesting article by Meridith Levinson today on CIO.com (thanks to @rseres on Twitter for tweeting it!).
by h.koppdelaney via Flickr
While I like the focus on Agile and Lean concepts in software development becoming more prevalent (and I think it’s true), I think Meridith is putting up a fairly large straw-man argument in this article. Perhaps it comes from the study itself by Mary Gerush; I’m not entirely sure since I didn’t pay the $499 price tag to read the study.
I don’t dispute the capabilities they found to be important for new project managers. Not at all. They are good qualities for project managers. I also agree with the opinion that deterministic frameworks in matrix organizations can be used in a “command and control” manner. That doesn’t mean all of them are, or that they should be. I love agile and lean, and agile in particular requires facilitation of the team and not this authoritarian “do what I tell you” approach.
What I find interesting is how broad-brush comparisons are made and implications that with “old school” project management they weren’t possible or present at all. For instance, I believe the following statement is coming from Meridith, not quoted from Gerush:
“Instead of defining roles and making sure team members are following project management processes and procedures to a T, next generation project managers need to focus on improving collaboration and removing obstacles and distractions so that project team members can get their work done on time and on budget.”
When I read this, it makes it sound like our only role as project managers before was policy compliance control. I can tell you that “improving collaboration and removing obstacles and distractions” is something that any project managers worth their salt have always focused on. This isn’t a change.
Here’s another one:
“Next generation project managers see their primary role as delivering value to the company—not just completing projects on time and on budget.”
If “old school” project managers didn’t see their primary role as delivering business value, then something was wrong. This has always been the goal of doing projects, as far as I’m aware. Why else would you do them?
The mental picture I get from Meridith is something like this:
- Past/Current: a black-and-white image of theory-X managers with black-rimmed glasses puffing on cigars and shouting orders to their teams.
- Next-Gen: touchy-feely theory-Y managers who sing “we don’t have to document; we’re going agile, and agile will fix everything!”
Perhaps it’s just me who sees a caricature of project management being presented?
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I had the same reaction when reading the article. I’m not intimately familiar with Agile, but many of the Agile concepts I have read about make sense. However, many/most of them are not new comcepts in the field of project management.
The more I read, the more I realize there must be a whole boat-load of really bad “old school” project managers out there “making sure team members are following project management processes and procedures to a T.” Perhaps they never had any “old school” project management training in the first place, and they were in fact “seat-of-the-pants” project managers.
Perhaps the ultimate strength of Agile will not prove to be any particular tool/technique, but that it encourages organizations to put in place a (lean/agile) framework that allows a greater number of (less qualified) project managers to succeed who would have otherwise have failed. And that would be a good thing.
@keyconsulting
Thanks for the comment Kevin. The key thing will be if it’s implemented correctly. I’ve been on agile teams and have gotten a taste of it’s potential as a methodology, but we’re still just people working on projects. As we all know, there’s no silver bullet!
Great observation. That approach is common in many other PM domains. EV is one of my favorites – where bad examples are used to introduce yet another bad example. Or criticisms of a tool or process are provided when in fact the critic does not actually use that tool of process.
It’s the argument – “it didn’t work for me, it can’t work for you.”
I had the same reaction when reading the article. I’m not intimately familiar with Agile, but many of the Agile concepts I have read about make sense. However, many/most of them are not new comcepts in the field of project management.
The more I read, the more I realize there must be a whole boat-load of really bad “old school” project managers out there “making sure team members are following project management processes and procedures to a T.” Perhaps they never had any “old school” project management training in the first place, and they were in fact “seat-of-the-pants” project managers.
Perhaps the ultimate strength of Agile will not prove to be any particular tool/technique, but that it encourages organizations to put in place a (lean/agile) framework that allows a greater number of (less qualified) project managers to succeed who would have otherwise have failed. And that would be a good thing.
@keyconsulting
Thanks for the comment Kevin. The key thing will be if it’s implemented correctly. I’ve been on agile teams and have gotten a taste of it’s potential as a methodology, but we’re still just people working on projects. As we all know, there’s no silver bullet!
Great observation. That approach is common in many other PM domains. EV is one of my favorites – where bad examples are used to introduce yet another bad example. Or criticisms of a tool or process are provided when in fact the critic does not actually use that tool of process.
It’s the argument – “it didn’t work for me, it can’t work for you.”
Josh
100% agree with you. It’s a staw man argument (that I have also used sometimes) and essentially, it’s an incorrect comparison based on fallacies (which is exctly what a straw man argurment is.)
Perhaps the argurment should be reframed into trained and skilled project management, versus amateur attempts.
Agreed.
Another avenue would have been to stress what the study was all about, the change specific to software development methodologies. You could then talk about what a GOOD PM does in waterfall/progressive elaboration versus agile/lean specifically.
Instead, Meridith compared BAD PM of yester-year to a GOOD PM of tomorrow, and painted it rather broadly.
Craig,
The actual term of “professional amateurs.” I see them all the time. They talk about all the ways to improve PM in the presence of bad PM, but don’t actually practice PM – good or bad.
Usually they’re instructional services providers, book authors, and self proclaimed experts. When you poke a little deeper and ask “what tool, processes, methods and skills do you personally apply to the project you manage today and in the recent past?” You get a NULL answer.
I’ve grown weary of listening to the “advice” givers who themselves do not manage projects on a daily basis – present company excluded Josh, since you earned you’re living managing NASA projects until recently.
Josh
100% agree with you. It’s a staw man argument (that I have also used sometimes) and essentially, it’s an incorrect comparison based on fallacies (which is exctly what a straw man argurment is.)
Perhaps the argurment should be reframed into trained and skilled project management, versus amateur attempts.
Agreed.
Another avenue would have been to stress what the study was all about, the change specific to software development methodologies. You could then talk about what a GOOD PM does in waterfall/progressive elaboration versus agile/lean specifically.
Instead, Meridith compared BAD PM of yester-year to a GOOD PM of tomorrow, and painted it rather broadly.
Craig,
The actual term of “professional amateurs.” I see them all the time. They talk about all the ways to improve PM in the presence of bad PM, but don’t actually practice PM – good or bad.
Usually they’re instructional services providers, book authors, and self proclaimed experts. When you poke a little deeper and ask “what tool, processes, methods and skills do you personally apply to the project you manage today and in the recent past?” You get a NULL answer.
I’ve grown weary of listening to the “advice” givers who themselves do not manage projects on a daily basis – present company excluded Josh, since you earned you’re living managing NASA projects until recently.
There is a good point in the article regarding a greater shift towards applying soft skills, contrary to old-fashioned project management practices. Generations X, Y and Z have got different behavioral and emotional attitudes to the ones exhibited by the ‘baby boomers’ and require therefore a softer, collaborative communication approach. Having said that, some of the article’s premises are plain wrong as concepts like providing value for the company, or removing obstacles and enabling progress are very much at the core of good project management, and not only this are not ‘next generation’ trends, but ones that have been there since project management turned into a reputable practice.
Thanks for the comment Shim! Do you think that’s a general management trend, or something specific to project management in software development? Makes me wish I could read the original study…
To my best knowledge this is a general management trend. In order to achieve organizational excellence, managers need to gain their team’s buy-in and are required therefore to engage their employees using contemporary communication methods that recognize the individuality and diversity of people. Managers failing to realize this need are not, and will not be able to utilize this competitive advantage to achieve organizational goals.
I looked through my archived bookmarks and have come across this article from 2005 – still very much worth reading: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm.
Shim,
I’d suggest that the “good” project management has ALWAYS needed good communications. It’s only with the absence of “good” project management that we see these trends based on the need to increase communication.
There is a good point in the article regarding a greater shift towards applying soft skills, contrary to old-fashioned project management practices. Generations X, Y and Z have got different behavioral and emotional attitudes to the ones exhibited by the ‘baby boomers’ and require therefore a softer, collaborative communication approach. Having said that, some of the article’s premises are plain wrong as concepts like providing value for the company, or removing obstacles and enabling progress are very much at the core of good project management, and not only this are not ‘next generation’ trends, but ones that have been there since project management turned into a reputable practice.
Thanks for the comment Shim! Do you think that’s a general management trend, or something specific to project management in software development? Makes me wish I could read the original study…
To my best knowledge this is a general management trend. In order to achieve organizational excellence, managers need to gain their team’s buy-in and are required therefore to engage their employees using contemporary communication methods that recognize the individuality and diversity of people. Managers failing to realize this need are not, and will not be able to utilize this competitive advantage to achieve organizational goals.
I looked through my archived bookmarks and have come across this article from 2005 – still very much worth reading: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm.
Shim,
I’d suggest that the “good” project management has ALWAYS needed good communications. It’s only with the absence of “good” project management that we see these trends based on the need to increase communication.
My take on this typical Inverted Strawman Argument…that goes like this.
I’ve seen bad project management processes in some unnamed places, so use my project management method it your problems will be solved.
http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/an-strawman-argument-for-agile-project-management.html
My take on this typical Inverted Strawman Argument…that goes like this.
I’ve seen bad project management processes in some unnamed places, so use my project management method it your problems will be solved.
http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/an-strawman-argument-for-agile-project-management.html
My old management textbook (written in the 80′s) has a whole bunch of stuff from gthe 1950s about how treating people well and enabling them gets more and better out of them.
This isn’t new to Gen y,z, etc.
My old management textbook (written in the 80′s) has a whole bunch of stuff from gthe 1950s about how treating people well and enabling them gets more and better out of them.
This isn’t new to Gen y,z, etc.
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