Unleashing the Power of Project Management

A Four-Part Series

By Aaron J. Shenhar

Executive Summary
Projects are the engines that drive innovation and change. Yet top management ignored them for a long time. Thus many projects today do not meet their objectives. In order to unleash the hidden potential that exists in projects companies must learn how to manage project in a highly adaptive, flexible, and strategic way. This change can make projects one of the most powerful competitive assets of modern corporations. In this series of articles we outline the potential that exists today in project management and what organizations can do to take advantage of this power.

PART 1: THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITY

Although projects have been around for thousands of years and project management as a discipline about fifty years, there are two reasons why projects and project management are becoming more and more important today to almost all organizations and businesses. First, the share of on-going operations in most organizations is on the decline, while the share of projects is rising. This trend began already in the early 1900s during the industrial revolution, and it is accelerating in almost every organization or industry: Not only do product lifecycles become shorter; today’s customers require greater variety and more choices, forcing companies to offer more products. In addition, market globalization is forcing businesses to respond to local markets and to low-cost competition around the world.

The second reason why organizations need to look closely at their project management is that across the board you may find that most projects today do not meet their time and budget goals and many do not meet their business objectives. Study after study shows that only one out of three projects is really considered successful. Thus, if two thirds of the efforts going into projects do not create the expected value, there is clearly a reason for concern.Ironically, during the last few decades many organizations focused on improving their operations, but not their projects. This trend goes back to the turn of the Century when Frederick Taylor developed the scientific management principles, which greatly influenced the evolution of mass production systems, and it continued to this date with more recent concepts such as Just In Time, Lean Manufacturing, Reengineering, Supply Chain Management, and of course, the latest one, Six Sigma.

Although operational efficiency is important, it has its limitations. With time, at least conceptually, all companies may reach a similar level of efficiency. Additional investment in efficiency may not bring the advantages that it has created in the past. At best it may help you stay in the game and not fall behind. For comparison you may look at quality, which during the last decade has become a must, rather than a source of competitiveness as in the past.

However, no business enterprise today can survive if it is only focused on improving its operations. Projects are the engines that drive innovations from idea to commercialization. But projects are also the drivers that make organizations better, stronger, and more efficient. And since most organizations today accelerate toward a project-based world, shouldn’t companies ask themselves are they doing a better job than their competitors?

This situation presents a tremendous opportunity. The time has come to unleash the untapped potential that exists in projects. We believe that if managers and organizations will pay a greater attention to their project management practices, the rewards will be significant. If top executives will spend as much time on project management as they did on Six Sigma, they will make their organizations much stronger and more competitive.

PART 2: WHY MANAGING A PROJECT BY THE BOOK IS NOT ENOUGH

PART 3: WHAT IS MISSING IN TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PART 4: THE NEW ADAPTIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK