Project management’s fatal flaw

When NASA projects failed, they failed in the most public and tragic way possible. But one man turned NASA’s fatal flaw into a career diagnosing dysfunctional project teams and turning them into low risk, high performing ones.

Project-Space—Greg McMahon

Project-Space: A new doctrine for warfare

Managers have long drawn concepts from the military in meeting business challenges, from marketing to leadership. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how some project management concepts might assist the development of military doctrine for modern war.

Developments to date in military doctrine appear most sophisticated at the conventional warfighting end of the Spectrum of Conflict models used by most defence forces. The doctrine at the ‘peace’ end of the spectrum appears less so.

Project management concepts, a ‘Project-space’ if you like, to accompany the Battle-space concepts in military doctrine, is discussed, using the examples of integration and stakeholder management as leads.

Author: Greg McMahon
Review status: Presented at the 2011 IPMA World Congress

Major Projects Leadership Academy to stem project failure

United Kingdom Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has announced plans to set up a Major Projects Leadership Academy to help senior civil servants manage major government projects.

Stakeholders and project complexity

The greatest challenge facing project management in the 21st century is managing the shift from the ‘command and control’ paradigm based in the theories of scientific management developed in the early 20th century to a recognition of the inherent uncertainty and complexity involved in managing every project, in particular projects focused on the outputs of knowledge workers such as ICT and business change projects.

Review: Results Without Authority—Tom Kendrick

Results Without Authority (2nd edition) by Tom Kendrick is an excellent high level overview of gaining and retaining project control from the outset. It addresses common challenges that all project managers face across industry and is an excellent summation of best practice.

Managers—change makers or change breakers?

I call managers the squashed tomatoes of change. Senior executives expect them to drive change and do it fast. Team members expect their manager to cushion them from change and have all the answers on how it’s going to work for them personally.

UXC uses NASA method for business and IT projects

UXC Consulting has become a ‘preferred provider’ of 4-D systems in Australia and New Zealand, the method NASA uses extensively to enhance the performance of its teams, their effectiveness in mission critical environments and project delivery outcomes.

Review: Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle—Doug Russell

This book is a mixture of traditional and contemporary practices in project management as well as general management and leadership concepts.