Just posted a new blog (#3) at the website http://www.totalprojectcontrol.com/blog.html
It is titled “Marshall McLuhan Was Right!” McLuhan said: “The medium is the message!” and the media of project management -- its contracts, reports and tools -- can often cause distortions.
This blog explores the idea that many failings in project management are due to human behaviors driven by flawed or misunderstood metrics and ill-conceived contractual clauses.
As you may be aware, this website is still being designed. When it is finished, I hope it will be a resource with exercises and blogs (both by me and by guest bloggers) that is helpful to the PM community. It will also have Comment functionality. However, some items you should know:
#1. The Comment function, while it currently appears on the Blog pages, does not yet work. We are hoping to have it working by next week. Until then, I will be happy to entertain any Comments you may have right in this thread.
#2. We plan to have new blogs and/or exercises posted by 8 a.m. U.S. East Coast time every Monday and Thursday morning.
#3. At the bottom right corner of each blog page is a list of the other blogs that you can click to read. We plan to move these links elsewhere on the site, but the three blogs so far are: “The Essence of Every Project”, “Turning Iron into Gold!” and “Marshall McLuhan Was Right!”.
I hope the blogs and exercises posted so far are enjoyable and helpful. But it’s all going to get better. Please bear with us as we get up to full speed.
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
New Blog "Marshall McLuhan Was Right!" is up at TotalProjectControl.com
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Mike, that is such an interesting comment.
In another thread where we both commented, there is a discussion about out-of-sequence work. On US DOD programs, one of the big causes of OOS work is the earned value tracking system, which gives credit based on activity budget for all work done whether on the critical path or not, whether in sequence or not, and whether due this month or not for another year! There is therefore strong incentive for a subcontractor to goose up the EV metrics by grabbing the biggest budget tasks even if OOS. (I talk a l lot about EV flaws in Chapter 9 of Managing Projects as Investments.)
PM and PM control techniques can have a huge impact on the way we do the work and, as you say, why project teams often make the decisions they do. It would be nice if the techniques supported doing the work the best way.
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
Hi Stephen
I have just visited your website - it is a very interesting concept.
In delay analysis I have to work out Who did What When Where.
That is usually recorded somewhere in the mass of project data but the main question of Why is never there.
Best regards
Mike Testro