PM Insights
PROJECT MANAGEMENT:
&
PAST,
T
he concept of project
management: past present
and future, presents
an enigma. Do we mean the
historical role of the profession, its
evolution to the present, and the
development needed for its future?
Or, do we mean projects, and their
management: past, present and
future? And, can we deal with the
past as though it were past; the
present, as though it was the topic
of a new era; and the future in terms
disconnected from the roots that
it has in today? Lastly, what do
we hope to learn by this exercise,
and will our understanding make
us better project managers? The
answer to the last question is
governed by the threat of crisis:
the threat that as we walk along
the length of the ‘see-saw’ of our
profession, we forget that the pivot
is ever advancing beneath our feet
- and that balance is determined
by the weight of the learning and
experience that lies behind in
equilibrium with the demands of
PRESENT
FUTURE
what is already within our view. If
we lag, we slip back and become
irrelevant and, if we move ahead,
beyond the point of balance, we are
thrust forward and lose our footing.
There is also the place where we
stand: ever shifting, rising and
falling, to prick our senses and make
us respond to the demands of the
moment. A review of the different
definitions developed over the years
to describe the function of project
management is very instructive:
not only by what they include, their
context and their perspective,
but by what they also leave out in
terms of our current understanding.
Edmund Burke, a philosopher and
thinker in the period known as the
Age of Reason (1651-1794), once
remarked that he had “….no great
opinion of definitions. For when
we define, we seem in danger of
circumscribing nature within the
bounds of our own notions…..
instead of extending our ideas to
take in all that nature comprehends,
according to her manner of
combining” [and we are thus]
“limited in our enquiry by the strict
laws to which we have submitted
at [the beginning of] our setting
out” (Burke, 1759). An accurate
description, I think you will agree,
especially for those of us who have
developed our own understanding
in the field of project management
over a long period. After twenty
nine years in the profession, I am
just as challenged with every new
project as I was when I first set out
in my career in 1983. The reason
is because the distinctiveness of
projects in terms of objective,
environmental dynamics, resources
and measures for success,
challenges the structure and
configuration necessary for project
delivery on every occasion - no
matter how repetitive the nature of
the project! A framework, therefore,
that is governed solely by rules, laws
and rigid methodologies of process
(although useful in themselves)
frequently creates a paradigm
that stifles critical thinking. I
september 2014 — PM Africa Magazine
25