PM Insights
and standards, more particularly PMI’s
Organizational Project Management
Maturity Model (OPM3®), now in its third
edition. As a result of the progress and
innovation of Information Technology,
however, the world has accelerated towards a level of global connectedness
and integration hitherto unknown to
man in terms of all its relationships culture, people and economic activity.
The result is an environment of unprecedented complexity and the need to
manage continuous change. It is, no
doubt, appropriate that the Association
of Project Management in the UK defines
project management on their website as
“the way of managing change” (http://
www.apm.org.uk/WhatIsPM). They
clarify their definition by explaining
that the definition implies two characteristics: “uniqueness” in regard to the
specific objectives of the project, and
the “transient” [“short-lived”] nature of
the endeavour. I am inclined to add two
further issues that characterize “the way
of managing change” in the present era:
(1) the flexibility needed in the choice of
delivery model. (I am not persuaded that
the same delivery model can be used in
every context. For example, the model
used for project delivery in the built
environment cannot be used blindly in
the realm of social development); and
(2), “the responsiveness of the project
to the dynamic environment in which
it is delivered”. I say this because no
project is delivered in a vacuum. Project
objectives must remain sufficiently fluid
to meet changed demands overtime.
Each project is directly affected by both
the immediate and the remote environment. The project product, therefore,
must be sufficiently malleable to make
change possible. It should also be borne
in mind that variable conditions lead
to disparate demands. This situation
leads to a breakdown of order. In the
present era, order is not always linear
and the rules of reductionism, predictability and determinism do not always
apply. Physical science has long been
confronted with this reality and project
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management as a social science, in my
view, is no exception. In fact, the time is
long overdue for a definition of project
management that reflects this reality.
The Future
The future of project management, I
believe, should be discussed in terms
of matters firmly within our view. There
are significant issues. I believe that the
factors that will shape the nature and
role of project management over the
next few years are the matters that flow
from sustainability, social justice and the
Green Economy. The issues are inextricably linked but the emphasis of each one
is different. Sustainability is based on the
principle of stewardship. This is because
of the limitation of resources. Project
managers, therefore, need to consider
the resources likely to be consumed in
order to achieve project delivery. In regard to renewable resources, the issue
is sustainable yield. In other words, the
rate of harvest should not exceed the
rate of regeneration. For non-renewable
resources, there should be equivalent
development of renewable substitutes.
Waste generation also should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the
environment. Critical success factors
need to be determined on each project
that serves as both internal and external
measures to the project. Consultation
should be wide and governance transparent. (Daly, 1990)Social justice is
based on the concept of human rights
and equality, cultivating respect and
promoting the dignity of every human
being. We cannot here discuss the formal and informal structures required in
society, politics and economics to give
effect to these matters but I do believe
that projects, by their very nature, create
opportunities of their own that make
the objectives of social justice possible,
even if only in a small way. Projects undertake the spending of capital, using a
temporary organization, on a particular
technology platform, to achieve certain objectives. The opportunities for
the development of innovative project
PM Africa Magazine — september 2014
structures and management process to
promote the principles of social justice
within this framework are relatively easy
to accomplish, with even the minimum
amount of strategic planning. Social
justice too can be promoted as an internal project measure and in terms
of its external impacts.
Finally, the
last issue which is still going to impact
heavily on the profession is projects
undertaken in the Green Economy. The
Green Economy is premised on the idea
of replacing petroleum extraction with
the exploitation of biomass (e.g. food
and fibre crops, grasses, forest residues,
plant oils, algae, etc.) where the industrial production of plastics, chemicals,
fuels, drugs and energy depends, not on
fossil fuels, but on biological feed stocks.
The hope is that the Green Economy will
provide a Plan “B” for planet earth. The
current problem, however, is the lack
of an international framework on food
security, agriculture and climate policy.
The situation leads immediately to a lack
of governance structure so necessary
for the management of projects. Project
Managers, therefore, must permit their
project planning to be informed by
strong social movements in the field
as wellas by