The myth and reality of project management

Summary form only given. Many project teams today realize that they need to develop their own solutions on top of the standard techniques in order to cope with their projects dynamic changes, uncertainty, or complexity. In fact, research shows that the conventional approach to project management provides the basic, although necessary, guidelines for managing projects; yet they are not enough to guarantee a projects success. We will present the current myths, on which the traditional guidelines are based and contrast them with the dynamic realities of todays projects. The traditional approach to project management is based on a predictable, fixed, relatively simple, and certain model. It is also often decoupled from changes in the market, technology, or business environment. However, only few projects today are fixed, certain, or simple. Rather, they are unpredictable, changing, and involve a great deal of uncertainty and complexity. We will offer a new model to deal with such projects in a highly flexible and adaptive way. We will also show that this model can be easily applied on top of the current organizational processes to increase the chances of project success. These ideas formed the motivation for the book: Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation, by Aaron Shenhar and Dov Dvir, Harvard Business School Press, 2007.