I was invited to participate in writing the 77 Sins of Project Management. I had fun looking over the juicy list of sins. It was hard but I choose Blaming, Rigidity and Satisficing. Why? I had some great project examples and suggestions for project improvement. My thoughts:

Blaming is an aggressive and often acrimonious assignment of blame for project failure.

During project execution blaming is a reflexive, speed of light response. It is part of our human nature. We are rational. We want answers. The sound byte nature of guilt assignment is beguiling. Quick and witty assessments resonate with us. The issue is decided; maybe only in our mind. So we blame, dump on others and move on to the other 50 action items that we need to accomplish . . . before noon. But is blame that simple. No.

Many of the 77 Sins of Project Management are organizational or cultural issues. This one is personal. The following solutions will improve project practices and so they look like they are fact based. Actually the solutions are about controlling your emotions. If you don’t control your emotions, when you feel under attack, you will attempt to blame back.

Basic marriage counseling principle is changing yourself before you request change from others. What does dysfunctional communication have to do with project management? Lots!

Dysfunction 1: Recognize when we blame. This doesn’t need to be a weekend offsite retreat event. It is a quick process of self-evaluation. Watch for when your emotions are engaged. There might be a bit of judgment, criticism. Stop and picture the situation from the others perspective or a longer time frame.

Dysfunction 2: Recognize when we are at fault. Great project managers are authentic and genuine. Have a sense of humor and humility if you have publicly expressed an erroneous or uninformed decision. Model humility and fess up to the thought process that got you here.

Dysfunction 3: Recognize a team opportunity for improvement. If you model open and honest communication, you can request that the team does the same. Paybacks in loyalty are immense.

Reprinted [adapted] with permission from The 77 Deadly Sins of Project Management, © 2009 by Management Concepts, Inc. All rights reserved. www.managementconcepts.com

Operations and project work is bridged by organizational project management (OPM). Projects better serve the organizations when there is a better fit between project work and the strategic plan. The organization benefits if high-value projects are executed well so the ongoing operations can use the project outcome.

How do project managers go about answering the question of what value does their project provide the organization? The answer to that question from a project manager is pretty tactical; just align the project to either the program goals, or the business case.

So what’s a pragmatic and practical approach to get this done? Use some standard tools available in our project management toolkit. They are:

Project Alignment Tools and Techniques

• Charter that states high-level business, mission and project requirements

• Scope alignment with business case intent and content

• Product/service requirements alignment with high-level requirements

In practice we have some challenges. Some BIG challenges. What are they?

Project Alignment obstacles

• Lack of business case

• Multiple stakeholders with conflicting needs

• Missing charter

• Adverse Internal Organizational Environmental Factors

• Challenges in Risk Analysis

o Missing, or

o Forced silence

• Organizational Change Management impact analysis isn’t included

Did I get this obstacles list correct? What is missing? I welcome your comments.

Copyright 2009 PM Perspectives LLC

There is a key issue in the project management industry. What? Well, it is no secret that many projects can’t answer this important questions well; what value do you provide the organization?

I want to start a discussion on Organizational Project Management. What is that? There is momentum in the industry that somehow we should better align project work with the needs of the organization. Compare it to a bridge between project work and operations. Someone needs to be a toll keeper to monitor the traffic that gets to use this bridge.

And, by the way, who is responsible to be a toll keeper on this bridge? There could be a couple of answers:

- Project managers responsible for getting the work done.
- Program managers responsible for coordination among projects
- Portfolio managers responsible for intake of the projects and measurement of the health of the project work.
- Business managers responsible for the project funding decisions
- The organization that has to use project results.

Do you have any examples of great projects or great companies that have a clear definition of which of these groups should be the toll keepers for Organizational Project Management?

Oh, and by the way, do you even like the name Organizational Project Management?

Would love to hear from you

Thanks for your interest in writing a chapter in the premiere organization project management (OPM) book.

We need key project management professionals to write on issues that matter to senior leadership.

What will you get from being an author on this ground-breaking organizational project management book?

- Access to OPM author speed research teleseminar
- Access to OPM author writing to a C-Level audience teleseminar
- 5-10 minute Audio Interview professionally edited for use on your web sites or blogs
- 30 minute Audio Interview professionally edited for use on your web sites, blogs or for DVD sale
- Access to a project management consultant marketing boot camp Webinar series
- Peer review of chapter
- Professionally edited chapter
- Global availability of books through Amazon
- Significantly discounted case pricing of books for use in their classes and consulting practices

We look forward to working with you.

Click below to download the handout for the July 23 Conference Call on OPM Book Project

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