Project Management Best Practices

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Clearing Up Some Misconceptions About the PMBOK Guide

Listening to PMP candidates, project managers, and students of management and project management,  I’ve learned that there are some misconceptions about what the PMBOK Guide is. Some think that it’s intended as a textbook on project management. Others think that it describes some kind of project  management methodology. Yet others have the notion that it’s meant as a study guide for the examination component of the PMP credential. Some even think that the PMP exam is on something called “PMBOK” (whatever that is) and that the Guide to the PMBOK is a study guide or textbook covering the topic of “PMBOK.”

I’d like to clear up some of the misconceptions.
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High-level View of Project, Program, and Portfolio Management

In part 1 of this series, we defined the P3MO as an acronym for “Project, Program, and Portfolio Management Office.” It’s based on the concept of a PMO (project management office)  elevated to cover project portfolio management as well as project and program management. In part 2 we will discuss the relationship between the three components of the P3MO: project management, program management and portfolio management.

Project management ensures the successful completion of initiatives and their associated deliverables within the time, scope and cost parameters agreed to by the end-users of the product, service or result. The project manager manages stakeholder expectations and communication between all team members and stakeholders.

P3MO Relationship Venn - Click on image to enlarge

Program management provides overall leadership and vision to the project management process. The program manager is responsible for delivering value to the community of stakeholders.

Portfolio management aligns the portfolio of projects and other work with the objectives of the organization and ensures that the work delivers value to the business.

The relationship between projects, programs and portfolios

Portfolios are made up of projects, programs and other work. (Other work includes on-going operations, ad-hoc activities and other “business as usual” work.)
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My experience at PMI’s 2009 North America Congress was excellent and, as always, well worth the trip. I met and exchanged ideas with some of the top practitioners, researchers, consultants and authors in the project management industry.

There is no doubt about it. The benefits realized from a sound and well-organized project management methodology based on globally recognized project management standards have been well established. These benefits cannot be overstated. Organizations that make full use of the power of a project-focused environment gain a competitive advantage over those organizations that do not leverage this power. They also gain a competitive advantage over those organizations that publish an “official” project management standard but make little or no attempt to implement it or to make it a part of organizational policy. *

One of the hot project management topics at the Congress was the P3MO (project, program, portfolio management office). Another was that of “value driven project management”, the topic of Harold Kerzner’s closing session speech and the topic of his new book, co-authored with Frank P. Saladis.  An integrated project portfolio management environment (i.e., a P3MO) with a focus on driving business value represents the state-of-the-profession thinking right now. I can personally confirm that this approach is beginning to emerge out in the field. At my most recent client, a global life insurance company doing business on three continents, my colleagues and I recommended exactly this approach and delivered guidelines for achieving this. **

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New Posts are coming!!

Watch this blog. New posts begin October 1, 2009.

• Opportunities for “guest” authors
• Tips for mastering the PMP examination
• Special topics on PM employment and the economic crisis’ effect on the PM profession
• “Contact Us” form will be added

New features: Posts can now be reformatted for printing or they can be saved to PDF and saved to your PC —> The ability to share posts on Linkedin and Facebook.

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Project Manager is not just a title — it’s a profession.

With the current financial downturn, organizations are looking for ways to cut costs. In their haste, these organizations may make some mistakes concerning the value of project management.

First of all, many decision-makers mistakenly believe that project management is a luxury, an overhead expense that, in a pinch, can be done without. After all, it’s the team members who do the actual work, right? The PM is just an administrator, coordinator or status report writer.

Not True!!

Proven project management processes and practices can make the difference between the success or failure of an enterprise’s business strategy. Project management is more than just coordinating the work of others and reporting on their progress. Project management has protocols, methodologies and proven professional practices based on experience, consensus and scholarly research. There’s a big difference between being a general manager and being a project manager. Project management is a well-defined specialty within the management domain.

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Welcome to our blog.  “Project manager” is more than just a title or a job description. Successful project managers practice project management as a profession. Our firm, pmbestpractices.com, provides project management consulting services, including project management methodologies, PMO creation and management, project and program management professionals for short to long-term engagement, and Project Management training (including PMP preparation).  Our blog is dedicated to furthering the project management profession.

In addition to our regular postings and articles, we encourage our colleagues in the project management community to contribute to the blog. If there are specific topics you like to see discussed, please drop me a line.

There are two categories of topics here: Main: General discussion about project management, PM best practices, PM maturity, program & portfolio management, project management careers, PM consulting and other PM topics. (The post you are looking at, right now, is in the Main blog category.) Project Management Professional Development: A special discussion category about PM Professional Development. This blog category has a sub-category for general discussion about PM professional development as well as a special sub-category for PMP certification.

So let’s get the conversation going!!!