Project Managers seem to be getting a fair share of bad press at the moment as we seem to be deemed a primary factor in the failure of many high profile projects. On top of that we seem to have some training focussed organisations stoking the fire by pushing the line that “inadequately trained and/or inexperienced Project Managers” are a primary cause of project failure.
For some reason this doesn’t feel right to me and I am interested to start a debate to uncover the “real” reasons that so many projects are deemed to be failing. Based on my own experience, I can’t believe that it is all down to the inadequacies of Project Management Professionals, sure there are bound to be some instances but is “blame the PM” a fair assessment.
So I have begun some research into this culture of blame in projects, which turned up a great podcast about the subject. The podcast was recorded at a dinner meeting of the Sacramento Valley PMI Chapter in January 2008 and sets out a proposal for an amendment to the PMBOK to cover Blame Management. The proposal is well structured and covers the identification, allocation, and management of blame for project failures. The proposer, Payson Hall believes that by formalizing an approach to Blame Management, project managers can demonstrate the value of more rigorous process to other knowledge areas and protect their rears at the same time!
Ideal for the car or on a journey, there are some really good points in the content that are sure to resonate with many. It’s about 45 minutes long and the recording is in front of a real live audience.
I think it is rather simplistic to blame the PM for all project failure. We recently wrote about a Project Red Dragon, a public sector project in the UK. By any conventional measure of project success, this project is a failure, because it has failed to deliver the business case/business benefits. However the PM for the construction project successfully finished to approved time and budget. Should we hold the PM responsible for the fact that in the meantime there was a change of Government policy and the work the construction was due to support is not being moved away from this brand new facility?
Too often the politicians, senior public servants (sponsor/budgetholder) and the end users appear to escape blame despite changing their requirements and the projects objectives in-flight.
Our blog focuses on project failure and will be looking in future postings to how it can be avoided.