Why project management is hard

Why Project Management Is Hard?
Joseph M. Abboud
MSc. Project Management
PMP, PMI-ACP, ITIL

Agenda
• Project Management rules the world!
• The demand for project professionals.
• Change through innovation in the form of
project.
• The evident Question: Why managing projects is
so Hard?

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Project Management Rules The World!

Project Managers are the people who
will either save the world economy, or
fail to do so. The hope of the entire
global economy rests upon the shoulders
of Project Managers (not Politicians I
daresay)
Do you think this is an exaggeration?…
Let us do some reviews…
Certainly complex projects and most
shareholders want experienced
project managers to run their
projects.

“Economists and statisticians use several different
methods to track economic growth. The most well-
known and frequently tracked metric is gross domestic
product or GDP.”
Source: http://www.investopedia.com

Project Management Impact on Economy
Source: PMI’s 2013 Project Management Talent Gap Report.

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Project management and skilled project managers greatly affect GDP of a nation, resulting in a
tremendous impact on any nation’s economy.
Takeaway One

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The Demand For Project Professionals

“Job opportunities for project
managers continue to grow at a
rate of 1.5 million opportunities
per year.”
Source: http://blog.edx.org/
project-managers-demand-2017

Big Data
PMP
Mob App
Salesforce
0 9 18 27 36
Top 10 skills in 2017
Most Sought-After IT Skills of 2017
In a recent survey
conducted by Simplilearn, it
was found that project
management is one of the
most desired skills in 2017.
It was also identiﬁed as one
of the top 10 hot skills in
IT in a recent survey done
by Computerworld.
Source: http://blog.edx.org/project-managers-demand-2017
Project Management

1 Project management will continue a decade-
long trajectory of growth.
2 From 2010 to 2020, as the profession grows
by over US $6.6 trillion, the global economy
is seeing 15,7 million new project
management roles created in seven project
intensive industries
3
4
Citation: PMI's 2013 Project Management Talent Gap Report.
Median Project Practitioner Salary in the
US$: 102,000
Sectors with high demand in the US:
Finance, construction, healthcare, and IT

2017
2013
12
2010
Expected to increase
by more than 41.5
million by 2020
globally.
Project management Roles
41.5 million PM roles

Manufacturing
Business Services
Finance & Insurance
Oil & Gas
Information Services

2020 Conclusion
Utilities
Construction
This will create an
unparalleled opportunity
for discerning job seekers
to build valuable project
management skills.

375,757
Australia
582,366
Canada
1,642,058
Germany
1,364,532 24,906,557
China
Brazil
Countries with Established Project Management Industries
Projected New Job Demand for Project Management Roles by 2020

India Saudi Arabia UK
Japan
UAE
2,610,663
103,616 946,648
8,857,845
57,731
Countries with Established Project Management Industries
Projected New Job Demand for Project Management Roles by 2020

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Project Management is in a great demand!
Takeaway Two

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Change Through Innovation In The Form Of Project.

Innovation generally refers to changing
processes or creating more effective
processes, products and ideas.
For businesses, this could mean
implementing new ideas, creating dynamic
products or improving your existing
services.
IDEA CONSULTING
What Is Innovation?
The process of translating an idea or invention
into a good or service that creates value or for
which customers will pay.
Source:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/
Source:
https://www.business.gov.au

Projects have a way of creating and casting visions for the future
and keep us moving in that direction.
INNOVATING MEANS CASTING VISIONS THROUGH PROJECTS

Page
New Ideas /
Innovation
This is translated
into projects
Companies can't
survive without
innovating
Implementing
ideas
Innovation and Projects
Innovation in
an established
Process
Change in processes
Projects drive
innovation from idea
to commercialization
Projects are the
results of needs to
change, whether
through innovation
or not.

“Project managers are change agents. They help transform organizations into leaner more proﬁtable
entities while delivering superior products and services to clients.” edX
Regardless of industry, project managers are the enablers to implement new initiatives.
(edX course on Project management.)
As stated by Harvard Business Review (2007), projects are the engines that drive innovation from idea
to commercialization. In fact, the number of projects in most organizations today is expanding while
operations is shrinking.

Innovation Project Teams
“Innovative project teams are increasingly becoming an invaluable asset for corporations.
Not only is it becoming vital that project teams make use of the latest technological
advancements in the products and services that they’re developing; it’s also vital that
teams continuously improve the way in which they work—and that they ﬁnd new and
innovative ways of cutting costs in order to stay competitive.”
Source: https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/5-ways-innovative-project-team/

IMAGE
Companies cannot survive without innovation.
Innovations can be commercialized through projects.
Companies are hiring Innovation teams in order to come up with new ideas to
improve and survive.
Projects and innovations go hand in hand.
Takeaway Three

IMAGE
Why Managing Projects is so Hard?

Project Definition
DEFINITION: A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and
connected activities that have one goal or purpose and that must be
completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to
specification.
According to Project Management Institute (PMI), a Project is defined as:
“a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.
It has a definite begin and end.”
U N I Q U E , C O M P L E X , C O N N E C T E D

Scope is a statement that
defines the boundaries of
the project. It tells not only
what will be done but also
what will not be done.
Triple Constraint
The client specifies a time frame or
deadline date within which the project
must be completed. To a certain extent,
cost and time are inversely related to one
another. The time a project takes to be
completed can be reduced, but costs
increase as a result.
The dollar cost of doing
the project is another
variable that defines the
project. It is directly
related to resources
(People and Materials)
S C O P E - T I M E - B U D G E T

Projects' Characteristics
Complex & Connected: A project is complex by nature. It involves several activities that are connected to
each other, and must be implemented on time, and within budget, without forgetting the quality of work,
and the human factor in communicating the work progress to stakeholders.
C O M P L E X & C O N N E C T E D
Is it only because of complexity and connected activities that managing projects is hard?

Why Managing Projects Is Hard?
PULSE OF THE PROFESSION ® | 2016
Success & Failure Rates

“More critical is the money that continues to be wasted when projects aren’t managed well. We
see US$122 million wasted for every US$1 billion invested due to poor project performance, a
12 percent increase over last year.”
Success & Failure Rates

“More projects are actually failing and creating signiﬁcant monetary loss for their organizations.”
The question is Why?

The Project Management processes are well deﬁned, well documented, mature, and available to
anyone anywhere.
But we still claim that “managing projects” requires some type of special skill, requiring processes
not found in these standard approaches due to high failure rate of projects.

Back to the roots.
What is Project Management anyway?

What is Project Management
D E F İ N İ T İ O N
Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools
and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
Project management had better be organized common sense.

Below are three examples of the processes used in managing projects

Project Management processes mentioned in the previous slide can be derived from a set of
principles, which the project manager should be aware of it fully!
I will call them the 10 principles.

37
1. Requirements are the underpinnings of project success – if a PM does not know what
the project is supposed to do, inclusive of the inherited risks , then it will be hard to deliver the
solution.
2. Planning is the project’s roadmap – It is a strategy for successfully delivering the project.

38
3. Communication whether up or down is a must – plans change (sometimes through CCB),
Communication makes the change acceptable and visible.
4. The customer’s involvement can prevent misunderstandings – the project must provide value
for the customer. (Agile thinking)
5. The three primary dimensions—cost, schedule, and scope —must be top concerns.
6. Leadership and management go hand in hand. Empathy should also be present.

39
7. Deﬁning the responsibilities and the authorities in a clear, concise, and public manner is a
critical success factor; Give the project team the right tools as the latter amplify skills.
8. Quality is key.
9. Gather the right metrics for the right reasons – measure progress through increasing maturity
and physical percent complete.
10. Monitor the work progress without micromanaging. PM should measure physical progress to
the agreed upon plan.

40
Applying those principles will lead to balancing Project
Management hard skills and soft skills.

Quality of a Project Manager
Do you think that knowing all of the aforementioned principles makes it
easy to manage projects? Don’t we need to manage projects for strategic
need as well?
It is clear that project management is a single system ,composed of
several well-matched, interacting and integrated parts ;knowledge,
skills, tools and techniques (hard skills and soft skills), but ….
“We must manage projects more than just tactically or operationally. We must
manage projects strategically to take advantage of the enormous opportunities
that projects represent.”
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4349539/

S İ X Q U E S T İ O N S
Regardless of what knowledge, experience, tools and techniques a project manager
has, all valid project management methodologies must be reduced to answering the
following six simple questions:
1- What business situation is being addressed?
2- What does the project need? (What the client wants may not be what the project
needs; and it is up to the project manager(PM) to identify the client’s true needs.)
3- PM and the client have to decide what can be done to meet that need.
4- How will PM do it?
5- How will PM know that he/she did it? (COMPLETION CRITERIA - Customer
satisfaction)
6- How well was the project carried out? (Quality)

43
Taking a deep look at the profound tactical and strategic
principles/truths of project management, what will they reveal?
Can these truths be successfully discovered and applied to
projects by a person called a “Project Manager?”
Can anyone possess and adhere to
all of these required qualities all the
time, 100%?

44
Michael Behe gives the following deﬁnition of irreducible complexity:
“By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched,
interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any
one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.”
Irreducible Complexity therefore simply means that a complex system is made up of
multiple components that perform functions within the context of a larger system.
Irreducible Complexity (IC)

45
What are the elements of Irreducible Complexity for managing projects that can be found
in these processes, softskills, and hardskills? Is there a minimum set of knowledge, tools,
skills etc.. that must be done to “manage” a project successfully?
The answer is simply NO!

46
These multiple components that perform functions within the context of a larger system
Must ALL function (be applied) correctly in order for a project to be completed
successfully.

Why Managing Projects is Hard?
47
The knowledge, skills, tools and techniques, and other soft skills of project
management being used to manage a project are a good example.
If a project management skill is removed, is “managing projects” inhibited or
affected negatively? The answer is YES.
If a project management knowledge area is removed, does the ‘system’ made
up of the project management processes become useless? The answer is YES.

48
It is clear to see this integration in a biology system or in the
circuitry of an electronic board (Motherboard).
By remove a part, the system will cease to work – in most cases – but
can it also be equally said of processes used to manage projects?
The answer is YES.
The Project management is an integrated system of several
components that must all function properly in order to come to the
desired solution the project was intended for.

49
Conclusion Several processes can be linked together and have value only as an
integrated set then each skill, tool, technique, knowledge alone.
Each project management process becomes an enabler, and can also have
inherent value by itself.
One person (a Project Manager) cannot be all the time 100% alert of all the
principles mentioned previously, of all the project management processes,
skills, tools, and alike. After all the human factor should not be taken
grantedly. Things may go out of hands.
As long as humans manage projects, there will be a margin of errors.

50
That is Why Managing Projects Is So Hard.
Based on all of these analysis, principles, methodologies, hard and soft
skills, adding to them the project management system as a whole, and the
human factor, I conclude ….

Why project management is hard

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