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PRAGMATIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE – PPMD

PPMD – IS THE LATEST PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODING TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM! Will You Be Ready?

Perhaps your organisation has heard of this? Perhaps there is a grass roots effort beginning to show signs of life in various pockets of the organisation because they do things differently? Perhaps executives are scratching their heads considering how much budget needs to be allocated to get on board with this HOT NEW TREND? Will you be an early adopter? Or will you wait until this latest method has been tested, case studies written, conferences produced, certifications embraced, and the list goes on….

brule 05142018aDon’t get caught up in the hype. PPMD can be adopted at any stage and doesn’t cost anything. It does require however a considerable amount of discipline and patience. Here are the fundamentals tenants of PPMD (in no particular order):

FUNDAMENTAL TENANTS OF PPMD

  1. TRUST that your employees are motivated to do GREAT work.
  2. Have the courage to allow employees to experiment with what works and what does not work – then stop doing what doesn’t work.
  3. Be INTELLIGENTLY DISOBEDIENT – all members of a project have the right to do what is in the best interest of the solution – NOT their own best interest!
  4. Respect & honor that time, money and resources are your constraints. NEVER ask for more. Figure out what can be accomplished given the constraints.
  5. Planning is critical – however plans rarely go accordingly to plan – adapt or die!
  6. Understand that when you bounce resources from project to project that this affects the performance of a team and in turn affects the quality of the solution. Remember – working is your “Day Job” – it’s all hands on deck!
  7. Just because you deal with team members in different locations does not mean they can’t collaborate – remember – out of sight NOT out of mind!
  8. Document exactly what your auditors and customers want – NO MORE.
  9. Understand that the best form of risk management is knowing that you can’t boil the ocean in a day.
  10. If employees are working more than 40 hours a week then chances are YOU ARE NOT supporting the notion of WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT achievable, or you are not enforcing tenant number 4, 5, &6.
  11. If it is not good for the customer AND the business – stop doing it – that’s VALUE
  12. The duration of every transformation project is directly proportionate to the size of an organization – don’t ask for anything more from your vendor.
  13. Every transformational project has failures – failure to learn from them is a failure in of itself.
  14. Project management methods DO NOT solve stupidity, politics and bad behaviour.
  15. Technology and templates DO NOT solve problems – PEOPLE DO.
  16. Everything is NOT a Priority. Stop demanding, flexing your political muscle or forgetting what the client actually wants and realise that your requirement(s) might have to wait, or be pragmatic and know that there MUST be trade-offs, then read tenant number 4, after all this was YOUR constraint!
  17. Priorities should not be based on what you want, they should be based on on what is in the best interest of the customer and the business. See tenant #11
  18. Your customers don’t know everything. IT IS NOT their fault that you didn’t ask them the right questions. They just want a product that does what they want it to do. NOT models, requirements, documents or rules – but a quality product.
  19. Remember that at the end of the day, regardless of your rank & file, your pecking order, title, or whether you are in the public sector, private sector or not- for-profit sector – ALL ROADS LEAD TO MONEY – PERIOD.
  20. Your title means nothing – it is your experience and skills that we value the most.
  21. Stop using buzz words like “transformation, agile, digital, BI and AI”. Realize project management methods are a dime a dozen – start being pragmatic, realistic and people focused.
  22. Transparency, collaboration and communication are NON-Negotiable If there is a problem we want to know so that we can fix it now – not when the solution is delivered.
  23. INVOLVE EARLY – everybody who will be involved in the design, development, change, and support of your solution – see tenant #22
  24. There is no secret underlying message in any of these tenants, take them at face value. Do not interpret, do not redesign, do not use your own unique language and do not ask “what if?” This applies to portfolio, programme and project management practices. DO NOT THINK your organization is unique – they apply to EVERY organization.
  25. Finally remember – Rome was built, rose and fell over the course of 1500 years – there were no project management methods like waterfall or agile back then and that they most likely were practicing PPMD!

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