Patterns of Project Management
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There are several books on patterns and some on patterns of project management. My personal favorite is AntiPatterns in Project Management. Patterns were all the rage a few years ago, and still have value when in a specific context. In the previous post, David Schmaltz stirred my thinking with the phrase "be ignorant of what to do." This has troubled me for the last few days. I simply can't understand how one could proceed with a process while being ignorant of the "laws" surrounding that process. Laws meaning the casue and effects of the process. The connections between Inputs, Transformations, and Outputs. The "system" of the processes. Be it cooking, project management, skiing the GS on Peak 10 of Breckenridge, conducting a training class.
Then it dawned on me. Looking at the phrase "what if we mistook Betty Crocker-quality recipe for something useful in a situation demanding innovation." That's when the light went on.
There you go, doing stupid things on purpose again.
The concept of anti-patterns is just that. Doing – repeatedly doing – a known bad practice.
The point is don't engage in anti-patterns and have the expectation of success.
It takes several reads to connect the dots with David's writing. I'm still trying to crack the code. It's probably me. Ah, probably not. But the concepts do stimulate thought. The recipe for doing the impossible – in David's worldview – is has three ingredients, two work, one produces food dogs wouldn't eat
- Ignorance of what to do – I'm at a complete loss to understand this.
- Meticulous attention to the way things are – reality check, physical percent complete, laws of physics, laws of food science, iron triangles
- Clarity of about what in the world you want to end up with – deliverables based planning, what does done look like?
Toss the "ignorance" ingredient. Replace it with "an emerging understanding of what to do," and you'll be on your way to producing meals people will want to eat and project they want you to be the project manager of. Ask this little test question. Would you want the chef to be ignorant of recipes and food science? Would you want the Project Manager to be ignorant of the knowledge areas of Project Management? Probably not in both cases.
Go buy the Brown, McCormick, and Thomas book AntiPattern in Project Management and replace the obtuse with the obvious. While you're at it visit, www.antipatterns.com for some more sources.
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