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Book Review – Public-Sector Project Management #pmot

Author: David Wirick
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

When I first picked up this book for the review and started reading my first thoughts were not favourable, there is a lot in the first couple of chapters that are nothing new. Indeed, were you to spend a short amount of time looking around the internet for items on why public sector projects fail or even the importance of project management as a skill in public sector, you, like me would uncover quite a lot.

There’s much that you might not like about this book, especially if you’re reading the book based in the UK; it’s American-based, focused on PMI’s Body of Knowledge as the project management method and a lot of the examples are gigantic projects (NASA Space Shuttle, Marshall Plan, etc.) which bare little resemblance if you’re working in the public sector in the UK today.

The more I read, the more value I began to unearth and actually this book is a great book for several reasons. First; who is the book aimed at? It mentions in the preface that it’s for public sector PMs and those private sector PMs who work on government contracts. I think it has a greater readership than that and would appeal to those that are new to project management and also those senior managers that performed roles like Project Sponsor or are part of the Steering Committee. I also think it’s an appropriate book for our PRINCE2-obsessed public sector because it goes beyond just the method and really digs deep in all those areas of project management that when performed well enable project success.

This is the curious thing about the book, there is an element of “teaching grandma to suck eggs” by laying out the areas of the PMI’s BoK piece by piece. The book then covers the specific angle of public sector project management. The example of “Managing Project Scope” starts by giving a generic overview, quickly followed by “The Challenges of Scope Management for Public Sector Projects”, which highlights the complexities and fragmentation that occurs when public sector projects are being scoped. There is also a general consensus that runs through the book that “stakeholder management” contributes much, much more to the success or failure of a public sector project than a private sector one. As such, there is a heavy emphasis on stakeholder management and how it impacts right across the project life cycle. Within the book there are a number of plan templates and set examples which within the scope management chapter of the book included; scope management plan template and work breakdown structure, including guidance on how to put together the scope plan and which additional pointers the public sector project manager must be aware of.

In each area of project management there is a Best Practices section which highlights the key learnings or areas that the public sector PM should pay attention to. These are great pointers for a project manager who may be looking to move into the public sector and needs a quick heads up on what actually is different about working within the public sector vs. private.

Each chapter also finishes with exercises and discussion points (also the case studies – can we learn from historical American case studies here in the UK?), which could certainly give further thought about how these project management competencies work within your organisation.

I think this book adds value to the PRINCE2 public sector project manager as it not only gets back to the basics of project management (the what and how of project management) and then applies them directly to the public sector environment. The detail in the how is detailed enough to be of real practical use in the field, for example, how to manage “Project Requirements” gives a number of techniques to use. Retailing at £57, it’s an expensive addition to the PM bookshelf but is in the similar price bracket to other professional PM books.

Special Note
Please note that for anyone interested in the PMI’s approach to project management, especially in the public sector there is also a “Government Extension to the PMBoK Guide” available here.

Editor’s Note
This article is reprinted from the November edition of Project Management Tipoffs, the project management newsletter from Arras People. The December year-end issue will be released Thursday, 17th December, and will be made available to Camel readers in the weeks that follow. Tipoffs is the project management issues and news bulletin no discerning project management professional should be without – subscribe to Tipoffs today.

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