Implications for Project Management Education
As the nuances between risk and uncertainty become more discernible, the content and methodology for educating project managers and their teams must be revised to include the techniques PMs need to identify and differentiate between risk and uncertainty. Educational initiatives need to create an awareness of management differences between project risks and project uncertainties. This requires a shift in the way we train and educate the current and next generations of project managers. A transitioning of the educational focus from process-oriented to business-oriented is necessary. Classical project management training is built on the foundation of processes and routines. The emphasis on constraint management rather than opportunity and value reduces the implementation of a project to a “to do” list, while disregarding the potential for leveraging uncertainty as a positive context for value creation. Some of the “soft skills” or business skills such as negotiation or managing conflict have been discussed only recently as auxiliary content, and the main focus remains on the structured, repeatable processes identified within the PMBOK® Guide. The strategic transition initiatives are:
- Introduce the discovery and exploitation of opportunity to project management
- Augment process knowledge with business knowledge
- Integrate business disciplines into project management
The confusion between risk and uncertainty was clearly evident in the case studies. The identified misperceptions of uncertainty indicate the need for foundational training, whether it be corporate or academic in nature, to provide the basis for differentiation between risks and uncertainties. Project managers who operate without this knowledge are unprepared to cope with uncertainties and will be hard pressed to identify potential value-enhancing opportunities. Businesses that are looking to maximize the potential of their projects will be well served by providing professional skill enhancement training for their project managers. These skill sets are not addressed by current project management standards. The PMBOK® Guide's knowledge areas are related to the management of risks.
Introducing the Discovery and Exploitation of Opportunity to Project Management Education
The existing confusion between uncertainty and risk means businesses are missing out on potential value simply because it is unidentified or it is misidentified as risk, and therefore considered a negative factor that must be minimized. It is critical that project management education begins to address the differences between the impossibility of preparation which is inherent in uncertainty and the identification and planning which can be tackled in risk management. Since uncertainty is the foundational context for any true project, it is essential for project managers to understand and be comfortable in a project context where not all information is available, and where the context can (and most likely will) frequently change throughout the life of the project.
Proper identification of uncertainty is the first step to value maximization. Once identified, the new-found opportunity must be exploited or implemented to meet the value expectation; therefore, the content and methodology for educating project managers and their teams must be revised to include the techniques PMs need to differentiate between risk and uncertainty, as well as the management tools and techniques specific to each. This is not currently part of the industry standard knowledge base. Existing standards focus on risks associated with constraint management, leaving project managers to fend for themselves when facing the challenges of uncertainty, which by the very nature of any project is the given contextual environment.
Augmenting Process Knowledge With Business Knowledge
Many professional project management training programs are based on The PMBOK® Guide. Its emphasis on ordered and iterative processes is indicative from its beginnings in the engineering discipline, where quality levels require repeatable, disciplined processes that can be quantified and measured against the baseline. Academics such as Taylor (1911) and management leaders such as Deming (1986) villainized variation and associated it with inefficiencies. In repetitious production environments, one of the main management problems is to control variation. As W. E. Deming once said, “If I had to reduce my message for management to just a few words, I'd say it all had to do with reducing variation.” (Neave, 1990, p. 57). However, it should be the goal to maximize the value of a project under conditions of uncertainty. In this new context of maximization, project managers need to have skill sets to, first, identify an opportunity and, second, conduct the analysis of the potential incremental value if the opportunity is exploited. This expertise does not parallel that which is needed to manage a traditional baseline evaluated project. It is an integrated knowledge set using concepts from finance and marketing, as well as critical thinking and logical interpretation skills. Project managers must be well versed in their specific industry and knowledgeable of their firms' competitive position. In their role, they have access to every data point of the project, but the surfeit of data will be of little use without the capability to interpret it. In order to adequately assess the uncertainty and evaluate the potential opportunities, project managers must have a business-based understanding of the project.
A project manager who defines project success by the triple constraint methodology does not necessarily have the mindset to manage a project that has more flexible parameters focused on a less granular success metric: project business value. Unlike risk, uncertainty negates the team's ability to identify potential uncertainties and create an uncertainty management plan. For a triple constraint manager, this means “working in the dark” without enough information and without a familiar toolset. Educational curriculums will need to facilitate the introduction of new management tools and techniques designed for the challenges of an environment that requires flexibility to meet changing baselines and adaptable team protocols.
The integration of process-based management standards and business disciplines requires a fundamental shift in how we educate, at the university level, the new generation of project managers, who will be faced with an ever-competitive global economy and businesses demanding more value from each project they undertake.
Integrating Academic Business Disciplines Into Project Management
The relationship between the business units and the project management team is typically complex and a hothouse of potential misunderstandings and cross-purposes. PMs are tasked with the goal of completing the project on time and on budget, so they must focus on “getting it done,” but the business side is looking for as much value as possible, whether that means taking advantage of a change in the marketplace, or adjusting the scope to include customer feedback that will broaden the target market. Such changes would wreak havoc with a constraint-oriented PM who needs to meet deadlines and baseline targets. But it would be simpatico with a PM who is looking to maximize project value. In this relationship both sides need to redefine their method of interaction and assess individual goals in order to be realigned for the same unified purpose of project value optimization. Education and training is an essential part of this interdisciplinary exchange.
At the moment, project management curricula are mainly offered by engineering and engineering management departments. Since the engineering discipline is steeped in the history of Taylorism, where repetitive processes are the solution to inefficiency, the academic basis for project management continues to be process-oriented rather than business value focused. We suggest that enrichment of the curricula with business-oriented courses and practicum would create a more balanced foundation for project managers who will need to address both efficiency requirements and business value needs. Truly multidisciplinary programs would reflect the multidisciplinary nature of managing projects.