CONTACTS 
0201 - IMC                                617 721 4804
020101 - Mr. Al Badger, PMP; President

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Application to market
Project Management Trends, Changes, Innovations
Re-Engineer Project Management
Implementing Automation, 930119
Project Management, Trends, Changes,

0607 -    ..
0608 - Summary/Objective
0609 -
060901 - Found another article, ref OF 6, calling for innovations beyond CPM
060902 - and cost control to improve project management.  Explains how long it
060903 - took to implement CPM.
060904 -
060905 - The author, Al Badger, PMP, who is chairman of PMI Research
060906 - Committee, asks:
060907 -
060908 -         Have we now reached a plateau in the development of PM
060909 -         Methodology?  ...What are the changes that are going on, or
060910 -         should be going on, in our profession, to take advantage of
060911 -         today's developing technologies?, ref OF 6 line 43.
060912 -
060913 -
060914 -
0610 -

SUBJECTS
Send product information, requesting give demo.
Badger, Al, PMP
PMI Research Committee, 1993
Long Way Around is Short Way to Success, Investing Paragidm

1207 -
120701 - Submitted ref DIT 1, responding to this request.  Included ref OF 7,
120702 - SDS & POIMS scope statement, to support suggestions.
120703 -
120704 -
120705 -
1208 -
1209 -
1210 - Author Requests Ideas
1211 -
121101 - Al requests suggestions for carrying out his assignment as chairman of
121102 - PMI Research Committee, per ref OF 6 line 60.
121103 -
121104 - Here are four suggestions PMI might consider to address critical
121105 - project management dilemmas:
121106 -
121107 -
121108 -       1.  Better Communication Has
121109 -           Reduced Management Productivity
121110 -
121111 -           Technology has produced a lot of new ways to improve the
121112 -           speed and volume of communications, on the theory that
121113 -           better informed managers are more productive.  However,
121114 -           while more information is being produced, "understanding"
121115 -           has been reduced causing lower productivity (see for example
121116 -           Byte Aug 1992, p. 360 article by Jim Manzi, President, Lotus
121117 -           Development Corp.)
121118 -
121119 -           It turns out managers are "people", and people are limited
121120 -           in the amount of information they can absorb, organize and
121121 -           retrieve when it is needed to solve problems and pursue
121122 -           opportunities.  Recent trends to downsize contributes to
121123 -           "information overload" causing management by "30 second
121124 -           sound byte."  This means that today, the manager (i.e. the
121125 -           "Boss") is the weak link in the production chain.
121126 -
121127 -           This presents an opportunity for PMI to research whether
121128 -           there is anything that can be done to enhance basic human
121129 -           capacity to think, remember and communicate, so managers
121130 -           can keep up with the pace of modern business life?  That's
121131 -           the objective.  The deliverables would be:
121132 -
121133 -              a.  A paper defining this problem.
121134 -
121135 -              b.  A paper that explains the lineaments of a solution;
121136 -                  say, for example, a new innovative technology to
121137 -                  plan, organize, integrate and measure work perform-
121138 -                  ance, that enhances personal and organizational
121139 -                  integrated management. This might be called "POIMS".
121140 -
121141 -              c.  Symposia to present papers, demonstrate ways and
121142 -                  means, and debate the scope of the problem and
121143 -                  viability of solutions.
121144 -
121145 -
121146 -       2.  Good Practices Produce the Best Results
121147 -
121148 -           Wage escalation and a poor economy has led to downsizing
121149 -           where experienced people are let go in favor of a younger,
121150 -           hopefully better educated, more energetic, and less costly
121151 -           management pool.  This means lessons learned the hard way,
121152 -           have to be learned over again, as inexperience and ambition
121153 -           lead young managers to take the short cut, rather than fol-
121154 -           low sound business practices.
121155 -
121156 -           PMI might assemble a report on examples showing the disaster
121157 -           that results from taking the short cut, under the heading:
121158 -
121159 -
121160 -                  The Long Way Around is the Short Way There
121161 -
121162 -
121163 -
121164 -           The parable of the tortoise and the hare, applies here.
121165 -
121166 -           An example is that rather than rely on conversation and
121167 -           personal recall, check the record.  90% of the time informa-
121168 -           tion is readily available in a company's files that flatly
121169 -           contradicts what has become a consensus view of critical
121170 -           facts, i.e. the official view of reality.  Young managers
121171 -           eager to please and with lots of meetings to attend, go with
121172 -           what someone tells them, rather than investigate the record.
121173 -           This seems faster and more personable, but leads to failure.
121174 -
121175 -           Another example of this idea, is insisting on making a CPM
121176 -           and keeping it current.  Many managers try to skip this step
121177 -           to save time and expense, and wind up not truly
121178 -           understanding how everything fits together.
121179 -
121180 -           Another example is following the contract, rather than rely
121181 -           on the manager's experience from the last job, or feeling
121182 -           about what is "fair" and "reasonable," particularly with
121183 -           respect to General Conditions.  On every project, time,
121184 -           emotion, and perspective cause parties to ignore key provi-
121185 -           sions in the hope of "expediting" the job.  Almost always
121186 -           this fails.
121187 -
121188 -
121189 -       3.  Command & Control of the Record
121190 -
121191 -           Much is written in PMI publications every year on the need
121192 -           to "control" the job through CPM and cost systems.  Little
121193 -           if anything has been said about controlling the content of
121194 -           the project record which has a far greater impact on the
121195 -           success of a project than either of the other two, because
121196 -           it establishes the reasons for the results reported by tra-
121197 -           ditional control systems.  Only the causes of such results
121198 -           enable management to implement needed changes, or to recover
121199 -           at law in the absence of an effective remedy.
121200 -
121201 -           Typically, such causes are proffered by senior managers in
121202 -           conversation based on "the official view of reality" because
121203 -           they lack command of the record, i.e. cannot produce in a
121204 -           timely manner that part which pertains to an issue at hand.
121205 -
121206 -           PMI might sponsor a seminar to explore this untapped
121207 -           opportunity, and means to implement it.
121208 -
121209 -
121210 -       4.  Internal v. External PM
121211 -
121212 -           People who seem to be successful with internal projects fail
121213 -           when given responsibility for managing outside contractors,
121214 -           and vice versa, because these are fairly distinct worlds.
121215 -           While underlying principals apply equally, role of contract
121216 -           law means implementation is quite different, particularly
121217 -           with respect to Notice procedures.
121218 -
121219 -           PMI might wish to alert its membership about this point
121220 -           through a seminar.
121221 -
121222 -
121223 -
121224 -
1213 -