Page 153 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

For me, it's time that Brooks law was repealed! In fact, it is time that we reframed all those
traditional project management constraints and looked at them with fresh eyes. In a world where
PMaaS does exist there is no need to accept constraints in their traditional limiting sense. The pick
two principles, which suggests that out of any given trio of desired qualities or expectations, only
two can co-exist can be confined to the past with this simple reassessment. Traditional thinking that
your project might be delivered quickly and inexpensively, but the quality will suffer, can be
dismissed when you manage without constraint.

The Reframe

As we have mostly discussed it, let's start by reframing the 'time' constraint.

Do we agree that 'Time is money' and if the monetisable deliverables from your IT Project are
delayed, the ROI is also delayed, and the real cost of your project soon starts to build?

It's like a taxicab meter when you're stuck in traffic, Brooks' law would tell you that adding an extra
human resource, an extra driver, would not speed up that taxi journey and would not get you to
your destination any quicker. That does make a bit of sense, but what if the extra human resource
you added was a navigator, someone with increased knowledge of the city's back streets? What if
the extra resource were a chap on a motorcycle who pulled up alongside your cab and offered you
his spare helmet? What if a helicopter landed in the adjacent park and the pilot offered you a ride?
You'd most likely reach your destination on time with these added resources.

It's about adding the right extra human resource and thanks to PMaaS there is an abundance of the
exact talent that you need. Brooks' law has never been more untrue. When you have a trusted
PMaaS consultant, one who gets to know you and your projects, the PMaaS universe opens up
unlimited solution space. Adding an extra human resource, adding any kind of extra resource can
have a hugely positive effect on your project.

When you reframe Project Management thinking in this way, time, scope, costs, quality, risk and
resources are no longer constraints they are metrics, yardsticks by which capacity and capability can
be measured and key areas that can be improved.
Usually, an IT Project is green-lighted to generate profit or to facilitate some business change. Any
delay in delivering the end result of your project can increase the time to market and lead to a
reduction in or stalling of profits, there is no room for any kind of constraint.

One word of caution. Naturally, scope is still one to watch, you don't want your project sponsor to
get a whiff of the fact that you are managing without constraint and hand you a list of extra
deliverables that they expect for the same cost and within the same time. Scope still needs to be
guarded, that said, I have worked with teams who have used PMaaS resources to deliver extra client
demands without increasing overall project portfolio costs - so don't close your mind to saying yes to
scope change requests.

The world is very different now to when each of those project management constraints were first
conceived, and it is constantly changing.
Truly now, in this PMaaS era, the only Project Management constraint is yourself and your team, the
only limitation is your imagination and your willingness to explore new ideas and resourcing options.

Sources:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0201835959/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_m1nCDbFZ6638T%20