The Triangle is missing The Circle

By experience -the bad one of course- I discovered that the famous Project Management triangle is missing a very important containing circle… The Strategy Circle.

The Strategy Circle is my simple explanation for many of the catastrophic situations projects end up with. I totally believe that this should not happen and that Strategy exists to set goals and directions for the benefit of organizations and accordingly for the benefit of projects and teams.

Unfortunately, I witnessed many cases where it was exactly the opposite. I was an eye witness of the failure of many projects and sometimes companies because of misunderstanding the meaning of Strategy and how to use it to bring companies to success. Some companies bankrupted because of this!

De-formation Effect

The Strategy Circle is sometimes surrounding the Project Management triangle and thus imposing pressure on it and suppressing it and some other times it is pushing on the triangle from the inside and thus inflating it. This circle is a vortex that if not used wisely can and will swallow projects and maybe companies themselves.

By The Name of Strategy!

The magical Strategy word is misused to commit many crimes against projects and teams. Some PJs use this word to convince you that loss is a gain and that you should sacrifice everything in the world even yourself for it. They use the “We’re building glory” illusion to suck your blood and to burn you and your teams. Some people misuse it by thinking that Strategy has to focus only on business and not on profit or even revenue! I don’t understand what can be the use of owning a business if it doesn’t generate money. P.S. I am fully aware of the difference between loss and investment.

Strategizing by Fear

There is also a newly introduced concept… The Strategizing by Fear concept in which PJs use the company image argument as a cover for bad decision making, mistakes and failures. They use the Strategy ghost to frighten you all the time and to make sure you are under pressure and under their control.

I really empathy Strategy! It’s abused, oppressed and maltreated in many places!

Comments

5 Reasons not to listen to a PM (for Managers)

Usually a PM cares about his projects and is keen to develop them as per the planned budget, time and scope. However, managers should not listen to their PMs for the following reasons: 1. PMs are Time Wasters PMs plan… They study and mitigate risks and project issues in proper ways to guarantee the smooth execution of the project. Planning is a bad practice that PMs should stop using and referring to whenever they discuss a project related issue. Plans are not really needed and in most of the times they are useless because no one follows them (all gratitude and respect reserved for PJs). Also, it is preferable to face risks when they fire. Anyways, who really cares for risk mitigation and contingency stuff! Let’s face surprises when they arise and use panic mode to push on teams to solve their issues! 2. PMs Forecast PMs track their projects and use trends, issues, project and client historical data to forecast project status and use corrective actions properly to maintain thei...

RPM Technique

I once used a very weird technique with my team to get things done in a short duration in a project that was very far away from being on schedule… For a while I’ve been asking my team for their progress, following up heavily and on daily basis, staying late with them in the office and sometimes staying till the next morning (online from home), trying to dig deeper by developing and testing with them…. And still we were very late in achieving any of our internal milestones… By time, I was empathizing them and I was trying my best to reduce the effect of the pressure under which they were put for a long time. We started a weekly game competition with some funny yet work-related rules, amongst which was “ each member in a sub-team should finish his work before the day of the competition ”… it went fine for about 3 weeks, then the situation became worse… and we all stopped participating in the competition… I then tried another technique… I started buying them either lunch or dinner in ...

To PMP or not to PMP?!

That is the question! As implied by its name PMP (Project Management Professional), to obtain such a certificate you should be a professional in the field of Project Management… To my surprise, almost 95% of the people I met holding this certificate know nothing about Project Management!! They think that studying for this certificate and obtaining it means they are professional, although they should be professional to deserve such a certificate. I understand that one of the prerequisites to get this certificate is to have some practical experience in the Project Management field. But for some odd reason, I discovered that the people I am talking about, which are a majority in the field now, don’t really have experience, some of them are even fresh graduates… I once had a very aggressive argument with a “ kid ” in my team, and by the word “ kid ” I am referring to his age and his attitude in despising my knowledge and experience due to his ignorance, he was very aggressive and arrogant...

A Project Manager's Diary

Search This Blog