This is a different kind of book on project management. Using a narrative tone, humor and personal anecdotes, the author highlights the significant gaps in current project management theory as well as disparities within project management practice. This book then provides managers with new models for project management and value creation using chaos and complexity theories, systems thinking and quantum mechanics to explore a more holistic view of project management. Drawing on these bodies of knowledge, the author proposes the existence of an ecosystem that surrounds projects, explains how the project and its ecosystem are distinct, but co-dependent entities, and shows why both need to be managed using very different competencies.
Author(s): Gregory Usher
Series: Management for Professionals
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 117
City: Cham
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1: The Elephant
Oh, You’re a Project Manager That’s Nice. What Do You Do?
In the Beginning
Taylorism: Scientific Management
Shewhartism: Statistical Quality Control
Fordism: The Science of Mass Production
Transformational Production Management
Project Management
Slaughtering Sacred Cows
Lifting the Hood
Taylorism
Shewhartism
Fordism
Pardon Me but Your Hard Paradigm Is Showing
…and how about that definition?
What Does All This Mean?
The Elephant
The Value Problem
References
2: The Eco-System
The Big Bang, the Universe and Project Management
Project Management and the Big Bang
The Evolution of the Project Eco-System
Creating the Project Eco-System
Eco-System Level Provisioning Rules
Time
Finance
Knowledge
Summary
Eco-System Level Regulating Rules
Transfer Energy In
Transfer Energy Out
Transforming Energy
Summary
Eco-System Level Supporting Rules
Political Stability
Knowledge Bridging
Summary
Eco-System Level Culturalising Rules
Shared Identity
Shared Vision
Summary
References
3: The Project
What Is a Project?
What Is Competency?
Managing Projects
Project-Level Provisioning Rules
One Provision to Rule Them All…
Overcoming Constraints by Building in Safety Margins: A Recipe for Failure
Provisioning and Constraint Management Through Buffers
Summary
Project-Level Regulating Rules
Planning
Monitoring
Controlling
Discipline
Definition 1: Behaving in a Measured Way
Definition 2: Training Others to Act According to a Certain Code of Behaviour
Summary
Project-Level Supporting Rules
Expectation Management
Sense-Making
Optioneering
Problem-Solving
Project Management Design Thinking
Consensus Building
Summary
Project-Level Culturalising Rules
Leadership
Team Building
Storytelling
Summary
References
4: The Experience
Understanding the Experience
The Case of the Disappointing Success
The Case of the Delightful Failure
A Brief Introduction to Systemic Discourses and Coupling
The Value Co-Creation Experience
The 4C’s of Value Co-Creation
Connection
Comprehension
Collaboration
Coupling
References
5: Closing Thoughts
Time to Come Clean
Oh, You’re a Project Manager; That’s Nice. What Do You Do?
References
