Are Project Management Methods Out of Date?

In this post, my colleague Barrie McClune reflects on a recent experience. A construction engineer, in an effort to avoid repeating mistakes, dutifully documented errors through the years; he printed a hard copy to have onsite. For example, when a worker was injured due to a missed ladder rung, he recorded it as an on-site safety risk, leading to mandatory ladder training for all workers. Over time, the manual, consisting of multiple binders, became so cumbersome that it had to be transported on a dolly! This approach to project management is one of two that business strategists like to suggest: detailed planning in an effort to predict all possible outcomes, often aided by expert consultants, computer simulations, or prototypes. The second approach involves replicating past successful projects with the assumption that what worked before will work again. And yet, as Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner report in their new book on How Big Things Get Done:<a href="https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Why-do-large-projects-go-over-budget" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank"> “A staggering 91.5% of projects go over budget, over schedule, or both.”</a> Sounds like these strategies aren’t working so well. Out the Window: Control and Predictability The Gantt chart, a staple of project management, was created by Henry Gantt…in the 1910s! Gantt was a mechanical engineer and management consultant who developed methods to streamline and increase the productivity of corporations. The premise of Gantt charts is that project management is about control and predictability. <a href="https://medium.com/@stacyinnj/are-project-management-methods-out-of-date-9b75d4b7f1b0">Learn More</a>