Adjust Project Practices to the Specific Context
Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of Forbes magazine, made the following insightful observation: "What is strength in one context can be a weakness in another context. I'm persevering - you are stubborn. I am flexible - you are week. I am practical - you are opportunistic... It depends on the context."
The current practice is a key practice that significantly affects all other practices. Indeed, the rationale behind the design of this book is to help the reader understand how successful project managers deviate from the common "one best way"approach and adjust their practices to the specific context of their project. Avoiding the "one best way" approach does not imply, however, that there are no "wrong ways", that "anything goes," or that you must always "start from scratch." There is always the need to strike a balance between relying on the accumulated knowledge of the organization, on the one hand, and enhancing the flexibility and creativity within each individual project on the other.
It is important to be aware that different contexts are found not only between projects, but also within projects. For example, the dairy project was forced to adapt to three distinct overriding strategies. It started with the development of a state-of-the-art-driven dairy, a "dairy of dreams" as they termed it. When they found that this strategy led to a huge growth in project scope and overall cost, they embraced a cost-driven orientation. Yet, when they learned that their domination in the cup products field was about to be threatened by focus. Each change of strategy meant a change of context and was accompanied by an adjustment in project practices.
The classical model of project management, in which standards are developed for virtually all situations, expects the project manager to serve primarily as a controller: to ensure that team members adhere to the established standard. This role entails only a minimal requirement for judgement and no requirement for adaptation. In reality, the project manager must constantly engage in making sense of the ambiguous and changing situation, and he must adjust the common practices to the unique situation. This process requires a great deal of interpretation and judgment based on rich experience.
This text is part of the book "Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Management - Practices that Deliver Remarkable Results". Author: Alexander Laufer. Editor: FT Press.
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