Project Management Myths

Glen Alleman has an interesting post on his Herding Cats blog. He talks about the three erroneous assumptions of traditional project management. He raises some good points that again support an agile, realistic approach to projects.

Above all, he points out the myth that "accurate predictions of project duration and resource demands are possible once the requirements have been determined." On many projects, especially in the IT field, these things are discovered well into the project, which is why an agile, or at least a rollling wave approach makes sense (where phases are planned as their horizon approaches).

It's a shame the PPM acronym is already taken, or I'd use the term "Pragmatic Project Management" to define these more forward-thinking approaches.

I do agree with one person's posted comment though that change requests should at least be tracked and approved, assuming they impact any promised deliverables or target dates. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Herding Cats: Three Erroneous Assumptions of Traditional Project Management