Friday, August 31, 2007

MBP vs. MBO -- a draft article








I have written draft article "MBP vs. MBO" that is intended for the 3rd Quarter 2007 issue of SIGnal, the quarterly newsletter of PMI's Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT&T) Special Interest Group (SIG). It is about Management by Project (MBP) and Management by Objectives (MBO), two competing concepts in the marketplace of ideas.

If you have an opinion about this article, your feedback is valuable. Before September 10, 2007, your feedback can influence the first printing of the article. After September 10, your feedback is still requested.

Read: "MBP vs. MBO"

Provide feedback privately or provide comments here at PMThink.

posted by Garry B @ 2:43 PM, Read More...  
2 comments links to this post

2 Comments:

At 8:31 PM, Anonymous Jerry Manas said...

Garry, I think you hit upon a very subtle, but important point. Defining discrete outcomes, and discrete actions to support the outcomes is indeed different from defining MBO targets that are based on hitting some percentage (which may or may not be in the person or team's control to hit). Besides, these percentages are usually subjectively and/or arbitrarily defined.

Deming was against MBO, especially without a clear defined plan and appropriate training for meeting the objectives.

That being said, one more item to reconcile is this:

Whether arbitrary targets (such as MBO) or defined shared outcomes (such as MBP), I'd hesitate to tie people's performance reviews or compensation solely to whether the outcomes were met (again, based on the fact that things happen that are outside the control of the individual or team). Same goes for defining project success.

I think evaluation of individual and team success needs to take a holistic view, including client satisfaction, reasonable effort, proper decisions, and so forth, not just on-time, on-budget, meets specs, etc. I don't think this is inconsistent with your article, just an additional consideration.

 
At 10:14 AM, Blogger Garry B said...

Jerry, I agree 150%. It's just that the article was already getting too long and the topic of performance appraisals deserves a whole book. In fact, I recommend the book Abolishing Performance Appraisals, by Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins. I also like "Performance Without Appraisal" which is Chapter 9 of a wonderful book called The Leader's Handbook, by Peter R. Sholtes. /Garry

 

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