Project Management: Art to the Rescue!
By
James T. Fry
October 22, 2007
Course: ITM533 Module 1 *ƒ²*ƒ”€š Fall 2007
Core Prof: Dr. Kurt Diesch
Coor Prof: Dr. Gregory Herbert
“Is project management more of a science or more of an art form?”
Introduction
Today business executives are asking their managers and employees to do
more*ƒ²*ƒ”€š*ƒ‚¦ with less”“. Fewer Project Managers are leading more projects with
poor results, the latest Standish Group *ƒ²*ƒ”€š Chaos Report shows that only 28% of IT
projects succeed. Many believe that the key to Project success in not applying technical
management principles, but rather, more artful soft skills such as communication and
creativity. (Belzer, 2004).
This case study will present and discuss why the application of soft skills will help today
stressed-out Project Managers implement successful projects. Not only must projects be
deployed on time and within budget, they must ultimately bring value to the stakeholder.
Often times relating this information to the project sponsor requires creativity rather than a
montage of colorful Gantt charts and graphs.
The truly gifted Project Managers are those that can apply the systematic hard skills in an
artful manner by using soft skills. To that end, some systematic or science related
management skills will be discussed, along with the soft skills and how they are used
together to successfully manage projects.
Scientific Approach
Systematic or “hard”“ skills such as Gantt Charting or diagramming are just some of the
tools Project Managers use to track project activities. While they are important to project
success they are not the end all. Successful Project Leaders know the winning formula for
combining hard skills with soft skills. A thorough understanding of the technical system to
be deployed allows project leaders to break the project down into many smaller tasks.
Assigning the staffers with the appropriate technical skill sets requires a manager who
knows the technology to be implemented. In this sense, the project leader must be
technically savvy. Applying a scientific systematic formula to the project provides for
effective and efficient use of resources.
Successful projects, those that deliver value to the organization, use proven Project Life
Cycle models such as the standard ISO model. (Greer, 1999). Following a “cookie-cutter”“
approach such the ISO standard is a very scientific management style which requires
discipline from the manager.
While a rigid management style may get line itemschecked-off, it can sometimes lead to
failure as the end-user may be intimidated by the strict discipline. For instance, City
Hospital in the U.K. had a disastrous IT deployment of an automated system. A post-study
