Project Based Problem Solving and Decision Making

Preface

The environment in which the project managers perform has changed significantly in the past three years due to COVID-19 pandemic and other factors. Our projects have become more complex. There are new internal and external forces that now impact how problems are solved. The importance of time and cost has reached new heights in the minds of clients and stakeholders. Clients want to see the value in the projects they are funding. All of this is creating challenges for project managers in how they identify and resolve problems. To make matters more complex, project managers are now seen as managing part of a business when managing a project and are expected to make both project and business decisions.

Decisions are no longer a single-person endeavor. Project managers are expected to form problem-solving and decision-making teams. Most project managers have never been trained in problem-solving, brainstorming, creative thinking techniques, and decision-making. They rely on experience as the primary teacher. While that sounds like a reasonable approach, it can be devastating if project managers end up learning from their own mistakes rather than the mistakes of others. It is a shame that companies are unwilling to invest even small portions of their training budgets in these courses.

There are numerous books available on problem-solving and decision-making. Unfortunately, they look at the issues from a psychological perspective with applications not always relevant to project ...