Project Management Best Practices, 5th Edition

Preface

For almost 50 years, project management was viewed as a process that might be nice to have but not one that was necessary for the survival of the firm. Project management practices were restricted in many companies to traditional or operational projects with well‐defined scopes rather than strategic or innovation activities that may be based upon just an idea or strategic business objective. Companies reluctantly invested in some training courses simply to provide their personnel with basic knowledge of planning and scheduling. Project management was viewed as a threat to established lines of authority, and in many companies, only partial project management was used. This halfhearted implementation occurred simply to placate lower‐ and middle‐level personnel as well as select customers.

During this 50‐year period, many companies did everything possible to prevent excellence in project management from occurring. Companies provided only lip service to empowerment, teamwork, and trust. They hoarded information because the control of information was viewed as power. They placed personal and functional interests ahead of the best interest of the company in the hierarchy of priorities, including innovation and other strategic necessities, and maintained the faulty belief that time was a luxury rather than a constraint.

By the mid‐1990s, this mentality began to subside, largely due to two recessions. Companies were under severe competitive pressure to create new high‐quality ...