Lost Roots: How Project Management Came to Emphasize Control Over Flexibility and Novelty Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Currently, the discipline of project management based on the model of the life cycle of a project or phase-stage-gate approach to project implementation. This requires a clear definition of the mission and the system are in the beginning (to reduce uncertainty) and the subsequent execution of the phases with the decision gate. This contrasts with the approach taken in the seminal projects that is credited with creating the basis of discipline in the 1940s and 1950s. These projects began with missions that were beyond the currently possible, any solution had to get over time. They managed to blend the parallel studies (of which the best will then be selected), and by trial and error iterations (for the changes of the decision was for a certain period of time). Despite the success of these approaches have been well documented and explained by scientific research conducted in the 1950s, today they seem to fly in the face of accepted professional standards, making the managers themselves, when they meet. The discipline of project management has been relegated to "order taker niche" engineering execution moderately new projects with a clear mission. As a result, he was unable to occupy the center of the most important strategic change initiatives faced by many organizations today. The discipline of project management should be enhanced in order to create greater value for the organization, whose portfolios include novel and uncertain projects. "Hide
by Sylvain Lenfle, Christoph H. Loch Source: California Management Review 25 pages. Publication Date: November 1, 2010. Prod. #: CMR469-PDF-ENG