Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth & Innovation

by Aaron J. Shenhar, Dov Dvir

Projects are the engines that drive innovation from idea to commercialization. In fact, the number of projects in most organizations today is expanding while operations is shrinking. Yet, since many companies still focus on operational excellence and efficiency, most projects fail—largely because conventional project management concepts cannot adapt to a dynamic business environment. Moreover, top managers neglect their company's project activity, and line managers treat all their projects alike—as part of operations. Based on an unprecedented study of more than 600 projects in a variety of businesses and organizations around the globe, Reinventing Project Management provides a new and highly adaptive model for planning and managing projects to achieve superior business results.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Grad School

276 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2007

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this text for my Healthcare Project Management & Innovation class and it reinforced my presentiment that I do not ever want to be a project manager. However, the information was comprehensively presented and easily understood, especially for someone with little interest in the material. I also found the examples of projects gone awry to be very amusing.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth & Innovation
Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir
Harvard Business School Press

Shenhar and Dvir introduce and then develop what they characterize as “a new approach and a new formal model to help managers understand what project management is all about. This new approach is based on a success-focused, flexible, and adaptive framework. We call it the ‘adaptive project management approach [APM],’ and it differs from [and is preferable to] the tradition approach in several significant ways” that are identified in the first chapter. Rather than replacing the traditional approach, APM builds on it by taking into full account the strategic as well as tactical aspects of project performance in both the short and the long term as well as taking into account, also, the points of view of various project stakeholders, including customers.

“To address differences among projects, we present a diamond-shaped framework to help managers distinguish among projects according to four dimensions: novelty, technology, complexity, and pace (NTCP).” By invoking the metaphor of a baseball diamond, Shenhar and Dvir correctly suggest an essential paradox of project management that I have personally observed for many years: projects are conducted within fixed parameters according to established rules and yet projects are usually messy and their results seldom predictable. Hence the importance of having a generous “owner” or benefactor and a capable “manager” as well as talented and skilled “players” who work effectively as a “team.” Adjustments are inevitable and encounter resistance, if not hostility.

Whether or not the “Diamond Approach” (NTCP) is the best approach to take is, of course, for each reader to determine. My own rather extensive prior experience with all manner of projects and their teams clearly indicates that the given approach (whatever it is) must be comprehensive, cohesive, flexible, consistent, and cost-effective. Moreover, each project team must have a strong leader. That said, all project management teams and those who lead them would be well-advised to remember what Peter Drucker observed in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been involved in projects from all levels: developer, Project Manager, Manager of PM, and customer of project (technically this is everyone everywhere, but I'm talking about at work). This book has really changed the way I view Project Management. On the next project I start (or inherit), I want to make sure I try out the diamond principles mentioned here. Even if they aren't a panacea, they appear to change the way everyone involved thinks about the project. Often perspective changes like this can have huge knock-on effects in large companies. Results that previously seemed random now make sense when viewed in this framework.

More important than anything else in this book is the flexibility the authors advocate in projects. Even in the simplest of projects, they argue, there are often important truths that change and should affect the project. Of course, how good or bad this is depends on the complexity of the project. (And, like everything else, a bit of luck)

Two things made this a good read: First, the style is written from PMs to PMs. It's not overly technical for the sake of seeming smart. Second, lots and lots of case studies. I hate when I'm reading business books and everything seems reasonable and easy to apply. Then I try to apply it in real life and find a bunch of gotchas. Their case studies show the pros and cons to everything they suggest.

[Chris Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reinventing Project Management contains excellent examples of past, high visibility projects such as the Sydney Opera House or the LA Subway system that are fascinating or interesting to know. It's definition of 'successful projects' (chapters 4 - 7) is also key in that it emphasizes the importance on final, business short- and long-term results more-so than the Cost, Schedule & Performance in project execution alone.

However aside from these two positives, the overall book was very repetitive with few to no tangible guidelines. It identifies that project types are different; however it's too vague in providing beneficial actions or take aways for any particular domain.

I recommend the examples and chapter-end cliff notes; however not the book as a whole.

[Mark Cichonski]

This book was interesting but very theoretical. The classification of projects is an important idea and is generally around the idea that if you can identify something, you can deal with it more effectively. There is an effort to link the classification to the execution of the projects through the PMBOK, but it is pretty weak on the application side.