In a wire message in the group, Jay Miller asked “One of my biggest challenges is getting our PM’s to embrace a portion of PMI Methodology as useful in the construction world….anyone have ideas on how to gain acceptance?”
I can say that in my experience not much attention was given to PMI Methodology. Sadly, there did not seem to be much “methodology” of any kind required of PMs. I have seen a lot of “seat of the pants” operating. Granted, my past employers were small operators and thus did not have much of a portfolio to keep track of. Still, I could make a long list of ways that projects could have been handled better, MUCH better.
Why didn’t I implement the methodology? I had not been introduced to PMI and the PMBOK myself. I had learned to apply some of the methods in my work as a systems analyst. But, in my construction jobs, my attempts to apply them were mostly unappreciated. Even when a part of the methodology was accepted as “maybe” useful, expediency almost always trumped it. Doing anything besides just jumping right in to the problem at hand seemed like a waste of time.
My goal is to continue to learn more about the PMBOK methods and to be able to apply them in a useful way at my next assignment.
