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

Abstract

Reinventing Project Management: The Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation; Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA; 2007; 274 pp., $35.00. Reinventing Project Management is important to RD the authors assume the readers already do these. Their contribution lies in providing a tool that crosses the boundary from strategic managers to project managers. A problem many companies have with project management is that project success is defined too narrowly. For example, if a project is on time and on budget it is considered a success. Shenhar and Dvir point out that project criteria should include the strategic aims of the company. The difficulty often comes when strategic aims do not get translated into project selection and management. The author's tool, The NTCP Model, identifies four dimensions that tie strategic and project managers together in a discussion that helps them address what needs to be considered before a project is launched. This helps ensure correct resources are assigned to the project as well as a shared understanding of the expected results and why the project is important. Again, this book does not address how to manage projects; more importantly for RTM readers, it closes an open managerial gap between strategic planning and project management. A more appropriate title of the book might have been, Managing Project Management. After explaining the shortcomings of project management and why companies need a more complete model in chapters 1 and 2, chapter 3 introduces The NTCP Model or Diamond Approach. The model identifies levels of Novelty, Technology, Complexity, and Pace (NTCP) along four orthogonal dimensions with a common origin. A standard Cartesian plain places Novelty on the positive X axis point, Technology on the positive Y axis point, Complexity on the negative X axis point and finally, Pace on the negative Y axis point. These four points define the diamond. The second part of the book, chapters 4 through 7, describes each of the four dimensions or points of the diamond. The important issue is for strategic and project managers to see the project in the same light and truly come to a meeting of the minds about how to manage the project from a strategic as well as program level. Chapter 4 describes three levels of Novelty: derivative, platform and breakthrough. Derivative projects are extensions and improvements of existing projects. Platforms are defined as new generations of existing product lines, such as trying to figure out what is the next product line after the Razor phones. Breakthroughs are new-to-the-world products the customers have not seen and in which the company may not have expertise. Chapter 5 describes four levels of technology uncertainty: low-tech, medium-tech, high-tech, and super-high-tech. Low-tech projects rely on existing, well-established technologies and well-known methods. It seems that according to this definition semiconductor production is low-tech. Medium-tech projects use existing technologies but also incorporate new technology or features. High-tech projects utilize technologies that are new to the company but available at the start of the project. …