Mastering Project Management: From Outputs to Outcomes

This section will focus on the infrastructure, essential terms, and processes of project management that you need to know for your journey in the project management world. Let's go over those topics briefly covered in this section;

When you look for the definition of the term “project” on the internet, you will find similar definitions. However, different organizations have different project definitions in the business world. In this section, we will be evaluating project and project management concepts with real-life experiences and examples.

In the business world, project success is not a simple concept that can be defined only based on the scope, time, and budget triangle. In this section, we will be analyzing the different dimensions of project success and share examples.

Project Management Institute is a worldwide organization working on project management for more than half a century. Project Management Professional, PMP certificate is also one of the famous certificates in this area. We will be talking over PMI and the PMP certificate. Why would you need this certificate?

In functions such as purchasing or sales, there are clearly defined policies, procedures, and processes. Compliance with those guidelines is considered important and followed, audited closely. How do we manage project management-related processes in our business life? This section will answer this question and give a high-level view of project management’s process groups and knowledge areas.

Understanding the life-cycle of a project and dividing a project into phases when appropriate contribute to the success of a project. Phasing a project and life cycle definitions are covered in this section.

We often use the term project management, and we usually mean a large eco-system covering the portfolio and program management concepts. In this section, we will be exploring this eco-system and its relations with a strategic management system.

Implementing a project management methodology sometimes creates concern for management, as it may create bureaucracy when implemented wrongly. You will find some tips for properly implementing a project management methodology.

Organizational structures influence the way projects are managed. Therefore, a project manager has to be aware of the organizational structure when managing a project. This section will give you a good overview of the types of organizations and their impacts.

As the number of projects and their influence on business performance increase, activating a project management office becomes a valid option. On the other hand, establishing a successful, sustainable project management office is usually challenging. This section will provide you with the types, opportunities, and threats in implementing a PMO.

The project manager is usually the central character in a project, mainly determining the performance of a project. His/her responsibilities and power also vary from project to project, organization to organization. A project manager needs to evaluate and use his/her responsibilities and authority by understanding the organizational climate. This section considers the project stakeholders, the sponsor, and the project manager, their roles from a broad perspective.

This section describes and evaluates basic concepts and processes from a real-life perspective and creates a robust infrastructure for further learning.

“Project” is a very popular and important concept in business life, with which we are very familiar. We observe the popularity of project management in published books, articles, and the rapidly increasing content on the Internet.

The term “project management” is often used to express the project management world as a whole, embracing all of its elements. However, portfolio and program management concepts are as important as project management. Although they are related to Project management, they are different concepts. Project portfolio management, which we will be calling PPM in short, in particular, is an environment that involves projects, manages the big picture, and guides project teams. Those PPM processes are usually managed by senior people who have executive power to initiate or abandon projects. PPM concept is indispensable in the business world; on the other hand, PPM and its processes are not so visible in the project management world, having been overshadowed by project management.

Similarly, program management is another concept that has not yet caught the attention it deserves in the project management world. We observe initiatives tried to be managed as single projects, which can be managed much more effectively when a program management approach is followed.

It is not possible to achieve sustainable performance in project management without understanding these concepts as a whole, defining the related processes, roles, and responsibilities, and understanding their relations with the business world. Whether you are on the demanding or the management side of the projects, being the project manager, I can say that it is difficult to turn a project into a success story without understanding the role of the project for the company and what value it would create within the business world.

Project success is now a concept beyond scope, budget, and schedule triangle. This understanding was once considered the golden or the iron triangle in project management. The primary criteria for project success were considered to be merely remaining within the borders of this triangle. Harold Kerzner, one of the leading experts and authors in the project management world, approaches this golden triangle in another way in his Project Management 2.0 book. He sees the project as only a part of the big picture and mainly focuses on its benefits for the business.

The acceleration of change emphasized agile methods in the business world. Many companies have applied agile approaches, have started an agile transformation journey, or have put them on their agenda. While this approach is a valuable tool for organizations, implementing agile methods requires effort, resources, management support, and a certain level of project management maturity. We can name this a transformation. Whenever an organization has difficulties understanding the basic concepts and the related roles and responsibilities of project management, implementing an agile method would be challenging. A high project management maturity in the traditional project management model significantly supports agile transformations.

Whether being a function head, a senior executive, a project manager, an expert in a function, or a member of a project team, in this business world, one way or another, you will have a project management experience that will have an impact on you. Regardless of your level of relationship, your contribution to projects will increase as you understand and internalize the basic concepts of project management. This will enable you to work more efficiently on projects and improve your effectiveness in your organization.

We are in a rapidly changing world. To keep up with this change, organizations should also adapt themselves. Change is a part of our lives now, and we manage a change through projects.

PMI defines a project as a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Bridge construction or software development are examples of projects in our everyday lives.

Although the project management tools, techniques, approaches have been improved significantly during the last 50 years, the project management concept is almost as old as the history of humanity. The Pyramids were constructed 5000 years ago, and the sculptures of Göbeklitepe were carved 12,000 years ago. Those ancient structures can well be regarded as products of projects. These are all initiatives that produce unique, tangible results.

Projects and operations are very much interrelated concepts. Projects create services or products for operations. Therefore, it is also necessary to define and think over operations.

Operations are the ongoing execution of activities. They follow organizational procedures to produce the same result or a repetitive service that will help sustain the business. Operations are typically permanent, there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities; uncertainties are relatively less; the problems are mostly similar. They include normal business functions such as sales, marketing, finance, or production. Most of those characteristics are not valid for projects.

“Project” is a familiar concept in our daily business lives, and almost everyone has an idea about what it is. There are various definitions made by different organizations. Why then, the definition of the project is important for an organization?

Before answering this question, I have to indicate that not all initiatives are the same. Some initiatives do not require a project management approach. For example, a task that requires five person-day resources to be completed in 3 days may well be executed with an operational approach. On the other hand, an initiative requiring 5,000 person-day resources to last six months certainly requires a project management approach. This is a spectrum, and the boundaries of operations and projects can not be specified like black and white. It also depends on the organizational culture and the business conditions. But I can explain the pros and cons of managing an initiative close to the project side in this spectrum.

First of all, project management is an area that requires specific skills, knowledge, and experience like purchasing, sales, and marketing. A successful operations manager may have difficulties acting as a project manager if he does not have the required knowledge and background.

Most of the projects require resources from other functions and therefore are executed in a matrix environment. Without a formal project launch, the team leader or a department manager who acts as an informal project manager is usually challenged in getting resources from other functions.

Each department or team is organized according to the operational roles and responsibilities. Projects create additional load over those business units. Informal projects are usually not transparent to the organization, and the leaders of the operational units may have difficulties explaining the extra load over them and its impact on their operational responsibilities.

Projects are tools for adapting teams, departments, and organizations to changing business conditions. Managing those initiatives as projects and monitoring them as a portfolio gives an organization the opportunity to improve its change management capabilities.

An organization must develop a policy for distinguishing between the temporary efforts, which require a project management approach, and the operational tasks. Developing such a policy requires a certain level of project management maturity. Every company needs to tailor the well-known project definitions according to their requirements. During this tailoring effort, the size, culture, management style of a company, and the business area play a significant role. It is also crucial that this definition is implemented in practice and that the organization, as a whole, understands and internalize this definition. Success in those efforts requires a management team that believes in project management. Without the support of the top management, those efforts may not yield sustainable success in projects.

Project Management Institute is one of the most active organizations in project management, operating in more than 200 countries. One of the important messages given by PMI at the global conference held in Philadelphia at the end of 2019 was: “From now on, we will focus on the outcome, not the output.”

Output and outcome concepts were one of the main themes in that global organization. PMI highlighted an improvement area in the project management world and gave project managers and top executives an important message

“Output” and “Outcome” are related to productivity and, therefore, an important concept for the business world. These two terms are also related to the activities, deliverables, and impact.

Top management, sponsor, and project manager have their way of defining the expected value from the project. If there are differences in those definitions, the definition of top management is the decisive one. The output and the outcome of a project establish an infrastructure for creating the expected value. The project manager’s performance has a significant impact on the success of this process. Therefore, the project manager should have a clear understanding of the value expected by the top management. The quality of the communication between the major stakeholders and the project manager also plays a significant role in this process.

Project team members focus on activities and deliverables; the project manager focuses on deliverables and the output. “Output” is the products, services, immediate results achieved upon completion of a project relevant to the achievement of outcomes.

The sponsor focuses on the output and the outcome. “Outcome” is the likely or achieved short-term or medium-term effects of the outputs of a project on the performance of a company.

The outcome is always important for the top management, but the main focus of the top management is the impact. “Impact” is the medium-term or long-term effects of the outcome over the performance of a company.

Output or outcome success is related to project or program management performances. Impact success is an indicator of portfolio management performance. Successful outputs and outcomes do not always guarantee the expected impact on the company's performance. A successfully managed project may be the wrong choice for the high-level requirements of the company.

Let me explain those terms with an example.

A large logistics company was the leader of its market. It was one of the first major shipping companies with a long and successful history. Although the company is performing well, the general manager had concerns as he noticed a growing number of complaints coming from the customers. He challenged the assistant general manager (AGM) of the sales and marketing function to find a solution for this growing problem. The AGM had the belief that improving their control over their customers would solve this problem. He proposed implementing a Customer Relationship Management application to improve the related business processes as a solution. After carrying out a quick analysis, they decided to implement the CRM application, and the Sales and marketing AGM was assigned as the sponsor of the project. The sponsor prepared the project charter and delegated it to the business solutions department for implementation. The project was started.

The project was planned and executed successfully. All deliverables were completed, the solution was integrated into the other operational business applications, training was given, the related documentation was provided to the sales and marketing team, and the CRM application, namely the output, was ready for use.

The sales and Marketing department started using the application. Within a month, the CRM platform became fully operational. The related project manager and the sponsor were proud of the outcome, and the project was officially closed.

After three months, the general manager received a detailed quarterly sales report. The report indicated that the company was losing customers. He immediately called the sales and marketing department for an explanation.

The project output and the outcome were successful, but the selected solution was not the right choice. The root cause of losing customers was the attitude of the sales and marketing team towards the customers. The sales and marketing team was unaware of the changing market conditions, and they were still comfortable with their leadership position. They were not paying enough attention to the complaints and the problems of the customers. The CRM application provided tools for the team, but behavioral problems were managerial issues requiring actions from the leader.

Although the project team successfully developed the output and the outcome, they had difficulties understanding the general manager's expectations. In the eyes of the general manager, it was considered a failed project.

Activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts define the value chain. Although project managers are mainly responsible for the activities and outputs of a project, any outcome or impact-related problem challenges the project manager in real life. Therefore, project managers should pay specific attention and effort to understand outcomes and impacts.

There are some terms that we are familiar within our lives. We think we know their meanings, but we explore their depth when we think about them. "Success" is one of those words.

When you look it up in the dictionary, the word “success” is defined as “finishing a job in the desired way, achieving the desired outcome.” Therefore, a clear definition of the desired outcome is necessary for evaluating success.

The success of a project is related to how well we define it. The concept of success in projects is generally defined within the scope, time, and budget triangle. A project manager tries to reveal the defined scope at the specified time with the determined budget. However, completing the scope of a project on time and budget is not always sufficient for the project’s success.

In the past, I was involved in a project to increase the production capacity of a plant. Unexpected changes in market conditions created severe pressure on the project team in the most critical phase of the project. As a part of the project plan, one of the highest capacity lines was stopped in a period in which cement prices took off, and customers were queuing at the door. Therefore, the management was mainly focused on the project’s duration, the schedule being the most critical aspect. That’s why the most vital success criterion was completing the project as soon as possible. Management could sacrifice cost or even the scope for the sake of early completion. Just as in this case, it is important for a project manager to monitor the market conditions, the climate in the organization, priorities in the senior team’s agenda, and re-evaluate the project’s success criteria.

I want to share another case regarding success. The construction of the Sydney Opera House is one of the most popular projects worldwide. It was launched in the 1950s to create an icon for Sydney and worldwide popularity.

The scope of the project is defined as an opera house, considering that it will serve the vision of creating an icon. A contest was organized to find the best design. At the end of the contest, it was agreed that the selected design would be completed for 7 million dollars in 4 years. Although the city administration thought that building an opera house would serve the vision, additional efforts were also included in the project’s scope that would support this vision. They had the opening done by the Queen of England; they made the building appear in the press frequently, making this work a cultural heritage. All of these efforts made the Sydney opera house a brand. The result was a successful work that served that vision.

I have not been to Australia. Although I have no connection with Australia and Sydney, the Opera house is a building that I have known since I was a kid. Moreover, when Sydney is mentioned, when I see a photo of the opera house, it makes me think of Sydney, Australia. That’s why we can say that it is a successful project that supports its vision and strategy.

On the other hand, we see a different picture when we evaluate project management, The project, which was scheduled for four years, lasted 16 years, and the budget of 7 million dollars was exceeded, the total cost reaching more than 100 million dollars. However, would it be possible to say that the project failed based on this information?

When we look at the Sydney Opera House project, we see that the extraordinary design of the building, namely the product is quite successful. However, it is not possible to make the same comment from the project management aspect. We see that the architect, who designed the building and was appointed as the project manager, could not manage the risks. After starting the project, it was noticed that the technological tools and techniques of those days were not sufficient to put this design into practice. The project manager, the design architect, was fired from the project. These events reveal a weakness in project management. This case proves that the success of a project in terms of product and project management should be evaluated separately.

When there is a successful idea, a good design, in other words, when the product has a value, even if the project is poorly managed, if the outcome, the required impact is achieved, usually the customer does not make it a problem. The customer and the management focus on the result, and the project management weaknesses are generally ignored. On the other hand, there is a problem when the product does not create value even if you complete the project successfully and have done what is demanded. Successful project management usually does not make any sense in those circumstances. The customer and the management tend to focus on the outcome rather than the efforts of the project management. The project manager is generally held accountable for the failure.

Managerial roles and responsibilities are important in gaining the expected benefits from a project. Many factors affect the final success of a project. The majority of those factors are beyond the influence of the project manager. The project selection process, project prioritization, clarity in defining expectations, the selection process of the project manager, and the profile of the selected sponsor all have a significant impact on the project’s performance. These are mainly the processes of project portfolio management, which are under the accountability of senior people with management power. If a company has difficulties implementing those processes, it impacts the project management performance and challenges the project manager.

Project portfolio management maturity, collaboration, and communication between the functional managers and the project manager, the project managers' experience, and competencies significantly impact project success.

On the other hand, sustainable performance in project management can only be achieved through the belief and support of the senior executives.

Organizations consist of departments specialized in specific areas such as purchasing, sales, finance, and production. Each department functions as a part of a large system. All departments are interlinked, and each department gives internal or external services and receives service from others. The roles and responsibilities of all departments are defined, and they are organized so that all functions work in harmony. Defined processes ensure this harmony. Billing, ordering, and recruiting are examples of such processes.

Without harmony and collaboration among functions, an organization can’t grow or even survive in this challenging business environment.

Each project is also a part of this system, inter-linked with almost all the other departments. There are processes in project management similar to those within the operational sections of an organization. Being aware of, defining, and improving those processes decrease risks, improves work quality, and supports collaboration with the other functions. Whether designing a car, building a bridge, or moving an office from one place to another, you will notice those standard processes in every effort.

When starting a new project, you need to have a holistic view. Top management’s expectations, high-level risks, project constraints, high-level resources, and the project life cycle are important parts of the big picture.

As the framework is defined, you start working on the detailed plan. A detailed plan provides you with the project details related to scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, procurement, etc. When the plan is ready, it is presented to the sponsor and the customer.

After reaching a mutual agreement on the plan, the project team starts working on the deliverables. When the output becomes ready, closing activities begin upon the customer’s approval.

From the start to the end, all these activities and related processes are grouped under four main headings as starting, planning, execution, and closing.

PMI defines a fifth process group in PMBOK, addressing monitoring and controlling processes. These five logical groups form the project management process groups in the PMI approach.

Some or all of those processes are an inherent part of any project. Organizations with high project management maturity make those processes visible and try to improve the performance of team members, implementing them. Being aware of those processes allows an organization to train project teams to notice improvement areas and improve performance. This awareness and this approach increase the chance of success in project management.

For instance, the project charter is an important document that formalizes a project and makes it visible in an organization. It clarifies high-level responsibilities and management expectations. Although the content and the size may vary from project to project, in general, issuing a project charter process is almost the same for any project. The sponsor signs this document, but the process needs to be managed by the project manager. The process provides the project manager with a good understanding of the high-level scope, the background story of the demand, high-level risks, etc. It allows the project manager to make a good start. Supporting project teams with some guidelines and procedures improve these efforts’ effectiveness.

Although there seems to be an order of implementation for those five process groups, the special conditions of the projects force some of these process groups to be run in parallel. Assume that you are assigned as a project manager to a construction project. During the project’s initiation, if you notice that a tower crane is essential for the project and know that supplying tower cranes in the market is difficult, you would prefer to initiate the hiring process of the tower crane at the earliest convenience. To find an appropriate supplier and sign a tower crane rental contract, you should determine the capacity, height, and type of the crane as well as the duration of hire. This process requires analysis and the details of the project, which can only be developed through planning. In such a case, while the project management team is working on initiation-related processes, the conditions urge the team to work on the planning simultaneously. For such reasons, process groups are often carried out in parallel.

Knowledge areas are another essential concept in project management. There are ten basic knowledge areas defined. Scope, schedule, cost, risk, procurement are examples of those knowledge areas. Among these knowledge areas, integration management may be one of the concepts you may be unfamiliar with. Integration management is one of the significant responsibilities of a project manager. It includes tasks such as defining the backbone of a project plan, determining the required processes, tailoring them according to the organizational conditions, etc. Integration processes require a holistic view and a good understanding of the project; therefore, they are one of the essential responsibilities of a project manager that he cannot delegate to other team members.

To understand the knowledge group concept, you first need to understand the meaning of “ Knowledge “ and the related terms of data and information.

Data means raw numbers, words, texts, pictures, graphs, etc., in an organized manner. The form of data that is interpreted and assigned meaning is called information. Knowledge results from processing this information, drawing inferences, and developing insights based on individual experiences to make decisions.

Knowledge management is one of the essential processes of project management. In PMBOK, it is defined as the process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve a project’s objectives and contribute to organizational learning. Therefore, it is an important topic that requires attention.

Each project has specific requirements, and the processes need to be tailored according to those requirements. For example, you will not manage any procurement process if you implement a project that does not require any external resources. This tailoring process brings out the backbone of a project plan. This is one of the essential steps in managing a project.

The project manager's level of command over these processes and his ability to tailor and manage them contribute significantly to the success of a project.

How would you eat an elephant? Of course, by dividing it into pieces. So how would you ease the management of a big project? Similarly, by dividing it into parts. PMI defines the term, phase as a collection of logically related project activities that culminates in completing one or more deliverables.

Phasing breaks down a project into more manageable stages, each with a specific deliverable, improving control over the project. At the end of each phase, a review is typically conducted on the deliverables and the performance of the project team. This helps the team ascertain whether the project should proceed to the next phase or undergo a revision. Altogether, the phases of a project are known as the project life cycle.

Creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) is another similar process and an essential part of scope management. WBS subdivides project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components. So, this process takes part within each phase. The output of a phase is a deliverable; the output of creating a work breakdown structure is work packages.

Subdividing a project into meaningful phases eases the lives of project managers. Not every project requires phases; there should be a reason or a value in phasing a project. For example, if you manage a software project in the banking sector, you can divide the project into analysis, design, development, testing, and commissioning phases. These phases would constitute the life cycle of your project. A life cycle portrays the entire phases, from the beginning to the end.

You can notice some template life cycles specific to some sectors. For instance, if you are doing a project in the pharmaceutical industry, phases can be defined as feasibility study, development, clinical studies, licensing, and launching. Life cycles represent the critical content and the order in which the works are to be carried out within a project. Working with life cycles has a positive impact on project success.

Generally, smaller project teams work, and fewer resources are used in the first phases of a project. During the first phases, the level of uncertainty and the impact of stakeholders on the project design is relatively high. As the phases progress, the uncertainties of the projected decrease, the design matures while the influence of the stakeholders decreases. During the last phases, the cost of making changes in the project increases significantly.

The phases and the process groups are different concepts and are sometimes confused. Let's consider the life cycle of a software project again. Suppose that a different team carries out each phase. Imagine that you are the team leader who will carry out the technical design phase. You can consider this phase a small project under your responsibility. You implement the five process groups and the related knowledge area processes for this phase as if this phase is the sub-project of the main project. Of course, this implementation requires tailoring. As the leader of this phase, you need to initiate the phase, prepare a plan, get approval, and then start executing the plan. As the deliverables are finalized and approved by the customer, close the phase. These processes are not much different from those carried out for a single-phase project.

It is also helpful to mention the product life cycle at this point. The project life cycle and the product life cycle are related, but they are different terms. Every product has a life cycle. For example, when we look at Microsoft Windows software, each version has a life cycle. A project gives birth to a product, initiates its product life cycle, then the operational life begins. The product experiences further projects in its life cycle, which support the maturity of that product. Towards the end of a product life cycle, the owner stops investing in the product, and no support is given after a specific date. All of these stages define the product life cycle.

We catch opportunities and manage threats with projects. We name all the related efforts as “project management.” Using the term “Project Management” generally means a large ecosystem that includes portfolio and program management. Portfolio and program management are essential parts in revealing the benefits demanded by company management. And they are less visible compared to project management. Having a holistic view of this ecosystem and understanding its relations with the organization's strategic management model improves the effectiveness of the change management efforts within a company.

Portfolio, programs, and projects are all interrelated concepts; they cannot be managed independently.

Portfolio management ensures the selection of the right projects and programs, prioritizes them, and allocates resources by the defined strategies.

Program management focuses on creating business value out of projects. It controls and manages the interdependencies between projects to achieve an outcome supporting the defined organizational strategy.

Projects are the basic elements in the strategic management model of a company. Project management focuses mainly on activities and outputs. The harmony among the processes of portfolio, program, and project management concepts supports the overall performance of this strategic model.

Development in business life is a cyclical process. With a strategic view, we can define this cyclical process in four phases:

The first phase reviews the company’s vision and defines a strategy that would serve the reviewed vision. Defining high-level strategic goals, related metrics, and reaching a mutual agreement over the defined strategy among the company’s top executives are the main actions of this phase.

The second phase is to prepare the organization for the change defined by the company vision. The company vision, the defined strategy, and the strategic goals are explained to the related functions of the company. The ultimate goal of this phase is to let the organization understand the company vision and make the whole organization an active player of the defined strategy. All functions start defining their goals and related metrics supporting high-level strategic goals. This approach leads to developing a so-called strategy map of a company. Each department, each team has their part of the strategy in this strategy map. The high-level company strategy and the goals are cascaded to the functions, departments, and teams.

During the third phase, the related initiatives are identified and implemented. The defined initiatives are transformed into projects or programs; high-level planning is made, resources are organized. Programs and projects are implemented, and the outputs and outcomes are revealed.

The fourth and final phase focuses on strategic learning. The impact of all these initiatives on company performance is analyzed. The root causes of success or failures are investigated, and findings are recorded as lessons learned into a knowledge base. All these learnings serve to review and, if necessary, update the company vision and strategies at the very first phase of the next cycle.

This strategic cycle I have summarized is a version of the “Balanced Scorecard” concept created by Kaplan and Norton, adapted to a strategic management system. Understanding the roles and functionalities of portfolio, program, and project management concepts in this strategic cycle makes a significant contribution to the overall process success.

The project management ecosystem plays a crucial role in the third and fourth steps of this strategic cycle:

The portfolio management processes are selecting the right projects that support strategic goals, prioritizing those projects and programs, allocating resources among projects, making high-level planning, and evaluating the overall performances of projects and programs. Top management is accountable for those processes. Those processes are mainly involved in the third and fourth stages of this strategic cycle.

The project manager is accountable for the activities and the outcome of a project. Project management-related processes are involved in the third stage of the cycle.

Program management ensures the effectiveness of the interlinked projects and mainly focuses on creating business value. Therefore, it is involved within the third and fourth stages of the strategic cycle, and, often, middle-level managers are held accountable from program management.

Significant resources are allocated to the projects. Research shows that these resources are not used efficiently, and the project performances are not at expected levels. The project management ecosystem is an integral part of strategic management systems. Therefore, improving the project management ecosystem's performance would also positively impact the overall performance.

You are most probably familiar with the portfolio management concept. It is a term frequently used in the business world.

The “Portfolio” term is mainly related to investment activities. We can define portfolio management in general as choosing the investment tools, planning, carrying out the related activities, and providing the benefits expected by the investors. On the other hand, the tasks and processes addressed by the term portfolio would change significantly based on the type of business you are in and your role in that business.

A strategy, a business development department manager of a holding, a portfolio manager at an investment company, or a manager at a project management office, would understand this term quite differently. Therefore, we need to define portfolio management according to its relation with the world of projects.

Project Portfolio ensures that projects are rationally selected and prioritized for the expected value. It monitors projects’ high-level performances, abandons obsolete projects, updates high-level goals when required, and allocates resources accordingly. Briefly, it functions as an umbrella over all the projects.

The focus of a project manager is to finalize the work assigned to her. To complete the scope of a project on time and the agreed budget. In this sense, the project manager is expected to perform the job that has been assigned to her correctly. In summary, Portfolio Management focuses on getting the right tasks done while Project Management focuses on doing the tasks right.

Portfolio management-related tasks and processes are mainly strategic. In general, those decisions are taken by executives having management power. Although portfolio management is an important concept, related processes are often not visible, and this concept does not receive the attention it deserves.

Portfolio management tries to make the best use of the company's resources and assets. It creates a bridge between the people who define the company strategies and those who implement them. It supports the company strategies by integrating operational activities with the programs and projects.

Project portfolio management creates a map compatible with the company's vision, mission, and strategies. It defines all the change efforts as projects on this map. Thus, this map serves as a common platform for these change efforts and builds a common understanding regarding the roles and responsibilities at strategic, tactical, and operational levels.

Without such a platform, it would not be possible to use company resources effectively and efficiently.

Today’s challenging, competitive business world forces all companies to change. This climate triggers lots of new opportunities and threats, causing a significant increase in projects.

The project portfolio tends to grow continuously. Therefore, project portfolio management performance is also an important indicator of a company's adaptation to change.

A company may have qualified project teams, but of course, resources are not endless. Every project portfolio can be regarded as a system. Successful management maintains a balance in this system; this balance is maintained between new and completed projects.

An aquarium can also be regarded as a system. For a fish to remain healthy in this system, the water quality, temperature, plants, stones, the filtering system must be compatible with the needs of the fish in the aquarium. If there is no harmony, problems arise. Portfolio management also manages an ecosystem of projects and programs. Any problem in the portfolio management system impacts the project management performance sooner or later.

In today’s world, it has become even more crucial to select and prioritize the right projects along with the ability to abandon them when required. These are the processes of portfolio management. For these reasons, Portfolio Management is gaining importance and will become even more critical by the growing competition in business.

Portfolio management has strategic importance. On the other hand, not all companies define roles and responsibilities of portfolio management, failing to make project portfolio management processes visible. Depending on the organizational climate and company culture, we see significant differences in PPM implementations. PPM requires a holistic view. Whenever the senior executives are not involved in those processes, and the quality of the communication between different managerial layers of a company is low, portfolio management performance is also not good. Focus is usually on each project separately rather than a holistic consideration; portfolio management is generally overlooked. Simply put, senior executives see the trees overlooking the forest.

Portfolio Management is a sine qua non in the project management world, all organizations select and prioritize projects, but not all organizations have defined portfolio management processes. The limited number of portfolio management-related books, papers, videos, and training materials is another sign of this lack of awareness.

Ngram Viewer is a service offered by Google. It allows you to query words in an archive of more than 5 million books that have been digitized. This tool allows you to compare the usage numbers of specific words of your choice in these books and how they change over time.

When I searched the two terms, project management, and project portfolio management in Ngram viewer, this service reported a huge gap between these two. The graph showed the popularity of project management and the ignorance of portfolio management.

Project management is an important tool for organizations to adapt to change, become competitive, and survive. Portfolio management provides an ecosystem for managing projects effectively and efficiently to deliver the expected benefits for the organization.

A good project management team and a methodology alone are insufficient for an organization to reach its strategic goals. It is also essential to have effective portfolio management. An organization can not achieve sustainable success in projects without a portfolio management methodology tailored to its requirements.

Program is not a popular concept in project management. On the other hand, you can find initiatives deserving a program approach but managed as separate projects in almost any organization.

Let's define the term, program. The PMI program definition is: A group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities, managed in a coordinated manner, to achieve benefits that cannot be achieved when individually managed.

To initiate a program, there must be at least two interrelated projects. A satellite communication system installation can be an example of a program. This is a program including at least four projects. These projects are related to each other and must be managed in a coordinated way. Trouble in any of those projects would endanger the overall goal. On the other hand, all projects have their specific deliverables, the outputs, contributing to the outcome.

Program management awareness is comparatively low in the business world. There are initiatives deserving a program management approach but are managed as a single project by breaking it into phases. Program management approach ensures a holistic view and focuses on creating business value beyond completing projects on time and on budget. Ignoring the program management approach risks the business value expected from the initiative.

The program manager has the power to slow down some projects for transferring resources to more urgent projects, and in some cases, even to abandon a project when required. Project managers do not always have the power to use such initiatives. Therefore, each project manager is motivated to complete his/her project on time and within budget, ignoring the changing priorities and market conditions. That’s why execution of related projects without a program manager may challenge the project managers and the company management.

The program management approach delegates the accountability of the expected business value to the program manager. This is a strategic responsibility rather than an operational one. It aligns functional goals with business goals, promotes integration among different projects and disciplines. It enables and supports widespread collaboration among the organization. The program manager acts as a bridge between the company management, operations, and the project team.

Successful program management implementation requires a certain level of maturity and executive support. Without these components, individual efforts for implementing a program management approach would not yield successful results.

Your company may have no infrastructure or awareness regarding program management. Even in these circumstances, your efforts to understand program management's benefits, structure, and processes would contribute to project management performance.

We can briefly define methodology as a system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules in a particular discipline. The term project management methodology expresses how we manage projects or our project management style.

We can also express project management methodology as a system of repeated processes defined by an organization to manage projects. Related documentation, procedures, policies, and workflows indicate project management maturity.

In some companies, the concept of project management methodology stays outside the top management's area of interest. Company management tries to keep them away from this concept. There are several reasons for that attitude; Limited project management knowledge or perceiving project management outside the scope of executive management roles & responsibilities would be some of those reasons. Another reason is that some managers may perceive project management methodology as a threat that can slow business processes down, creating bureaucracy. Because of those and similar other background reasons, some managers ignore their role in defining the organization’s project management style and leave it to the initiative of the project manager. This management approach varies from organization to organization, from manager to manager.

On the other hand, the attitude of company management to the processes of traditional functions such as purchasing, finance, sales is generally different. For example, purchasing departments are never allowed to carry out purchasing activities freely with no guidance. Specific policies or procedures support those processes. Those policies and procedures are prepared under the close supervision of executives and activated only after their final approval.

Therefore, in addition to answering the question "What is the project methodology?" we also need to answer the question "why is it necessary?"

Growing competition, opportunities, and threats increased the importance of project management in the business world. The number of projects is increasing. This cannot be regarded as a trend; this is a fact of today’s business world, an area in which the companies need to develop themselves.

The number of ideas and solutions related to those opportunities and threats are increasing, and the selection and prioritizing processes are challenging decision-makers. Once the decisions are taken, the projects are delegated to the project managers by the executives. The project teams are expected to reveal the benefits at the earliest convenience within the budget. During this value creation process, the profile of the project manager and the organization’s project management maturity influence the project’s overall performance.

When a project is delegated to a manager with good communication, leadership skills, good project management knowledge, the chances of success increase.

In addition to the profile of the project manager, project team members’ skills, risk management performance, proactive problem solving, level of trust between stakeholders are all essential aspects of achieving success in projects.

In the project management world’s supply and demand balance, the demand side keeps growing, challenging the project teams. Companies experience difficulties finding experienced project management staff for the growing number of projects. The low performance in the portfolio management area, namely the weaknesses in project selection and prioritization processes, impacts the project teams' workload. Time pressure on overloaded project teams deteriorates the climate and lowers success rates. There is a lot of research carried out by different parties, including PMI. Findings show that project success rates are still not at the desired level, and a significant amount of resources are wasted.

Experiences of the last 20 years show us that the load over the project teams will increase exponentially in the coming years. Completing a project on time, within budget has always been important. The trends in this business world show that project selection and prioritizing processes performances will become even more critical.

If an organization experiences difficulties managing the balance between supply and demand due to the growing number of projects, assigning more resources to project management would not solve the problems. The organization needs to focus on the overall ecosystem for sustainable performance, including processes, competencies, and collaboration. Therefore, we need to consider portfolio and project management methodologies together. Those methodologies are essential tools for any company in transforming opportunities into value.

To improve a process, you have to be able to measure it. Measuring requires a standard or a reference. Measuring will not create any value if you do not have a reference. Therefore, first of all, you need to define your standard, then start measuring it. As you collect data, you start analyzing and afterward controlling. This leads you to take actions for improvement. This is an ongoing journey of improvement.

A documented methodology in an organization creates a reference for performance evaluation within a company. It is one of the significant steps of an improvement journey. Developing and implementing a methodology is an important opportunity for all companies looking after sustainable success in project management in today's business world.

Project management styles and structures need to be compatible with the organizational climate. Start-up projects, projects of a company directly led by the owner, or a multinational company require different management approaches. The sponsor and especially the project manager should be aware of this company profile.

Organizations are generally defined in three basic categories in the project management world: functional, matrix, and project-based.

In projects managed within functional organizations, the project organization and the project manager are not clearly defined. The project is coordinated by a group of managers at the management level. The hierarchy in an organization is mainly expressed in three layers: Strategic, tactic, and operational. Projects in functional organizations are managed by people at strategic and tactical levels. The experts working at operational levels also work for projects, but the instructions come from higher layers and do not feel like a partner of projects. This management style would work in organizations experiencing a low number of projects. This is the structure observed in startups, especially in small companies. If the management staff is resourceful, excited, and motivated, this climate drags projects and makes them successful.

In functional organizations, functional managers are held accountable for projects. There are usually no formal assignments, such as a project charter. The project management-related roles and responsibilities are not clarified either. These are the strong signs of a functional organization.

As the company grows and the number of projects increases, project management becomes a burden that functional managers can not bear. Managers start experiencing difficulties with project-related works. This climate creates uneasiness at managerial levels, and they start questioning the functional organization model for project management. Functional managers begin delegating some of their project management-related responsibilities to trusted experts who have good communication skills. Those responsibilities are limited to coordination only. The assigned expert begins to coordinate works on behalf of management. The coordinator reports problems and raises all the decision-requiring topics to managerial levels.

As this management approach yields positive results, management gradually starts implementing the same model for other projects. Hence, the organizational structure shifts from functional to a matrix structure. There is now an appointed person coordinating each project. Those coordinators have no authority on projects. They raise any situation that requires a decision and apply the management’s decision. This structure is defined as a weak matrix.

A project manager acting as a project coordinator is not held responsible for the project’s budget. This organizational model is considered a weak matrix organization in project management.

As the number of projects increases in a company, the projects often require the functional manager’s involvement. Whether minor or major, all issues are reported to management. This environment causes delays in decision-making processes and slows down projects. Project management-related actions keep creating a burden on functional managers. The functional managers then begin giving authority to project coordinators. In other words, they start assigning project management roles to coordinators. A coordinator role turns into a project management role. A weak matrix organization turns into a balanced matrix organization. In this model, project managers still have two roles. For example, a purchasing department supervisor continues doing her procurement-related roles and responsibilities; in addition to those activities, she also carries out project management-related tasks in parallel to her principal role.

In balanced matrix structures, the project manager becomes responsible for the project’s scope, time, and cost.

It may sometimes be quite difficult for an employee to manage two roles simultaneously in a balanced matrix structure. The growing workload in projects may burden project managers that they can not bear because of their operational roles and responsibilities. The management concludes that holding an operational responsibility and acting as a project manager would not be possible for some projects. Based on this conclusion, a new department is established. The new department is dedicated to project management only and named Project Management Office, namely PMO. The experts who gained project management expertise are transferred to this department and begin working as project managers. An organizational structure with a project management office is called a strong matrix organization. In this model, the power of project managers is higher. The PMO is often represented at higher organizational hierarchies, parallel to the other function’s managers or directors.

Another organizational project management model is project-based. The construction industry is an excellent example of this approach. Every construction work requires a project. Although construction companies have headquarters, each project is carried out on separate, temporary construction sites. A project manager is assigned to each project site, and he is responsible for all works on that site. Hundreds and maybe thousands of people may work on the site, and they all serve that project. As the construction work is completed, the project team members begin leaving the project. Most of them are temporary workers of the construction company or subcontractors. There is no one left in the project upon project closure. Only some people return to the headquarters. The majority of the project team joins other project teams in different construction sites. If there is no other project, their contracts are terminated, and they leave the company. In project-based organizations, it is the project that brings all those people together.

Among those different organizational styles, it would not be appropriate to say that one approach is good, the other one is bad. The culture, business conditions of an organization, specific requirements of projects clarify the appropriate approach. Each organization has to find the style that suits their case the best.

The majority of company organizations are hierarchical. Functions such as procurement, sales, marketing, finance carry out daily business activities within their areas of expertise. Operational, tactical roles, and responsibilities have clear descriptions. Such organizational functions are traditionally structured in silos. Each function has its specific playground, budget, resources, and performance criteria. The overall organization, in general, is in mutual agreement over this system. All the related processes, roles and responsibilities, and decision-making mechanisms function in harmony. Therese is a departmental owner for every task.

Most of the business processes take place through more than one function. Each function plays its roles and responsibilities at specific stages. For example, in any procurement activity, the department which requests the goods or services, finance, logistics, and, of course, purchasing departments are all involved in this process. Each function focuses on its roles and responsibilities. The business culture, developed over long years, allows different departments to work in harmony. Purchasing, accounting, and warehouse departments perform the related tasks of the process smoothly. The organization responds to any problem quickly. There are learned lessons from many cases. When a problem arises, related departments take the necessary actions at the earliest convenience. The organization is very much aware of the critical tasks. Those tasks are carried out timely, without any delays.

A successfully functioning matrix organizational structure provides an efficient model. It utilizes experienced employees, high potentials efficiently. This model allows employees to broaden their expertise and discover opportunities for their careers. However, maintaining an efficient matrix organization requires a certain level of project management maturity.

Matrix structures emerge when there are projects requiring contributions from different departments. The project management team is composed of employees coming from various functions. They report to the project manager for the project-related activities. They also continue reporting to their functional manager simultaneously. Especially in strategic projects, effective and efficient collaboration with different departments is inevitable.

In matrix organizational structures, in general, there are no procedures and policies clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of the project team members. Moreover, department managers often see projects and related tasks as a burden. They do not see those tasks as part of their roles and responsibilities. They tend to focus on the risks and additional burdens the project would create for their department.

Project management-related roles and responsibilities are not associated with performance systems in such organizations. It is relatively easy to cover up stories of project failures. There are many failed projects, with no concrete output, with no value creation. The researchers report millions of dollars wasted in project management each year. In matrix organizational structures, the project managers are often held accountable for the success of projects, even for the wrong project choices. Therefore, this climate does not challenge functional managers and creates a ground for making quick and sometimes bad decisions without proper feasibility studies.

In matrix organizational structures, functional managers see operational tasks as almost always more important than project-related ones. Due to this understanding, even in situations with no resource shortage, functional managers may not be willing to allocate resources to projects. However, it is not possible to achieve success in projects without the active support of functional departments. In such environments, if the project manager does not have enough experience or is not competent in communication, this impacts project success.

For those reasons, projects managed in matrix organizations are challenging for the project managers. Even in strong matrix organizational structures, project management is not easy. The leadership and communication skills of a project manager play a significant role in achieving success.

In general terms, the project management office can be defined as the project management center of an organization. However, despite this simple definition, project management office setup, roles responsibilities differ from organization to organization. The project management office is an organizational structure that improves the governance of project processes, supports project management methodology within the company, balances capacity and competency of project resources, and facilitates the use of project management methods, tools, and techniques. PMO establishes an infrastructure for project and program management as a center of project management knowledge.

PMO aligns projects and programs with the company’s strategies and objectives. There are different versions of PMO structures. The type of the business, company profile, culture, management expectations, and project management maturity levels all impact the PMO establishment process.

There can be more than one project management office at the same time in a company. Each PMO may serve different purposes and have various positions within the organizational hierarchy of a company. For example, it is pretty common that an information technology department of a company centrally manages all IT-related projects. The IT manager or a dedicated team acts as a project management office. Similarly, other business functions may manage their projects through a department unit. Although they may not be named as project management offices, their projects, related roles, and responsibilities overlap with project management office functions.

In summary, the project management office;

- Prepares and implements project and program management methodology and related standards,

- Manages projects, programs, portfolio management processes, and tools centrally,

- Supports organizations in creating success stories, avoiding failures,

- Gathers and shares related knowledge and documentation.

Establishing a project management office is a long-term process that usually takes place in stages. It is not possible to establish a sustainable PMO without the support of senior management.

Project management styles of companies evolve alongside the companies themselves. During the early days of a company or a start-up, organizations are usually challenged by immature core business functions. Therefore, management mainly focuses on improving core business functions and ignores project management aspects. As a result, limited project management capabilities challenge organizations in these improvement efforts. Factors such as high motivation within the company and being a relatively small organization may help an organization overcome these difficulties. However, even if the management succeeds in finalizing these initiatives, overuse of resources challenges and demotivates the teams.

As companies evolve, organizations get larger, the number of hierarchical layers increases, and the project portfolio grows, as do core business operations. Senior management mainly focuses on core business operations, and they do not give sufficient attention to projects. Sponsors do not provide the necessary support to projects and leave them to the initiative of project managers. As a result, low project management maturity and project managers with limited experience end up having a negative impact on project performance. Budgets are exceeded, deadlines are missed, and the output/outcome does not satisfy the stakeholders. Such circumstances force management to focus on project management.

For senior management, training project managers and team members seem to be a quick and easy solution for overcoming these performance problems. Unfortunately, training sessions alone do not make a significant positive impact on project performance. After a while, establishing a project management office seems to be a good solution to overcome these difficulties.

Organizational culture affects almost all PMO implementation projects. On the other hand, a successful PMO operation also gradually changes the company culture. Therefore, the PMO implementation project requires strong support from senior management. PMO implementation projects often experience difficulties, and most of them are shut down within a few years. Therefore, for a successful, sustainable PMO implementation, a road map, management support, and experienced experts are essential.

Each PMO implementation may have a different story. Various factors impact on PMO life-cycle. Business conditions, top management expectations, organizational culture, maturity level, and past experiences influence the PMO life-cycle. PMO is a structure that develops itself over time. Commonly, a PMO is started with limited roles and responsibilities. Their power and playground grow as PMO gains experience and credibility in the eyes of top management.

Competencies of different PMOs may differ significantly, and they show a continuum of competencies from low to high. Five different competency stages can be defined for a PMO.

The first stage is the “Project Office.” This PMO only observes the environment and attempts to implement policies and procedures defined by senior management. It is mainly a support center for project managers responsible for one or more projects. The project office does not directly involve in project management. It supports project managers only when required. This type of PMO shares accepted project management principles with project managers. It also facilitates the implementation of preferred project management approaches. In summary, “Project Office” is a structure that supports the delivery of the expected project outputs by utilizing assigned resources within a specified time and budget. Most of the time, this type of PMO is a single-person structure.

The second stage is the “Basic PMO.” In this stage, the PMO starts controlling the processes. This type of PMO monitors and supervises projects. It reports to management the status of the overall project portfolio. Basic PMO monitors the performances of the project managers and takes actions for improving multiple project management capabilities.

The standard PMO is the third stage, and this type of PMO focuses on supporting processes. PMO starts improving project management methodology in this stage. Optimizes both the project team’s and the overall project management performances. The PMO aims to create a standard project management language throughout the company and check whether the projects and programs follow the defined methodologies.

The fourth stage is the advanced PMO. At this stage, the PMO starts playing an active role in the company’s commercial activities. The focus of the PMO shifts to business interests and strategic goals. This type of PMO attempts to integrate and link project management efforts with the commercial side of the business. The PMO achieves this by defining common applications that can be utilized in project management and business processes. It tries to align its project portfolio with the strategies of the company and the expectations of the management.

The last stage is the center of excellence. In this stage, the PMO becomes a separate business unit in the company’s organizational structure. It determines principles to be followed by the project management teams throughout the organization, supervises operational activities, and measures performance in this regard. This PMO type supports collaboration among different functions to achieve the company’s strategic business goals and reports to top management.

Advanced, highly mature PMO structures should not be viewed as types that can be chosen and applied as desired all at once. The PMO is a structure that develops its maturity over time and then starts providing strategic support to the organization.

Some project tasks and processes come to the agenda outside of the project team's initiative and force the project manager to work on them. Scope, time, and cost-related processes are good examples of such tasks. A project manager can’t carry out his project by ignoring these processes. Stakeholder management is not such a concept.

Let's start by definition:

A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio. Even if the project will not influence a person or a group of people, it is also defined as a stakeholder if they perceive themselves to be affected.

A sponsor, a customer, a user, a supplier are stakeholders of a project. Each project has its specific circumstances and also a particular list of stakeholders. For example, if you are opening a restaurant, the construction team, suppliers, the municipality can be defined as project stakeholders. If the initiation of such a business requires control from a fire-fighting department authority, it is also regarded as a stakeholder. Distinguishing critical stakeholders at the very beginning of the project gives the project team better stakeholder engagement opportunities.

In projects, stakeholder management often comes up with the initiatives of the project manager. The experience and competencies of the project manager and the project management team play an essential role in stakeholder management. Although it is an important concept, not all managers give the necessary importance to this topic. A stakeholder who is not appropriately communicated and ignored may cause severe problems to the project team.

The stakeholder list of a project can be pretty long, and it would not be possible for the project management team to show the same attention to all stakeholders. Therefore, stakeholders need to be analyzed by using a set of criteria. Those criteria would be their level of power, opinions about the project, and status of interest. The stakeholder engagement is planned and implemented based on those criteria.

Each stakeholder may have different needs and expectations. For some stakeholders, a project can be an opportunity, and for others, the same project can be perceived as a threat. For some stakeholders, your project may not make any sense at all. The project management team needs to identify and try to understand those stakeholders. Without understanding their view, concerns, motivation, and feelings about the project, it would be challenging for a project manager to engage problematic stakeholders.

We can generally define the sponsor as the person or group providing resources and supporting the project. The sponsor is accountable for the value to be revealed by the project. She monitors and directs the project on behalf of the management. Initiating a project and terminating, when required, are among the sponsor’s responsibilities.

A sponsor is responsible for preparing a feasibility report, defining and revealing the benefits of a project, and issuing a project charter. She delegates the project to the project manager and provides management support. She is not expected to manage the project. Managing the project is the responsibility of the project manager. If the sponsor is actively involved in the works, either the project is experiencing problems or the sponsor is the undeclared project manager.

I would like to explain the role of a sponsor with a metaphor. Let’s assume that the captain of an icebreaker ship represents the sponsor. Whenever an icebreaker captain notices a ship in the polar area, he does not take action for that ship, assuming they are stuck in ice. He waits for a call. If any ship is stuck in ice, the captain of the stuck ship calls upon the icebreaker ship for help. We can assume the stuck ship and its captain as the project and the project manager. A sponsor and a project manager have almost the same relationship. Typically, it is the responsibility of a project manager to call for help from a sponsor for difficulties beyond his power.

Keeping a convenient distance between a sponsor and a project may sometimes be a challenging, sensitive task for a project manager. This task may well be defined as an art for the project manager. In some cases, a sponsor may become uneasy due to limited communication, while another sponsor may find a similar level of communication unnecessary, even a burden. The sponsor may well perceive those cases as signs of weakness in project management.

Suppose a sponsor feels the need to support the project without the project manager's request. In another scenario, a sponsor may not give support despite the project manager's request. Those cases may be a sign of ineffective communication between the project manager and the sponsor.

You may have noticed projects with no officially appointed sponsors. Such projects can be pretty challenging for a project manager. When the project manager needs managerial support, she has to find the right person who has the appropriate authority and who would provide the support she needs. Finding the right approach and choosing the right tone of communication with an executive is essential.

A sponsor has to have executive power. An experienced sponsor who does not take his power only from his title but also his strong leadership, from his high reputation throughout the organization, is significant for the success of a project. On the other hand, as the number of projects increases, there may also be difficulties in appointing sponsors according to the project requirements. There may be cases where a sponsor may not allocate the required attention and time to a project due to her overloaded schedule. This creates a challenging climate for a project manager. Experienced project managers with improved leadership skills perform better in such conditions.

The sponsor is a critical stakeholder of a project. The project manager should get to know the sponsor, discover her strengths and find ways to achieve the maximum support she can give to the project.

PMI defines the project manager in PMBOK6 and PMBOK7 as:” The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.” The project manager manages the project from the beginning to the end and leads the team. She has a significant influence on the success of a project.

In real business life, the roles and responsibilities of a project manager vary from organization to organization, from project to project. A project manager can be accountable for the entire initiative, including the project’s schedule, cost, and outcome. In another project, he may have almost no idea about the feasibility study and the initiative's cost and mainly focuses on the project’s output.

For example, functional managers are responsible for the project's budget in weak matrix structures. The project manager is not very much involved in financial issues. His focus is solely on the works directly related to the deliverables of the project outcome. Project managers are accountable for financial issues mainly in balanced and strong matrix structures.

Therefore, to understand the responsibilities of a project manager, you also need to realize the organizational structure of project management.

Organizational culture and structure influence the performance of a project manager. Therefore, a project management role should be tailored according to the requirements of a project and the organizational climate. For example, a construction site project manager’s roles, responsibilities, competencies, and skills are very different from another project manager working in the software development business.

Similarly, functional and project-based organizational structures require different project manager profiles. In a project-based organizational structure, a project manager is powerful. This structure requires experienced project managers with strong leadership skills.

Requirements from a project manager can range along a continuum from a functional organizational structure at one end to a project-based organizational structure at the other.

For example, although a project manager within a weak matrix structure is not responsible for the budget, project managers are expected to make decisions responsibly, considering the cost implications. Even in a weak matrix structure, a project manager uses initiatives and influences the budget.

Due to similarities in roles and responsibilities, project managers and orchestra conductors are often compared. Years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the pre-concert study sessions of a philharmonic orchestra several times as an audience. The orchestra conductor's power and effort in creating that harmony among the orchestra members was impressive.

In PMBOK6, PMI compares the roles and responsibilities of a project manager and a conductor and points out the similarities.

There are more than 100 musicians in a large orchestra, and they perform with 25 different instruments. Each musician has years of experience and may have different expectations in being a part of that orchestra. It is pretty challenging to prepare these experts individually for a concert, create a team composed of 100 musicians, and achieve the expected harmony in the pieces they perform. After this long, intensive preparation, they give the concert. The concert is the product of all these efforts. We listen to the perfect music and feel the harmony among the orchestra members. The smooth performance sometimes makes us think that the orchestra would perform even without a conductor. However, this perfection can never be achieved without the intensive preparation led by a conductor.

The conductor is not expected to play a musical instrument of an orchestra. The conductor is responsible for the quality of the resulting sound, harmony, and the concert’s success.

We experience a similar situation in projects. The project team members are experts in their fields, and they try to achieve their common goals in the project. Like the different instrument groups in an orchestra, there are expert groups in project teams. Collaboration among those experts brings success. The project manager coordinates and ensures harmony among the team. A project manager doesn’t have to be an expert in one of those fields. The project manager should possess project management knowledge, demonstrate leadership competencies, explain goals and encourage the team to move in the right direction.

PMI outlines the skills of a project manager by the PMI Talent Triangle® in PMBOK6. Although the PMBOK7 has been released, the PMBOK6 content is still supported by the PMI. This talent triangle focuses on three key skill sets: technical project management, leadership, and strategic and business management.

Technical project management addresses the knowledge, skills, and behaviors related to project, program, and portfolio management. These are the technical aspects of performing one’s role.

Leadership is about the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to guide, motivate, and direct a team, to help an organization achieve its business goals.

Strategic and business management skills require knowledge of the related business domain and expertise. The knowledge related to the sector, customers, competitors, business strategies, products supports a project manager in aligning the project with the company’s strategies.

Ambiguity in projects challenges the project manager and the team. Unknowns, uncertainties, lack of understanding are common during the early stages of projects. The quality of the communication between the customer and the project manager also plays a significant role in clarifying the customer's expectations, the outputs, outcomes, and the expected impact on the business performance. A background story that triggers a project and feasibility studies are valuable information for a project manager to have a high-level overview.

Every movie has a main character, and that character drives the film. The project manager is the main character of a project. Therefore selecting the right project manager and providing her with the required set of information she needs are essential for the project success. These are the primary responsibilities of a sponsor.

“Do I need a PMP certificate?” I come across this question quite often. Before answering this question, I would like to give information about PMI and the PMP certificate.

PMI® was founded in 1969 by three volunteers as a non-profit organization. PMI® standardized project management procedures and approaches in the 1980s. It is a large organization spread over more than 200 countries around the globe.

PMI publishes many publications on project, program, and portfolio management. The project management body of knowledge is the most prominent among those publications, shortly called PMBOK. This book presents standard terminology and principles for project management. It describes generally accepted processes and management approaches regardless of sector. Although PMBOK has a section named “The standard for project management,” PMI underlines that this resource is a guide and should be tailored according to the needs of each organization.

There are several internationally recognized professional certificates offered by PMI. The most popular is the Project Management Professional, namely the PMP certificate. There are approximately 1 million PMP-certified experts in the world.

Let’s now come back to the question again. Do you need a PMP certificate in your project management career?

Firstly, many highly successful project managers do not own a PMP certificate. So, getting a PMP certificate is not essential for becoming a successful project manager.

So why did more than 1 million people invest in this process and earn their PMP certificates? Here are the answers;

PMP certification has high standards, and it is not easy to clear this exam without extensive preparation. Attaining PMP credentials includes learning hard and soft skills. It builds the knowledge of fundamental project management processes, tools & techniques, and methodologies. It also exposes you to best practices and current trends in project management.

PMP certification may bring a higher salary to you as a project manager. PMI surveys across industries show that the average salary of certified project managers is higher.

It adds value to your resume. When you apply for a position, this certificate may increase your chance. The recruiters tend to prioritize profiles with PMP certification over those which do not have such certification.

A PMP certification motivates and supports you towards improving your professional abilities, credentials, knowledge. It also helps you command respect among peers and team members.

PMP Certificate supports you in growing your professional network. PMI arranges frequent meetings for members in major cities worldwide, and you become a club member.

These are the possible reasons for getting a PMP certificate. On the other hand, if you intend to get a PMP Certificate, the process requires significant effort and financial resources. Therefore, before you decide to start the PMP certification process, define the value you expect from this process. It is quite challenging to finalize the overall process without a clear, motivating reason.

This section mainly focused on the project management foundation. Processes, tools, techniques, and relations to strategic and business management are the essential elements of this project management infrastructure. This foundation is necessary for any professional in the business world as projects are the tools in adapting organizations to the fast-changing business world. Therefore, project management has growing importance in the overall performance of a company.

If you are a professional working in project management, you need to continue building over this learning.

Each project has its specific circumstances, and the required skills change from project to project. As you gain more experience, the complexity and difficulty level of the projects you manage will also increase parallel to your progress in your career. Therefore, development in project management is an endless journey.

Books, articles, online training, videos shared on the internet, blogs, podcasts offer us countless development opportunities. Those opportunities have never been so diverse and easily accessible in human history. I have shared some examples of these resources in the course notes. You can easily find thousands of other resources on the internet. Choosing the right resources, allocating time for learning, and, more importantly, reflecting these learnings on your business experiences are the essential steps of this development process.

Agile methods and approaches focus on the value for the customer, independent of processes, procedures, or tools. It would not be wrong to express agility as a business culture. Because of this general definition, Scrum, XP, Kanban, and many other methods define themselves under the umbrella of the agile approach.

Although agile approaches gained popularity with the manifesto published in 2001, there were already initiatives supporting the agile mindset long before the manifesto.

In the 1980s, the effect of the cold war on the world began to fade. The globalizing business world offered both opportunities and threats to companies. Finding funds for companies was not as easy as in the post-World War II period. Profit and performance pressure on executives began to increase.

Growing business challenges triggered a study about business agility by two doctoral students. In 1986, they published an article in Harvard Business Review. The article pointed out that new product development should be faster and faster due to increasing competition. Traditional, sequential approaches to new product development would not work in the new World order. Unlike traditional methods, the article also stated that teams developing new products should adopt a more flexible and holistic product development strategy.

This article introduced the term “Scrum” to the business world. You can access the article from the link in the lecture notes.

Edward Deming is another important character in the agile world, an American engineer, statistician, and management consultant. He contributed significantly to the quality concept in the business world since the 1950s. He is a person who brought the model known as the PDCA cycle to the business world and contributed to the establishment of Lean Production Systems, which constitute the framework of agile approaches.

After the heavy defeat of Japan in World War the second, in 1947, the activities of the American army in Japan were experiencing difficulties. Japan's poor performance in technology, problems in communication lines, and the constant interruption of phone calls infuriated General Douglas McArthur. Edward Deming was commissioned by the army to solve these technical problems in Japan. Edward Deming's valuable efforts in Japan brought an invitation from the Japanese Association of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). After this invitation, Edward Deming focused on the quality problems in Japan, trained hundreds of Japanese engineers, and contributed to the formation of the Japanese quality system. Progress in Japanese production quality systems has formed the basis of agile approaches focused on creativity and value creation since the 1980s.

Most Agile values are based on the methods developed in this period and applied in the Toyota factories. Until the 1980s, Edward Deming was not well understood and respected by the business world in the united states. The American business world realized the value he created after the 1980s, and then US companies started requesting Deming's support.

The software world discovered agile methods after the 1990s. The lessons learned from the Japanese success were adapted to the software world. One of these efforts was Extreme Programming, developed by Kent Beck in 1996. Kent Beck published this model in 1999 as "Extreme Programming Explained." XP already included the principles of the agile manifesto published in 2001.

The agile manifesto was written in February 2001 by 17 software developers. It was a reaction to the problems experienced in software projects and included only four values and twelve principles.

After the manifesto was published, many different frameworks emerged in harmony with these values and principles. These agile approaches were adopted primarily by software-oriented institutions and became widespread in the business world.

Although the starting point of agile approaches is software, this approach creates value in almost any initiative bringing a change. The Harvard Business Review article “Embracing Agile,” published in 2016 expresses the same opinion. You can download the article from the link in the course notes.

Agile methods are easy to understand but difficult to implement. In this section, you will understand the mindset behind agile approaches and start using that mindset when implementing agile frameworks and also waterfall methodologies.

The project manager's job is relatively easy in projects managed with the Waterfall methodology. Someone else often defines the product or service that will reveal the expected value. The project manager mainly focuses on the project's output and tries to reveal the scope within the defined budget and schedule. Outcome, impact, namely the value, is often of little concern to the project manager.

In agile approaches, the project team is a part of the value creation process. The project team, therefore, needs to understand the relationship between the output, outcome, and impact. Understanding this relationship can only be possible by grasping the big picture. This big picture is composed of systems interacting with each other. Therefore understanding systems is understanding the context.

Here is the definition of a system; A system is a group of interrelated and interacting elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. Systems are modular and integrated structures. Each system has a goal and consists of sub-components specialized in certain areas. Companies are good examples of a system. Every company has goals, and all company functions are expected to be aligned with those goals. Those functions also interact with each other directly or indirectly. Their responses to interaction and external factors are not ordered. These components learn from their experiences and adapt their behavior to the circumstances. For example, when a company function launches a new application that affects another function, the other function tries to adapt to this change. These efforts may not always be positive. For example, an IT department expects a ticket for every service request and initiates a ticketing application. Some departments may perceive this initiative as bureaucracy and look for methods for getting the work done without using the ticketing system.

An organization reacts and often resists change whenever it is forced to change. It is therefore essential to design the steps to be taken to obtain the expected value from the change by anticipating these possible reactions. Analyzing and understanding the organization as a system contributes a lot to the success of a change initiative.

VUCA consists of the initials of four words;

Volatility refers to environments in which critical parameters in the environment change frequently.

Uncertainties are “Known Unknowns” in risk management. Uncertainty defines a business environment in which there are a large number of risks and an unpredictable future.

Complexity defines working environments in which multiple conditions affect each other, often in different systems that are intertwined.

Ambiguity expresses environments where information is limited, and uncertainty is intense. It is mainly caused by “Unknown Unknowns” as defined in risk management,

These concepts define the rapidly changing environments in which we have difficulty determining the scope and understanding the patterns. In such environments, it is pretty challenging to make sound predictions. VUCA is defining today’s business world. Fluctuations in the economy, political uncertainties, growing opportunities, and threats triggered by rapidly developing technology constitute the concept of VUCA.

VUCA is a concept first defined by the US military. As the cold war was over and Russia was no more a significant threat to the US, the American army needed to develop concepts for the new world. The world had evolved from a predictable bipolar order to a different order in which the enemy was not so obvious. Uncertainty and volatility started dominating this new world order. Success in operations requires teams that can cope with uncertainty. The US military defined this new era with the concept of VUCA. They started training the combat teams to deal with the challenges in VUCA environments. The business world later discovered the VUCA concept. Executives started exploring the opportunities in this concept.

The context impacts the performance of any approach in managing a change. Without understanding the context, it is not possible to select the best framework or methodology. Complexity models such as Stacey and Cynefin are tools for understanding the context and clarifying the right approach for handling the challenges. Those models are very much related to the VUCA concept, and they create value for the project management world. PMI also referred to these models in PMBOK 6 and 7 for the project tailoring methods and practices.

Different industries have different dynamics and conditions. Different ecosystems require different managerial approaches. Even within a company, you may need different approaches for different projects. For example, a software company may use Scrum while developing a solution. However, when the same company decides to open a new branch in a different city, it may manage this project with a Waterfall methodology. Designing and managing projects out of context create problems. Therefore, understanding the project conditions and setting management styles based on context is essential.

Staceys Complexity Model is designed to help understand the context and choose the best management actions to address different degrees of complexity. The model is developed by Ralph Stacey. Stacey realizes that institutions have mostly Complex Adaptive System characteristics. The unpredictability of the results of the business decisions encouraged Stacey to work on this concept.

To explain briefly, Complex Adaptive Systems consist of many interrelated elements. The relationship between these elements is mainly indirect, and their responses to interaction and external factors are unordered. In turn, these systems are adaptive. In other words, these system elements learn from their experiences and reflect this learning on the system, adapting their reactions to the conditions they are experiencing. In the example I gave in the previous lecture, the response of a function against the ticketing system imposed by an IT department was also an outcome of a complex adaptive system.

Waterfall methodologies work well for projects managed in environments with simple system properties defined in the Stacey model. Waterfall methods are relatively easy to implement. On the other hand, agile approaches give better results in complicated and complex systems. However, agile frameworks are more challenging to implement. It requires a business culture supporting highly independent, competent, self-organizing, and empowered project teams.

Chaotic environments create a crisis. In chaotic environments, it is pretty challenging to achieve success in projects. Transforming the chaotic environment into a complex system is recommended before initiating a project.

Choosing a proper project management methodology contributes significantly to the success of a project. The context impacts this selection process; therefore, understanding the project context is essential.

Dave Snowden developed the Cynefin complexity model in the late 1990s. While working at IBM, Snowden focused on organizational complexity and developed this model to support managers when making decisions. Cynefin complexity model emerged and gained popularity in an article titled “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making” published in the Harvard Business Review in November 2007. It was found to be very helpful in determining project management styles and considered a reference source for interpreting agile approaches in business. You can access the article from the link in the course notes.

In this model, he defined the cause-effect relationships of environments in 3 different categories according to their nature; Ordered, complex, and chaotic.

Before going into the details of this model, I would like to highlight that the words complicated and complex refer to two different structures. In some languages, there is only a single synonym for those two different words. Even in English, they are sometimes used indiscriminately. Cynefin model highlights the differences in their meanings. In this model, the word complicated defines an ordered system. On the other hand, the word complex defines an unordered system.

Let’s start defining those three different systems or environments.

In ordered environments, there are patterns, and cause-and-effect relationships are repeated. Those patterns may not be obvious, but they are predictable. Problems experienced in such environments usually do not have a single correct answer; therefore, reaching the best solution requires experience and expertise. A successful approach to solving such a complicated problem would be; First, define and then analyze the problem. Investigate the best practices and do not focus on a single solution immediately. Divide the big problem into parts, simplify the process, and implement your chosen solution.

In complex environments, there is no order. Cause & effect relationships and guiding patterns can only be noticed retrospectively. There are no absolute correct answers, and only experienced, competent leaders can deal with such problems. Interactions between subsystems are important in complex environments. Therefore, attempting to break down such an environment into smaller parts is not recommended. Understanding the interactions between subsystems and taking actions aligned with those interactions is essential.

In chaotic environments, everything is random, and the parts of the system move independently. For this reason, it is almost impossible to manage projects in chaotic environments and implement plans to solve the problem. First, it is necessary to focus on the issues that need urgent action and to take action on the problems that may cause permanent damage. Chaotic environments are not permanent, so it is helpful to identify approaches that will first transform chaotic environments into complex ones. For this, experience and knowledge alone are not sufficient. Intuitive approaches such as wisdom are needed.

While developing the model, Snowden divided the Ordered environment into two and defined a fourth Ordered environment. He first named it simple and later changed it to "Obvious." In “Obvious” environments, cause & effect relationships are clear, and patterns can be easily observed. It is relatively easy to solve problems in such environments. You need to understand the problem first, categorize them, and take action. The waterfall methodology can be a good choice for projects in such environments.

Although business projects mainly have complex adaptive system features, intertwined systems can have different features. Within complex environments, there may be complicated or even simple systems. Understanding the context of the project and choosing the appropriate method plays an essential role in achieving success.

We talked about complexity models in the last two lectures. Now let’s summarize the recommended actions when managing projects in such environments:

It is comparatively easy to manage projects experiencing “Obvious” system characteristics. When managing such projects, create communication channels to challenge beliefs. Stay connected without micromanaging. Don’t assume things are simple. Recognize both the value and the limitations of best practices.

Sense, categorize and respond would be recommended courses of action, and the Waterfall methodology works fine in such cases.

Most engineering projects take part in complicated environments. There are cause-and-effect relationships with the right answers. The right answers can be discovered through analysis or by involving the right type of experts.

If your project has characteristics of a complicated system, then encourage external and internal stakeholders to challenge expert opinions to combat entrained thinking. Use experiments and games to force people to think outside the familiar.

Sensing, analyzing, and then responding would be the recommended order of action for complicated systems. Do not look for the best solution; Apply good practices.

Complicated systems are ordered, and work in progress is a series of discrete job units, so Kanban works fine for such systems. Kanban may not be an appropriate choice for a complex system. A complex system is a series of unrealized potentialities, so it requires a different representation compared to complicated systems.

You can not understand complex adaptive systems through modeling or analysis. You can only understand it by interaction and with real-time feedback loops. If your project is to be managed in an environment showing “complex” characteristics, you need to be patient. Use approaches to encourage interaction to observe emerging patterns. In such cases, probing, sensing, and responding would be the order of recommended actions.

In chaotic environments, there are no patterns. Everything is random. In such environments, try to understand the system. Set up mechanisms, such as parallel teams, to take the advantage of opportunities afforded by the chaotic environment. Encourage advisors to challenge your point of view once the crisis slows down. Work to shift the context from chaotic to complex.

In such environments, problems that may cause permanent damage should be eliminated at first. Therefore taking action, sensing, and responding would be the recommended order of action.

One of the four values of the Agile manifesto suggests collaboration with the customer. The first principle of the manifesto is again about customer satisfaction. Customer is important, and therefore, let's start by asking the question: “Who is the customer?”. Customer is a tricky concept in the project management world. For example, the term “customer” has not been specified in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of PMBOK published by PMI. The customer was defined in PMBOK3, published in 2004, as follows: "The party requesting the project, paying for the service or product that meets the criteria defined within the scope of the project."

In most projects, the party paying the price and the parties using the product are different. In other words, most users do not pay the cost of the project. On the other hand, a product that does not satisfy users does not create value for the party who finances the project either.

For these reasons, defining the customer is often challenging in project management. In most projects, you may define more than one party as a customer.

Focusing on the right customer and prioritizing if there is more than one customer is a critical factor in achieving sustainable success. Imagine that you are the sales and marketing manager of a company that manufactures aircraft, for example, Boeing Company. Who would be your customer? Pause your video for a moment and think about it.

You may have defined the airlines such as Lufthansa or British Airways as the customers of Boeing. Those airlines buy aircraft from Boeing. However, satisfying the needs of only the airlines is not sufficient for Boeing. Passengers using Boeing airplanes have to be satisfied as well.

The challenging business world can seriously affect these choices. Here is an example;

Boeing was founded in Seattle in 1916, and the Boeing brand was identical to quality. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged in 1997. One of the world's largest mergers took place. The new company formed after this merger took its name from Boeing and its management culture from McDonnel Douglas. The new Boeing management team began to promote short-term financial performance much more than quality. The company's stock market value became the primary performance criterion among the technical departments. The change in management culture impacted the technical performance of the company. Boeing could not compete with the fuel-efficient, powerful engine models launched by Airbus and began to lose its market share. A strong message was sent from the headquarters to the technical teams to develop a model to compete with Airbus models. Fuel-efficient engines were larger. Boeing had the model 737. The Boeing 737 was a very effective model, but it was almost at the end of its lifecycle. Boeing had already tried almost every version during the last 40 years. Boeing 737 was unsuitable for such a big engine, so they had to build a new aircraft model. The HQ did not allow the technical team to build a new model as it would require more time. HQ forced the technical team to adapt the model 737 for those fuel-efficient engines.

By substituting a larger engine, Boeing changed the intrinsic aerodynamic nature of the 737 airliners and created an aerodynamic stall risk. A stall is a reduction of lift experienced by an aircraft. It occurs when the angle of attack of the wing is increased too much. An uncorrected stall causes the plane to fall. Although this risk was reported, the headquarters did not give up on its decision and forced the technical team to find solutions to eliminate this risk. The technical team developed an anti-stall system that depended crucially on sensors on each side of the airliner. It was a fully automated system, and it was named MCAS. The flight computer was continuously monitoring the angle of attack, and when this angle exceeded a limit, MCAS was activated automatically, even without warning the pilot. The system was increasing the speed by lowering the nose and raising the tail. This new technical feature required all 737 pilots worldwide to be trained on a simulator. Due to the time pressure of the headquarters to launch the Boeing 737MAX model early, this MCAS feature was presented as one of the existing features of the Boeing 737. The airlines started using Boeing 737MAX models, but the pilots were unaware of the MCAS feature. It was not explained in the manuals of the Boeing 737MAX.

The first accident caused by MCAS occurred in October 2018; 189 people lost their lives. Boeing did not make the necessary disclosure to protect its profitability and stock price. Instead, Boeing blamed the airline and the pilot. Boeing 737MAXs continued to fly until the second crash in March 2019, killing 157 people. After this accident, all the 737MAXs were banned from the flight. They remained on the ground for two years. Those accidents initiated a long and challenging court process, and in the end, Boeing was found guilty and ordered to pay compensation.

The airlines or passengers were not the top priority customers to Boeing management. The investors in the stock market were high-priority customers, and Boeing tried to protect them, risking human lives.

Agile manifesto values and principles highlight the importance of the customer. The customer is important regardless of the framework or methodology. How you define and prioritize your customers impacts the overall performance and sustainability of an organization. This is valid for Agile frameworks and also certainly for the Waterfall methodology.

Values define what is important and are the basis of the principles; they reflect our character and govern our behavior. Values impact our decisions, and the agile manifesto starts with the values.

In February 2001, at a Snowbird ski resort in Utah, seventeen people from the software world met to talk, ski, relax, and try to find common ground for the challenges of the software development processes. At the end of the meeting, symbolic-a Manifesto for Agile Software Development-prepared and signed by all the participants.

The manifesto defined four values and twelve principles and made a significant impact on the business world.

The first value of the manifesto highlights people and interactions. Processes and tools are essential, but individuals and interactions create real value. Processes and tools should support creativity, increase communication, facilitate interaction and encourage teamwork without creating bureaucracy.

The second value of the manifesto focuses on the role of documentation in creating value. The manifesto highlights the fact that, If your output is not functioning correctly or if the software is not working smoothly, well-prepared documentation has no value. The manifesto calls attention to the traps of comprehensive documentation that does not create value. Most of the documentation efforts do not yield value due to the changes in the requirements and designs.

The third value focuses on trust in customer relations. Although contracts and their terms are essential and are the facts of business life, the level of trust determines the quality of a customer-supplier relationship. Even a detailed contract may not secure business success if trust is lost.

The fourth value of the manifesto is about responding to change. Planning is essential, but a plan should not block the customer's meaningful and value-creating demands. This does not mean that all customer requests are welcome. The project team should have the skills to manage customer relations in exploring the value behind any demand. If there is no value, developing awareness on the customer side and reaching a mutual agreement to postpone or abandon the request is challenging for the team.

Principles are rules or beliefs based on values, and they determine behavior. For example, when honesty is adopted as a value, not lying can be defined as one of the main principles of honesty.

In the Agile manifesto, there are 12 principles aligned with the four values.

The 12 principles of the Agile manifesto are as follows;

1. The first principle has the highest priority and is related to customer satisfaction; “Satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”

This principle focuses on understanding the customer's real needs and accelerating the learning process. ”Windows me.” was one of the products of Microsoft and would be a good example of this principle. Microsoft released Windows Me in 2001 as a successor to Windows 98. Perhaps, despite months of effort and resources, the market did not adopt this version, and Microsoft announced in 2004 that support for it would end in 2006. “Windows Me” has become a failure story. Suppose Microsoft had realized much earlier that this product would not be successful in the market. In that case, they could have prevented unnecessary expenditures, and more importantly, they could have saved the credibility of Microsoft.

2. The second principle is about managing change. Sticking to a project plan and not welcoming customers' change requests often create problems. We are experiencing a VUCA World and must be prepared for changes in the requirements at any stage of a project. The agile manifesto strongly recommends being sensitive to the changing customer needs at every stage of a project. Not all customer requests may sound meaningful at first. Understanding the background reasons for a request, asking powerful questions without judgment, and insisting on exploring the real needs of a customer leads to a successful, productive collaboration.

3. Although the third principle seems to be repeating the first principle, it is about the delivery process. It highlights the value of delivering a product regularly within short time intervals. If you already know Scrum, the sprints of the development process can be given as a good example of this principle. Regular delivery in short intervals lets you notice potential problems with a product and discover and take action for the improvement areas of your processes as early as possible.

4. The fourth principle highlights the importance of collaboration between business people and developers. A project team should include process owners. This is often ignored in the traditional project management world. In waterfall methods, the level of communication between a project manager and a process owner is often strong at the beginning and the end of a project. They often experience weak or even no contact during the execution stage. Inconsistencies and misunderstandings are often noticed very late. The agile manifesto strongly supports continuous, effective, and efficient communication between the developers and the business to eliminate this risk; This is achieved by having a permanent business representative in the project team.

When describing the customer in the Agile world, I explained the complications of the Boeing and Mc Donnel Douglas merger. The same case gives us a remarkable example of the lack of communication between the business people and the technical people and its impacts.

Until the merger, the city of Seattle was a settlement identified with Boeing. Technical staff and management coexisted, enabling strong communication between lower and upper staff. After the merger, the headquarters of the company was moved to Chicago, and the management left Seattle. All design and manufacturing teams stayed in Seattle. Technical staff could no longer easily access managerial positions. The management intentionally limited face-to-face sessions with the technical teams and remained oblivious to the warnings of the technical team. Technical teams had difficulties in explaining the challenges and risks they were facing. These communication difficulties were one of the critical factors that created the climate causing two major accidents in 2018 and 2019.

5. The fifth principle focuses on the motivation of the team members. The manifesto highlights the responsibility of the management to establish a motivated team. Selecting the right team members, trusting, delegating, mentoring, and coaching them are essential for a motivated team.

6. The sixth principle emphasizes the effectiveness of face-to-face communication. Developments in technology and the pandemic made a huge impact on our communication styles. However, face-to-face sessions still keep their power. Our body language plays a major role in communication. Therefore, a face-to-face session is more effective in communication, especially when having a difficult conversation with a team member or a customer. Face-to-face communication also requires certain skills and is sometimes challenging if you carry your prejudices to a session and reflect them in your body language.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. This is the seventh principle of the agile manifesto. Working software is almost the only point the end-user can measure the progress of a development team. Working software functions smoothly and delivers value to the end user. This statement is not only valid for software but the output of any project.

The definition of done and technical debt are two important terms related to this principle. The Definition of Done in the Agile world is an agreed-upon set of items that must be completed before a product, an increment, or a user story can be considered complete. It is applied consistently and serves as an official gate separating things from being “in progress” to “done.”

Technical debt is the consequence of shortcuts during development to achieve short-term results. A developer delays certain work to hit a deliverable or deadline but "gets into debt" that they must pay back with future reworks. Working software would be defined as an output that complies with the definition of done and has no technical debt.

8. The eighth principle promotes sustainable development. Sustainable development means constantly producing software features during a long-lasting period, like running a marathon. The team must keep up to speed but not run so fast to avoid exhaustion or burnout.

9. The ninth principle emphasizes that agility will be developed with a focus on technical excellence and appropriate design. Our design and technology choices have to support business value and not just the curiosity of the technology expert. With the right design and technology, we can develop and deliver fast with higher quality.

10. The tenth principle may sound weird at first. “The art of maximizing the amount of work yet to be done.” This principle is very much related to scope management in traditional project management. Let me explain this principle with a metaphor.

You are trying to establish the scope of the project you are managing. You try to understand everything your customer says and meet every need. A comprehensive design emerges after a meticulous scope study. The scope is confirmed, and you begin to develop this product diligently. As a result of intense and challenging efforts, the product is completed and delivered to the customer for use. The project is closed, and you are proud of your work as a project manager. After a while, you visit the customer to see the product's performance. You are surprised when you see that the customer uses only one function of this comprehensive product. You ask, “I see that you use only one function of this comprehensive product; what was your rationale for requesting the others?” The customer replies, “We might use the others one day.”

I have had similar experiences in my long business life. It doesn't make much sense to hold the client responsible for such an occasion, which may disappoint the project manager. Upon such an experience, a project manager must challenge himself by asking, “How could I recognize this non-value creating functionalities at the beginning of the project?. How could I convince my customer about this?”. Minimizing the scope without reducing the expected value is truly an art.

Famous people, including Victor Hugo and Mark Twain, are credited with this comment; “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Simplicity creates value and takes effort to achieve it.

11. This principle refers to agile teams as “Self-organizing teams.” The concept of self-managed teams has been interpreted differently by different people at times. The 2020 Scrum Guide was updated to say: "Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how."

Agile teams act according to a set of rules toward a given goal. We can define teams as vehicles on a highway. Every vehicle has a given destination to reach. The people in each vehicle clarify the route themselves. On the other hand, there are traffic rules, and they have to obey those rules. When there are unforeseen changes in road conditions, each vehicle has the initiative to reorganize the route. The vehicle, namely the driving team, should have the required competence for making the right decisions.

12. Agile is not about following a strictly-defined process for every sprint and release; it’s about the continuous improvement of processes and teams. Agile teams are encouraged to experiment with their processes. Regular retrospectives are opportunities for the team to discuss what went well, what didn’t, and where the process can be tweaked to improve things in the future. This agile principle requires a culture of trust and transparency that encourages openness.

The agile manifesto values and principles are generally related to agile frameworks such as scrum, XP but not to the waterfall methodology. Those values and principles mean a lot for any initiative bringing a change and, of course, for the waterfall world.

The agile mindset first emerged not from the software world. Here are the milestones that resulted in 17 Software developers coming together, discussing, and writing the Agile manifesto.

An article published in January 1986 introduced the agile concept for almost the first time in the business world. I had already mentioned that article in the first lecture of this section. The focus of that article was not software. The examples given in the article belonged to Fuji-Xerox, Honda, and Canon products, such as copiers, cars, and computers.

Lean approaches and the Toyota production system contributed significantly to the evolution of Agile frameworks. In those years, the business world was becoming aware of the potential of the software industry, and the number of software solutions was growing. On the other hand, the software industry was not mature enough, and the developers and the users were experiencing severe quality problems.

During the 1990s, several lightweight software development methods evolved, such as Rapid Application Development (1991), Scrum (1995), and Extreme Programming (1996). They all emerged as a reaction to the overly regulated, planned, and micromanaged methodologies. They originated before the publication of the Agile Manifesto, and supported the Agile initiative.

The Agile manifesto was mainly triggered by the difficulties experienced in the business world caused by software development-related problems. The agile manifesto focuses on efficiency, effectiveness, and value creation. The manifesto proposes a high-level recipe for becoming agile without dictating any process or framework. In this VUCA world, agility is essential for any team managing a product or a change independent of a framework or methodology.

For example, which of the four values or the twelve agile manifesto principles seem meaningless when implementing a Waterfall methodology? You can pause the video and think about it.

For example, consider the fourth value: “Responding to change over following a plan." This is the art and science of optimizing the scope spectrum. One extreme side of this spectrum is forcing the project team to follow the initial plan, strictly ignoring the feedback and requests from the stakeholders. The other extreme is accepting any change request from the customer and revising the scope and, therefore, the project plan even without analyzing the request. Finding an optimum point in this spectrum requires a good understanding of the paradigm. I would consider this process both art and science. Only experienced, competent project managers manage this balance well.

One of the challenging parts of this process is communication. Collaborating with the customer and exploring the potential benefits of a request is not always easy. Whether you are a product owner, a scrum master, or a project manager in a waterfall world, this is a challenge for any leader in developing a product or managing a project.

Agile frameworks require skillful team members. For example, a Scrum Team requires a permanent Product Owner who knows the market, customer requirements, the product, and the competitors. A Scrum Master is also another member of the Scrum team. He or she should have good framework knowledge, experience, and excellent coaching skills and know the organizational culture. Such a skillful team who internalized the values and the principles of the Agile Manifesto may create value irrespective of the methodology if they work with experienced developers.

The knowledge areas of project management are all hidden in agile frameworks. Product and sprint backlogs of Scrum are very much related to scope management and work breakdown structure. Risk, resource, communication, procurement, and stakeholder management skills are essential in almost any project, irrespective of the methodology.

In summary, the Agile manifesto introduces a way of thinking independent of tools, techniques, or processes. What might prevent a project manager from implementing those principles? Agility is a mindset independent of project management methodologies and frameworks. No one best methodology or framework works well for all project types.

In this VUCA world, success in project management, first of all, requires a business leader with an Agile mindset, then experienced team members who have a good understanding of those Agile principles and values. Selecting the appropriate approach, and tailoring it to the organization's facts, are the essentials of achieving success in an initiative.

We adapt to changing conditions to remain competitive in the business world and look after the value-creating changes. These efforts are focused on product development or project management. Although the agile world prefers to focus on product development, the business world generally refers to these concepts under "Project Management."

Research shows that the business world is still not satisfied with the current performance of project management. The agile manifesto emerged as a response to performance problems in 2001, and after two decades, there is still a long way to go.

Agile frameworks require a specific business culture that encourages and rewards flexible and innovative behaviors. Therefore, compared to Agile approaches, the Waterfall methodology is easier to implement and does not require highly dedicated, and self-organizing teams. On the other hand, Waterfall approach may not be a good choice for projects experiencing complex system characteristics.

Agile frameworks are easy to learn and difficult to implement. Implementing Agile practices does not always ensure success. This is the difference between “Doing agile” and “Being agile.” Doing agile is relatively easy. Implementing sprints, starting daily Scrum, sprint planning, and retrospective meetings are the rituals of an Agile Framework, and they do not ensure value creation. You need to “be agile” to create value. This requires a shift in the mindset in line with the values and principles of the agile manifesto.

Whether you are a project manager, a Product Owner, a Scrum Master, or a development team member, you need to internalize those values and principles and reflect them in your leadership style.

Training allows us to broaden our knowledge and gain awareness. This is an important step in personal development but not sufficient. It is essential to understand the conceptual meaning of the knowledge being learned, linking this new information with our previous knowledge, and integrating it into business life.

Real-life experiences may be quite challenging and sometimes painful. Some projects may absorb all your energy. Those experiences, even failures, are natural parts of this development process and give us valuable learning opportunities and chances to perfect our skills.

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover from such challenging cases. It is the strength and determination to stand up after a fall. Michael Jordan points out that his failures made him a top performer.

Try to integrate the knowledge you have acquired into your business life; observe the impact on your performance; ask for feedback; evaluate your areas of improvement, learn, and take further actions to grow.

Development in the business world is an endless journey, and you are already experiencing it. I wish you joy and success and hope to meet you again in another course.