Geoff Whittaker - Corporate saviours or corporate scapegoats – objectives for project managers

Crux of talk is going to be on best ways of setting business benefit objectives.
Projects essentially set up in a competitive environment – pressure to take risks, remove contingencies and under-estimate, plus time pressure to prepare bid, not necessarily involving the people who will deliver the project.
How do people respond to objectives set for them? What incentives do you set? Has the time, cost, quality triangle had its day? We now need to focus on broader business objectives and manage project managers accordingly.

Focus goals on business benefits, behaviours you want to see and on the personally achievable – leaving you with a happy customer who is paying you money and iis talking about the next project.
Alternatively - have someone who is accountable, can’t abdicate responsibility, but to have to agree to someone elses time/cost/performance goals is risky.

Adrian Dooley, Champion:
PM has come along way, but we need new approached – TCP too constrained – it needs to be amore collaborative relationship with sponsors and rest of team.

Questions:
1. Project managers need to focus more on people. Strongly agree 69%, Agree 31%

2. Project management must concentrate more on delivering value. Strongly agree 57%, Agree 35%, Disagree 6%, Strongly disagree 2%

3. Project managers shouldn’t follw a single process? Strongly agree 19%, Agree 43% Disagree 26%, Strongly Disagree 13%

4. PM is in a mid-life crisis. Strongly agree 19%, Agree 42% Disagree 31%, Strongly Disagree 8%

5. There are better ways of setting objectives for PM than time cost Strongly agree 31%, Agree 47% Disagree 16%, Strongly Disagree 6%

6. Project managers are corporate saviours 32% corporate scapegoats 68%