BUS 558 Project Management and Collaboration

Project management used to be well-characterized as managing timelines to complete fully-specified goals within budget. Sometimes this characterization is still adequate when we conduct maintenance or standardized projects. On the other hand, recognizing that projects are the main vehicle for innovating and implementing strategy in business today has led to some new thinking at the Emory Goizueta Business School. I began teaching a course on Project Management and Collaboration in September 2007 with a simple proposition: we need to mature the field of project management to focus on value creation rather than failure reduction. This is no small goal. Our knowledge areas in the PMBOK are largely taxonomic. They are great for identifying steps that need to be done to mitigate risks in projects, but they do not give much specific guidance on how to do it. The huge number of books on project management in the popular and academic press mostly focus on control of time and budget as the central task of the PM. In innovation and strategic expansion projects, such as brand definition, mergers and acquisition, new product development, or strategic IT / business systems development, the PM’s role must evolve. These projects, programs, and portfolios involve less-specified, often unique goals. They often include much more intense stakeholder negotiations and change management. The PM must take on an active role as value manager, identifying the value created in projects and prioritizing tasks accordingly. As Deloitte Consulting Chairman and CEO Douglas Lattner put it, discussing merger and acquisition project failures, “... the process as a whole is complex… when pursuing cost synergies, avoid cuts that detract from value.” Students in the inaugural Project Management and Collaboration course took on this role – aiding practitioners in the Atlanta community on active projects. These real projects were the major learning vehicle in the course and required students to get their hands “dirty” applying classic techniques and knowledge areas in addition to some new tools for emphasizing the value perspective. These projects involved strategic initiatives at Hewlett-Packard, Sodexho, and an international AIDS prevention organization, Dance4Life. If you want more information or would like to get involved, please contact me.