Classifying Projects

In a recent paper, Scheduling Challenges in Agile & Distributed Projects, we developed a classification framework of project characteristics to help define the potential usefulness of CPM scheduling:

1. Physically constrained – there is only one viable work sequence – The CPM paradigm is ideal for this type of project.

2. Practically constrained – management has agreed the one best work sequence. The CPM paradigm is ideal for this type of project.

3. Overarching constraints – there is a required overall sequence of working, with a degree of flexibility in the way the detailed work is performed to achieve the overall objectives. The CPM paradigm may be useful at the high level in a Class 3 project, but has significant limitations at the detail level.

4. Arbitrary constraints – there is no required sequence of working (as in Class 1 or 2), but management has decided to impose a detailed sequence of work as a matter of choice. The CPM paradigm is imposed for little or no practical benefit. Should be managed as Class 3

Building on from this starting point, in the paper we identified two general types of project in Class 3, ‘soft projects’, typically managed using Agile methods and ‘distributed projects’ where the work consisted of a set of deliverables dispersed over an area with no (or limited) real constraint on the order the work is accomplished. Both Agile and Lean offer methods for optimizing the work on Class 3 projects, but when you are applying adaptive work processes how do you assess completion and deal with claims for delay and disruption?

The answer to assessing status and predicting the current expected completion date for Class 3 projects appears to be solved by the concept of Work Performance Management (WPM) offers a simple, robust tool for assessing status and calculating the expected completion regardless of the actual sequence work is being performed.

WPM looks at the quantity of work produced, compared to the quantity planned to be produced. Provided you know what the project has to produce, and have a means of measuring the production, WPM works!  If management does not know what has to be produced and has no way of defining this, it is questionable if the endeavour is a project.

For more on WPM see: https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PMKI-SCH-041.php#WPM

The next challenge will be developing a protocol for assessing delay and disruption in Class 3 projects, more on this later.