Ridgeline Management Consultants has developed a view of the Project Management world that is somewhat different than others. We believe that there is a wide Spectrum of Project Management Styles. This spectrum of styles has not been formalized but is actually the result of competing needs.

The left side of the spectrum is the classic PRE-PLANNED style that is the style that has been used for centuries and has been formalized in the processes documented by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in their Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). This style is the one used in most Engineering and Construction (E&C) projects and requires a full elucidation of the requirements for a project as part of the planning for the project. This approach is completely acceptable and appropriate where there is a high cost of rework and the activities and requirements can be well defined at the beginning of the project. This is not to say that the requirements and plan might not change, just that the amount of change is small relative to the overall size of the requirements and plan.

The right side of the spectrum is the newer AGILE style that has been developed primarily in the software development domain. This style of Project Management is in its infancy (having started implementation in the early 90's) and is very consistent with domains where the requirements are very difficult to define at the beginning of the project. Many attempts have been made, over the years, to apply the PRE-PLANNED style to these domains with little success. The primary reasons for this lack of success is that the requirements are difficult to define at the beginning of the project and they will change on a regular basis. At the same time, the cost of rework when the requirements change and more knowledge is available is much, much lower than in the PRE-PLANNED domains.

Within these boundaries, there are a complete and continuous spectrum of styles. An example of an intermediate point on the spectrum is the newer Design/Build approach to E&C type projects. In this case, the project is folded into many overlapping phases that elucidate the the more detailed requirements and design as the project proceeds and just as needed rather than attempting to do all of this work prior to starting construction work. We consider this a step toward the AGILE end of the spectrum for the E&C domain. A very interesting and exciting change to the way to approach E&C type projects.

Within the concept of the Spectrum of Project Management Styles, we need to understand what are the factors that affect where a company and a project should be positioned. Some of the factors that we have identified are:

• Company maturity
• Customer involvement
• Maturity of the product
• Cost of rework
• Type of contract required
• Cost of failure of the project outputs

Each of these factors has an impact on how AGILE a project may be or keeps the project and company closer to the PRE-PLANNED end of the spectrum. We believe that there is no ultimately CORRECT position on the spectrum. Each company and project needs to position itself on the spectrum for maximum results.

Ridgeline Management Consultants works with our clients to establish where they are on the spectrum, where they typically need to be and how to move to their new position. These changes are not typically difficult, it is just a matter of understanding how to change the priorities, processes and methodologies to best address the positioning factors.