This is really my favorite Project Management question to which I don't have a real answer: are our industry's best practices really that, or do we merely say they are because as a PM we are expected to say so? You know that when you fall, you experience pain. You have felt that as a child. But how did you know that if you look cross-eyed and the clock strikes, your eyes will stay crossed forever? Because momma said so. But if momma was always right, why did she run away with the neighbor?

Photography by The Gold Guys.

Do we make a Gantt Chart because it a really good thing to do, or because we are expected to do so?

As I wrote almost a year ago: We radiate to the outside world our icons like Gantt Charts, two-digits precise risk assessments, large documents that seems to cover every little aspect imaginable. If you are a member of our group, you ooze control. I once told my wife that I was unable to comply to her request. She smacked me on the head telling me that she was not my customer. So, I assume that we also have a specific language that sets us apart from other mortals. By adopting our symbols, our rituals and speak newbie PMs try to affiliate themselves with the group called Professional Project Managers.

Craig Brown over at Better Projects revamped my interest by digging up some great and intriguing reference from Stephen Jonathan Whitty: A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management. Craig writes: "The question it raises for me is how much is project management knowledge constructed to solve real problems, and how much of it is self-repeating, self-sustaining behaviors that act mainly as a way for PM professionals to establish and maintain their importance in their professional community."

Of course the answer of this question might be difficult, as it would be it depends. The real power of raising this question is not the final answer, as there is none in my opinion. The power of this question is to proceed with caution in accepting stuff that you are told by trainers, teachers and bloggers like me.

In an even more mindshifting article, "The PM BOK Code", Whitty writes: "… in order to socially survive in the organizational environment, individuals are driven to puts on the performance of project manager as an actor would perform project scenes in the theatre of organizations." And this is becoming more and more an obsession. It is fueled by the actual recruiting process that stimulates complying to The Professional PM Code: "The process of recruiting project managers seems almost reduced to the question, "Are you PRINCE2 certified?" I live in Europe, so I guess the American variant of this question is, "Are you PMP certified?" Who cares about a master's degree in PM? Who cares about your experience? Do you have the stamp of approval?" I wrote for TechTaget in November last year.

Sticking to The Code has also other "benefits": It assists in people's tendency to prefer to fail conservatively. "The idea behind this is that people would rather choose an option that they know, that they have done in the past, EVEN if the outcome is likely to be unsuccessful, than trey something new, where the outcome may be positive, but unsure. An example is the use of the waterfall approach. Although the outcome will almost be guaranteed not to be the desired one, because it is an accepted approach, people will prefer it above agile approaches that are unknown to them."

Go through the references in this post. Make up your mind. Do you do what you do because you are supposed to, or because it seems the right thing to do? And let me know your honest opinion on this matter.

Suggested link on the same subject: "Magic Beans" or credible alternatives by Glen Alleman.