Introduction
Jeff Berman, the author of this book, is Vice President of PM tec, Inc
a consulting firm that provides project management services to a wide range of
customers. These include construction, engineering, and manufacturing organizations,
as well as municipal, state, and federal government agencies. However, the primary
focus of the company's consulting services is on project management people, processes
and tools, with a significant element of Primavera software, rather than the technology
associated with the respective clients. In Jeff's case, he has more than 20 years
experience in helping Fortune 500 companies with their corresponding project
investments so that his book is similarly focused. In other words, you might call
it essentially "Information Technology" focused.
In this book, Jeff attempts to move the discussion of project success beyond
the traditional on time, on budget to a question of creating value
to the organization as perceived by that organization's executives. Indeed, in
his seminars and workshops to executives and managers, Jeff often poses the question:
"What is project success?" To this, he says, he frequently gets "many people saying
the same thing - 'being on time and on budget' - as if they were part of a congregation
or cult."[1]
To counter this widely held perception, Jeff has created what he calls Project
Speed2Value™ Road Map as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Project Speed2Value™ Road Map
Each of the pictorial arrows in the illustration is explained in Chapters one
through five in his book. Consequently, this book tends to be a sales pitch for
his "comprehensive approach". Nevertheless, the book contains some valuable insights,
as we shall describe in the following pages.
For example, Jeff also poses a further question:
"What good is a project that's on time ... on budget ... and ends
up providing your organization with no bottom-line results whatsoever? Whether
it falls short of expectations, fails to ultimately be embraced by the people
in the company meant to be using it, or simply lands with a thud in the marketplace,
a project that doesn't truly deliver value is worthless at best. It's great to
be on time and under budget, but to achieve positive results, project managers
have to embrace an all-new philosophy of what it is they do for their organizations.
...
Far too many projects lose sight of their original purpose due to shifting resources,
changing organizational objectives, and other unexpected developments."[2]
Now that we agree with!
1. Berman,
Jeff, Maximizing Project Value, AMACOM, New York, 2007, p1
2. Ibid, back cover
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