Aaron Shenhar and Dov Dvir highlight four of the myths and realities of modern-day project management in an uncertain world.

Late last year, Shoptalk, a marketing, strategy and management blog, released its picks for the top five business books of the year. Reinventing Project Management [Harvard Business School Press, 2007] was number five. And despite the title, authors Aaron Shenhar, Ph.D. and Dov Dvir, Ph.D. don’t necessarily expect Reinventing to rewrite the book on the profession.

“Let me first say that the book is building on what exists. It is not there to replace what we do and what we know about project management,” says Dr. Shenhar institute professor of management at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA.

What Reinventing does aim to do is call out some of the myths and realities of projects and project management. Dr. Shenhar says there are two general ways to look at projects today. One view is that projects fall into a linear process with different phases and a level of predictability. The other view assumes that projects are unpredictable, non-linear and are constantly being impacted by changes in their environment.

“We believe that the reality is that more projects today are really behaving according to the second paradigm rather than the first one,” Dr. Shenhar says. “There are still projects that are very much predictable. But most projects are created in a very uncertain world...”

With that uncertain business landscape in mind, Dr. Shenhar and Dr. Dvir, head of the department of management at The Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management at Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel, highlight the four myths of project management spelled out in their book:

● Myth 1: Projects are successful when they meet time, budget and requirement goals. Reality: Project success must be measured based on outcomes other than the traditional three — time, budget and scope. Instead, they think five others should grab the attention: efficiency (meeting time and budget goals); customer satisfaction; team satisfaction; business and organizational success; and potential for future growth.

● Myth 2: Good planning creates good projects. Reality: “In any project you cannot — I emphasize, you cannot — plan everything in advance because so many changes happen,” Dr. Shenhar says. Project managers must look at different levels of planning, from a master plan to a six-week team schedule.

● Myth 3: Projects can be handled using a one-size-fits-all management approach. Reality: It’s often difficult to categorize management strategies across different kinds of projects. Reinventing shares a diamond approach that classifies projects according to four major dimensions — novelty, technology, complexity and pace.

● Myth 4: The project manager gets the job done, and someone else worries about business objectives. Reality: Project managers must understand the business implications of the projects they manage. “Just like a CEO is responsible for the business of the company, the project manager is responsible for the project bringing in business results,” Dr. Shenhar says.

While these four myths may begin to shed some light on the changing landscape of the project management profession, Reinventing has many more interesting points for the project manager looking to stay ahead of the trend curve. Find Reinventing at the PMI.org Marketplace.