Why the fuss about words? Why not just get on with the job?
It takes time to understand and agree on what various Project Management terms mean. It seems like a waste of time. Shouldn’t we just get on with the job?
To answer the question, let’s consider this scenario:
“We can’t just push forward with this decision without engaging the other stakeholders.”
“We can move on. I phoned Darius yesterday, and he’s happy to spend the money on this system.”
“I know he’s OK with it. But there are many other stakeholders who haven’t been consulted. Like, all the people whose jobs will change if we implement this. Plus, our current suppliers, customers, and…”
“They’re not stakeholders.”
“OK, so are you suggesting that the project doesn’t affect them?”
Common language
Common language is an important rung in the ladder of organisational Project Management maturity. The scene above would have played out differently if the stakeholders in the conversation had understood ‘stakeholder’ in the same way. In fact, if we look at their perspectives closely, there are actually two issues here:
1. Denotation
Firstly, these two people don’t have a common understanding of what the term ‘stakeholder’ denotes. The one person uses ‘stakeholder’ to denote the senior decision-maker, the guy who pays for the project. The other person uses ‘stakeholder’ to denote anyone who is affected by the project. (The latter, by the way, best matches the way in which ‘stakeholder’ is used in well-known Project Management standards, such as the PMBOK®Guide.)
2. Principles
The scenario reveals more than a mere misalignment of terminology. The participants also seem to disagree about a principle, viz. whether affected parties should be consulted at all. It would appear that, regardless of the word used, one person in the scenario above has never thought critically about the concept of stakeholders.
Critical thinking is an important aspect of project manager competency.
How we study Project Management affects the way we manage projects
Project Stakeholder Management is one of the 10 Knowledge Areas of the PMBOK. If we study Project Management merely to pass an exam, we may dutifully memorise the documents and processes relating to this Knowledge Area, and then promptly forget them all again, because we haven’t been in a situation during the training where we had to think critically about stakeholders. When push comes to shove in a real project, this lack of ‘critical thinking fitness’ translates to a lack of knowledge about how to deal with the project’s risks.
If, however, we study so that we can address real project problems, then the meaning of words, and the implications of these words, start to matter a lot more. We immerse ourselves in questioning and comparing, and in healthy arguments, to get to the essence of things. We become mindful of potential misalignments in understanding, and of disagreements about principles.
The List of Terms which you create and maintain during the Project Management Concepts course will stand you in good stead in the real world of projects. Unlike cramming to pass an exam, it requires critical thinking.
