Sunzi's Art of PMP

Sunzi’s

Art of War PMP

No long project ever profited any company

Who

Sunzi (Master Sun)• Chinese Scholar in dusk of

Spring & Autumn Period (D. 470 BC)

• Assisted Wu State to become a hegemon after nearly destroyed Chu and Yue States.

• Knew when to retire and survived a purge.

PMI (project management international)

• a US not-for-profit professional organization for project management.

• Began as a group of people from aerospace, construction and defense industries who wanted to set standards.

• 2012, ISO adopted it as international project management standard.

What

Art of War– Ancient Chinese military

treaties– Composed of 13 chapters ,

each of which focused on an aspect of warfare

– Influential on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond.

PMI Standards– Modern American project

management standard– Composed of 5 Process

Groups and 47 Processes, each of which focused on an aspect of project management

– Influential on Eastern and Western project management standards

Why

Warfare is an extension of state in exerting its influences

Project is an extension of a company in exerting its competitiveness

While PMI provides standards, best practices, and guidelines, it views situations within the box. Practitioners are advised to follow through Organization Process Assets (OPA), Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF), and/or advises of senior members on non-standard situations.

Sunzi's Art of War can offer a valuable insights from outside the box.

Presentation

There are 13 chapters in the Art of War

This presentation focuses on first 4 chapters

Other presentations will complete the rest.

Sunzi’s Art of PMP quotes are in italic.

The Art of PMP in PMI

Project Management Process Group

Initiating Planning ExecutingMonitoring

& Controlling

Closing

1. Planning ( 始計 )

2. Waging( 作戰 )4. Army( 軍形 )

3. Attacking( 謀攻 )7. Maneuvering9. Movement12. Fire

5. Forces6. Weakness8. Variation10. Terrain11. Battlegrounds

13. Intelligence

Enemies of PMP

In Art of War, enemy or enemies easily defined.

What about project management?

Enemies of Project ManagementTimeDistanceResourcesMenRisks

DETAILED ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING

Project is of immense importance. Because it will determines the company and it's employees survival. Thus the initial assessment of project is of utmost importance.

始計

Project Initiation

Define Scope

Commit Resources

Interact Stakeholders

Select Project Manger

Approve Charter

PMI

Five Assessments

Moral

Heaven

Earth

Commander

Method and Discipline

五計

Initiation & Assessment (I)

Define Scope– The work performed to

deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions.(1)

(1) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project Management

Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania:

Project Management Institute, 2013. 555. Print.

Moral Law– The closer align of

project scope to moral law, the greater the chance for stakeholders to be in complete accord with their project manager, so that they will follow him regardless and undismayed by any risks.

Initiation & Assessment (II)

Commit Resources– Skilled human resources

(specific disciplines either individually or in crews or teams), equipment, services, supplies, commodities, material, budgets, or funds.(2)




Heaven– The timing of this

project will have an impact on its success.• political condition• business condition• social condition• technological condition

Initiation & Assessment (III)

Interact Stakeholder– An individual, group,

or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.(3)




Earth– Location of the project

• Physical location• Corporate hierarchy/

structure• Social structure

(displacement)

– Resources• Consumables• Non-consumables

Initiation & Assessment (IV)

Select Project Manager– The person assigned by

the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.(4)




Commander– Leader who is known

to have following virtues• Wisdom• Sincerely• Benevolence• Courage• Strictness

Initiation & Assessment (V)

Approved Charter– A document issued by the

project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.(5)

(5) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

(PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 553.

Print.

Method & Discipline– Both internal and

external regulations, processes, and procedures

– Support systems

– Cost controls

Calculations

1. Does the project imbue with the moral law?

2. Which project manager has most ability?

3. Does this project take advantage of time and location?

4. Is discipline most rigorously enforced?

5. How strong is the project team?

6. Are project team highly trained?

7. Does the company has great constancy both in reward and punishment?

Section Summary

These calculations and assessments come from business case, agreements, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets.

Now the project manager (PM) who completes project makes many calculations in his office ere the project is began. The PM who fails project makes but few calculation beforehand… It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose…

WAGING WAR

When you engage in actual work, if completion is long in coming, then employees’ equipment will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you engage in any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance, you will exhaust your strength.

作戰

Project Planning

Waging War focuses on knowledge area of– Cost & Time Management and their effects on

• Troops• Supplies

Cost of Waging War (I)

Until the project is completed, everything from glue and paint to vehicles is a resource drain for the company.

If a project is protracted, the resources of the company will not be equal to the strain.– there must be a line that once crossed, the company/sponsor has to

cancel the project.

when your equipment are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other company (or project manager) will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no company (or manager), however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensure.

Cost of Waging War (II)

The skillful manager does not ask for more employees, neither does he requested for funding more than twice.– The company/sponsor may approve requests for additional

employees and funding…Once! Any additional solicitation will reflect project manager’s ability to manage.

Bring project material with you from home, but purchase additional supplies at the local.– Even if the cost of good and services from afar may be cheaper,

but time and modification will add additional expenses that cost more than local providers.

Time in Waging War (I)

Until the project is completed, everything from glue and paint to vehicles will be worn out as project prolonged. People will get exhausted and dull their skills.

…though we have heard of stupid haste in project completion, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

There is no instance of a company having benefited from prolonged project.

Time in Waging War (II)

In project, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Of all 10 knowledge areas of project management, time is the most important.

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose. ~Thomas Edison

Section Summary

Trifecta of Project Planning areTime (Heaven): a nonrenewal resourceResource/Cost (Earth): a finite resource and over

deplete it will destroy a companyPeople (Person): a finite resource that consumed other

assets and became dull with long process.

Thus, it may be known that the leader of project is the arbiter of the company’s fate, the man on whom it depend the business shall be in success or in bankruptcy.

STRATEGIC ATTACKS

In practical Art of PMP, the best thing of all is to complete the project with minimal lost of resources; to exhaust and bankrupt resources is not so good. So, too, it is better to form good relationships with stakeholders than to destroy it; to enable the project team than to debilitate them…

謀攻

Project Execution

Strategic Attacks focuses on knowledge area of– Quality Management– Human Resource Management

Quality in Strategic Attacks (I)

Follow up from Waging War about time, resources, and people are precious capitals

Quality is about getting maximum usages of resources with minimum lost.

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.

~William A. Foster

Quality in Strategic Attacks (II)

Thus the highest form of PMP is to have a well defined and understood quality plan; the next best is to simply divide up project tasks; the next in order is to just go execute the plan; and the worst policy of all is to do a schedule compression on a project task.

The rule is, not to do a schedule compression on a project task if it can possibly be avoided. The material cost will be three times than what is budgeted; the risk incurred will be three times than what is anticipated.

Quality in Strategic Attacks (III)

The project manager, unable to control his irritation, will launch his team to crashing the task like swarming ants, with the result that one-third of his crews are exhausted and disheartened, while the task may still remains uncompleted. Such are the disastrous effects of doing schedule compression.

Therefore the skillful leader subdues costs with quality planning; he advances tasks, without much delay; he completes the project without getting bugged down.

With his team intact, he will dispute the mastery of the Corporation, his triumph will be completed. This is the method of attacking in strategy.

Human Resources in Strategic Attacks (I)

A clear understanding of roles is a must!

There are three ways in which a sponsor can bring misfortune upon the project team:

1. By commanding the team to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the team.

Human Resources in Strategic Attacks (II)

2. By attempting to govern a team in the same way as he manages a department, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in a project team. This causes restlessness in the employees' minds.

3. By employing project management team of his project team without discrimination, through ignorance of the management principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the employees.

Human Resources in Strategic Attacks (III)

Consequence of ambiguous understanding of roles“…when the team is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from other managers. This is simply bringing anarchy into the team, and flinging victory away”

Human Resources in Strategic Attacks (IV)

Five essentials for victory:1) Knows when to fight and when not to fight

2) Knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces

3) Energizes the team by the same spirit throughout all ranks

4) Knows how to be prepared, and waits to take the opposition unprepared.

5) Has management capacity and is not interfered by the sponsor.

Section Summary

Some of your enemies in project management…Lack of quality controlsLack clear understanding on chain of commands

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred projects. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every project.

DISPOSITION OF THE ARMY

The good PMP of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

軍形

Planning

Disposition of the Army focuses on knowledge area of– Develop Project Management Plan– Plan Quality Management

Integration of the Army (I)

What does it mean to “put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat”

– We are in control of project through clear understanding of Project Management Knowledge Areas, through monitoring and controlling project works, and through performing necessary change controls.

Integration of the Army (II)

What does it mean to “waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy”

– With a clear understanding of project resources, time, and status, we can quickly take advantageous situations when they become available (i.e. tasks completed ahead of schedule, additional resources are given, gain support from formerly opposing stakeholders, etc.)

Plan Quality for Army

What does it mean to “put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat”– This is done by

He wins his deadlines by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means complete a task that is already done.

Plan Methods for Army

How to not make mistakes?

In respect of project method, we have first, Measurement; secondly, Estimation of quantity; thirdly, Calculation; fourthly, Balance of changes; fifthly, Victory.

Methods of Quality of Army

A more detail explanation for Art of PMP

Measurement owes its existence to Earth; Estimation of quantity to Measurement; Calculation to Estimation of quantity; Balancing of chances to Calculation; and Victory to Balancing of chances.

Section Summary

Project Management Plan is the accumulated result of all 10 Knowledge Areas.

Plan Quality Management is identifying necessary requirements and standards for the project to be success.

By thoroughly understand both, the Project Manager is putting herself beyond the possibility of failure.

Thus it is that in war the victorious Project Manager only seeks executing process after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first executing process and afterwards looks for victory.

CONCLUSION

While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.

結論

Conclusion

There are common issues faced by generals and project managers.

1. Time/Heaven – it is always a race against time because any prolongment drains available resources.

2. Resources/Earth – While it is necessary to spend capital toward the completion of project, no project is worth the cost, if the end result would bankrupt a nation/company.

3. People – Whether internal stakeholders to external vendors or domestic oppositions to foreign combatants, they are the wildcards in a control environment.

結論

Conclusion (II)

PMI breaks a project into 5 process groups and 10 knowledge areas.

Sunzi focused on 5 constant factors and 7 measurements.

Prevailing take away from both PMI and Sunzi is that Planning Ahead is the key to successful project/campaign.

結論

Business

Sunzi's Art of PMP