In large companies all methodologies
ossify into operating procedures and fall under the control of functionaries.
The jihadists do have the redeeming virtue of wanting to do things better and
to improve delivery of projects and products. The bureaucrat doesn’t really
care about performance as long as all the forms are filled out properly. They
don’t care if your project is slowed down, they have their procedures and you
will follow them. Documentation proliferates as successive reviews of the
methodology generate more rather than less control points. It is a rare that a
methodology becomes slimmer over the course of time. Bloated is a kind
description of most mature methodologies. A key indication of the age of a
method is the size of its getting started guide or its quick guide. If its five
pages its young, if its thirty pages it’s old.
How thick is your guide?
Generally it is a waste of effort
for an individual project manager to assail these behemoths on an individual
project basis, don’t waste your energy trying.
All you can do is adopt the maximum and minimum approach. By which I
mean you use as much of the methodology as you need to deliver your project,
and then complete as little of the paperwork as the system allows. So it’s
maximum of benefit for the minimum of paperwork.
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