Principles
1. Competency of Resources
A successful project requires capable talent. Sufficient effort should be spent on identifying the right members or parties for the project team, even if they are not internal to the organization.
Competency and expertise are critical, but they are not the only factors for selection. Constructive interaction between the working team members is as important. The PM has a strong say on who should and needs to be on the team.
How this principle promotes project success:
Capable resources are integral to project success. Deliverable Owners, in addition to the PM, are now responsible for the work to be done. Subject Matter Expertise is critical to project success.
2. Autonomy and Accountability of Team
The PM has autonomy, overseeing the work responsibilities of multiple subject matter experts, to complete and achieve a final product that satisfies the sponsor. They understand how all the pieces fit together. In PcPM, the Project Manager is less of an administrator and more of a coordinator of the resources executing the deliverables.
The Deliverable Owners also have autonomy, executing their work in an efficient and transparent manner.
Team members become partners in the project and are SOLE OWNERS of their own deliverables. This means they ALSO own subtasks related to their deliverable, even though the subtasks within the deliverable may be performed by other teams. The Deliverable Owner must have a say in who should support them in their area of work. Any selection and assignment should be the result of a balance between individual competency, team synergy, and project needs.
With autonomy comes responsibility. Project Managers and Deliverable Owners have complete control of their work; finger-pointing demonstrates that the resources working on a project do not possess the full knowledge of their subject matter.
How this principle promotes project success:
A project manager, intimate with the organization's processes, is critical in ensuring that all stakeholders are identified, and that all required tasks are understood and assigned. This guarantees that all facets of project execution are known. If they do not know how all the pieces fit, they will recruit and work with those resources who are subject matter experts within the project space.
Domain knowledge and an understanding of an organization's processes are mandatory for the PM -- a generalist will not cut it. A generalist will get micro-managed by a pre-defined approach, ill-suited to defining and managing projects that require innovative thinking.
3. Clarity of Purpose
It is as important—if not more important—to share with the working team not only what the project is set to achieve but why. Learning the purpose for the work opens the door for two benefits: The first is inviting the working team to participate in defining the best solution possible themselves, rather than locking them into executing what has already been defined. The second is increasing the working team’s motivation by making them co-owners of the work rather than assignees of pre-defined group of tasks.
>How this principle promotes project success:
A competent team will be able to determine if the proposed solution is the best course for the organization. And now, being responsible for project success, they should ensure that it is the right thing to do. Project ownership is affirmed by the Delivery Owners because they had a hand in the design of the solution.
4. Deliverable-Based Breakdown
When breaking down a project's work, deliverables, including inputs and outputs, should be well defined. The goal is to avoid composing a work breakdown structure that details each task required to complete a deliverable. Concentrate instead on forming deliverables that contribute to the value of the project. Once defined, these deliverables are then assigned to the owners. The owners are experts in their domains and self-disciplined to pursue how they will complete their assigned deliverables without handholding.
The identification and assignment of deliverables should be a collaborative effort that includes all stakeholders (and owners of other deliverables) to ensure the list is accurate and comprehensive.
It is likely that not all deliverables will be identified at project kick-off. When anyone on the team notices that another deliverable is required, the new deliverable is documented and assigned.
How this principle promotes project success:
A solid list of deliverables, authored by the PM and the Deliverable Owners in a COLLABORATIVE setting, will ensure that all tasks have been identified. Stakeholders can clearly see the project composition without being distracted by an extensive list of tasks.
5. Transparency of Communication
The project manager is the ultimate owner and decision maker on the project. Project team members are partners and owners of their own deliverables. Constant touch-bases and communications between the project manager and the deliverable owners are necessary to ensure progress or to surface issues and risks. Some communications should follow a set cadence, while others can be ad-hoc to align on approach, explore ideas, define a direction, address a change, or navigate client expectations. The same rigor around communication between the project manager and the deliverable owners is also necessary between the project team and the project sponsor. No information should be off limits to any team member including the sponsor. Transparency is a guide.
How this principle promotes project success:
An organization needs to understand where issues reside; it is the organization's responsibility to resolve issues. So, a transparent, simple reporting process, visible to the organization, will expose the issues that need to be addressed.
6. Simplicity of Administration:
PcPM is simple and must remain so. There are no “certified” PcPM resources; capable resources adopt the principles and execute -- that's it. The project team must resist the temptation to create supporting artifacts. Issues like scope addition, resource constraints, and budget issues are addressed and negotiated in immediate and direct discussions.
How this principle promotes project success:
Simplicity guarantees that the PcPM approach Is understood by all project participants. No time is spent gauging the impact of a change in direction or a resource or budget issue; these issues are addressed quickly and informally.