Project Management versus Line Management

What is so special or different about Project Management? Nine out of ten will anser:

A project:

• Is unique
• Has (clear) predetermined deliverables
• Has a (fixed) start and finish
• Has a (limited) budget
• Works with a multi-disciplinair team

What we found is that regardless the type of industry, the above list is equally, if not more, applicable for non-projects - operations. Below is a generic description, but I like to invite you to verify if it is also applicable in your own experience.

Most products or services require quite a number of people that work together; purchasing, sales, production/operations. Even within a departement, especially in production/operations, there are different specialists involded. A multi-disciplinair team is not something unique to a project.

If a project finishes within 10% of the original budget, everybody is estathic. If an operations departement exceeds its budget by just over 5%, its manager isn't really hailed as a hero. A limited budget is not something unique to a project.

Most projects can get away with delivering the results later, sometimes months or even years later. Yes, there are some projects that will cause serious problems if the planned due-date is not met. Most organizations will get in serious problems when production/operations deliver later than originally promissed. Customers will switch suppliers when they can have a more reliable one; even when it comes at a premium. This because starting production/operations on time is necessary to meet the promissed due-dates; the amount of slack in production/operations is limited and starting later easily upsets the reliability of delivering other promissed products/services. A fixed start and finish is usually more important for production/operations than for projects.

The scope changes are quite normal in a project. It can be initiated by the impossibilities for whatever reason, changes in user requirements, whatever. The consequence is that quite a number of project deliver not the original agreed upon deliverables. This is for project not unusual. What is highly unusual is that production/operations delivers something different than what was promissed. Clear (predetermined) deliverables are more important in production/operations than for projects.

Like every project, every product/service is unique. If not because it was done by other people, by using different procedures, or by using (slightly) different materials then it is because of the perception and usage by the customer. If every product/service in production/operations was exactly the same, no quality control was necessary at any stage, no scrapping or reworking needed to be done. All products/services are unique.

Everybody feels that project management is different from line management. However the difference is not in what makes a project unique. The difference lays in what type of management is required to make the assignment a success.

http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/08/the-1015th-proj.html 

What we found was that the main difference between production/operations and projects lay in the necessity to manage uncertainty. That is, like in the cartoon, when you are 80⁺% certain  that without regular (pro)active intervention the assigment will not be completed successfully, you need project management. On the other hand, if you're 80⁺% certain  that without regular (pro)active intervention the assigment will be completed successfully, you should apply line management.

Doing the assignment without regular (pro)active intervention:

• 80⁺% probable FAILURE  -->  Project Management
• 80⁺% probable SUCCESS -->  Line Management

This rule of thumb also helps to decide which parts should be in-scope or out-of-scope in a project.