Project Executive: Wrong for the Private Sector

“You got ‘city’ hands, Mr. Cooper.

Within the morass of management theory options open to production oriented industries – Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, and plain old CPM – bandied about project management structures, there’s been historically little consensus on which is the most effective for a given industry(s). A better question to put might be “if one professes expertise in a given project management methodology, does it follow that he or she can seamlessly bring that skill and methodology to any industry with any guaranteed measure of success? If we are speaking of the building industry, the answer is a categorical ‘no.’

If you ask the universities and certification groups sanctioning project managers- PMI – for example, the answer is an unequivocal ‘yes,’ which is exactly what you’d expect them to say: of course their certs are universal legal-tender. And judging from the corporate profiles of many organizations – they are buying in. According to PMI, regarding their PMP (Project Management Professional ) Certification

You can find PMPs leading projects in nearly every country and, unlike other certifications that focus on a particular geography or domain, the PMP® is truly global. As a PMP, you can work in virtually (my pl. case) any industry, with any methodology, and in any location.

Really? Define “virtually,” please.

That sounds like they view skills in “(on) a particular geography or domain“ as a shortcoming, whereas most people would consider such specialization an asset. Is it reasonable to think a project manager could approach and execute any project, in any industry, in any country, merely by waiving his PMP? PMI is certain that their certification holds such sway as validated in their own study:

Employers benefit as well. When more than one-third of their project managers are PMP-certified, organizations complete more of their projects on time, on budget and meeting original goals. (Pulse of the Profession® study, PMI, 2015.)

That same report – PMI’s annual member survey – states that only 21% of the respondents used PPM, and only 12% EVM. Without EVM, how would they even know if they were on time or within budget? Nonetheless: PMP exam takers must supposedly demonstrate mastery in those skills in order to become certified. Naturally, PMI requires costly recertifications that must be paid for and processed in order to maintain one’s PMP.

PMP Certification alleges mastery of the following, but in reality has no rubric.

• Performance measurement and tracking techniques (e.g., EV, CPM, PERT, Trend Analysis)
• Process analysis techniques (e.g.,
• LEAN, Kanban, Six Sigma)
• Project control limits (e.g., thresholds, tolerance)
• Project finance principles
• Project monitoring tools and techniques
• Project quality best practices and standards (e.g., ISO, BS, CMMI, IEEE)
• Quality measurement tools (e.g., statistical sampling, control charts, flowcharting, inspection, assessment)
• Risk identification and analysis techniques
• Risk response techniques
• Quality validation and verification techniques

(PMP Exam Content Outline | PMI)

PMP respondents also claimed that only 50% of their projects finished on time, and only 55% within budget.

Frankly, with those numbers, I don’t see what their blowing smoke out their horns for. Such relativistic statistical analysis is entirely self-serving, and defies rational verification. Clearly, PMI is immoderate in exactly how and to what degree it purports to certify its constituency in which areas of expertise, if any. Why not use the PMP as an entry level program, and offer endorsements in specific industries? Because that would be a poor ROI for PMI.

Building industry private sector ignorance of reality is historically intractable.

Here’s a PMI reality check: information technology project managers comprised 19% of those surveyed, whereas – a mere 7% were in the construction industry.

Yet lumbering bootstrap EPCs and other old-world relics still require PMP for their project managers. Does that sound like PMI has conducted due diligence research to back up their far flung – even outrageous claims? Perhaps they should consider outsourcing their KPIs instead of fabricating their own.

All of that (clap-trap) is precisely the direct polar opposite of what I contend: the idea that a manager from outside an industry with no expertise within that industry should be a leader in that industry, using any methodology is at best counterintuitive, at worst – counter productive. Why would anyone hire a banker to head a widget-maker team, or a stockbroker to lead a research group? A project manager or executive with limited or no industry specific experience and proven track record should be the very last choice of candidates.

The private sector building industry cares little for any management methodologies – including a pervasive ignorance of CPM. It has always been drawn from an antediluvian trickle-down hierarchical food chain, that is linear, one-dimensional, and not likely to change anytime soon. At some point beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, architects began schnorring in on the builders’ quarry of design services – services they had hitherto easily and capably handled without a design book.

“Fifth wheels in the building industry – late nineteenth century architects schnorred in on what was traditionally builders’ territory – designing, engineering, and building homes.

At some point in the late twentieth century, ‘owners reps’ began making progress cutting into the architects’ share of project administration – a requirement in all of their AIA contracts, that they historically have under-delivered. Subsequently, the job title of ‘account rep, or project executive’ quietly insinuated its footprint on the trade – in boardrooms, backrooms, limousines, and often in the business of favors, tribute, and junkets. Nowadays, project executives are frequent fixtures in both private and open-shop operations.

“Just look for the shiny wing-tips – there’s your PX.

In what regard then does a project team hold its project executive? It depends on the integrity of the organization. Leading Union builders have project executives who are both adept technically, as well as business savvy. These are quite different animals than their private sector counterparts, where they are invariably conflated with the job title “Vice President.” Indeed, private sector job titles have little credibility, and less definition in the relevant building marketplace.

In the building industry, there are two project leaders: a project manager, and a project executive, the latter being more a fixture of increasingly complex and larger scale projects and organizations. The project manager, typically comes from the trades – has field experience. He can handle the technical side of things, but not so much the ‘business’ end of things.

The private sector project executive, on the other hand, has little technical knowledge – or far worse – only enough knowledge to feign arrogance. He does, however, allege superior executive management skills to that of any mortal project manager. A project manager with industry specific skills address specific problems, whereas project executives skirts the specifics, tends to generalize solutions with macro-concepts: fire this one and that one. Throw money at ‘this,’ just for kicks.

In what regard then does a private sector project team hold its project executive? Not a very high one, by any indication. They recognize them on sight as untrustworthy superimposed adversaries who function in another element than they, while at the same time resent that such characters stand directly in the way. Even vainglorious the PMI doesn’t recognize or sanction anything known as a ‘project executive.’

Thus, a natural separation of trades – the private sector project executive lives in the upper echelons of the theoretical, and the project manager in unadorned everyday realities.

Because the private sector project executive is a businessman, he is both a smooth talker with a glib tongue – obsequious to the executive branch, and condescending of those beneath him, which is how he ingratiates himself into perceived positions of leadership. Despite being chronically out of the reality loop, the project executive – in his loftier element – can be a deconstructive element to the natural course or sequence of operations, when he deigns to wave his magic wand.

For example, a colleague once told me he story of a project that was proving extremely difficult and resilient to improvements. Although it should have been a very straightforward project, It became a long and very complex project, where over the course of its tortured prosecution, several project managers and project executives had been jettisoned, along with countless supers and project engineers. By the time a new project executive was introduced, the project already had one foot in the grave.

This project executive quickly ostracized the entire management system within the first week – induced such loathing that he never interacted with this team, with the intention of having them all discharged, and his ‘own’ team brought in. On a good day, if this project executive knew of one single such individual in his network would be a miracle – he had no following whatsoever, and resorted to bringing in people from the street.

What was surprising to the people who were discharged was that this project executive had full backing of the company’s brass, who bought into whatever manure he dropped in front of them. The project continues to founder to this day, however, it now has the handicap of a vacuum of vast project specific knowledge that went out the door with the team. Such knowledge is never recoverable.

At the end of the day, there are an awful lot of pretenders in the building industry with fancy long job titles with short lifespans. They are recruited from two places: the private sector, and from self-proclaimed sanctioning organizations, like PMI. In either case, the wrong tool for the wrong job. They survive only at the generosity of the private sector’s ignorance, which has historically proved to be intractable.