5 minute read
PRAXIS FRAMEWORK™ – A NATURAL EVOLUTION FOR PROJECT AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
Adrian Dooley is the creator and lead author of the Praxis Framework. He sat down with the AIPM to explain what the framework is and where it is moving.
The content for the AIPM body of knowledge, that will be launched with our community portal, is based on the Praxis Framework.
WHY DID YOU DEVELOP THE PRAXIS FRAMEWORK?
I have spent a lifetime in project management as a project manager, consultant and trainer. The more I worked with companies and individuals, the more two things became clear about the evolution of project and programme management.
Firstly, none of the good practice guides (PMBoK Guide, PRINCE2, ISO21500 etc) give the full picture. They tend to focus on either knowledge or process but not both. I would often hear people say “You need the PMBoK Guide and PRINCE2 to fully understand how to manage a project”. I also believe that you need to understand individual competency and organisational capability maturity to truly embed good practice – and that’s before we get into all the detailed tools and techniques.
Secondly, people have a real problem implementing the good practice they glean from these guides. Typically, they will go on a course; learn a lot of good stuff and then go back to doing the same old things when they get back to work. My extensive studies of ‘Lessons Learned’ reports from many companies show that the most common reasons for project failure are simply not applying the good practice that we learn on every project management course.
WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF THE PRAXIS FRAMEWORK AND WHY IS IT A REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT?
Ultimately, the aim is to help individuals and organisations embed tried and trusted good practice. To do this Praxis does several things:
As the information and tools in the framework have grown with contributions from more and more users worldwide, we felt there was a need to provide a simple front end. We created Praxis Local as a simple window on the full web site that could be downloaded (as a PowerPoint file) and tailored to any individual project or organisation.
All these initiatives are free to use because accessibility is key to removing any barriers to their use. Project managers are busy people. They need the information and tools to be readily accessible 24/7 with no restrictions.
consistent terminology throughout. Secondly, it removes barriers to day-to-day usage by making it all freely available, on-line with no copyright restrictions. But that’s only the start.
For me, the most revolutionary part is that we constantly add content that is about using and embedding good practice rather than just accumulating it. There are three areas that epitomise this approach.
The assessment tool provides tailorable checklists that are inspired by the surgical checklists developed by the World Health Organisation. These reduced surgical mortality around the world by 40% so there must be something we can learn from that approach. We combined the checklists with the Capability Maturity Model to provide a real-time dashboard for organisational improvement – a vital tool for PMOs. The result is an approach which very simply helps people to develop the right habits and improve organisational effectiveness as a result. It’s not rocket science. iMA (identify Modify Adapt) Praxis is our approach to recognising that everyone on a team sees good practice from a different personal perspective. Other guides state what good practice looks like in a one size fits all approach but, for example, if you are naturally risk averse you won’t apply risk management in the same way as someone who is a natural risk taker. We all need to understand how these practices are seen differently by other members of our team – and that is built into the framework.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE PRAXIS FRAMEWORK?
Given that Praxis is community driven, it’s always difficult to predict where our volunteers will take us next. So far, we are in seven languages with another translation project underway. Hopefully, we will add more translations and be accessible to more people in their native language. The fact that the translations have been done by volunteers illustrates the global appetite for this new community driven approach.
Our main focus at the moment though, is to burst the Agile vs. Waterfall myth. All aspects of project management lie on a spectrum. Praxis already treats projects, programmes and portfolios as points on a spectrum. This makes skills far more transferable between the three. We now plan to do the same thing with the Agile vs Waterfall dichotomy, which we believe is counterproductive. Future iterations of Praxis will identify the way tools, techniques and processes can accommodate different levels of agility. Skilled project managers need to be able to “play what is in front of them” as the sports pundits love to say. That means getting away from the idea that projects are either Agile or they are not, and project managers are either Agile Project Managers or not. In the future, good project managers will be able to apply the relevant levels of agility to suit the context of their project.
As a final thought, we are delighted to be working with the AIPM on bringing the Praxis principles and ideals to the profession in Australia. Using the Praxis Framework as the basis of a body of knowledge for AIPM members’ ensures they are provided with a new core of information that is free, contemporary and has no IP restrictions. We have also had great support from the Association of Project Management in the UK and SMaP (the professional body for Project Management in France). In the future we hope to work with more and more professional bodies to herald a new open and collaborative era for the global discipline and profession of project management.
The Praxis Framework Bridging Course is an endorsed AIPM course. For further details contact Adrian Dooley, adrian.dooley@praxisframework.org or Lawrie Kirk, APMG International, lawrie.kirk@apmg-international.com
