The Dinosaurs had their day in the sun. They also had a lot of trouble in the presence for emergent competitions. But they dominated our planet for 160 million years. The PM 2.0 advocates are sounding o lot like lifeforms saying ”you’re a Dinosaur, your days are numbered.”

Like the extinction of the dinosaurs where there were transitional forms before the next dominate form took hold – small to medium sized manuals – the PM 2.0 has a lot to learn from that process.

Shouting PM 1.0 is dead and the traditional forms of process support is not a strategy to advance the species. To replace the previous paradigm, you must be able to improve the species.

Since PM 2.0 is not based on “project management” principles it’s going to be tough going for this transitional life form.

“There’s no PM in PM 2.0!” Yes Dorthy, there is no PM in PM 2.0. Lot’s of virtual communication, lots of user configured tools, lots of cleaver gadgets on your Blackberry and iPhone for tweet each other about what’s happening on your projects.

Where’s the Performance Measurement Baseline? Don’t want one of those, OK, where’s the configuration controlled master schedule. Don’t have one of those, OK where’s the Scrum feature backlog for everyone on the team to stand in front of during the morning sprint meeting to see what we’re going to work on today, this week, this sprint.

If you don’t have a Performance Measurement Baseline, then who on your team knows what the planned completion date is? No completion date, then this effort is probably more like level of effort maintenance than a project – which by definition has a planned end date.

“Anybody around here have an idea what this will cost when we’re done?” No, I’m sure the person with the check book is real happy about that.

How about we tell someone what kind of progress we’re making and how much it costs to make that progress and with that “burn” rate when we will run out of money or time or both?

You see there is no “there, there” when PM 2.0 is spoken. No fundamental principles of “managing.” No practice areas. No knowledge groups. No nothing other than the hype of “the next new thing.”

Now granted of your project is a gardening project. Or you park your project on a Blog, then PM 2.0 is right up your alley. PM 2.0 has a very strong genetic connection of social media. Emergent rules, content, and results. Great stuff. But as the Program Manager for the current manned spaceflight effort asks every Monday morning at 6:30AM

When’s this thing going to fly?

Don’t know? Find me someone who does and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

A project has a schedule, a budget, a set of technical and operational performance goals and has some way to measure physical progress to the plan. Please someone point me to where I can find those things in the PM 2.0 swamp?

Original post: Herding Cats