艾伦·斯特雷顿：项目管理圈十足的“90后”

尉艳娟

艾倫·斯特雷顿（Alan Stretton），1926年生人，是现代项目管理的先驱之一。

他目前是美国管理技术大学（University of Management and Technology，UMT）教员。1988-2006年，他担任澳大利亚悉尼科技大学（University of Technology Sydney，UTS）项目管理教授。加入悉尼科技大学之前，他曾在澳大利亚、新西兰和美国的建筑行业工作近40年。1989年底至1992年初，他曾担任（美国）项目管理协会（PMI）标准委员会主席。他在澳大利亚项目管理协会（Australian Institute of Project Management， AIPM）也担任过类似职位，并于1996年当选为AIPM终身会员。

步入耄耋之年的艾伦·斯特雷顿依然活跃在项目管理舞台上，至今已发表200余篇专业文章和论文，几乎每一期的《项目管理世界期刊》（PM World Journal） 都能看到他的文章。他告诉记者，习惯性的好奇心、健康的身体和行业内外多年经验所引发的思考是他笔耕不辍的源泉所在。

作为见证者，艾伦·斯特雷顿向我们讲述了时代变迁下项目管理的发展。“在过去的60余年里，项目管理学科发生了巨大的变化，项目管理学科变得如此多样化以至于我怀疑是否有人能够真正全面了解其所有维度。”他说道。

作为一名“90后”，他道出了自己对项目管理未来的殷切期许：拥有最新的、全面的项目成败数据，以便从别人的经验中学习，避免重复失败；有些人认为项目管理主要是项目执行和交付，有些人认为项目管理应包括执行前阶段，这两种人应该更好地沟通；项目管理标准指南应该与具体的情境挂钩；越来越多的组织意识到项目是帮助实现更广泛目标的手段；项目经理应更多地参与到项目选择中；项目管理应该融合其他专业。

采访中，艾伦·斯特雷顿一再强调管理项目前端的重要性。谈及项目失败率一直居高不下的原因，艾伦·斯特雷顿认为，约40%的项目失败与项目执行和交付方面的问题有关，约40%的项目失败源于项目前端，如定义需求和战略计划；约15%的项目失败与领导力有关；约5%的项目失败可归因于外部事件。

采访最后，艾伦·斯特雷顿还向我们分享了新冠肺炎疫情对项目管理学科的影响，他希望大家意识到项目管理不仅仅是一门项目交付的学科，在应对时代危机中，项目管理将大有可为！

Interview

PartⅠMajor changes of project management over 60 years

Q1. As one of the pioneers of modern project management， you must have witnessed major changes of this discipline over these years. Would you please share the major changes youve experienced？

Alan Stretton： The discipline of project management has changed enormously in the past sixty years， and has grown and diversified to the point where I doubt if anyone can truly claim to have a comprehensive perspective of all its multiple dimensions. In my view， the growth and diversification have been evolutionary， and changes have arisen out of the cumulative contributions of countless numbers of project managers. So， I will respond to the above question by listing the many contributions and events which seem to me to have been the most influential in facilitating so many changes over the past decades.

My own baseline is associated with my old employer， Civil& Civic （C&C）， which developed its own approach to project management in the Australian building and construction industry in the 1950s and 60s.

At a more general level， I summarize my perceptions of the most significant changes in the project management world over the decades as follows.

During the 1960s， the Australian construction industry was primarily concerned with using the CPM and PDM network planning techniques which were initially developed in the USA. （I introduced these into C&C in early 1962）. However， in that decade few Australian companies followed the C&C route of undertaking undivided responsibility for managing project front-end phases as well as their execution.

The 1970s appeared to me to be a decade in which project management consolidated in the construction and defence industries and began to be taken up by other industries. It also saw the formation of the Project Managers Forum in Australia， following the example of PMI in North America and IPMAs predecessor in Europe in the previous decade.

The 1980s saw substantial developments in a variety of contexts. Project management representative bodies moved to credential project managers. The Major Projects Association （MPA） was formed in the UK. Personal computers and project-related software packages started to make an impact. Early editions of the PMBOK and PRINCE were published. University courses in project management started to be rolled out. Overall， this decade saw both a consolidation， and an emergent broadening of perspectives， on what was entailed in managing projects.

These developments continued apace in the 1990s. There was a proliferation of knowledge standards， competency baselines and the like， and accompanying project management credentialing procedures. Further issues such as project design and testing， simultaneous / concurrent engineering received increasing attention， along with how to manage non-conventional projects with high levels of initial uncertainty.

The 2000s saw further developments in dealing with nonconventional projects， including Agile and more advanced risk management techniques. Dealing with complexity received greater attention， and Flyvbjerg in particular drew increasing attention to major problems with complex mega-projects. Heightened interest and developments in program management were reflected in the publication of two important standards.

Further developments in the 2010s included the deployment of virtual and dispersed project teams， increased attention to project portfolio management， to project / program contributions to strategic outcomes and benefits， and to other context-related issues.

PartⅡWishes for future project management

Q2. What do you wish project management would be like in the future？ What do you want to say to newcomers in the field？

Alan Stretton：

At a project level， one of the first items on my wish-list would be to have up-to-date and comprehensive data on project successes and failures. There appears to be wide-spread agreement that far too many projects fail， but we have little reliable data on numbers， or how or why this happens. Without such data， we are poorly placed to learn from the experience of others， and are therefore likely to repeat previous failures.

Still at a project level， I would like to see better cooperation and understanding between those who see project management as primarily concerned with project execution / delivery， and those who also include the management of the“front-end” pre-execution project phases in their perception of the scope of project management. Both are important， but all too often there appears to be a lack of mutual recognition of this fact.

At a more holistic level， I would like to see a small but highly significant shift in the way projects are seen to contribute to and relate to the organisations in which they are initiated. The basis of this shift is for project management to recognize that， first and foremost， projects are means to help achieve broader ends. Virtually all projects are initiated by， and within organizations， ultimately to help achieve those organizations strategic objectives， and realize the planned benefits. Therefore， the most prominent perspective should be that of the organization itself， followed by the perspective of how projects can help the organization achieve its strategic objectives and benefits. Project management should strengthen its ability to respond to changes in this VUCA world， and particularly to recognize and seize new opportunities as they arise in this rapidly changing world.

In a broader context， organizations and their projects operate in a wide variety of contexts. As most project management practitioners can attest， managing contextual matters related to a project is typically a demanding task， and often a critically important one. Now， most of our project management standard guidelines are in a non-contextual mode. Such guidelines are a good introduction to some basic project management techniques. However， I would like to see these supplemented by a range of context-specific guidelines， covering as many of our most prominent project management contexts as possible.

My penultimate wish is to see project managers much more widely involved than they currently are in the processes of choosing which projects will be undertaken in the first place. All too often these choices are made by others， without the know-how that project management can bring to help choose the right projects. Along with this， I would like to see project management more heavily involved in hands-on mode in helping users ultimately realize the benefits to which their projects contribute， when this is practicable.

Finally， I would like to see project management expand further into broader roles. An example could be in the domain of integrating the works of others. With ever-increasing specialization in so many domains， there are corresponding needs for a discipline which itself specializes in integrating the outputs from other specializations. Elsewhere， I have given such potentially expanded roles titles such as “integrator” and“synthesiser”.

As to what I might want to say to newcomers in the field， I would suggest they keep their options open. Some might find it more convenient to stay with one of the many types of project management approaches that are currently practiced. However， I suspect that many of these may morph into rather different types of disciplines， and offer an extended range of opportunities for those with more flexible dispositions.

ParⅢImportance of managing the front end of projects

Q3. You have emphasized the importance of managing the front end of projects. Why do you hold this view？

Alan Stretton： I have been actively aware of the importance of managing the front end of projects for over sixty years， and have written about it quite extensively （as have many others）. Here are some background notes on why I have this viewpoint.

My early professional life was in the construction side of the building and construction industries， where you were immediately confronted with design deficiencies from the buildability aspect， and with ensuing frustration and often very substantial waste.

By the time I joined C&C in the early 1960s， that company had long recognized this， and had developed a single responsibility design-and-construct service which integrated these two roles， and eliminated much of the waste of the more traditional design / tender system – thus adding value to both the client and the company.

The effectiveness of this service was certainly enhanced by the governance arrangements which were increasingly put in place for each project. This took the form of what we called a Project Control Group （PCG）， which included senior executives from both the client organisation and C&C， as well as the C&C project manager. The PCG had a governance role which was similar to the board of a public company， with similar regular meetings （typically monthly） and formal review agendas.

These arrangements often led to an extension of the design management component into what we came to call Client Needs Determination （CND）. This was actually a process of helping clients clarify their real （business） needs， which rather naturally evolved when we had clients who had not recently reviewed their strategies， and / or their current needs， in appropriate detail.

In some cases， this “Project Management Service” （PMS） was extended even further back to help clients develop or redevelop their entire longer-term strategic objectives.

All this happened in the early 1960s， and provided the background for my recognizing the importance of managing the front end of projects， to provide added value for the client in particular （and to the providing organization via satisfied clients）. Subsequent involvement in and knowledge of different contexts and different industries have only served to reinforce this viewpoint of the importance of actively managing the front end of projects – as is demonstrated by the Front End Loading （FEL） approach which has long been used in so many mining and other resource extraction projects， for example.

Part Ⅳ Causes of project failure

Q4. You mentioned that far too many projects fail. Would you please identify some common causes of project failure from your perspective？

Alan Stretton： As noted earlier， I wish we had much better data on it. Based on the very sparse data I have been able to find， the following broad indicative failure patterns have emerged：

Roughly 40% of all project failures appear to happen in the execution / delivery phase. Most of these are evidently attributable directly to deficiencies in project management. It is not at all clear why these continue to occur， particularly in view of the fact that the majority of project management standards and similar guidelines focus heavily on the execution / delivery phase of the project lifecycle.

Another 40% of failures appear to be broadly associated with deficiencies in processes which precede project execution / delivery.

○ Roughly a half of these pre-execution causes of failure can be related to inadequacies in the front-end phases of defining/ specifying project requirements and associated activities. It is not recorded which of these processes were being handled by project managers， and which by people from the strategic planning domain. Therefore， it is not possible to directly attribute responsibilities for such failures.

○ The other half of these pre-execution causes of failure are associated with inadequacies in the strategic planning domain. A few relate to inadequacies related to establishing the broader organizational strategic objectives. However， most relate to failures in developing and choosing the most appropriate strategic initiatives – and thence the most appropriate projects – to achieve the more immediate strategic objectives. Therefore， failure to choose the right projects， which is generally done by non-project people， is a significant component of so-called project failures.

Roughly 15% of causes of project failure were attributed to defects in organizational leadership， most along the lines of lack of or inadequacies in top management support. The other 5% of causes were unpredictable external events.

Overall， these very sparse data indicate that half of all so-called project failures are not due to poor project management per se， but to poor decisions and actions taken by other parties， particularly in relation to choosing the right projects in the first place.

PartⅤImpact of COVID-19 on project management

Q5. As far as you can see， what impact do you believe COVID-19 is having and will have on project management？

Alan Stretton： One would need a crystal ball to respond adequately to this question. At the time of writing， we simply do not know how severe the COVID-19 will prove to be， how long it will continue to significantly impact us， and the form such impacts may take. But there do appear to be some relevant observations which arise from what has already happened.

The first observation is that there have already been vast numbers of projects of many different types initiated in response to the pandemic. Some of the more immediate and direct ones have included new or expanded facilities to help deal with current problems， and corresponding supply chain initiatives to support them. Other consequential projects have included a variety of community support projects initiated by governments in social services and allied fields. There are also many well-publicised longerterm projects in hand to develop vaccines which may hopefully help secure a more stable future. And there are so many more examples.

However， what is not so clear is the extent to which formal project management practices have been involved in developing and executing these projects. Apart from projects for developing vaccines， which have highly regulated and formalised procedures， formal project management does not appear to have made an obviously conspicuous contribution to the above. Is this situation likely to continue？ No one can answer this question with certainty， but it can certainly be claimed that project management has much to offer. For example， a colleague has suggested that， when quick decisions are needed and stakeholder involvement is vital， as so often applies in the rapidly changing COVID-19 environment， Agile project management techniques would often be highly appropriate.

So， the question is how decision-makers can be made aware of the potential for project management to contribute more in this context. It seems to me that the public still see project management as being only a project delivery discipline. Though our representative institutes and associations are best placed to change this perception， they do not appear to have made any significant moves in recent times to do so. Perhaps the advent of COVID-19 might prompt them to be a good deal more pro-active in educating the public about the wider contributions project management can make to help them during and after this pandemic.

Finally， I hope that we may have a cadre of innovative project managers who are motivated to develop broader ranges of services to help people and organisations with different kinds of needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

PartⅥ The “life” project

Q6. You are well into your 90s， but you are still active in the PM community by writing lots of papers. Where does the enthusiasm come from？

Alan Stretton： Im not sure – it just seems to be the way I am. Im probably not the best person to answer this question， but here are a few thoughts about possible sources of my continuing interest：

This interest is probably partly due to my habitually enquiring mind， coupled with the fact that there are many topics in project management， particularly relating to the many contexts in which it is undertaken， which appear to me to invite further enquiry.

This may also be influenced by my having had an unusually wide range of experience， both within and outside project management， which sometimes leads to my thinking of a wider range of questions than some others may ask.

Also， I have been very fortunate to be health-wise， which has given me a sense of both obligation and desire to continue contributing for as long as I am able to do so.

Q7. If we compare life to a project， how do you measure the success of the “life” project？

Alan Stretton： We measure the success of a project by the contribution it makes to help organizations achieve their strategic goals and benefits. Similarly， we measure the success of the “life” project by the contribution one has been able to make to benefit the people and / or communities（including work communities） with which one has been engaged.