Top-down Planning – Good or Bad?
I read recently an article in PM Hut blog by Keith Mathis where he categorizes top-down planning approach as a project management mistake. I didn’t agree with the author and I will try to put my arguments here hoping to start a discussion.
First point of the author is that top-down planning is old style. He says:
Top-down planning makes the assumption that upper management has the best processes and ideas to run a project smoothly.
I think the author confuses planning with management. Top-down planning means dividing the project’s work into several big parts, then each parts is divided into smaller parts and so on until we reach small enough tasks that we can estimate and assign to somebody. Nobody said that it has to be done by the upper management although I believe that the first steps in dividing the work should be made by the project manager not because she has the best ideas but because she has the best view of “the big picture”.
Filed Under Project Management | 6 Comments
CIO Top 100 Companies For 2008
The CIO magazine announced the top 100 companies for 2008 that are creating new business value by innovating with technology. The chart in the magazine’s site shows the winners and their winning projects. For each company you can see their industry or revenue, their project type and the main technology, the primary business function and its impact. You can click on the company name to get more details or you can click on the tabs to sort the data.
It is intersting to notice that giants like IBM and HP are always “subscribed” to charts like this while Microsoft, for example, is missing. What impresses me most is that a great part of the companies Jim Collins analyzes in his books Built to Last
Take a look at this chart and I will be glad if you share your comments about the companies enlisted.
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