This brings me to addressing how to develop a process, in this case in the context of project management. The single most important rule in developing a process is to focus on "value". Value is the centre of the process .... quite literally.

Step one in any process definition is to identify what the end result has to be. You then determine all the relevant steps or tasks to get from where you are now, or the beginning, to the end .... focussing ONLY on those steps that add value .... that get you closer to your goal.

Rich, B.R. and Janos, Y., Skunk Works, Little Brown and Company, New York, 1994

I have had this book in my library for quite some time and although I've browsed it before, I recently had the opportunity to actually read it. Why I didn't read it earlier, I just don't know because it is just so full of stories and wisdom on many levels.

For those who don't know - the Skunk Works were (are still?) a top secret Lockheed shop for the design, development and manufacture of advanced and innovative aerospace systems. If U2, SR-71 Blackbird and stealth planes mean anything to you - then this book tells their story.

Essentially, I would maintain that in these scenarios (see Evidence and Project Management (01)), project managers are making "claims", some even "vague claims", about the state of their project.

That vague claim is made in the spirit of getting the boss off your back or in the knowledge (perhaps mis-directed) that by the time anyone checks ... the project will be where they have reported it to be anyway! It is done with good intentions.

I have called the approach I prefer to use for project management an "evidence based" approach. So it behoves me to define this in some way.

I am not saying that project managers per se do not use evidence to understand their project. I just don't believe there are comprehensive approaches to that evidence base and I believe there is waaaay to much emphasis on the governance side of things, but that is for another blog.

A Strategic Risk Based Approach to Regulating Technologies and Vulnerabilities based on HolisTech's® Regulatory Framework presented at the 2007 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS`07), titled Risk, Vulnerability, Uncertainty, Technology and Society, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA in June 2007. Co-authored with Graham Durant-Law.

The paper outlines a strategic risk based approach to regulation based on the generic regulatory system developed with the participation of nine of Australia's premier regulatory organisations. The result is a generic strategic management paradigm of regulation and the various behavioural interactions that regulatory systems may utilise. It includes regulatory strategies that may be employed to influence how organisations and people behave, as well as other aspects of regulating, including regulatory metrics, regulatory types, and the mechanisms of regulation. The generic nature of the framework provides for its application in almost any context and to any objective. It also provides for a top-down strategic approach to risk management, an unfortunately all too rare occurrence.