The 12 Principles of Project Management

Welcome to “The 12 Principles of Project Management.” After watching this video, you will be able to: Describe project management principles and
Define the key principles listed in the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (or PMBOK) 7th Edition. Project management principles are the fundamental
concepts, practices, and techniques that guide the effective management of projects.
The Project Management Institute (or PMI) developed 12 principles of project management.
These principles are defined in the PMBOK 7th Edition.
Effective project management is based on these principles, which ensure the success of a project.
The 12 principles of project management are: Being a diligent, respectful, and caring steward;
Creating a collaborative project team environment; Effectively engaging with stakeholders;
Focusing on value; Recognizing, evaluating, and
responding to system interactions; Demonstrating leadership behaviors;
Tailoring based on the context; Building quality into processes and deliverables;
Navigating complexity; Optimizing risk responses;
Embracing adaptability and resiliency; and Enabling change to achieve
the envisioned future state. The first principle is “being a diligent,
respectful, and caring steward.” Stewardship means being entrusted
with the care of the project. It includes responsibilities within
and external to an organization. Stewardship also includes
upholding ethics and values. An effective project manager must perform their
duty with certain qualities, which include: Integrity,
Care, Trustworthiness, and
Compliance. Stewards show an extensive commitment
to a project’s financial, social, and environmental aspects.
The second principle is “creating a collaborative project team environment.”
A project team consists of individuals with diverse skills, knowledge, and experience.
Establishing a culture of respect and collaboration is essential to accomplish
objectives effectively and efficiently. Team learning and development
should be encouraged, which leads to increased innovation and efficiency.
Everyone involved in a project contributes to achieving the desired outcomes.
This helps create a sense of ownership and commitment among team members.
The third principle is “effectively engaging with stakeholders.”
A stakeholder is someone who may affect or be affected by the project.
Recognize how stakeholders affect a project, its performance, and the results.
Involve them in an effective manner and to the extent necessary to contribute to
achieving project goals and customer satisfaction. The fourth principle is “focusing on value.” Value is the ultimate
indicator of project success. It can be financial or non-financial,
like goodwill or social benefits. It can be generated in the course of
project execution, at its conclusion, or after it is finished.
Ensure project benefits are attained by defining the project value, working
together, and ensuring the team's success. The fifth principle is “Recognizing, evaluating,
and responding to system interactions.” A project team must recognize
the project as a system. Like a system, a project has various
independent and interacting components. Systems are ever-evolving
and need constant attention to both internal and external circumstances.
Positive outcomes should be facilitated through responsiveness and teamwork.
The sixth principle is “demonstrating leadership behaviors.”
A project can be successful if the leadership demonstrates vision,
innovation, motivation, and empathy. Any member of a project team can
demonstrate leadership behavior. An effective leader has the certain qualities.
These include: Recognizing differences in motivation
among team members and projects; Accepting responsibility for outcomes;
Showing respect and fairness to other team members; and
Maintaining integrity and honesty at work. The seventh principle is
“tailoring based on the context.” Each project is unique.
The key to a project's success is its ability to adapt to unique contexts and identify the most
effective means of achieving the desired results. It results in enhanced innovation,
efficiency, and productivity. The next principle is “building quality
into processes and deliverables.” Project quality involves satisfying stakeholders’
expectations and meeting project requirements. Project deliverables should comply with
the need, application, and acceptability standards established by the key stakeholders.
To attain the required quality, appropriate and effective project processes must be implemented.
Another important project management principle is “navigating complexity.”
It means a project manager must modify their management approach
based on the project’s complexity level. Complexity in project management can
arise from a number of factors, including: Human behavior;
System behavior; Ambiguity and uncertainty; and
Digital transformation. Project complexity must be continuously evaluated
and managed to complete the project life cycle The tenth project management principle
is “optimizing risk responses.” Risk is an uncertain future event that can
affect a project positively or negatively. Risk management should involve a balance
between risk appetite and thresholds. Risk appetite is the degree of risk a company is
ready to take or suffers to achieve its goals. Risk thresholds are specific
levels or points at which a risk becomes unacceptable and requires a response. When developing risk management strategies, it
is important to consider an organization's risk appetite and risk thresholds to ensure
that risk responses are appropriate. Embracing adaptability and resiliency is the
eleventh principle of project management. Despite careful planning, unexpected events and
changes may occur during a project's life cycle. Adaptability means being able to adjust to
changing circumstances and requirements. Resiliency means the ability to recover quickly
from setbacks, challenges, and failures. In project management, resiliency
means the ability to respond to unexpected events and continue moving forward.
A project manager must create backup plans, communicate effectively with stakeholders,
and maintain flexibility throughout the project's life cycle in order to incorporate
adaptation and resiliency in project management. The last principle is “enabling change
to achieve the envisioned future state.” Every project aims to bring about the
change necessary for an organization to achieve its objectives.
Change may be challenging, though, and resistance to change can be a
serious obstacle to a project's success. A project manager can help achieve the
organization’s goal and build a better future state by facilitating change.
This requires a combination of strong leadership, effective communication, and
commitment to continuous improvement. In this video, you learned that:
Management principles are the fundamental concepts, practices, and techniques
that guide the effective management of projects. And the PMBOK defines twelve
principles of project management.

Welcome to Expert Viewpoints: Principles of
Project Management. In this video, we will hear from project managers
discussing the twelve principles of project management. Which of the 12 principles, in your opinion,
is most critical and why? Adaptability and resiliency is by far the
most critical of the 12 principles. In my opinion, no matter how much you plan,
surprises will always, always pop up. There could be a major product bug. Your client has a large volume of feedback
that comes last minute that you weren't expecting. Maybe your creative producer suddenly out
sick for a week. In these stressful situations, your team is
likely going to have an emotional reaction. But it's the role of the project manager to
stay calm, reach out to the proper stakeholders and lead the charge on brainstorming solutions. The project team should have full confidence
that the project manager will communicate the new plan through the correct channels
at the right times. This puts the whole team at ease and frees
them up so they can focus on immediate tasks. So first, let's address the obvious answer. All 12 of the principles are important. However, in the interest of time and brevity,
let me choose the two, in my opinion, from the 12 that really stand out. Number one, be a diligent, respectful and
caring steward. Hmm. stewardship involves acting with integrity,
caring for the team, being trustworthy and complying with organizational standards. A project manager needs to strive for service
before self. If this does not happen, the team will lack
trust, competence and team continuity and effectiveness. Effectiveness will ultimately suffer. Secondly, create a collaborative team environment. Projects are not solely delivered by the project
manager alone. They are delivered by a team. The team needs to work within organizational
and professional guidelines to develop their own culture. I would absolutely say a team is the most
critical within the 12 principles. Without a team, you don't have a project. I'm going to give an example of a recent project
that I had over the last couple of years. We had a great team. There was definitely some team building opportunities
in there, and I had a section of the overall program. With that, I was still very new to this type
of product and we had a lot of new people involved. We didn't know exactly everything that was
needed. However, we did have a team constraint. We didn't know that at the very beginning
until much later on when we ended up missing a milestone. And unfortunately, I really don't like failing. I'm sure nobody else really does either. But we had the opportunity to take it as a
lessons learned, especially since it was the very beginning of that project. Again, without a team, you don't have a project. Is there anything you would add for the 12
principles? I would add training. I find education to be extremely important,
especially in any sort of circumstances, whether it's a job outside of work, you want to know
as much as possible so you can easily speak to it and take quick action when needed. I think the 12 principles as written are highly
effective and very comprehensive. But if I were to add a 13th, I would likely
add a new principal to show courage and conviction. Not every project is perfect. Create an environment where stakeholders invite
what we refer to as functional or good conflict. Disagree when something doesn't seem right. Ask questions. Share opinions openly. Have the discussion. A fear of open conflict may leave critical
inputs not shared. These inputs may be the difference between
project success and project failure. I wouldn't add anything to the PMI 12 principles,
but I perhaps modify the principle of leadership to servant leadership. Project managers should put their egos to
the side and find ways to serve the team, and that can take many forms. Maybe it's taking the extra time to talk to
a frustrated project team member and show them empathy. Maybe it's delivering bad news to a client
instead of your teammate that just worked a long shift to try to solve a problem. It could look like maybe encouraging a quieter
teammate to share their opinion in a meeting. And my favorite of all is celebrating the
success of others with leadership. Project managers are witness to a lot of incredible
work that leaders miss because they're just so busy. Take an extra 5 minutes and write a quick
email and brag about others. Your team will be so happy you did. I have a lot of examples of when one or more
of the 12 principles of project management have not been adhered to. I think there's a combination of two principles
that when they're not met, really leads to a negative experience, and that's when there's
poor leadership and when there's poor stakeholder management. And both of them, you'll see start bubbling
up to the top as an issue if you have a poor communication plan or a poor communicator
as the project lead. Without clear communication, you're not going
to be a good leader and you're not going to have good stakeholder management. And the minute that your stakeholders are
not behind you on the project whether they're internal, external, or part of your project
team, the work isn't going to get done in the way that you desire it to be done. Again, I'm going to turn to case studies that
are well-documented in the Project Management Institute, ww.PMI.org. The City of Montreal was awarded the honor
of hosting the 1976 Olympics. They set out to build a model set of facilities
to support this special event. Unfortunately, the original and schedule and
the original budget were not met. Many planned facilities were not ready or
incomplete when the Games began. The original budget of 160 million ultimately
ended up costing over 430 million. Every one of the 12 project principles were
not adhered to. Let me go ahead and share two examples. Number one, the mayor of Montreal assumed
project management responsibilities. This he misrepresented the facts of the project,
did not follow proven contracting guidelines, made deals behind the scene and ultimately
lost the trust of the team and city as a whole. This mayor was a poor steward. Secondly, the mayor also acted unilaterally
and virtually did his own thing. Team communications were not effective. The team had no clear direction. Contributions to solve design problems were
totally ignored, and the overall culture of the project was caustic at best. The mayor failed to create a collaborative
team environment.