Bridging the Business-Project Divide (Techniques for Reconciling Business-as-Usual and Project Cultures)

Citation

Nur Suhaili Ramli (2015), "Bridging the Business-Project Divide (Techniques for Reconciling Business-as-Usual and Project Cultures)", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 643-646. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-02-2015-0045

“Bridging the Business-Project Divide” by John Brinkworth is a powerfully realistic book which understands that one of the most natural ways to connect projects and business-as-usual activities is identifying the needs from every aspect of project management. It is based on the author’s professional experiences, which include nearly 30 years of project-related work and management consultancy in business. Furthermore, this book is a representation of the author’s observations, experiences, and insights, which are explained with realistic figures and tables from the projects.

Moreover, the aim of this book is also quite straight forward: to provide the readers with an insight into the thinking and approaches used by both business and project professionals. Furthermore, in every chapter the book has explanations from the business perspective, the project perspective, bridging the divide, and finishes with a summary of its key points. In addition, in some chapters there are additional discussions from alternative perspectives, further reading, reminders, advice, and tips for the business project. There are also consultations in every phase of a project.

This book is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn the techniques of business project management from industrial experiences, which includes from both business viewpoints and project viewpoints. It is divided into two parts: Part One – The Project Lifecycle, and Part Two – Common Strands. Part One mostly covers the micro perspective of the project from the beginning until the post-live point. Meanwhile, Part Two discusses the macro perspective that establishes the project success, starting from quality until the benefit gained from the project itself. The range of topics covered is impressive, from simple diagrams that are familiar in business world to multivariate and in-depth methods. “The Project Lifecycle” in Part One is a micro-level perspective of the business project in this book and covers topics such as identifying a project, justification and approval for a project, getting started, requirements, design, build, validation test, going live, and post-live realization of changes. Meanwhile, Part Two (“Common Strands”) discusses quality, planning and execution, human resources, finance, reporting, and benefits, and is followed by the conclusions.

In the beginning of each chapter there is a definition of the topic, followed by in depth discussion. This book considers each project stage and each project strand from both a business-as-usual perspective and a project perspective. It then looks at how the differing perspectives can be brought closer together as a complete project.

Part One examines starting a business project from the beginning, where it is particularly crucial to identify a project in depth. For instance, project requirements are so often misunderstood because the expectations differ between the business and the project. Therefore, this book has mentioned many times that projects are often instigated as a result of changes and are also constructed themselves to result in change. Meanwhile, business for the purpose of this book refers to any sort of organization or enterprise focussing on delivering something on an ongoing basis.

Part Two examines the big picture of the project, still including discussion from both the business viewpoint and the project viewpoint. For instance, organizational changes can often prompt many types of project such as separations, new business units or a restructuring of an existing business. This section explains more about the role of human resources, finance planning, quality, and reporting and how they influence both businesses and projects. In addition, activity changes can lead to a project by considering some characteristics of what needs to be changed, a new method for achieving this, and activity volume, which are rationalized in this book.

According to John, the business is staffed by a number of individuals with a range of perspectives, while a project perspective shows a good set of requirements are needed to satisfy a number of criteria. Therefore, this book recommends understanding this view from an experienced practitioner or to add the existing project management knowledge from academics sources. Another important aspect in project management business is time. This is because time is always valuable in every decision and project phase; therefore timing is the concept of fixed deadlines. This book mentions this in a number of chapters as it is the fundamental problem for a project or a project manager.

Moreover, the author examines a project with a deeper analysis, going behind the symptoms to consider the root causes and the solutions, for instance addressing the root causes and how this could lead to more successful projects. The book is packed full of professional experience, advice and tips, wisdom, tools and techniques, which readers can immediately and practically apply in order to succeed in project management. This is not a typical project management book that is full of general discussion or plain theory; it is more than that. It offers more realistic experiences and practical advice with real world relevance.

Furthermore, this book offers neutral and lucid language, practical examples, and is detailed in all aspects yet uncomplicated and is therefore suitable for students, academics, and business practitioners. It is recommended to anyone interested in understanding how to deal with a business project from scratch until after the project goes live, using real experience from a management consultant in the industry. Moreover, it is an easy book divided into 17 chapters and just 203 pages including the complete process of managing a business project, and it is also very helpful for tackling problems. Therefore, it is a must and an asset for all those interested in delivering business project management.

Although this book is not an academic book, it is still the envy of all the other business project books available in the market. This is because the author has included nearly 30 years of project-related work and consulting. The content, format, and structure of the book are solid and provide a smooth flow for the reader. Furthermore, we can read it from start-to-finish, or dip into any section we want to read up on. In addition, this book gives a broad view of project management without diving into too much detail. The balance between hard and soft factors represents their weight in project work.

Another interesting part of this book is the figures and tables. The flowchart diagrams showing how the various methods relate to each other are excellent; they are extremely helpful and allow readers to understand more about business projects from John’s 30 years of professional experience. The examples used are realistic, neither too simplistic nor too elaborate. The writing is clear, accessible, short and concise, with simply business language and little jargon.

In contrast, certain fundamental ideas are presented more than once as they are very common in project management and managing business. However, reading the book from the beginning to the end without skipping any key points creates a clear understanding of these points. This book may even start to feel a bit repetitive but there are detailed explanations in every chapter giving different ideas, perspectives, and tips. Hence, with easy language use, and the repeated presentation of some key concepts, a clearer picture is offered to readers work their way through from the beginning to the end of the project. Moreover, this book does mention the limitations of business techniques from his experience and also from the academics perspective.

Furthermore, there may be a gap in culture, character, business requirements, understanding of attitude and habits. My awareness of the differences in terms of culture and understanding of work processes and approaches has hopefully been reduced as a result of reading this book.

In conclusion, this book is definitely recommended for those doing project management either academically or professionally. This is because this book enables project teams and business teams to understand each other better and as a result achieve more successful projects together. Across business and project communities, good practice on how to run effective projects is also established by combining different degrees in each situation such as fear, lack of interest, over optimism, personal biases, and incentives. Finally, in reality, the bridge does not need to be built because it is actually there and both parties simply need to make a deliberate effort to walk across it as often as they can, to stand on the other side of the divide and look at the situation from the other party’s point of view.