Project Management ToolBox: Tools and Techniques for the Practicing Project Manager

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Strategic Role of the PM Toolbox

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

Thomas Carlyle

Conventional wisdom holds that individual project management (PM) tools are enabling devices to reach an objective or, more specifically, a project deliverable. While this traditional role of PM tools is more than meaningful, we believe that there is more to the tools than that. In particular, PM tools can be used as basic building blocks to construct a PM toolbox. In this new role, the PM toolbox supports the standardized project management (SPM) process. The goal of this chapter is to

• Clarify the new role.
• Explain its strategic importance.

To accomplish these objectives, we first present an overview of the new role. Then, special aspects of the role are explained.

The New Role of the PM Toolbox

As shown in Figure 1.1, a typical SPM process includes process phases, milestones, technical deliverables, and managerial deliverables. Supporting it in its new role is the PM toolbox (at this time, we only focus on managerial deliverables and the PMtoolbox). Two principles are important in the support. First, each managerial deliverable is specifically supported by a specific tool or tools. That means that each of these tools is selected because of its systematic procedure to help produce the deliverable. Second, the PM toolbox is constructed to include all tools necessary to complete the whole set of SPM processes' managerial deliverables, which we have ...