Imagine you eat junk food every day and are overweight.

You are wondering how you could lose a few pounds.

And someone comes and offers you a magic pebble to rub daily on your belly to make you fit again. Would you buy it?

The seller sounds convincing. But you know that it won't happen until you change your diet.

As ridiculous as this may appear, many big companies buy the pebble in the form of methodology.

Every company is overweight

This is a fact. The vast majority of projects fail.

By "fail," I mean they don't deliver the desired outcome with the estimated cost in the compromised time.

Every team, area, or process has some space for improvement.

So every company could get benefits from the magic pebble.

Why Methodology?

Methodology is THE Way. It's innovation, thinking out of the box, efficiency. It's doing more and better with the same resources.

And on top of that, it's trendy.

How does it work in practice?

Simple:

The Manager says the previous project failed because they used an old methodology. But there is a new one that addresses every issue (it's like upgrading the apps in your phone to the last version).

Every big company is using it, so better to adopt it as soon as possible (they write "ASAP" in their PowerPoints).

From that moment on, the methodology becomes essential. Sometimes even more relevant than the project itself.

Don't get me wrong. I like using them. But they are not responsible for the project's issues or results.

Different methodology, same problems

The company invests heavily in implementing the new way of working. But these efforts go in the wrong direction.

Many errors take place in every project. Instead of working on understanding or preventing them, the decision is to add more layers to an already confusing process.

Instead of making it simpler, they make it more complex.

The underlying problems remain the same. No wonder the following projects fail again.

Common issues

Issues in projects can be reduced to:

• Lack of knowledge.
• Lack of time.

Is the methodology going to give you any of these? If not, why do you expect that implementing it will make your project better?

Lack of knowledge

The people with the proper knowledge are not working on the project or are not compromised with it.

The most common case:

Project Manager: We need the Accounting Head for the project
Accounting Director: He is too busy as we are in closing. Our Intern will help you.

This same situation in a few areas, and the whole team is inexperienced.

Lack of time

It could be about deadlines, but it's mainly related to the lack of time that the right people dedicate to the project.

The employees don't put down any activities to participate in the project. Their responsibilities usually stack. So they now have their day-to-day obligations plus the new project's obligations.

Making any methodology work for you.

We already saw that no methodology would solve your projects' issues. But on the flip side, they can be successful using any methodology.

• The key is to understand how the work goes and why it doesn't go. And do something good about it. Issues in projects don't happen in one day or week. They begin small and grow for some time until they explode. Then it's late.
• Be clear about the risks. Once you see something is not working as expected, ask for what you think will solve it. If you don't receive it, raise it as a risk. That's the way to have the top people's attention.
• Make sure you have the right people in the right place. If they are, they will know what is preventing them from progressing.

Conclusion

I'm not against using methodologies. I like to use them. Any of them.

I agree that some tools or ways of working are more adequate than others for specific projects. You can adapt your team and work to your current needs.

My point is that the methodology won't transform a successful project into failure or vice-versa.

The results depend on People, their Roles, and Time. So better to invest in them.