Project management: art or science?

Art or science?

Art and science have so much in common – the process of trial and error, finding something new and innovative, and to experiment and succeed in a breakthrough. –Peter M. Brant, American businessman.

Those of us who spend many hours involved with projects, sponsors, teams, and deliverables often don’t have the time or the inclination to look at the bigger picture. For those who are considering joining the profession, the nuts and bolts of it can seem quite intimidating.

In many ways, project management is a bit like the legal profession or medicine – there’s a great deal of vocabulary, process, and detail to learn along with the ability to anticipate chaos.

Is project management a science or an art?

How to you perceive art? For many, art involves emotion and expressing feelings in different ways. Painting, architecture, needlework all exploit the creative process. There are many aspects of project management that also exploit that creative process.

The creative process

How many different ways can a schedule be created? It seems very specific, though each individual has their own methods. Ten different project managers develop ten different schedules and each one can probably get the project done.

Dealing with team members is often an exercise in creative expression. Working with people and helping them do their best is a learned skill that gets better over time. Not unlike the how artists improve and change their work as they grow and learn.

The art of project management is the ability to anticipate chaos and handle issues as they arise, often with no warning and no definite solution.

The scientific process

Science is defined as a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws. It’s driven by logic, process, and facts. We are all aware of the sciences – math, physics, biology, chemistry. What about project management?

We have a specific, documented process in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). But is there a body of facts or truths systemically arranged and showing the operation of general laws? Do all projects happen the same way in the same time frames?

I’m not sure what the general laws of project management might be. Perhaps one general law is “What can go wrong will go wrong.”

In my experience, even the same projects done over and over are seldom repeatable in exactly the same way. However, those projects often produce the required deliverable regularly.

The science of project management is the use of the defined process to help avoid the chaos and have that process to handle issues.

The answer?

Have we answered the question? My answer is that project management is much more an art than a science.

I agree with Will Durant, the American Historian when he said, “Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.” This sums it up nicely.

What do you think? Is project management a science or an art? Let us know in the comments.

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