CBPM (Commitment-Based Project Management) works because it empowers the team members. It allows them to commit to a date they can believe on not one the project manager made up.
This is the most important reason why it works, but there are other supporting reasons:
- The plan is put together by the team, not by the PM or upper management.
- The interdependencies become highly visible to everyone during the plan development process.
- CBPM focuses on deliverables, not on tasks. The customer doesnt care about all of the work team members have to do to deliver an item. S/he only cares about the deliverables. In a similar fashion, team members only care about deliverables they need to be able to do their work, not all the other work that other team members have to do.
- A deliverable is done or not done. None of this 80% done (which means that 80% of the effort remains, following the 80-20 rule). No grayness here. If theres disagreement, the customer of the deliverable has the final word.
- Since the customer of a deliverable has the final say, this approach encourages the supplier of the deliverable to know what the customers want by communicating with them.
- Its very clear who owns (the supplier) what deliverable in the matrix.
- Its very clear who needs the deliverables (the customers).
- Knowing who owns it and who needs it improves communications. The PM is not the keeper of the deliverable status. The suppliers and customers need to talk to each other.
- Status is visible in the deliverables matrix. Its on time, late, or done. Red indicates late and no one likes their items being late.
- The PAC (Performance Against Commitments) chart clearly indicates how well the team is doing.
Whats your experience with CBPM? Let us know.