Ok, Fitch’s law is interesting, possibly compelling. It’s tickles your brain. Recall that it is about serving up project management information on standard skills, tools and techniques in a new, interesting and relevant way. This establishes you as a go-to expert. 
You might be thinking “Isn’t everything already said?” I understand the sentiment! Geez – how many books are there already on project management? But I insist No! If the current wisdom from institutions and universities teaching project management was sufficient, the industry would look completely different.
• Project management experience would be the definitive way to C-level positions.
• Projects success rates would finally break the 50% barrier.
• Project Management Offices (PMO’s) would increasingly align organizational initiatives to project funding rather than only report on time, cost and scope metrics.
• Business case attainment would finally stop being a myth and become measured.
There are so many challenges that projects face. This industry hasn’t even scratched the surface of the innovations needed to deliver project success. Our industry is crying for new ideas.
A desire to contribute to this industry is another facet of a successful project management consultant mindset. It is the key to establishing an expert status in your project management area. This is the way to getting invited to engagements. Stop being viewed as just another project manager who has to compete on price alone.
But how do you do this? Back to Fitch’s Law. Remember it is analyzing the subject of project management and providing a new interpretation.” I want to explain how I applied it to my business practice. I dug out my 2005 Project Management Business Plan. Yes 2005, that isn’t a typo. I choose to target a couple of critical success factors:
• Touch 100,000 project practitioners through articles or industry platform (e.g. Software Development Forum, PMI and IIBA)
• Develop key partnerships to jointly deliver workshops to project management professionals.
There is nothing like hundreds of eyeballs staring at you as a conference speaker that makes you research and reflect on how to provide relevant insights. What is amazing about these critical success factors is that I hadn’t done any of it in 2004. The only way to step up to these outrageous goals was to say something different, or for a niche that wanted to hear about it and on areas that need more rigor.
Let me know in your comments on your path to project management consultant success.
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Rosemary Hossenlopp, MBA PMP © 2009 All Rights Reserved
http://www.pm-perspectives.com
Thanks for insightful post….When a project needs to have structure the good old SDLC (waterfall) still holds its own. The most important aspect is good pre-development analysis and documentation. I’ve seen horrible results when iterative approach without complete documentation is used for project management. If you want to take it to the next level, add a little Six Sigma into the mix and your project will be on target.
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