.... It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes [... our project] worthwhile. And it tells us everything about [... about a project] except why we are proud that we are [...doing the project]."
Robert F. Kennedy
Senator Kennedy said this -- within the limits of my somewhat tortured paraphrase substitutions to port it to our domain -- in the midst of a political campaign; he was referring to the metrics of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
His point was one that is all too common in many domains of human exertion: the mix-up between that which we can objectively measure and that which we know subjectively as quality, value, and purpose achieved.
Now, one can make measurements on some subjective values, to be sure. But on many of the qualities that lend utility and excite interest, who can say why, really?
I've actually given it a go; I've written a whole book on finding/delivering project value. I'm not the first and likely not the last to address this subject.
But I've also written books on the objective means to measure projects.
Now, it's probably no surprise that "Maximizing Project Value" is not the first book a PM picks up; more likely it will be a subject as "Quantitative Methods" and "Project Management the Agile Way"; but I actually think "Maximizing Project Value" may be the more important subject to know and internalize -- for all the reasons RFK spoke about.
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