Deming Applied to Project Management?

[GeckManSer@aol.com]

Hello Group,
This is my first posting to the DEN; therefore, I feel a quick introduction 
is in order. My name is Mike Peyton. I am a contract Project Scheduler 
(Marine/Petrochemical Industry) who has recently started his own business. I 
spent 10 years in the Navy (2 enlisted/8 commissioned) and have been in the 
civilian sector for almost 5 years. Since my departure from the Navy I have 
been working in the ship repair/oil rig conversion sector. I have a BA in 
Philosphy, am a RAB certified auditor (QS-PA) and am a member of both ASQ and 
PMI. I am currently working on my PMP (Project Management Professional) 
certification. Also, I am currently reading (and re-reading) OOC for the 
first time (so please excuse my Deming-ignorance). I have been "monitoring" 
the DEN for a little more than a year and would like to enlist your 
collective knowledge to assist me in working through, what I consider to be 
a, a monumental problem in my profession. The problem that I am alluding to 
is the inability of projects (I am personally knowledgeable only within my 
realm of experience) to be completed on time and on budget. In fact, the June 
1999 Project Management Journal "From the Editor" indicates that this is a 
very serious (and common) problem. The gist of the commentary was that 
"overruns are the norm, typically 40% - 200%". This is appalling. I have read 
several good books (by Lewis and Rosenau, and the PMBOK - Project Management 
Book of Knowledge - published by PMI) about Project Managment/Scheduling and 
as I started to read OOC (specifically Chapter 2) I was excited to see the 
correlations between them. However, there is no explicit mention of Deming. 
Additionally, as a Project Scheduler, the PDSA cycle is, more or less, the 
"rule of the day". My interest lies in making the connection (namely 
application of Deming's philosophy, beyond PDSA, to Project Management). I am 
interested to know if this has been done (explicitly) previously. Any 
assitance and/or direction would be greatly appreciated. I firmly believe 
that the Project Management profession needs some "enlightened" direction to 
try to reverse this alarming trend.
Thank you for bearing with me.
Sincerely,
Mike Peyton
GeckManSer@aol.com
(409) 982-2979
"Plan your schedule so you can schedule your plan."
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