Softening the edges of project management – using systems diagrams to ‘form’ a project

Project management has a reputation for favouring the use of ‘hard’ approaches such as Gantt charts, work breakdown structure and network analysis. These approaches work from the premise that the project that is to be undertaken is well defined and understood by those involved; that it is simply a case of working out the most efficient way of reaching an agreed end point in terms of budget, quality and time. In reality, this is often not the case. Businesses are increasingly recognising the value of an initial exploratory phase in which a project is formed. This short paper introduces a case study from the financial sector in which systems diagrams were used to assist a business in the project formation stage. Lessons for practice are drawn out and the role of systems diagrams is considered.