★★★★★ 5
Strategic Management Made Simple and Effective
Format: Hardcover
I told Terry Schmidt that would be a better title for his book, “Strategic Management Made Simple and Effective”.
The time-tested Logical Framework Approach (LFA) that Terry champions goes far beyond project management. With its exploratory LogFrame matrix leading from inputs to outcomes, outcomes to purpose, and purpose to goal, the LFA forces you to understand the reason for the project. Projects are not executed for their own reason but to achieve something specific. The LogFrame traverses the ladder from inputs to goal through objectives with success measures, ways to verify success, and assumptions that must hold true be successful.
Terry adds his own concept -- that he calls the Implementation Equation™ -- to help you build the LogFrame: IF inputs AND valid assumptions, THEN outcomes / IF outcomes AND valid assumptions, THEN purpose / IF purpose AND valid assumptions, THEN goal.
This methodology offers you a way to view the LogFrame with multiple perspectives: scientific method, strategic planning, project management, risk management, management by objectives, and, although he does not mention it, also quality management.
In particular, his use of assumptions has helped me to redefine my view of risk management. Rather than brainstorm a large list of possible risks in a registry that becomes impossible to manage, I use the probability that the assumptions needed for success are not valid – and their impact on achieving success, as the true risks that must be actively managed.
A highly entertaining as well as informative book, “Strategic Project Management Made Simple”, or whatever you choose to call it, should be the first guide you reach for when building a portfolio, creating programs or products, or starting a project.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2021
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