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In an uncharacteristic gesture of relevance, I’d like to turn our attention to the War in Iraq, less formally known as Mr. Bush’s War. Here in the States, opinions and perspectives about the war are constantly in the Media, and in everyday conversation. It is an issue as divisive and polarizing as anything since the Vietnam War. Let’s take a look at the War from a Project Management Perspective.

So the question is, how would an experienced consulting project manager begin an evaluation of the War? What questions would one ask? What conclusions can be drawn from a strictly project management perspective?

An important aspect of any project is its context, that is, how does it fit within the portfolio of other projects that the organization is pursuing, or intends too pursue.

Mr. Bush puts the War in Iraq right in the center of the overall War on Terror. The War on Terror has an undoubted high priority after 9/11. A surprise disaster of that magnitude would have any organization scrambling to refocus priorities into prevention and remediation.

We certainly saw the formation of study teams and project teams to review all aspects of the disaster – and we can imagine a mapping from the 9/11 disaster to a safety, security, or even manufacturing quality control disaster in a corporation. There would be a strong demand for analysis of the causes (the five Whys? Fishbone diagrams?) .

There would be planning and execution around control or remediation of the root causes. Project-based efforts would be chartered to address the identified problems or weaknesses. Careful prioritization would occur to apply scare resources to high value results areas.

How does this map to our efforts in Iraq? Let’s ask some Why questions to see if we can map the connection from 9/11 to Mr. Bush’s War.