Process is a side effect of Communication not the other way around!!!

PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS

The more often than not battle cry of the Project Manager.

PMBOK teaches process and standards...
SCRUM is a process...
SO is XP...
SO is waterfall...

So what's the big deal? That means process is important right? Wrong!!!

Process is a child of communication. In an environment where there is little or no communication or mutual understanding of business objectives process is typically viewed as a liability because there is no context associated to how it will improve the business.

Conversely communication does not happen initially in a process environment it happens as organizations and individuals interact and identify areas for which they can agree upon and identify economies of scale. The interactions and communication ideally are identified and then held as a standard to be met or reproduced creating a "Process".

This is why I always cringe when I hear a PM say the solution is to create a process when the true answer is the PM needs to create a "dialogue" (read here communication) between the business objectives and the teams working on them and identify what is acceptable to both entities. Based off of the outcome of the dialogue then the process can be identified and followed.

PM's should never be in the business of bringing process to an organization but in the business of creating dialogues that allow an organization to build its own processes.

Ya Savvy?

-Optimal Optimus