Lesson 4: Project Management Methodologies

The Lewis Method

Dr. James P. Lewis, one of my all-time favourite writers on the subject of Project Management (and author of the wonderful book The Project Manager's Desk Reference) has developed a popular project management methodology which he calls The Lewis Method.

The Lewis Method is a very rational approach to project management which includes the following 16 steps:

1. Concept is Developed

2. Develop a Problem, Vision, and Mission Statement

3. Generate Alternative Project Strategies

4. Select and Evaluate the Strategy

5. Ask: Is the Evaluation OK?

6. Develop an Implementation Plan

7. Ask: Is the Plan OK for all Stakeholders?

8. Signoff Project Plan and Setup a Project Notebook

9. Execute the Plan

10. Ask: Is Progress OK?

11. Ask: Is the Definition OK?

12. Ask: Is the Strategy OK?

13. Ask: Is the Plan OK?

14. Ask: Is all work complete?

15. Conduct Lessons Learned Review

16. Closeout Project

I do not want to go into detail as to what each of these steps entails, for a couple of reasons. The first is that we'd need at least another course, if not a whole suite of courses, to really give each step the attention it deserves. Secondly, we will be going into some project management methodological detail in lessons 5 and 6, where we'll look at a 10-step methodology that is based on the Lewis Method.

All I'd like for us to do in this section is to note that there is a kind of logical, linear path that the Lewis Method advises us to follow, and that path itself is a project management methodology.

You can also see how general this methodology is; it can be applied to a project that plans a wedding, or one that plans the building of a house. That is a very good feature of this methodology, because it allows the Project Manager to adapt it and enhance it to suit the requirements of a unique project.

Don't spend time or energy memorizing this methodology or anything like that. Just know that it exists, and note its logical, linear path through the project, from start to finish. This is what a a project methodology is all about.

References used in this section (these books are available for order via the Resources link above):

The Project Manager’s Desk Reference, by James P. Lewis. Chapter 2. **Note: the model is highlighted in chapter 2, but the entire book is focused on explaining most of these steps in an introductory/reference fashion.

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