Warfare is an extension of state in exerting its influences. Project is an extension of a company in exerting its competitiveness. While PMI provides standards, best practices, and guidelines, it views situations within the box. Practitioners are advised to follow through Organization Process Assets (OPA), Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF), and/or advises of senior members on non-standard situations. Sunzi's Art of War can offer a valuable insights from outside the box. There are common issues faced by generals and project managers. 1) Time/Heaven – it is always a race against time because any prolongment drains available resources. 2) Resources/Earth – While it is necessary to spend capital toward the completion of project, no project is worth the cost, if the end result would bankrupt a nation/company. 3) People – Whether internal stakeholders to external vendors or domestic oppositions to foreign combatants, they are the wildcards in a control environment.

1. Sunzi’s
Art of War PMP
No long project ever profited any company

2. Who
Sunzi (Master Sun)
• Chinese Scholar in dusk of
Spring & Autumn Period
(D. 470 BC)
• Assisted Wu State to
become a hegemon after
nearly destroyed Chu and
Yue States.
• Knew when to retire and
survived a purge.
PMI (project management international)
• a US not-for-profit
professional organization
for project management.
• Began as a group of people
from aerospace,
construction and defense
industries who wanted to
set standards.
• 2012, ISO adopted it as
international project
management standard.

3. What
Art of War
– Ancient Chinese military
treaties
– Composed of 13 chapters ,
each of which focused on
an aspect of warfare
– Influential on Eastern and
Western military thinking,
business tactics, legal
strategy and beyond.
PMI Standards
– Modern American project
management standard
– Composed of 5 Process
Groups and 47 Processes,
each of which focused on
an aspect of project
management
– Influential on Eastern and
Western project
management standards

4. Why
Warfare is an extension of state in exerting its influences
Project is an extension of a company in exerting its
competitiveness
While PMI provides standards, best practices, and
guidelines, it views situations within the box. Practitioners
are advised to follow through Organization Process Assets
(OPA), Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF), and/or
advises of senior members on non-standard situations.
Sunzi's Art of War can offer a valuable insights from
outside the box.

5. Presentation
There are 13 chapters in the Art of War
This presentation focuses on first 4 chapters
Other presentations will complete the rest.
Sunzi’s Art of PMP quotes are in italic.

6. The Art of PMP in PMI
Project Management Process Group
Initiating Planning Executing
Monitoring
&
Controlling
Closing
1. Planning
(始計)
2. Waging
(作戰)
4. Army
(軍形)
3. Attacking
(謀攻)
7. Maneuvering
9. Movement
12. Fire
5. Forces
6. Weakness
8. Variation
10. Terrain
11. Battlegrounds
13. Intelligence

7. Enemies of PMP
In Art of War, enemy
or enemies easily
defined.
What about project
management?
Enemies of Project
Management
Time
Distance
Resources
Men
Risks

8. DETAILED ASSESSMENT AND
PLANNING
Project is of immense importance. Because it will determines the company
and it's employees survival. Thus the initial assessment of project is of
utmost importance.
始
計

9. Project Initiation
Define Scope
Commit Resources
Interact Stakeholders
Select Project Manger
Approve Charter
P
M
I

10. Five Assessments
Moral
Heaven
Earth
Commander
Method and Discipline
五
計

11. Initiation & Assessment (I)
Define Scope
– The work performed to
deliver a product,
service, or result with
the specified features
and functions.(1)
(1) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 555. Print.
Moral Law
– The closer align of
project scope to moral
law, the greater the
chance for stakeholders
to be in complete accord
with their project
manager, so that they
will follow him
regardless and
undismayed by any risks.

12. Initiation & Assessment (II)
Commit Resources
– Skilled human resources
(specific disciplines either
individually or in crews or
teams), equipment, services,
supplies, commodities,
material, budgets, or
funds.(2)
(2) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 558. Print.
Heaven
– The timing of this
project will have an
impact on its success.
• political condition
• business condition
• social condition
• technological condition

13. Initiation & Assessment (III)
Interact Stakeholder
– An individual, group,
or organization who
may affect, be affected
by, or perceive itself to
be affected by a
decision, activity, or
outcome of a project.(3)
(3) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 563. Print.
Earth
– Location of the project
• Physical location
• Corporate hierarchy/
structure
• Social structure
(displacement)
– Resources
• Consumables
• Non-consumables

14. Initiation & Assessment (IV)
Select Project
Manager
– The person assigned by
the performing
organization to lead the
team that is responsible
for achieving the
project objectives.(4)
(4) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 555. Print.
Commander
– Leader who is known
to have following
virtues
• Wisdom
• Sincerely
• Benevolence
• Courage
• Strictness

15. Initiation & Assessment (V)
Approved Charter
– A document issued by
the project initiator or
sponsor that formally
authorizes the existence
of a project and provides
the project manager with
the authority to apply
organizational resources
to project activities.(5)
(5) - Project Management Institute. "Glossary." A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 5th ed. Newtown Square,
Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, 2013. 553. Print.
Method & Discipline
– Both internal and
external regulations,
processes, and
procedures
– Support systems
– Cost controls

16. Calculations
1. Does the project imbue
with the moral law?
2. Which project manager
has most ability?
3. Does this project take
advantage of time and
location?
4. Is discipline most
rigorously enforced?
5. How strong is the project
team?
6. Are project team highly
trained?
7. Does the company has
great constancy both in
reward and punishment?

17. Section Summary
These calculations and assessments come from business
case, agreements, enterprise environmental factors, and
organizational process assets.
Now the project manager (PM) who completes project
makes many calculations in his office ere the project is
began. The PM who fails project makes but few
calculation beforehand… It is by attention to this point
that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose…

18. WAGING WAR
When you engage in actual work, if completion is long in coming, then
employees’ equipment will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If
you engage in any prolonged or persistent effort to overcome resistance,
you will exhaust your strength.
作
戰

19. Project Planning
Waging War focuses on knowledge area of
– Cost & Time Management and their effects on
• Troops
• Supplies

20. Cost of Waging War (I)
Until the project is completed, everything from glue and paint to
vehicles is a resource drain for the company.
If a project is protracted, the resources of the company will not
be equal to the strain.
– there must be a line that once crossed, the company/sponsor has to
cancel the project.
when your equipment are dulled, your ardor damped, your
strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other company (or
project manager) will spring up to take advantage of your
extremity. Then no company (or manager), however wise, will
be able to avert the consequences that must ensure.

21. Cost of Waging War (II)
The skillful manager does not ask for more employees,
neither does he requested for funding more than twice.
– The company/sponsor may approve requests for additional
employees and funding…Once! Any additional solicitation will
reflect project manager’s ability to manage.
Bring project material with you from home, but purchase
additional supplies at the local.
– Even if the cost of good and services from afar may be cheaper,
but time and modification will add additional expenses that cost
more than local providers.

22. Time in Waging War (I)
Until the project is completed, everything from
glue and paint to vehicles will be worn out as
project prolonged. People will get exhausted and
dull their skills.
…though we have heard of stupid haste in project
completion, cleverness has never been seen
associated with long delays.
There is no instance of a company having benefited
from prolonged project.

23. Time in Waging War (II)
In project, then, let your great object be victory,
not lengthy campaigns.
Of all 10 knowledge areas of project management,
time is the most important.
Time is really the only capital that any human
being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to
lose. ~Thomas Edison

24. Section Summary
Trifecta of Project Planning are
Time (Heaven): a nonrenewal resource
Resource/Cost (Earth): a finite resource and over
deplete it will destroy a company
People (Person): a finite resource that consumed other
assets and became dull with long process.
Thus, it may be known that the leader of project is the
arbiter of the company’s fate, the man on whom it depend
the business shall be in success or in bankruptcy.

25. STRATEGIC ATTACKS
In practical Art of PMP, the best thing of all is to complete the project
with minimal lost of resources; to exhaust and bankrupt resources is not
so good. So, too, it is better to form good relationships with stakeholders
than to destroy it; to enable the project team than to debilitate them…
謀
攻

26. Project Execution
Strategic Attacks focuses on knowledge
area of
– Quality Management
– Human Resource Management

27. Quality in Strategic Attacks (I)
Follow up from Waging War about time, resources,
and people are precious capitals
Quality is about getting maximum usages of
resources with minimum lost.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the
result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent
direction and skillful execution; it represents the
wise choice of many alternatives.
~William A. Foster

28. Quality in Strategic Attacks (II)
Thus the highest form of PMP is to have a well defined
and understood quality plan; the next best is to simply
divide up project tasks; the next in order is to just go
execute the plan; and the worst policy of all is to do a
schedule compression on a project task.
The rule is, not to do a schedule compression on a project
task if it can possibly be avoided. The material cost will
be three times than what is budgeted; the risk incurred
will be three times than what is anticipated.

29. Quality in Strategic Attacks (III)
The project manager, unable to control his irritation, will
launch his team to crashing the task like swarming ants, with
the result that one-third of his crews are exhausted and
disheartened, while the task may still remains uncompleted.
Such are the disastrous effects of doing schedule compression.
Therefore the skillful leader subdues costs with quality
planning; he advances tasks, without much delay; he completes
the project without getting bugged down.
With his team intact, he will dispute the mastery of the
Corporation, his triumph will be completed. This is the method
of attacking in strategy.

30. Human Resources in
Strategic Attacks (I)
A clear understanding of roles is a must!
There are three ways in which a sponsor can
bring misfortune upon the project team:
1. By commanding the team to advance or to retreat,
being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey.
This is called hobbling the team.

31. Human Resources in
Strategic Attacks (II)
2. By attempting to govern a team in the same way
as he manages a department, being ignorant of
the conditions which obtain in a project team.
This causes restlessness in the employees' minds.
3. By employing project management team of his
project team without discrimination, through
ignorance of the management principle of
adaptation to circumstances.
This shakes the confidence of the employees.

32. Human Resources in
Strategic Attacks (III)
Consequence of ambiguous understanding
of roles
“…when the team is restless and distrustful,
trouble is sure to come from other managers.
This is simply bringing anarchy into the team,
and flinging victory away”

33. Human Resources in
Strategic Attacks (IV)
Five essentials for victory:
1) Knows when to fight and when not to fight
2) Knows how to handle both superior and inferior
forces
3) Energizes the team by the same spirit throughout all
ranks
4) Knows how to be prepared, and waits to take the
opposition unprepared.
5) Has management capacity and is not interfered by the
sponsor.

34. Section Summary
Some of your enemies in project management…
Lack of quality controls
Lack clear understanding on chain of commands
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you
need not fear the result of a hundred projects. If
you know yourself but not the enemy, for every
victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you
know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
succumb in every project.

35. DISPOSITION OF THE ARMY
The good PMP of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat,
and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.
軍
形

36. Planning
Disposition of the Army focuses on
knowledge area of
– Develop Project Management Plan
– Plan Quality Management

37. Integration of the Army (I)
What does it mean to “put themselves
beyond the possibility of defeat”
– We are in control of project through clear
understanding of Project Management
Knowledge Areas, through monitoring and
controlling project works, and through
performing necessary change controls.

38. Integration of the Army (II)
What does it mean to “waited for an
opportunity of defeating the enemy”
– With a clear understanding of project resources,
time, and status, we can quickly take
advantageous situations when they become
available (i.e. tasks completed ahead of schedule,
additional resources are given, gain support from
formerly opposing stakeholders, etc.)

39. Plan Quality for Army
What does it mean to “put themselves
beyond the possibility of defeat”
– This is done by
He wins his deadlines by making no mistakes.
Making no mistakes is what establishes the
certainty of victory, for it means complete a task
that is already done.

40. Plan Methods for Army
How to not make mistakes?
In respect of project method, we have first,
Measurement; secondly, Estimation of quantity;
thirdly, Calculation; fourthly, Balance of
changes; fifthly, Victory.

41. Methods of Quality of Army
A more detail explanation for Art of PMP
Measurement owes its existence to Earth;
Estimation of quantity to Measurement;
Calculation to Estimation of quantity; Balancing
of chances to Calculation; and Victory to
Balancing of chances.

42. Section Summary
Project Management Plan is the accumulated result of all 10
Knowledge Areas.
Plan Quality Management is identifying necessary
requirements and standards for the project to be success.
By thoroughly understand both, the Project Manager is
putting herself beyond the possibility of failure.
Thus it is that in war the victorious Project Manager only
seeks executing process after the victory has been won,
whereas he who is destined to defeat first executing
process and afterwards looks for victory.

43. CONCLUSION
While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful
circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.
結
論

44. Conclusion
There are common issues faced by generals and
project managers.
1. Time/Heaven – it is always a race against time because
any prolongment drains available resources.
2. Resources/Earth – While it is necessary to spend capital
toward the completion of project, no project is worth the
cost, if the end result would bankrupt a nation/company.
3. People – Whether internal stakeholders to external vendors
or domestic oppositions to foreign combatants, they are
the wildcards in a control environment.
結
論

45. Conclusion (II)
PMI breaks a project into 5 process groups and 10
knowledge areas.
Sunzi focused on 5 constant factors and 7
measurements.
Prevailing take away from both PMI and Sunzi is
that Planning Ahead is the key to successful
project/campaign.
結
論