One of the most critical and difficult parts of executing a complex product development project, is the integration of all of the stakeholders, tasks, resources, requirements, and management information. Project Integration ensures that objectives are understood and aligned; tempo is adequate and synchronized; and issues, risks and help needs are all communicated. All Project Managers struggle with this, and most do a reasonably good job at it. Some however don’t do it well, and perhaps worst of all, some deceive themselves into thinking they’ve got it together, when in fact they’re on the edge of disintegration. This limerick was inspired by that self-deception.

Project Integration?

There once was an organization,
Which had trouble with project integration.
It was system they sought,
But instead what they got,
Were components flying in close formation.

                                                                              Don McAlister, 20 November 1997