A log cabin in the backwoods and a sprawling mansion on a golf course share nothing in common at first glance. But strip away the size and cosmetic differences and both have the same common elements: foundation, floor, walls, roof, windows, plumbing. Scale and sophistication differ wildly. The building elements themselves don’t.
Projects work the same way.
A weekend-long DIY project to build a backyard garden shed and an eleven-year, $360M solar telescope design-build effort look like they belong in different universes. Run both through the same planning questions, however, and they rest on an identical structure. That’s the core idea behind the Project Management Blueprint (PMB): every project, regardless of size, is built from the same 10 planning blocks. Only the level of detail, rigor, and formality change.
Shed vs. telescope, on the same 10 steps:
Goals & Expectations: Store garden tools by fall vs. resolve 0.03-arcsecond solar features.
Stakeholders: A spouse and the HOA vs. the solar physics community and NSF.
Scope of Deliverables: A shed and foundation vs. a 4-meter telescope and a suite of scientific instruments.
Quality Acceptance Criteria: Passes city inspection vs. sidereal tracking accuracy, code compliance.
Acquisitions Approach: Self-perform the slab, hire Home Depot vs. competitive industrial procurements.
Project Controls: A phone app and weekly check-ins vs. validated earned value management.
Schedule: A long weekend vs. thousands of sequenced activities across a decade.
Budget: A few thousand dollars vs. hundreds of millions, time-phased.
Risk & Contingency: An extra week and $500 vs. a full year and tens of millions.
Closeout: A punch-list walkthrough vs. formal NSF closeout procedures and as-built documentation.
Same ten questions. Wildly different answers.
That’s why “tailoring and scaling” matters so much in the Blueprint. Your job isn’t to invent new building blocks for every project — it’s recognizing that the blocks are fixed, then choosing the right tool and rigor for each. A hammer for a picture nail; a sledgehammer for demolition. Same principle, different job.
So the next time a new project feels intimidating, remember: it isn’t. Underneath the unfamiliar scope and stakeholders are the same ten questions you’ve answered before, wearing a different hat. Recognize the foundation, the framing, the roof — and build from there.
Great perspective Mark! And one that makes a good PM so versatile - its not the specifics of the project that should be the concern - those details will be solved along the way. A good PM will transfer the right structure, process, management, and ability to plan and execute into any type of project!