The Art of War emphasizes a concept similar to the project charter: the sovereign selects a general with all the necessary qualities; good fighting skills, the ability to handle superior and inferior forces, etc.; Then trust him to win the war without any interference from the sovereign. There is a lot of emphasis on the development of a good plan or strategy prior to entering the battle. The Art of War emphasizes that a general must ensure proper execution of plans and continue to review progress to pick up any indication that suggests modifications to the current strategy/plan. There are plenty of references in The Art of War that indicates the importance of integrated management of projects and programs. The closure is not directly referenced and The Art of War does not discuss disbanding the army, however, it does reference the learning from the past experience for the benefit in the war, on an ongoing basis.

The Art of War talks about ensuring adequate resources and being prepared before going into battle. It talks about measurements, estimations, and calculations for improving chances of victory. There are references to collecting the requirements, defining the scope, creating a WBS, scope verification and scope control. For example, on changes, it says “Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops must be decided by circumstances“, which means, that the changes must be analyzed thoroughly in decisions related to changes to the project’s plans are taken. Having a change control board helps in analyzing their influence on baselines.

Sun Tzu also comments on the time management aspects of a war project in The Art of War. There are a number of statements that can be applied to the processes in the time management knowledge area. There is an emphasizes on defining activities, sequencing them, estimating the resources needed to perform the activities, developing a schedule, and, finally, controlling the schedule from the perspective of going to war. Sun Tzu places a specific emphasis on the sequencing while preparing the schedule.

Due to the very nature of war, there were bound to be references to the costs. There are statements that refer to the obvious; costs should be estimated for all resources that will be required to complete the project. This should cover all direct and indirect costs. There is another interesting quote about the resources – “Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus, the army will have food enough for its needs”, which means – “Develop an approximation of financial resources needed to deliver the project. Analyze trade-offs and alternatives; deploy make versus buy, buy versus lease, and resource sharing, for optimal costs.”

I didn’t expect to find anything related to the quality management as The Art of War was never about the production and delivering. But again war is mission critical, hence, Sun Tzu has said some things that try to bring out the necessity of performing steps that bear similarities with quality management as defined in PMBOK®. For example, Sun Tzu says, “Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient”, indicating that a project manager must use quality tools, perform quality audits to understand the team’s strengths and weaknesses and use benchmarking to compare against industry standards for identifying areas for improvement.

Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, places emphasis on teams rather than on individuals. The emphasis is on developing teams, keeping spirits up and keeping soldiers motivated. The role of the general in the creation of a strong, united army is stressed. The Art of War discusses rewards and recognition, and other incentives to motivate the army. Building the army into a single fighting unit and emphasizing teamwork rather than the individual is stressed many times.

Poor communication usual result in disaster in wars. The Art of War emphasizes the need for communications, identifying and planning the information needs and methods of information distribution, and making these available to all generals, and soldiers. There are references to how information distribution happens and the various ways of reporting performance. Such references are similar to PMBOK® processes in communications management. Sun Tzu’s quote, “Gongs and drums, banners and flags are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point” is an example of the importance of communication information needs of stakeholders. There are lots of references where it is emphasized that the right information must be available to the decision makers.

War being mission critical, The Art of War puts great emphasis on the need to identify risks. Identifying risks and determining the risks that can affect the outcome of the battle is the major responsibility of the general. Discussions around risk analysis and planning the risk responses can also be found. Sun Tzu lays great emphasis on various risk mitigation strategies and planning appropriate risk responses to deal with all the identified risks. There is also an emphasis on monitoring and controlling risks throughout the course of the battle, very similar to how risk is addressed in PMBOK®.

I did not expect much in The Art of War about procurement. Sun Tzu has discussed briefly abound procurement management, primarily due to the fact that modern projects are about creating services or products. Though suppliers might have existed even during the time when Sun Tzu lived, they are more likely to be under the control of kings and kingdoms; therefore no mention about them can be found in The Art of War. Given the fact that a supplier exists to complement some skills or products that our organization does not own, a supplier is necessarily an extension of the project team and, a supplier’s activity could be planned and managed based on the project needs. The Art of War does state that “We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors“. Which means we must establish partnerships and alliances, with suppliers whose business complement that of ours.