I nearly wrote this a couple of weeks ago but stopped. At the time I was annoyed and frustrated and would have simply ranted rather than reflected. The urge to write was sparked by a comment on this morning's edition of The Out of Doors Show where they were visiting St Kilda and the question was posed "... but what value did it add?"
During my undergraduate degree there was a module which I really didn't enjoy. The main reason was that I couldn't see the value in learning about how how different optical measuring devices were made or how different manufacturers used different approaches. The relevance of learning about these devices felt redundant as the industry (outside of the university) was moving to digital and I felt I was being forced to learn about something which was obsolete and irrelevant. Twenty plus years later the feelings remain - and I have never used anything from that module in real life.
Similar feelings have been sparked in this current module when learning about activity-on-arrow networks and activity-on-node networks. In twenty plus years of working in projects I have never used (or seen anyone else use) either of these. So again it feels like an academic exercise with no practical purpose.
I completely understand what use of these diagrams is intended for and the value that such an analysis can bring - but my experience is that in big projects it is done using a planning tool by a specialist team and in small projects it doesn't get done. Perhaps small projects might benefit from such thinking? Maybe - and it might increase their chances of successful delivery. But I don't know of any project manager who would willingly volunteer to go through the effort required. A view echoed by fellow students on our WhatsApp group chat ....
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