As I see it the promise of social project management comes from acknowledging that projects (particularly large projects) are a social activity. People doing work with people, for other people, with commitments to yet other people. The more people (i.e. larger projects), the more interpersonal interactions, the more social effects inside of the project.

The focus on Gantt Charts as an example of something that just doesn’t work is interesting. It turns out that there is a mathematical reason that Gantt Charts the way they are done today just don’t work (when I get a post for this I’ll link here).

This comment is already rather long so I’ve blogged a detailed response on Social Project Management in Large Projects.