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project management
metrics, kpis, and
dashboards
PREFACE

The ultimate purpose of metrics and dashboards is not to provide more

information but to provide the right information to the right person
at the right time, using the correct media and in a cost-effective man-
ner. This is certainly a challenge. As computer technology has grown, so
has the ease with which information can be generated and presented to
management and stakeholders. Today, everyone seems concerned about
information overload. Unfortunately, the real issue is non-information
overload. In other words, there are too many useless reports that can-
not easily be read and that provide readers with too much information,
much of which may have no relevance. This information simply distracts
us from the real issues and accurate performance reporting. Furthermore,
the growth in metric measurement techniques has encouraged us to mea-
sure everything regardless of its value as part of performance reporting.
The purpose of status reporting is to show us what actions the viewer
must consider. Insufficient or ineffective metrics prevent us from under-
standing what decisions really need to be made. In traditional project
review meetings, emphasis is placed on a detailed schedule analysis and a
lengthy review of the cost baseline versus actual expenditures. The result-
ing discussion and explanation of the variances are most frequently pure
guesswork. Managers who are upset about the questioning by senior man-
agement then make adjustments that do not fix the problems but limit
the time they will be grilled by senior management at the next review
meeting. They then end up taking actions that may be counterproductive
to the timely completion of the project, and real issues are hidden.
You cannot correct or improve something that cannot be effectively
identified and measured. Without effective metrics, managers will not
respond to situations correctly and will end up reinforcing undesirable
actions by the project team. Keeping the project team headed in the right
direction cannot be done easily without effective identification and mea-
surement of metrics.
When all is said and done, we wonder why we have studies like the
Chaos Report, which has shown us over the past 20 years that only about
30 percent of the IT projects are completed successfully. We then identify

ix
x PREFACE

hundreds of causes as to why projects fail but neglect what is now being
recognized as perhaps the single most important cause: a failure in met-
rics management.
Metrics management should be addressed in all of the areas of
knowledge in the PMBOK® Guide,* especially communications manage-
ment. We are now struggling to find better ways of communicating on
projects. This will become increasingly important as companies compete
in a global marketplace. Our focus today is on the unique needs of the
receiver of the information. The need to make faster and better decisions
mandates better information. Human beings can absorb information in
a variety of ways. We must address all of these ways in the selection of the
metrics and the design of the dashboards that convey this information.
The three most important words in a stakeholder’s vocabulary are
“making informed decisions.” This is usually the intent of effective stake-
holder relations management. Unfortunately, this cannot be accom-
plished without an effective information system based on meaningful
and informative metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).
All too often, we purchase project management software and reluc-
tantly rely on the report generators, charts, and graphs to provide the
necessary information, even when we realize that this information either
is not sufficient or has limited value. Even those companies that create
their own project management methodologies neglect to consider the
metrics and KPIs that are needed for effective stakeholder relations man-
agement. Informed decisions require effective information. We all seem
to understand this, yet it has only been in recent years that we have tried
to do something about it.
For decades we believed that the only information that needed to
be passed on to the client and the stakeholders was information related
to time and cost. Today we realize that the true project status cannot be
determined from time and cost alone. Each project may require its own
unique metrics and KPIs. The future of project management may very
well be metric-driven project management.
Information design has finally come of age. Effective communica-
tions is the essence of information design. Today we have many small
companies that are specialists in business information design. Larger
companies may maintain their own specialist team and call these people
graphic designers, information architects, or interaction designers. These
people maintain expertise in the visual display of both quantitative and
qualitative information necessary for informed decision making.
Traditional communications and information flow has always been
based on tables, charts, and indexes that were, it is hoped, organized
properly by the designer. Today information or data graphics combines
points, lines, charts, symbols, images, words, numbers, shades, and a

*PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

 PREFACE xi

symphony of colors necessary to convey the right message easily. What

we know with certainty is that dashboards and metrics are never an end
in themselves. They go through continuous improvement and are con-
stantly updated. In a project management environment, each receiver of
information can have different requirements and may request different
information during the life cycle of the project.
With this in mind, the book is structured as follows:

■ Chapters 1 and 2 identify how project management has changed over

the last few years and how more pressure is being placed on organiza-
tions for effective metrics management.
■ Chapter 3 provides an understanding of what metrics are and how they
can be used.
■ Chapter 4 discusses key performance indications and explains the dif-
ference between metrics and KPIs.
■ Chapter 5 focuses on the value-driven metrics and value-driven KPIs.
Stakeholders are asking for more metrics related to the project’s ulti-
mate value. The identification and measurement of value-driven met-
rics can be difficult.
■ Chapter 6 describes how dashboards can be used to present the met-
rics and KPIs to stakeholders. Examples of dashboards are included
together with some rules for dashboard design.
■ Chapter 7 identifies dashboards that are being used by companies.
■ Chapter 8 provides various business-related metrics that are currently
used by portfolio management project management offices to ensure
that the business portfolio is delivering the business value expected.

HAROLD KERZNER, Ph.D.

Sr. Executive for Project Management
The International Institute for Learning
 1 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER The way project managers managed projects in the past will not suffice
OVERVIEW for many of the projects being managed now or for the projects of the
future. The complexity of these projects will place pressure on organiza-
tions to better understand how to identify, select, measure, and report
project metrics, especially metrics showing value creation. The future of
project management may very well be metric-driven project management.
In addition, new approaches to project management, such as those with
agile and Scrum, have brought with them new sets of metrics.

CHAPTER ■ To understand how project management has changed

OBJECTIVES ■ To understand the need for project management metrics
■ To understand the need for better, more complex project management
metrics

KEY WORDS ■ Certification boards

■ Complex projects
■ Engagement project management
■ Frameworks
■ Governance
■ Project management methodologies
■ Project success

1.0 INTRODUCTION
For more than 50 years, project management has been in use but perhaps
not on a worldwide basis. What differentiated companies in the early
years was whether they used project management or not, not how well
they used it. Today, almost every company uses project management, and
the differentiation is whether they are simply good at project manage-
ment or whether they truly excel at project management. The difference
between using project management and being good at it is relatively
small, and most companies can become good at project management in
a relatively short time, especially if they have executive-level support. A
well-organized project management office (PMO) can also accelerate the
Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards: A Guide to
Measuring and Monitoring Project Performance, Third Edition 1
By Harold Kerzner
Copyright © 2017 by International Institute for Learning, Inc., New York, New York
2 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

maturation process. The difference, however, between being good and

excelling at project management is quite large. One of the critical differ-
ences is that excellence in project management on a continuous basis
requires more metrics than just time and cost. The success of a project
cannot be determined just from the time and cost metrics, yet we persist
in the belief that this is possible.
Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard (HP),
and Deloitte, to name just a few, have come to the realization that they
must excel at project management. Doing this requires additional tools
and metrics to support project management. IBM has more than 300,000
employees, more than 70 percent of whom are outside of the United
States. This includes some 30,000 project managers. HP has more than
8000 project managers and 3500 PMP® credential holders. HP’s goal
is 8000 project managers and 8000 PMP® credential holders. These
numbers are now much larger with HP’s acquisition of Electronic Data
Systems (EDS).

1.1 EXECUTIVE VIEW OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The companies just mentioned perform strategic planning for project
management and are focusing heavily on the future. Several of the things
that these companies are doing will be discussed in this chapter, begin-
ning with senior management’s vision of the future. Years ago, senior
management paid lip service to project management, reluctantly sup-
porting it to placate the customers. Today, senior management appears to
have recognized the value in using project management effectively and
maintains a different view of project management, as shown in Table 1-1.

TABLE 1-1 Executive View of Project Management

OLD VIEW NEW VIEW

Project management is a career path. Project management is a strategic or core competency neces-
sary for the growth and survival of the company.
We need our people to receive Project Management We need our people to undergo multiple certifications and,
Professional certifications. at a minimum, to be certified in both project management
and corporate business processes.
Project managers will be used for project Project managers will participate in strategic planning, the
execution only. portfolio selection of projects, and capacity-planning activities.
Business strategy and project execution are Part of the project manager’s job is to bridge strategy and
separate activities. execution.
Project managers just make project-based decisions. Project managers make both project and business decisions.
 1.1 EXECUTIVE VIEW OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT 3

Project management is no longer regarded as a part-time occupation

or even a career path position. It is now viewed as a strategic competency
needed for the survival of the firm. Superior project management capa-
bility can make the difference between winning and losing a contract.
For more than 30 years, becoming a PMP® credential holder was seen
as the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, that has changed. Becoming
a PMP® credential holder is the light at the entryway to the tunnel. The
light at the end of the tunnel may require multiple certifications. As an
example, after becoming a PMP® credential holder, a project manager
may desire to become certified in

■ Business Analyst Skills or Business Management

■ Program Management
■ Business Processes
■ Managing Complex Projects
■ Six Sigma
■ Risk Management
■ Agile Project Management

Some companies have certification boards that meet frequently and

discuss what certification programs would be of value for their project
managers. Certification programs that require specific knowledge of
company processes or company intellectual property may be internally
developed and taught by the company’s own employees.
Executives have come to realize that there is a return on investment
in project management education. Therefore, executives are now invest-
ing heavily in customized project management training, especially in
behavioral courses. As an example, one executive commented that he
felt that presentation skills training was the highest priority for his proj-
ect managers. If a project manager makes a highly polished presentation
before a client, the client believes that the project is being managed the
same way. If the project manager makes a poor presentation, then the
client might believe the project is managed the same way. Other train-
ing programs that executives feel would be beneficial for the future
include:

■ Establishing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

■ Dashboard design
■ Managing complex projects
■ How to perform feasibility studies and cost–benefit analyses
■ Business analysis
■ Business case development
■ How to validate and revalidate project assumptions
4 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

■ How to establish effective project governance

■ How to manage multiple stakeholders many of whom may be
multinational
■ How to design and implement “fluid” or adaptive enterprise project
management (EPM) methodologies
■ How to develop coping skills and stress management skills

Project managers are now being brought on board projects at the

beginning of the initiation phase rather than at its end. To understand
the reason for this, consider the following situation:

SITUATION: A project team is assembled at the end of the initiation

phase of a project to develop a new product for the company. The
project manager is given the business case for the project together with
a listing of the assumptions and constraints. Eventually the project is
completed, somewhat late and significantly over budget. When asked
by marketing and sales why the project costs were so large, the proj-
ect manager responds, “According to my team’s interpretation of the
requirements and the business case, we had to add in more features
than we originally thought.”
Marketing then replies, “The added functionality is more than
what our customers actually need. The manufacturing costs for what
you developed will be significantly higher than anticipated, and that will
force us to raise the selling price. We may no longer be competitive in
the market segment we were targeting.”
“That’s not our problem,” responds the project manager. “Our
definition of project success is the eventual commercialization of the
product. Finding customers is your problem, not our problem.”

Needless to say, we could argue about what the real issues were in
this project that created the problems. For the purpose of this book, two
issues stand out. First and foremost, project managers today are paid
to make business decisions as well as project decisions. Making merely
project-type decisions could result in the development of a product that
is either too costly to build or overpriced for the market at hand. Second,
the traditional metrics used by project managers over the past several
decades were designed for project rather than business decision mak-
ing. Project managers must recognize that, with the added responsibili-
ties of making business decisions, a new set of metrics may need to be
included as part of their responsibilities. Likewise, we could argue that
marketing was remiss in not establishing and tracking business-related
metrics throughout the project and simply waited until the project was
completed to see the results.
 1.2 COMPLEX PROJECTS 5

1.2 COMPLEX PROJECTS

For four decades, project management has been
TIP Today’s project managers see themselves used to support traditional projects. Traditional
as managing part of a business rather than simply projects are heavily based on linear thinking;
managing a project. Therefore, they may require there exist well-structured life cycle phases and
additional metrics for informed decision making. templates, forms, guidelines, and checklists for
each phase. As long as the scope is reasonably
well defined, traditional project management works well.
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of all of the projects in a com-
pany fall into this category. Most nontraditional or complex projects use
seat-of-the-pants management because they are largely based on business
scenarios where the outcome or expectations can change from day to day.
Project management techniques were neither required nor used on these
complex projects that were more business oriented and aligned to 5-year
or 10-year strategic plans that were constantly updated.
Project managers have finally realized that project management can
be used on these complex projects, but the traditional processes may be
inappropriate or must be modified. This includes looking at project man-
agement metrics and KPIs in a different light. The leadership style for
complex projects may not be the same as that for traditional projects.
Risk management is significantly more difficult on complex projects, and
the involvement of more participants and stakeholders is necessary.
Now that companies have become good at traditional projects, we
are focusing our attention on the nontraditional or complex projects.
Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut definition of a complex project. Some
of the major differences between traditional and nontraditional or com-
plex projects, in the author’s opinion, are shown in Table 1-2.

Comparing Traditional and Nontraditional Projects

The traditional project that most people manage usually lasts less than
18 months. In some companies, the traditional project might last six
months or less. The length of the project usually depends on the industry.
In the auto industry, for example, a traditional project lasts three years.
With projects that last 18 months or less, it is assumed that tech-
nology is known with some degree of assurance and technology may
undergo little change over the life of the project. The same holds true for
the assumptions. Project managers tend to believe that the assumptions
made at the beginning of the project will remain intact for the duration
of the project unless a crisis occurs.

Section 1.2 is adapted from Harold Kerzner and Carl Belack, Managing Complex Projects
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), Chapter 1.
6 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TABLE 1-2 Traditional versus Nontraditional Projects

TRADITIONAL PROJECTS NONTRADITIONAL PROJECTS

Time duration is 6–18 months. Time duration can be several years.

Assumptions are not expected to change over the Assumptions can and will change over the project’s
project’s duration. duration.
Technology is known and will not change over the Technology will most certainly change.
project’s duration.
People who started on the project will remain through People who approved the project and are part of the
to completion (the team and the project sponsor). governance may not be there at the project’s conclusion.
Statement of work is reasonably well defined. Statement of work is ill defined and subject to numerous
scope changes.
Target is stationary. Target may be moving.
There are few stakeholders. There are multiple stakeholders.
There are few metrics and KPIs. There can be numerous metrics and KPIs.

People who are assigned to the project will most likely stay on board
the project from beginning to end. The people may be full time or part
time. This includes the project sponsor as well as the team members.
Because the project lasts 18 months or less, the statement of work is
usually reasonably well defined, and the project plan is based on reason-
ably well-understood and proven estimates. Cost overruns and schedule
slippages can occur, but not to the degree that they will happen on com-
plex projects. The objectives of the project, as well as critical milestone or
deliverable dates, are reasonably stationary and not expected to change
unless a crisis occurs.
In the past, the complexities of nontraditional projects seem to have
been driven by time and cost. Some people believe that these are the
only two metrics that need to be tracked on a continuous basis. Complex
projects may run as long as 10 years or even longer. Because of the long
duration, the assumptions made at the initiation of the project will most
likely not be valid at the end of the project. The assumptions will have to
be revalidated throughout the project. There can be numerous metrics,
and the metrics can change over the duration of the project. Likewise,
technology can be expected to change throughout the project. Changes
in technology can create significant and costly scope changes to the
point where the final deliverable does not resemble the initially planned
deliverable.
People on the governance committee and in decision-making roles
most likely are senior people and may be close to retirement. Based on the
actual length of the project, the governance structure can be expected to
change throughout the project if the project’s duration is 10 years or longer.
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Because of scope changes, the statement of work may undergo several

revisions over the life cycle of the project. New governance groups and
new stakeholders can have their own hidden agendas and demand that
the scope be changed; they might even cancel their financial support for
the project. Finally, whenever there is a long-term complex project where
continuous scope changes are expected, the final target may move. In
other words, the project plan must be constructed to hit a moving target.

SITUATION: A project manager was brought on board a project and pro-

vided with a project charter that included all of the assumptions made
in the selection and authorization of the project. Partway through the
project, some of the business assumptions changed. The project man-
ager assumed that the project sponsor would be monitoring the enter-
prise environmental factors for changes in the business assumptions.
That did not happen. The project was eventually completed, but there
was no real market for the product.

Given the premise that project managers are now more actively
involved in the business side of projects, the business assumptions must
be tracked the same way that budgets and schedules are tracked. If the
assumptions are wrong or no longer valid, then either the statement of
work may need to be changed or the project may need to be canceled.
The expected value at the end of the project also must be tracked because
unacceptable changes in the final value may be another reason for proj-
ect cancellation.
Examples of assumptions that are likely to change over the duration
of a project, especially on a long-term project, include these:

■ The cost of borrowing money and financing the project will remain
fixed.
■ Procurement costs will not increase.
■ Breakthroughs in technology will take place as scheduled.
■ The resources with the necessary skills will be available when needed.
■ The marketplace will readily accept the product.
■ The customer base is loyal to the company.
■ Competitors will not catch up to the company.
■ The risks are low and can be easily mitigated.
■ The political environment in the host country will not change.

The problem with having faulty assumptions is that they can lead
to bad results and unhappy customers. The best defense against poor
assumptions is good preparation at project initiation, including the
development of risk mitigation strategies and tracking metrics for critical
assumptions. However, it may not be possible to establish metrics for the
tracking of all assumptions.
8 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Most companies either have or are in the process of developing an

enterprise project management (EPM) methodology. EPM systems usu-
ally are rigid processes designed around policies and procedures, and
they work efficiently when the statement of work is well defined. With
the new type of projects currently being used when techniques such as
Agile Project Management are applicable, these rigid and inflexible pro-
cesses may be more of a hindrance and costly to use on small projects.
EPM systems must become more flexible in order to satisfy business
needs. The criteria for good systems will lean toward forms, guidelines,
templates, and checklists rather than policies and procedures. Project
managers will be given more flexibility in order to make the decisions
necessary to satisfy the project’s business needs. The situation is further
complicated because all active stakeholders may wish to use their own
methodology, and having multiple methodologies on the same project
is never a good idea. Some host countries may be quite knowledgeable
in project management, whereas other may have just cursory knowledge.
Over the next decade, having a fervent
TIP Metrics and KPIs must be established belief that the original plan is correct may be
for those critical activities that can have a direct a poor assumption. As the project’s business
impact on project success or failure. This includes needs change, the need to change the plan will
the tracking of assumptions and the creation of be evident. Also, decision making based entirely
business value. on the triple constraints, with little regard for
the project’s final value, may result in a poor
decision. Simply stated, today’s view of project management is quite dif-
ferent from the views in the past, and this is partially because the benefits
of project management have been recognized more over the past two
decades.
Some of the differences between manag-
TIP The more flexibility the methodology con- ing traditional and complex projects are sum-
tains, the greater the need for additional metrics marized in Table 1-3. Perhaps the primary
and KPIs. difference is whom the project manager must
interface with on a daily basis. With traditional
projects, the project manager interfaces with the sponsor and the client,
both of whom may provide the only governance on the project. With
complex projects, governance is by committee and there can be multiple
stakeholders whose concerns need to be addressed.

Defining Complexity
Complex projects can differ from traditional projects for a multitude of
reasons, including:

■ Size
■ Dollar value
■ Uncertain requirements
 1.2 COMPLEX PROJECTS 9

TABLE 1-3 Summarized Differences between Traditional and Nontraditional Projects

MANAGING TRADITIONAL PROJECTS MANAGING NONTRADITIONAL PROJECTS

Single-person sponsorship Governance by committee

Possibly a single stakeholder Multiple stakeholders
Project decision making Both project and business decision making
An inflexible project management methodology Flexible or “fluid” project management methodology
Periodic status reporting Real-time reporting
Success defined by the triple constraints Success defined by competing constraints, value, and other factors
Metrics and KPIs derived from the earned value Metrics and KPIs may be unique to the particular project and even
measurement system to a particular stakeholder

■ Uncertain scope
■ Uncertain deliverables
■ Complex interactions
■ Uncertain credentials of the labor pool
■ Geographical separation across multiple time zones
■ Use of large virtual teams
■ Other differences

There are numerous definitions of a “complex” project, based on

the interactions of two or more of the preceding elements. Even a small,
two-month infrastructure project can be considered complex according
to the definition. Project complexity can create havoc when selecting
and using metrics. The projects that project managers manage within
their own companies can be regarded as complex projects if the scope is
large and the statement of work is only partially complete. Some people
believe that research and development (R&D) projects are always com-
plex because, if a plan for R&D can be laid out, then there probably is not
R&D. R&D is when the project manager is not 100 percent sure where the
company is heading, does not know what it will cost, and does not know
if and when the company will get there.
Complexity can be defined according to the number of interactions
that must take place for the work to be executed. The greater the number
of functional units that must interact, the harder it is to perform the inte-
gration. The situation becomes more difficult if the functional units are
dispersed across the globe and if cultural differences makes integration
difficult. Complexity can also be defined according to size and length.
The larger the project is in scope and cost and the greater the time frame,
the more likely it is that scope changes will occur, significantly affect-
ing the budget and schedule. Large, complex projects tend to have large
cost overruns and schedule slippages. Good examples of this are Denver
10 THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

International Airport, the Channel Tunnel between England and France,

and the “Big Dig” in Boston.

Trade-Offs
Project management is an attempt to improve efficiency and effectiveness
in the use of resources by getting work to flow multidirectionally through
an organization, whether traditional or complex projects. Initially, this
flow might seem easy to accomplish, but typically a number of con-
straints are imposed on projects. The most common constraints are time,
cost, and performance (also referred to as scope or quality), which are
known as the triple constraints.
Historically, from an executive-level perspective, the goal of project
management was to meet the triple constraints of time, cost, and per-
formance while maintaining good customer relations. Unfortunately,
because most projects have some unique characteristics, highly accurate
time and cost estimates were not be possible, and trade-offs between
the triple constraints may be necessary. As will be discussed later, today
we focus on competing constraints and there may be significantly more
than three constraints on a project, and metrics may have to be estab-
lished to track each constraint. There may be as many as 10 or more
competing constraints. Metrics provide the basis for informed trade-off
decision making. Executive management, functional management, and
key stakeholders must be involved in almost all trade-off discussions to
ensure that the final decision is made in the best interests of the project,
the company, and the stakeholders. If multiple stakeholders are involved,
as occurs on complex projects, then agreement
from all of the stakeholders may be necessary.
TIP Because of the complex interactions of Project managers may possess sufficient knowl-
the elements of work, a few simple metrics may edge for some technical decision making but
not provide a clear picture of project status. The may not have sufficient business or technical
combination of several metrics may be necessary knowledge to adequately determine the best
in order to make informed decisions based on evi- course of action to address the interests of the
dence and facts. parent company as well as the individual project
stakeholders.

Skill Set
All project managers have skills, but not all project managers may have
the right skills for the given job. For projects internal to a company, it
may be possible to develop a company-specific skill set or company-spe-
cific body of knowledge. Specific training courses can be established to
support company-based knowledge requirements.
For complex projects with a multitude of stakeholders, all from differ-
ent countries with different cultures, finding the perfect project manager
 1.2 COMPLEX PROJECTS 11

may be an impossible task. Today the understanding of complex projects

and the accompanying metrics is in its infancy, and it is still difficult to
determine the ideal skill set for managing complex projects. Remember
that project management existed for more than three decades before the
first Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide*) was cre-
ated, and even now with the sixth edition, it is still referred to as a “guide.”
We can, however, conclude that there are certain skills required to
manage complex projects. Some jof those skills are:

■ Knowing how to manage virtual teams

■ Understanding cultural differences
■ The ability to manage multiple stakeholders, each of whom may have
a different agenda
■ Understanding the impact of politics on project management
■ How to select and measure project metrics

Governance
Cradle-to-grave user involvement in complex projects is essential.
Unfortunately, user involvement can change because of politics and proj-
ect length. It is not always possible to have the same user community
attached to the project from beginning to end. Promotions, changes in
power and authority positions because of elections, and retirements can
cause shifts in user involvement.
Governance is the process of decision making. On large complex
projects, governance will be in the hands of the many rather than the
few. Each stakeholder may either expect or demand to be part of all criti-
cal decisions on the project. Governance must be supported by proper
metrics that provide meaningful information. The channels for gover-
nance must be clearly defined at the beginning of the project, possibly
before the project manager is assigned. Changes in governance, which
are increasingly expected the longer the project takes, can have a serious
impact on the way the project is managed as well as on the metrics used.

Decision Making
Complex projects have complex problems. All problems generally have
solutions, but not all solutions may be good or even practical. Good met-
rics can make decision making easier. Also, some solutions to problems
can be more costly than other solutions. Identifying a problem is usu-
ally easy. Identifying alternative solutions may require the involvement
of many stakeholders, and each stakeholder may have a different view of
the actual problem and the possible alternatives. To complicate matters,
some host countries have very long decision-making cycles for problem
*PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The soul of the
moving picture
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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eBook.

Title: The soul of the moving picture

Author: Walter Julius Bloem

Translator: Allen Wilson Porterfield

Release date: February 26, 2024 [eBook #73028]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1924

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOUL

OF THE MOVING PICTURE ***
 Transcriber’s Notes
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
Other notes may be found at the end of this eBook.
Scene from The Nibelungs.
[See p. 93]
T H E S OU L OF T H E
M OV I N G P I C T U R E
BY
WALTER S. BLOEM
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN
BY
ALLEN W. PORTERFIELD

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue
 Copyright, 1924
By E. P. Dutton & Company
All Rights Reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED

STATES OF AMERICA
 CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction ix
CHAPTER

I. Tools of the Trade 1

II. Texts 19
III. Tricks 32
IV. The Scene 40
V. The Setting 72
VI. The Poet 95
VII. The Compass of Poetry 110
VIII. Film Adaptation 144
IX. The Path to Art 153
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SCENE FROM
The Nibelungs Frontispiece
FIGURE FACING PAGE
1 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 6
2 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 14
3 The Stone Rider 20
4 The Stone Rider 28
5 The Nibelungs 34
6 Destiny 42
7 The Children of Darkness 48
8 Algol 60
9 Dr. Mabuse: The Great Unknown 64
10 Golem 70
11 Golem 78
12 Destiny 84
13 Sumurun 100
14 Madame Dubarry 108
15 Anne Boleyn 114
16 Dr. Mabuse: The Great Unknown 122
17 A Doll’s House 130
18 Vögelöd Castle 138
19 Destiny 146
20 The Nibelungs 152
21 The Nibelungs 160
 INTRODUCTION
The influence of the moving picture on the souls of the various
peoples of the earth has become so great that an attitude of
indifference toward this marvelous invention is no longer permissible.
We see ourselves forced to take a definite stand for it or against it;
we are obliged to line up as friend or foe of the film. It is, however, no
longer sufficient to oppose the moving picture in a spirit of indulgent
contempt or fanatic hostility. All the world knows that there are more
bad moving pictures than good ones, and that the moral and
aesthetic tendency of a great many films is of a quite negligible
nature. But if the moving picture were in reality the offspring of the
Devil, as many theologians and academic demi-gods the world over
contend, thinking people would be at once confronted with this
insoluble problem: How does it come that thousands upon
thousands of human beings scattered over the earth are laboring,
with intense resignation and passionate zeal, to the end that the film
may be made more perfect artistically and cleaner from a purely
moral point of view? The striving after money has naturally
something to do with their efforts. To offer this, however, as a final
explanation of this unusual situation would be an idle method of
reasoning. You cannot explain the joy these men are taking in their
creative efforts in this way, for their souls are in their work.
To many thinking people, the real nature of the moving picture is
wrapped in mystery; it is a brilliant and enigmatic riddle to them.
They recognize, though they fail to comprehend, the fact that the
moving picture, despised without restraint and condemned on
general principles only the other day, has won an incomparable
victory over the hearts of men—a victory, too, that will be all the
greater and more beautiful once the psychic and moral perfection of
the moving picture has been accomplished.
 The cultured man has an instinctive hatred of forces the
significance of which lie beyond his grasp; he makes every
conceivable effort to defend himself against them, to ward them off.
But the people, the masses, throw themselves into the arms of such
forces blindly and without question. The number of cultured men,
however, who are going over to the camp of the moving picture—
without thereby becoming disloyal to the other arts—is growing daily.
Even those sworn and confirmed skeptics who still look down upon
the film from the heights of their intellectual superiority with
superciliousness and contempt are bound to admit that there is
something between the pictures which has a magic power to draw,
which exercises an ineluctable influence in the gaining of recruits.

The moving picture is an art based on feeling, and not on thought.

It has to do with the emotions rather than with the intellect. The man
who goes to the moving picture wants to experience certain
incidents, not by thinking about them, but by feeling them. Just as
music arouses the feelings through tones, just so does the moving
picture attempt to solve, not the riddle of the human brain, but of the
human soul. A moving picture is a feeling expressed through
gestures.
There is still much about this youthful art that is altogether
misunderstood. Its real sources, the fountains of its life, are
suspected, foreboded by only a few; nor are they recognized, when
seen, by all. Nearly every visit to a motion picture theatre is a
disappointment; the must of the grape is still carrying-on in a really
absurd fashion.
The motion picture, however, is marching straight ahead in a
course of unmistakable and wonderful development toward the
heights of victory. And this development, this evolution, has to do not
merely with the perfecting of the art itself, but with the enjoyment that
is derivable and derived from the art. Our eyes are becoming keener
in the detection of gestures and mimicry; our imaginations are
growing sharper, even clairvoyant; they are rapidly becoming able to
read the language of pictures and movement. When the motion
picture was still in its infancy, its actors assumed and employed the
shrill and tinny pathos of the pantomime. At that time, and it was not
long ago, the lovely and mutely passionate world of gesture was
unknown to us. We saw it, to be sure, in the dance, but we were still
incapable of interpreting it. To-day we feel, detect, see some sort of
inner vibration behind the slightest movement.
In the other arts, in the old and tried arts, those that have already
been developed to a high stage of perfection, if not actually over-
developed, progress, if made at all, must be made with the
expenditure of tremendous effort; it must be wrung from the depths,
as it were. In the moving picture, on the other hand, a thousand
possibilities still lie quite on the surface, ready, indeed longing, for
fulfilment. The great creator can think, feel, and dream new and
novel features without falling into despair at the thought of what has
already been done. Becoming mindful of the past is not a painful
occupation for him. Indeed, the motion picture may be compared to a
starry heaven that stretches out before our upturned eyes, awaiting
the creative ken of the celestial investigator.

Every attempt, however, of the exuberant creator, filled with the

urge for deeds, to perform aesthetic experiments on the motion
picture avenges itself; such experiments cannot be carried out with
impunity. For the applause of a small circle of the elect is not going
to prevent bankruptcy on the part of the film company that supports
these experiments. Film art without economic success is quite
unthinkable.
Germany, the land of theory, experienced a short while ago a
veritable flood of aesthetic experiments in the domain of the moving
picture. Of these, there was but one, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,
which provided its creators with the satisfaction that comes from a
pronounced success in foreign countries. And even in this case the
success was due to the peculiarity of certain means that had
heretofore never been seen on the screen. The American has too
much appreciation of this world, and too little sense for the world
beyond, to grow enthusiastic about phantoms or nebulous
adventures. Nor is he weighed down with the traditions that reach
back through centuries of time and constitute so much impedimenta
on the part of European artists. And the Swede is too intimately
associated with the mother-earth of his home ever to undertake a
flight to the clouds through the medium of the motion picture. But the
Swede and the German reached the point where they saw that you
have got to speak a language, in the film, which can be understood
by men wherever they chance to live.
A work, let it be ever so artistic and valuable in itself, which brings
economic distress to the film company that produces it, harms
indirectly the entire film business as an art. That film artist attains to
the complete realization of his desires whose creations put money
into the purse of the company; the one who does not do this fails in
the end. The task of the film artist is always and ever: To effect a
happy union between art and business. Moreover, this union must be
brought about in such a way that both—art and business—flourish.
The man who cannot do this merely drives the film companies on to
the production of cheap and cheapening pictures which draw the
masses and pay a reasonable dividend, but nothing more. For the
film companies of this earth are and remain, first of all, business
concerns that must pay. Film art is expensive, and no gratuitous
distributor of private funds is going to give one penny which will not
bear him interest. If there be anyone so blind as not to be able to
grasp this simple principle, he is unable to grasp the underlying
principle of the motion picture as an art. To fail to recognize
commercial success as the basic condition on which film art rests is
to call down upon one’s head the irritation that ensues from
ineffectual grumbling. Consequently, the much lauded redeemer of
the film will be he, and he only, who can create what is at once of
enduring artistic value and financial potentiality.
And every film will have this artistic and commercial success
which glows with real passion because it has been wrung from
powerful feeling. The art, the very soul of the motion picture,
cherishes no desire for subtle, intellectual form or forms. It longs,
indeed, for a soul form of elementary force.
 This is true, for the unique though inexhaustible domain of the
motion picture is the eternal feelings of man, the initial and primeval
feelings that rise from out of the senses and mount to the soul. Love
or hate, and the joy, sorrow, grief, hope, lamentation and good
fortune that emanate from these two—it is with these that the film
has to do. It has to do with nothing that comes rigidly from the
intellect—or exclusively from the soul itself. In the moving picture
everything becomes pale and colorless which is not born of the
1
sensual emotions. Every art seeks its way to the soul. Sensuality
and soul, that is the moving picture. There is only one eternal,
immutable, and never-failing material for the film: it is the passion of
the soul.
1
There is no word that occurs more frequently in this book than sinnlich, or the
noun derived from it, Sinnlichkeit. Throughout, the former is rendered by “sensual,”
the latter by “sensuality.” Neither of these words has here the connotation that is
ordinarily attached to it: “Sensual” means nothing more than relating to the senses;
and “Sensuality” is the noun form and means nothing more than the composite
result of our being “sensual.” We have, as a matter of fact, five “senses.” The
German for “sense” is Sinn. Consequently, sinnlich has reference to our capacity
for sensations, our sensibility. The words might have been translated in a variety of
ways. I might have commandeered such terms as “sentient,” “sensory,”
“susceptible to sense experiences,” and so on. Such variety would have been,
probably, in the interest of seeming erudition, which leaves me cold, or in the
interest of pedagogy which, so long as I remain normal, no man can ever
persuade me to study. —Translator.

Thought and intellect are given an intelligent welcome by but very

few people. Were it not for the herd and hypocrisy, poetry would be
unread and the stage would be a temple of the lonely and isolated. Is
Shakespeare or Goethe really understood by the masses?
The senescent stage is the counterpart of the goal of our
civilization, which is the thought that can be felt, the idea that can be
filled with soul. It is for this reason that we have to-day, more than
ever, the spiritual stage.
Art based on emotions is art for the masses. The youthful motion
picture is the counterpart of the origin of our nature, which is the
sensuality that can be felt and filled with soul. It is for this reason that
we have to-day the sensual, the sensuous, moving picture.
There are limits to feelings. For we live in an age that demands
crystal clarity and coy niceness. The limp, flabby and effeminate we
dislike. No age was less naïve than ours, and yet none was less
sentimental.
The motion picture is art for the masses; it is mass art.
Sectarianism, chilly aestheticism, attempts at escape from
inadequate culture—these are not known to the motion picture. Art
for the masses, art for the money. That is the entire story. But does
art for the masses mean art such as the masses themselves would
create? Rabble art? The film in which the plebeian soul alone takes
interest and from which it derives pleasure is not a good film. Nor is
that a good film which is understood only by the aesthetic soul. To be
good, satisfactory, excellent, a film must carry along with it and
enrapture all, those whose hearts are simple and those whose
hearts are intricate, complex, full of intertwined sensations. To do this
is hard. If and when done, it is done through the medium of great art.

This book was written by a man who writes scenarios. It is not

beyond reason to believe that such a book could have been written
only in Germany, where one, in matters of art, not infrequently
forgets the action out of an all-absorbing interest in meditation. It
arose from an inner desire, from an inner exertion: I wished to
become clear, for the benefit of my own manuscripts and using them
as a basis, as to how a film should be constructed so that art and
profit, which are inseparable in this field, might get along with each
other; might endure mutual juxtaposition. And I wished to give other
people the benefit of my views.
I have devoted my attention mainly to those motion pictures that
have been most readily accessible to my fellow-countrymen and, to
me. In other words, I have discussed German films. The time at
which my wounded and bleeding country will again take its place
among the happy and prosperous nations of the earth is still remote.
Moreover, it is only in rare instances that the best films of foreign
lands are shown in our theaters. The taste, however, in the matter of
the moving picture is virtually the same among white people the
world over, and we are all striving, even competing, for the identical
goal—to please.
I am quite mindful of the fact that a purely theoretical discussion
has its limitations in value. Every personal opinion is one-sided, and
no sooner has the connoisseur found his way than he throws the
views of others overboard and proceeds on his course just as if he
had never heard of them. Nevertheless, the motion film of all lands,
whether it be American or European, makes its appeal to human
beings every one of whom has two eyes in his head and a heart in
his breast. Nor is this all. Every individual man, wherever he may
chance to live or whatever his origin may be, has one fundamental
ambition, one basic goal: joy, beauty, adventure. Perhaps I have
succeeded in saying a few things regarding the general nature of the
motion picture which may be helpful by way of showing how a
successful picture is built up and produced. If I may be permitted to
do so, I should like to express the hope that I have made a few
suggestions of enduring value, even and also to those across the
Atlantic. Nor is it judicious to overlook the fact that an idea is by no
means worthless when it incites to contradiction or refutal.
The smallest creation is more valuable than the most beautiful
book of discussion. It is always permissible, however, to form certain
ideas regarding one’s own creations, and to discuss these ideas in a
theoretical way. The one point to be kept in mind in this connection
is, that we must never regard such discussion as the formulation of
definitive and irrefutable opinions; a treatise of this kind dare not lay
down an inelastic law for the film of the future. Limitations dare not
be placed on the free creative ability of the mind and the soul. A real
creator can break the chains of theory easily and without notice. For
him there is but one rule that always holds: Do your work well, and
then you need not pay the slightest attention to the law as this is
handed down.
W. S. B.
Burg Rienick.
In the Summer of 1923.