Applied Category Theory

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your article on the Project Management Schedule Network as a category. Category theory may have a broader role in putting project management models on a sound footing.

If we include the Work Breakdown Stucture into the model, a central issue is maintaining coherence between the Schedule Network view (as discussed in your article above) and the Work Breakdown Structure view of the same activity.

… schedule activities participate in both the WBS tree structure (“leaf” nodes under the work packages) and in the schedule network (network nodes). The schedule activities are the “atoms” from which both the WBS tree structure and the schedule network are built. This means that the WBS and schedule network are maps of the same territory, and should, therefore be coherent. However, this observation is at wide variance to the experience of many project managers. Keys for Agile Co-Evolution of the WBS and Schedule Network: The “Schedule Network 100 Percent” Rule and the “Add and Prune Dependencies” Algorithm David Pratten, PMP – February 5, 2016

The initial step of converting the WBS to a Coherent Schedule Network looks like a functor: 

My intuition is that sequencing by adding dependencies and pruning while preserving coherence with the WBS is also a functor but I am less certain of that. 

Ken Scrambler’s Lambda Jam 2019 – Applied Category Theory talk has inspired.

Are you aware of work going on in applying category theory to project management modelling?

David