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Full Ebook of A Concise Guide To Project Collaboration Building A Delivery Organization 1St Edition Robin Hornby Online PDF All Chapter
Full Ebook of A Concise Guide To Project Collaboration Building A Delivery Organization 1St Edition Robin Hornby Online PDF All Chapter
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Easy to read and act on immediately, this concise guide shows how
organizations can work more effectively with in-house or contracted project
managers and their teams, using specific collaborative techniques to improve
success rates, reduce project costs, and enable organizations to benefit from
common-sense, cost-effective project management approaches that work.
Using a clear structure and accessible style, the book demonstrates how:
Robin Hornby
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Robin Hornby
The right of Robin Hornby to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hornby, Robin, 1945– author.
Title: A concise guide to project collaboration : building a delivery
organization / Robin Hornby.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022054917 (print) | LCCN 2022054918 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032435459 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032440262
(paperback) | ISBN 9781003370031 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Project management. | Business planning. |
Organizational change.
Classification: LCC HD69.P75 H67286 2023 (print) |
LCC HD69.P75 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/04—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022054917
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022054918
ISBN: 978-1-032-43545-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-44026-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-37003-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003370031
Typeset in Times
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Forewordix
Introduction 1
6 Implementation Steps 92
Collaboration Summary 92
Implementation Approach 94
References 122
Glossary 124
About the Author 128
Index 130
Foreword
Think back to some of the projects you have been involved in, as a senior
corporate stakeholder, a vendor manager, or a project manager. A few were
probably rated as successful, a few didn’t work out, and the majority came
out as mediocre – they mostly achieved what was required but took longer
and cost more. Perhaps, you may be thinking, with better project manage-
ment, results could have been improved, and the experience could have
been less painful.
It is always tempting to pin blame on the project manager when things
go awry, that is, after all, where the responsibility for success was allocated.
Some blame may well be deserved, but my observation over the years sug-
gests the organization itself places so many obstacles in the project man-
ager’s way that exceptional skills are often required for achievement.
The last few decades have seen a tremendous and welcome emphasis
on the methods and techniques of project management and the training of
project managers. And yet the environment in which projects take place also
has significant influence on the efficiency of the project and even the like-
lihood of it achieving its objectives. Almost without exception, corporate
managers and employees believe they have little obligation toward the suc-
cess of a project they may be involved in. They see that as the project man-
ager’s job. Yet this is in contradiction to other corporate endeavors, where
it is now commonplace for employees to be educated on human resources
policies and procedures, likewise for quality, safety, ethics, corporate mis-
sion, public relations, and possibly more. Surely the time has now come to
ensure the senior people and managers in our organizations know how to
collaborate to get the job done when a project comes their way. I call this
the Delivery Organization.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003370031-1
2 Introduction
collaboration to improve delivery performance. The second is an increased
focus on the business management of projects to match the owner’s over-
riding interest and to encourage attention to business priorities and relevant
reporting from the provider. This guide, therefore, is aimed at general man-
agers and executives who wish to build an environment in which projects
thrive, not struggle.
When projects fail, meaning they do not deliver the required result within
the approved cost and schedule, the project manager takes the blame. This is
as it should be because the project manager is accountable for the success of
the project. But sometimes this is not quite fair. Sometimes the project man-
ager is expected not just to deliver the project but also to deal with anoma-
lies in the environment. A good, experienced project manager might be able
to overcome these difficulties, and most do; the drawbacks are project risks
and costs higher than they need be, and too few good and experienced pro-
ject managers to go around.
So, the hypothesis I promote is an organizational environment inherently
favorable to planning and executing projects. The new environment will
encourage or even mandate the behavior required by managers and execu-
tives. After a period, a transformed corporate culture will emerge that might
remove much of the grind from project operations and maybe even make
some of it a pleasure! Many of the internal sources of project risk will also
be removed. This is not to be confused with a discretionary toolkit offered
to project managers. Project toolkits are usually aimed at helping project
managers with different approaches and techniques, eschewing a ‘one-size-
fits-all’. That is not what I am discussing. What is proposed is a certainty of
the operating environment, a clear expectation for all stakeholders, always
recognizable, and always compatible. There is no choice to be made and no
chance of being wrong.
Although the analogy is imperfect, and in some quarters the example is
controversial, the corporate approach to quality over the last few decades
provides an illustration of how project work could be embedded within
the corporate environment. Initially, project managers who understood the
importance of quality principles specified their own quality procedures
and designed a supportive project structure. They had to sell the resulting
increase in cost. This was burdensome and sometimes futile as success with
quality initiatives is hard to achieve without top-down executive commit-
ment. Eventually, quality-conscious organizations realized that top-down
corporate-wide implementations such as ISO9000, Total Quality Manage-
ment (TQM), or Six Sigma were necessary if conformity was the goal.
Quality was not an option and in time became embedded in the culture.
The comparison of delivery with quality has some exceptions which are
important to highlight. First, though proponents argue long-term costs are
reduced, there can be no doubt quality initiatives add to the work, add to the
Introduction 3
management, and therefore add to project cost. This is not analogous to the
DO. In most cases, the project will incur similar costs in any event, prob-
ably inflated because of natural friction. Any increase in management cost
from explicitly adding the DO is modest. Second, guarantees of prescribed
quality work flounder when work must be contracted out. How can TQM or
Six Sigma be assured? Admittedly, ISO9000 is structured to demand sub-
contracting organizations must also be fully certified for the standard to be
met, but it is tedious and expensive. On the other hand, a uniform DO is
beneficial for both the owner and the provider. They know exactly the envi-
ronment they are going to work in, and there is no significant cost.
Already some terminology is being used to delineate the subject matter.
A glossary is included to provide a useful lookup facility, but here are the
terms now being used:
• The Owner of the Project: The generic name for the sponsoring organiza-
tion and beneficiary of the project. It includes the individual role of project
sponsor whose responsibility is funding and the harvesting of business
benefit, and the role of a business team who assists with the project. When
the project is contracted, the owner is also referred to as the client.
• The Provider of the Project: The generic name for the organization pro-
viding the technical team and delivering the project according to scope,
budget, and schedule. If the provider is part of the owner organization,
they may be termed the in-house provider. If the provider is contracted,
they may be referred to as the vendor.
• The Delivery Organization (DO): A collective term for both the owner
and the provider who have adopted the themes of collaboration and
business management of projects and are working together.
Project work does not fit well with most organizations. This is primarily
because their goals are different. A typical organization is established to
maintain repetitive activities designed to repeatedly achieve a complex out-
come and aims to resource a stable workplace in perpetuity. This might be
building a car or completing a financial trade. These repeatable activities
are usually monitored using monthly targets. Organizational units tend to
be highly specialized and preoccupied with efficiency. A management hier-
archy is inevitable and works well for functional coordination and decision-
making. However, managers become possessive of their staff and may be
reluctant to assign resources to work on improvements that require collabo-
ration with other units.
A project, on the other hand, must achieve the unique defined result and
then finish. Resources are assembled and then disbanded at the end of the
project. Projects are always competing for resources, aiming to minimize
management overhead, and trying to stay nimble. Decisions focus on deliv-
ering a scope of work compliant with schedule, quality, and cost, with less
attention to operational efficiency. Targets are based on completing interim
deliverables or achieving milestones defined as stepping stones to the final
result.
This chapter discusses the problems arising from this incompatibility and
recent management innovations aiming to fix the disconnect and resolve
related issues.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003370031-2
6 Chapter 1
Organizational Innovations
I have encountered four organizational innovations during my experiences
as PM, each one of which can be instrumental in surmounting some of the
problems I have just described and each of which could contribute to the
management accountability needed to implement a Delivery Organization.
This role I will christen as the DO Curator and will explain more later.
This chapter introduces six models to help understand the context and the
options for the Delivery Organization. The first model is an architecture for
the project world that includes a business perspective. This architectural
view includes the three derivative domains: business management, project
management, and project work. This naturally expands into the second
model, the business lifecycle, and additional models for the project man-
agement functions and the project lifecycle. The fifth model illustrates the
critical dynamic provided by a proper understanding of the owner/provider
balance. And the sixth and final model is the silo effect and how its proper
recognition can assist with project integration.
Project Architecture
Our architectural model highlights the three domains of the project and
emphasizes their distinction. This has been absent from traditional project
frameworks, and the different domains have consequently been muddled
together.
The model drawn in Figure 2.1, which recognizes both in-house and
vendor providers, requires selection of alternative paths during project
materialization. The materialization stage for the owner and the vendor (if
engaged) is shown as converging into the collaborative common delivery
stages.
The three domains are as follows:
(1) Business Management. This is, or should be, the lens through which
senior management considers the project. If the provider is a vendor,
then the front end of the business lifecycle must account for the differ-
ing business views of the owner and the vendor. This can be a source of
conflict, so it’s important to recognize their existence:
DOI: 10.4324/9781003370031-3
A Reference Framework for Collaboration 13
Note the work domain in Figure 2.1 illustrates only one project lifecycle of
many in common usage, such as waterfall, iterative, and agile. In the history
of IT, these have been referred to as development lifecycles, or applica-
tion lifecycles. Both are synonymous with the term ‘project lifecycle’ now
mainly used in PM texts.
The business and project lifecycles are different. The dashed arrow in
Figure 2.1 shows the execution stage embracing all the project lifecycle,
apart from a small prologue where project work is needed to supply techni-
cal information and analysis to the materialization stage.
A Business Lifecycle
Apart from clearly delineating the three domains of a project, the most
important feature of the architecture is the specification of a business
A Reference Framework for Collaboration 15
lifecycle. This becomes the framework for the construction of the Delivery
Organization and its required elements. Lifecycles are a strong conceptual
part of project management and can be designed to offer different paths
through a project. They are a mechanism for management control.
The Concept
We are familiar with the concept of lifecycles in the project context. Pro-
ject managers are problem-solvers who use models and frameworks
derived from their own and others’ experience to solve the big problem of
how to deliver the project. One of the oldest tools of project management
is the project lifecycle, discussed in detail later in this chapter. Its value is
in segmenting a project into technical phases which progressively elabo-
rate the broad requirements of the owner into a product that can be built.
It seems reasonable to use the same concept to highlight and manage the
business interests that encapsulate the project. The first observation is that
business is concerned with a much broader scope than simply executing
the work from requirements through to building the product. The project
lifecycle is primarily focused on managing the work of the project team. We
need to integrate project execution into a broader framework more suited
to business considerations. These considerations, neglected for too long,
demand the establishment of a financial framework and proper account-
abilities, an assessment of owner risk and benefit, the ongoing approval
of measurable execution work, a clear demonstration that what has been
paid for has indeed been delivered, and finally an assurance that the ben-
efit promised has been gathered. This demands the introduction of an all-
encompassing business lifecycle which subsumes the project lifecycle. We
must also ensure the project execution lifecycle used by the project team is
‘tweaked’ to accommodate the needs of the business.
The provider, whether in-house or vendor, inevitably uses the technical
project lifecycle to frame their reports and analyses for the owner. Care must
be taken to ensure these reports are meaningful. Once the project is launched,
the owner wants to know in plain language that the project has been set up
for success, the contract is practical, the work is meeting cost and schedule
milestones, all obligations are being met, and deliverables are signed off.
The owner must also be adequately informed to fulfil their responsibility for
immediate and long-term decisions. Throughout, the owner’s perspective is
dominated by funds committed and level of risk. The owner has the most
financial stake in the project and requires accurate reporting on their inter-
ests to hold the provider accountable for the agreed financial constraints.
Another rationale for introducing a simple, overarching business life-
cycle, as shown in Figure 2.2, is to give the owner tangible control over
16 Chapter 2
the destiny of the project. Oversight of this lifecycle by the owner allows
for formal approval of the business case for the project, officially delegat-
ing the work to the provider, providing go/no-go decisions at formal status
checkpoints, engagement during completion for project sign-off, and the
final assessment of business results. The lifecycle is universal, repeatable,
and consistent.
The experienced reader might be wondering if the foregoing implies the
use of a business lifecycle methodology. No, it doesn’t. A methodology
includes a comprehensive set of tools such as detailed phase descriptions,
process hierarchy and input, process, output (IPO) charts, deployment flow-
charts, deliverable templates, and supporting techniques and checklists. The
lifecycle in Figure 2.2 identifies four delivery stages, the prime purpose
of each stage, and the ten core elements supporting the lifecycle. With the
added content of this guide, this is sufficient structure for the average Deliv-
ery Organization. Vendor firms, whose business interests totally dominate,
may refer to Commercial Delivery Methodology2 if formal methodology is
of interest.
Path Overview
The materialization stage is pre-project and rarely viewed as offering oppor-
tunity for collaborative processes. The owner and provider are on different
paths, operating in parallel.
A Reference Framework for Collaboration 17
Project genesis involves early requirements work by the owner and an
organization-dependent process to determine priority and budgeting of
delivery. If delivery is in-house, the in-house provider provides analytic and
technical skills during the prologue stage of the project, but their delivery
responsibility only begins at initiation. If the owner seeks a vendor as pro-
vider, things become more complicated. Procurement activity must be put
in motion, requiring formality and precise protocols. Despite this, the owner
is often dragged into interaction with prospective vendors during their own
pre-delivery selling and bid preparation work.
Vendor adaptations of the materialization stage provide a tailored frame-
work for managing the bid/no-bid decision, creating and approving the pro-
posal for a deliverable project, and negotiating the contract. These lifecycle
stages are operated by the delivery manager.
When a vendor is finally selected, the project still cannot start until a
contract is agreed upon and signed. Both owner and provider ensure their
interests are being properly represented and agree with obligations being
written into the contract.
Collaboration can now be specified as the project enters the common
delivery stages of the lifecycle, defined as initiation, execution, and comple-
tion. A final assessment stage also has elements that can be reviewed jointly.
The delivery path ensures setting the project up for success during ini-
tiation, the provision of risk assessments and business forecasts at formal
status checkpoints, completion of project sign-off according to agreed crite-
ria, and final assessment of business results. It is repeatable and consistent,
using documents and stage controls commandeered from project manage-
ment concepts. The core documents are recognizable as project manage-
ment deliverables (the PM is responsible), but they are specifically designed
for the owner with an emphasis on business and contractual issues, control
of risk, and funding commitments.
The work of a vendor PM is complicated by the added demands to oper-
ate within two organizations (the client and the vendor firm), to make a
profit, and to adhere to the terms of the contract. Conflict of interest can
come into play, if not in reality, then certainly in perception. And this raises
a new complexity of business management; the fact senior vendor manage-
ment, like the client, has their own different interests in business and con-
tractual issues, risks, and funding commitments.
Note in Figure 2.2 that the execution stage of the delivery path encloses
the entire project lifecycle where the technical work of the project is con-
ducted by the PM and team. Thus, this business framework is independent
of the type of product, the industry, the number of project phases, or even
the project lifecycle itself.
18 Chapter 2
A Universal Project Management Model
Practitioners have learned how to create a shared view of the project by
applying the project lifecycle and template specifications for each phase.
Can we emulate this and create a shared view of the work of the PMs and
those in leadership positions on the project? Without this understanding,
miscommunications and conflict can arise. Or sometimes a retreat into the
silo to just get on with the job as one understands it.
The problem is not really in the details. The procedures and techniques of
project management are well known. The confusion I see arises from the pack-
aging adopted by different standards groups and other third parties. Much of
this arises from the temptation to conceptualize project management as a series
of processes or phases and the packaging rarely alters this misconception.
Many providers have adopted the packaging from PRINCE2®, PMBOK®,
or a proprietary system, or their own in-house project management method-
ology. Many have spent thousands of dollars investing in it. Is this a mate-
rial issue? If the provider is in-house, probably not. But for vendors trained
in an alternative, it’s a challenge.
Presuming reasonableness, the vendor must expect to follow the in-house
process. It’s probably required by the contract. If the vendor has adopted a uni-
versal model and trained under this framework, adapting to the client is not
difficult, though of course it would be much easier if the client has also adopted
the universal model. That is why it is a component of the Delivery Organization.
Classic Example
In the early days when project management methodology was develop-
ing, the lifecycle was almost always depicted as a sequential, step-by-step
series of phases following a progression of increasing detail from initial
requirements through design, build, and implement. This is still common
and is chosen here as a base for study by readers who are unfamiliar with
project work.
Such lifecycles are colloquially referred to as waterfall lifecycles, mean-
ing one phase must be completed before the next is started. This emphasizes
thoroughness and quality during each phase. In a waterfall, a return to a pre-
vious phase would suggest a mistake had been made and must be rectified.
Figure 2.4 shows an example of a waterfall or classic lifecycle.
The type of diagram chosen to illustrate this schedule is called a Gantt
chart, and the idea of a waterfall is taken from the ‘flow’ of deliverables
from one phase to the next. This diagram can also show milestones graphi-
cally as a black diamond. In the example, a go/no-go milestone is clearly
shown at the end of the General Design phase. If the lifecycle is used con-
sistently across all parts of the project, and participants in the project under-
stand how to interpret a Gantt chart, this becomes a great tool to promote
communication and project integration.
22 Chapter 2
Lifecycle Variations
Sometimes, to reduce the project duration, waterfall phases may be over-
lapped, though this naturally increases risk. The phase completion criteria
are consciously relaxed, and the next phase started early. This version of the
waterfall is called fast tracking.
Another type of project lifecycle encountered in certain application areas
is the iterative lifecycle. The iterative lifecycle partitions the product into
components, so the design phase is kept open as successive components are
worked on. When a component is designed, it moves right away into the
build phase, without waiting for design work to complete on the remaining
components. Thus, there are as many iterations as there are product compo-
nents. There is added risk in this approach because component interactions
can lead to rework on components thought to be finished.
Project lifecycle designers have taken the concepts of the iterative life-
cycle and further refined it into a spiral lifecycle and more recently into the
agile lifecycle. Consultants, product developers, and others with expertise
in the application area have taken the concept of the project lifecycle, be it
waterfall, iterative, spiral, or agile and generated full-blown methodologies
offered for sale in the marketplace.
This proliferation of project approaches has tended to blur phase bounda-
ries and objectives, and weakened the discipline required to successfully
A Reference Framework for Collaboration 23
use any lifecycle. I believe it must be restored to a place of prominence in
joint owner/provider planning because, combined with the project manage-
ment model, it is a key to successful project integration.
Silo Mentality
The silo model is a well-known metaphor for the constraints of functional
organizations. These constraints may be encouraged by the organization or
may be self-imposed for numerous reasons. As Figure 2.5 illustrates, in a
silo world the requests for decisions or initiatives involving two or more
silos must be approved by the common authority.
Resources within the silo report in a hierarchical structure to a func-
tional manager. Work requests involving staff in another silo must ascend
to the point of common authority before being passed down again to the
intended staff. For example, employee A in the diagram has a work request
for employee B. For this to occur, A must escalate the request through A’s
hierarchy to the first point of common authority with employee B. This is
senior manager C, who must then transmit the request down the hierarchy to
employee B whereupon some negotiation will occur while A waits.
Notes
1 PMI®. 2013. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®
Guide), Fifth Edition, Project Management Institute.
2 Hornby, Robin. 2019. Commercial Delivery Methodology, Google Books ebook.
3 Stages of the Business
Lifecycle
The stages fall naturally into two segments. The first, project materializa-
tion, is rarely viewed as a collaborative stage and is variable depending upon
usage of an in-house or vendor provider. The second stage, project delivery,
is the focus of the guide and specifies collaborative elements which improve
the owner’s business control and the provider’s efficiency.
The business lifecycle is the framework for housing these elements and
although some of them find a dual purpose in the technical project lifecycle
which guides the project team, the business lifecycle is very different. Its
stages of initiate, execute, complete, and assess are naturally understood by
the owner, who can easily follow the standard template given for each stage:
Objective, overall purpose, start and exit criteria, description, and the usage
of each DO element within the stage.
The introduction of the business lifecycle and the collaborative use of the
elements described in this chapter represent a paradigm shift in the perceived
role of the PM. Traditionally, the PM has been obliged to act as an authori-
tarian in order to create an environment that recognizes the legitimacy and
importance of various project disciplines. Many PMs are unwilling to adopt
DOI: 10.4324/9781003370031-4
Stages of the Business Lifecycle 29
this role, preferring to maintain a comfortable relationship with the owner,
who has not perceived the importance or the self-interest, of engaging in
project administration or execution issues. These may have previously been
ignored, or seen only as a concern of the PM. The collaborative approach
to these matters changes the role of the PM from unwelcome instigator
of new rules and procedures to skilled and knowledgeable partner of the
owner in a joint enterprise to create something new and of benefit to the
company.
Owner/Provider Guidance
(1) Customer Services Manager. Some large companies formalize the
owner/provider link by introducing a liaison position with each depart-
mental owner. A key responsibility is to actively canvas the owner for
opportunities to apply technology. This aspect of the role mirrors the
vendor sales executive during opportunity hunting.
30 Chapter 3
Client/Vendor Guidance
(1) Vendor Pre-Sales. The early stages of materialization operated by the
vendor are opportunity hunting and selling. The vendor’s sales execu-
tives are trained to follow up on their firm’s marketing initiatives and
promotions to engage with would-be owners or sponsors. Should this
resolve into a solid project opportunity then the degree of collabora-
tion depends upon whether the client seeks competitive proposals. In
most cases, the client decides competition is required and the nature
of the competitive environment then precludes significant information
sharing between the client and, most likely, multiple vendors. The pro-
cess can be very lengthy and takes unpredictable turns, though usually
results in the publishing of an RFP.
(2) Procurement. A client’s decision to engage a vendor as provider involves
a procurement process. Typically, an RFP is assembled and circulated
to interested vendors. A formal selection process is followed to deter-
mine a winning vendor who is then engaged in contract negotiations.
(3) Contract as the Bridge to Delivery. The contracting of a vendor as pro-
vider is a bridge into delivery. It replaces the development of a project
charter during initiation for the in-house case. To reflect reality, the
preliminary discussions on contracting during proposal evaluation are
considered project materialization. The selection of a bid winner starts
the initiation stage, and so the serious negotiation of a contract agree-
ment falls into initiation. Procurement, pre-sales, and contracting are
more fully explored in the final chapter, The Future of Collaboration.
(4) The Statement of Work Commitment. The vendor’s proposal includes
a technical section usually called a Statement of Work (SOW). If
accepted, the SOW becomes a technical appendix to the contract
(called a ‘Schedule’) and provides a foundation for all the commit-
ments and obligations being made by the vendor. It is an interpretation
of the feasibility or requirements study included in the RFP, almost
certainly updated by additional prologue effort from the vendor’s bid
team. Although seen as a technical project document, and often stripped
of financial data at the client’s request, it has business significance as
the basis for the project estimates. Different names are used for this key
contract document:
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Scope of Work (SOW)
• Technical Specifications
• Project Requirements
Stages of the Business Lifecycle 31
• Project Definition
• Preliminary Project Plan
To many, it is simply seen as ‘the contract’ because it represents the scope
of the project, the commitment for delivery, and the baseline for all that
follows.
Initiation Stage
The objective is to start the project with barriers to success removed. The
essence of initiation is speed and finding clarity. During these early days of
potential chaos, enough direction, structure, and order must be established
to allow real work by the project team to start efficiently.
The initiation stage starts with the appointment of a PM, and the first
job is to prepare the project charter in collaboration with the sponsor.
Like all collaborative documents, it requires a template provided by
the DO.
Exit from the initiation stage specifically requires the signing of the
project charter (or contract) and completion of all items on the initiation
checklist.
32 Chapter 3
Initiation Elements
The following techniques, reviews, processes, and documents are specified
for the DO:
Owner/Provider Guidance
(1) Related Integration Techniques. Promoting project integration and
making sure both provider and owner have the same view of the project
is a real concern during initiation. The DO7 RAM and the technique of
DO4 Lifecycle Mapping are good for this. Other techniques include the
careful, explicit statement of objectives and sharing between all parties,
clarity of role between PM(s) and sponsor, shared success definitions,
sponsored opportunities for social interaction, and a good communica-
tions plan.
(2) Project Plan. The experienced reader may be wondering why I have
not included the project plan in my list of collaborative initiation docu-
ments. There are two reasons:
• It is better to maintain clear PM responsibility. Although there are
clear points of consultation and input from the owner, and second-
ary content may be collaborative, the project plan is unequivocally
the PM’s document. It is submitted by the PM to the sponsor, to
operations, to functional heads, and to others for approval.
• The plan may not be completed during initiation. Serious pro-
ject planning takes time. For a large project, it could be several
months. Planning requires supplementing the work done by the
team during the prologue with a more thorough requirements
phase, or whatever is specified as the first phase of the cho-
sen project lifecycle. So, with the PM working serious hours on
developing a project plan, and the project team working weeks or
months on requirements, it is ridiculous to say the project has not
started.
(3) Optionality. DO2 Agreements and DO3 Walkthroughs may not always
be required for the in-house provider case because the parties are a
single Delivery Organization, and a review may not be necessary.
Client/Vendor Guidance
(1) Project Manager Appointment. The selection of the vendor is the effec-
tive trigger for initiation, and a PM should immediately be appointed
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Another source of pleasure are the markets of Paris. The great
Halles Centrales one generally visits once, and no more, as a truly
wonderful sight; but the flower-markets of the quays, of the
Madeleine, and St. Sulpice are scenes of perpetual delight. There
are many markets in the different quarters of Paris, where your
servant may go in search of vegetables, fruit, eggs, and fowls for the
national pot-au-feu. It is a small luxury, however, which I do not
recommend, though widely practised by the bourgeois, who has a
positive genius for the slow and ingenious saving of sous.
It is for all these reasons, and thousands more that creep into the
blood and the brain beyond the range of analysis, that Paris takes
such a grip of the foreigner, and becomes the birth-town of his
maturity. In other towns you sojourn as a stranger or a contemplator.
You live apart, either in your own world of dreams, among old
stones, ruins, and faded pictures, amid the dim aisles of Gothic
poems, or else you form part of a foreign coterie, and give and go to
afternoon teas, living like invaders, in insolent indifference to the
natives around you, except in your appreciation of them should they
be courteous enough to lend themselves to your notion of the
picturesque, or treat you with the consideration and kindness you
naturally deem yourself entitled to expect along the highways of
Europe. But Paris will have none of this patronage. If you settle there
it is inevitable that you will become Parisianised. I do not say
anything so flattering as that your taste in dress, if you happen to be
a woman, will, of necessity, become that of your adopted sister, but
there will be a chance that her eye for colour will modify your
barbaric indifference to it, and the cut of her gown and shape of her
hat will insensibly beguile you into altering yours. Nor, in the case of
the young gentlemen of Great Britain, would I imply that long
residence in Paris will affect their excellent tailoring, or turn them into
the overdressed popinjays of the boulevards. The Englishman and
the Parisian woman will always remain the best-dressed of their kind
wherever they may live; and, while the Frenchman, in morals and
manners, can descend to odious depths unsuspected by the blunt
and open-minded Saxon, he can also, when the race shows him at
his best, reveal virtues of subtler and more captivating quality. I know
no form of young man more charming than a good young
Frenchman, and can never understand why he figures so little in
French fiction. There is nothing of the prig about him. He does not
spend his days in being shocked at his neighbour; he is under no
compulsion to be narrow and dull; he does not quote the Bible, nor
does he desire, like the British virtuous youth, to mould all humanity
upon his own stiff and starched effigy. His wisdom is woven with a
great deal of gaiety; and when he happens to be dull, he carries off
his dulness with an imperturbable amiability. This type of Frenchman
a woman will never find offensive. He can oblige her with simplicity,
and courtesy and gentleness are the most distinctive features of his
character.
Foreigners in Paris seem to be very much swayed in their
judgments and adoption of French politics by the mental and moral
atmosphere they breathe, as well as by their own natural tendencies.
The average Briton far too rarely stoops to consider the question of
Republicanism, but condemns it beforehand on aristocratic
principles. Mr. Bodley, who wrote a singularly pretentious work on
France, frequented Bonapartist circles, and sat at the feet of the
Comte de Mun, and sundry other political noblemen of the same
mind; and the consequence is two tomes to prove that what France
wants is another Napoleon—the very thing that nearly ruined her.
The daughter of a sister Republic carries her millions into France by
marriage with some needy nobleman, who has already figured in no
estimable light in the pages of contemporary history written by
fashionable romancers, under the guise of fiction, and she perhaps
brandishes her parasol at the head of a band of miscreants, called
La Jeunesse Royaliste, in enthusiastic admiration of its mission to
batter the hat of a guest, an old man, the Head of the State, the
Representative of France before the world. Mr. Bodley’s ideal
appears to be not the good of France, but the triumph of the ideal of
the archbishops and owners of castles. The Republic is bad form,
and he would fain see it overthrown for the pleasure of his good
friend, the Comte de Mun. What the Parisianised, ennobled
American subject wants is to see her admirable and chivalrous
husband Court Chamberlain, or something of the sort;—she, too,
yearns for the life which every other countess in Paris wants, a Court
to confer a forgotten dignity upon herself, and if she longs for the re-
establishment of the old privilege, it is in order to patronise and
protect those she fondly deems her inferiors. Other rich or needy
foreigners in Paris wish for a Court to shine at, a monarchy or an
empire, to be able to boast of their powerful relations. And what none
of them will see is that France, in her several experimental moods, is
seriously labouring to discover the form of government best suited to
her needs, and that the elect of the people still hope, through trial
and blunder, to reach the ideal of a progressive liberality. But the
passion, the earnestness, of all these Parisianised foreigners in their
adoption of the several prejudices and aspirations of Paris prove the
truth of my assertion, that Paris absorbs us in her furnace of ardent
sentiments and theories as no other place does. We can not stand
by and view the spectacle of her follies and furies like a philosopher.
Needs must we go down into the fray, which in reality does not
concern us, and brandish the stick or parasol of revolt, whatever our
nationality. Needs must we adopt a party in the land which regards
us mistrustfully as foreigners, and rewards our generous enthusiasm
for its multiple causes by calling us “Sans-patrie,” “Jews,” and
“Traitors from Frankfort,” subsidised by a mythical syndicate, like the
Czar, the Emperor of Germany, the King of Italy, and the Pope of
Rome. Needs must we fret and fume, grow irritable and ill, perhaps
long to hear the tocsin ring for another St. Bartholomew’s, if we are
on one side,—that of the large, unenlightened, and foolish majority;
yearn to people the Devil’s hole with sundry scoundrels we have
come to hate if on the other side, that of the elect and liberal
minority, with a passion of hatred no public men in our own country
have ever inspired. What is the meaning of it? Is there some subtle
magnetism in the air of Paris which makes us see French rascals as
so different from other rascals, French tragedy as more poignant and
intense than any other? I know I could cheerfully get through the
remainder of my days in Spain or Italy without giving a thought to
either government or caring a straw whether Sagasta or Crispi were
in or out of office. I never see much difference between the
gentlemen who in turn manage the affairs of England; in fact, I never
have the ghost of an idea who is at the head of each department,
and could not for the life of me distinguish between Mr. Codlin and
Mr. Short. Not so in this brilliant, variable, light-headed, light-hearted,
graceless, and bewitching Paris. I am burningly anxious to know all
there is to be known about each minister of war, and take their
repeated defections almost as a personal grievance. I eagerly
examine the interpellations and their consequences, count majorities
and minorities in the turbulent Chamber, follow the fortunes of the
Senate, applaud, disapprove of all that happens with the ferocity of a
citizen who pays to keep the machine going. I know well that I am a
fool for my pains, and that I would be far better employed in minding
my own business. But it is all the fault of Paris for being so
abominably, so mischievously interesting. She it is who will not let
you let her alone. She is like a vain woman; she must have all
attention concentrated upon herself. She clamours for your notice,
and despises you for giving it. If you stand aside with folded arms
and look elsewhere, she will get into a passion, create a frightful
scene to attract your attention, and when you obey her and give it in
unstinted fashion, she turns on you and sneers and rails at you for a
foreign spy and busybody. Poor Mr. Bodley, all ignorant of the fretful
indignation he often roused in France by his thirst for information,
was for long regarded by many an honest Frenchman as a spy.
Oddly enough, I hold that the pleasure side of Paris, its
fashionable world, is the least of all to be envied. If I were a
millionaire, I think I should prefer London, with its larger public life, its
more varied hospitalities, for the investing of my millions in the thing
called experience. Even a British ass, with time on his hands, and
millions to squander, can discover an original method of going to the
dogs and casting his millions into the bottomless pit. But what can
the French idiot do after he has sent his shirts to London to be
washed, and invested in an automobile? He is such a superlative
dandy and humbug—I would fain use a hideous word, which
describes him still better in three letters, if it were not for its
inexcusable offensiveness—that he cannot bring sincerity to bear
upon his imaginary passion for sport, and looks ten times more
absurd when he is playing the athlete than when he is contentedly
playing the fool. He is “the sedulous ape,” not to literature, like
Stevenson in his young days, but to the Anglo-Saxon; and the folly
lasts on to the brink of age.
The Faubourg holds itself more aloof than ever. It is now not even
on saluting terms with the Republic. Still its life must be lived after a
fashion, and it must give balls, if for no other reason than the
ignoring of ministers and their wives. It cannot be said that the
country at large is much affected by its doings; and if we are to judge
the inhabitants by the fiction of the day,—the dialogue novels of Gyp,
of Lavedan, of Abel Hermant, the psychological studies of MM.
Bourget, Hervieu, Prévost,—the sane and intelligent person may
thank his stars that he is still free to choose his society, and is not
condemned by an accident of birth to tread such a mill of vaporous
frivolity and futility, of intellectual blankness and arrogance, and of
senseless corruption. I do not presume to say that these clever
writers are invariably accurate in their delineation of fashionable
Paris, nor do I deny that there may be a good deal of exaggeration in
their sombre and revolting pictures,—for what lies under the
sparkling effervescence of the brightest and wittiest of Gyp’s earlier
work if it is not a dead-level of inanity and perversity? But their
singularity consists in the fact that all are unanimous in their
conclusions, in the general tenor of the life they portray. Pride of birth
is the only sort of pride this class seems to possess, and for a nod
the heroines of all those heraldic pages fall into the arms of the first
comer and the last alike. When you make the acquaintance of a
viscount, you may be sure he has an entresol somewhere for varied
clandestine loves, and passes his time between encounters here, le
boxe, and his “circle.” One solid, useful action never seems to be
entered to his account. His days and nights are devoted to
accomplished idleness and seduction, and his busiest hours are
those spent on his toilet. And the women of this dreary and
monotonous fiction,—how shall we qualify them? They have all the
frailty of the wicked, red-heeled, minuetting eighteenth century
without any of its charm, its wit, and real intellect. For if the marquise
of the old school, passed into perfumed memory, were a rake, she
was not a fool, she was not a rowdy, and she had a feeling for great
deeds and great thoughts. She stands on a picturesque eminence in
the history of her land. We cannot say the same for the titled rake of
to-day. It is the fashion to treat her as a détraquée, because she
subsists mainly upon excitement. But what needs altering is her
standard; what should be overthrown is the altar upon which she
sacrifices her futile existence. Not that she is the only example of her
class, but somehow the novelists have not thought fit to present us
with any other. The strange thing about it is, that she and her mate in
the game of battledore and shuttlecock with reputation and morality,
the incorrigible viscount, have been brought up under a supervision
and care exceeding northern conception. Neither was permitted a
moment of licensed childhood. Priest and nun were at the side of
each, in constant attendance upon their minds and manners and
morals. The male cherub lost his wings when the abbé made his last
bow and retired, leaving his charge alone on the brink of temptation,
a youth with a budding moustache. The maid ceased to be an angel
before the honeymoon had well begun; and, if we are to believe
polite fiction, was already one of the pursued of snaring sinners
before she was a week a bride.
The Paris of this class is not the Paris that charms and holds you
in its spell. The fast, luxurious, and expensive Paris belongs to it; the
cosmopolitan Paris, kept going by the millions of the foreigners who
come here to amuse themselves. Theirs is the Rue de la Paix, the
Concours Hyppique, the Arménonville Restaurant, the Bois, the
avenues of the Champs Elysées and the Parc Monceau, the race-
courses, the Théâtre Français “Tuesdays,” the charity bazaars, the
flower feasts and exhibitions, the automobile competitions, the “five-
o’clocks,” and M. Brunetière’s lectures on Bossuet. This is the rowdy,
reactionary Paris, ever on view, which disapproves of the Pope, and
would assuredly array itself in garments of gaiety if M. Loubet were
assassinated. This is the Paris which sneers at rasta-quouères, and
is ever on the lookout for American heiresses for its needy titled
sons, which is rabidly anti-Semitic, and supports its prestige upon
Jewish millions. Quite recently, when anti-Semitism was raging in
France, and we were informed in every tone of fury and contempt
that no self-respecting Catholic could possibly regard a Jew as an
honest man or a French subject, an authentic French marquis
married the daughter of a Hebrew millionaire, and to console
themselves for the obligation of profiting by their noble comrade’s
good fortune, his friends summed up the young lady’s qualities in
three amusing lines:—
“Belle comme Vénus,
Riche comme Crœsus,
Innocente comme Dreyfus.”
The raillery did not prevent “tout Paris” from being present at the
splendid marriage ceremony, and inscribing its best names upon the
wedding gifts. It could not do less, seeing that its king and master,
Philip of Orleans, the digne (for alas! there is no English equivalent
of that indescribable French word as applied to a man)
representative of the House of France, is said to have accepted a
million from the bride’s anti-Semitic Hebrew mother.
There is another side, less known, of aristocratic Paris. This is the
quiet, exclusive, genuinely religious side, that of old-fashioned, rigid
noblewomen, who live apart in their dull, old houses of the Faubourg,
given up to prayer and good works. There is a charming distinction
about them, a musty, conventual odour, as you enter the halls of
their faded hotels. They preside over ouvroirs, where ladies of their
like meet to make church articles and decorate altar pieces.
Sometimes they carry piety and good-will to the poor to excess, for I
know of one, a baroness, who neglected her children to make
perfume and soap of her own invention, which she sold for the
benefit of the poor. The instinct of trade so developed that she ended
by opening a shop, on which she duly bestowed a saint’s name; and
here, if you are willing to pay exorbitant prices, you may find
wherewithal to wash and scent yourself with the labours of
aristocratic hands, and tell yourself you are doing so for the good of
mankind. Not that I would laugh at those ladies, who are the salt, the
redemption of their class. I once lodged in the dismantled hotel of
such a countess, and was edified by the stately, chill dignity of her
austere existence. Her private rooms were furnished with a touching
simplicity. Even in winter there was not a carpet anywhere, no sign of
luxury or comfort; but in her private chapel, where Mass was
celebrated every day, the vestments and ornaments were both
beautiful and precious. She herself had nothing whatever to do with
the frisky countesses of French fiction. She was in every sense of
the word a great lady,—handsome, with aquiline features, and with
hair worn high off a noble forehead, reserved, possibly too haughty
in bearing and expression for her reputation of piety, but essentially
one of the elect of this earth, the kind of woman that an aristocrat
should be, and too rarely is, to justify her privileges and pretensions.
Here, far off from the roar of reaction and the rumble of revolt,
such women dwell amidst the dim splendours of an impoverished
house, unfamiliar to the frequenters of routs and races; whose
names never appear in the society columns of the Figaro; who are
chiefly known to the poor and the priests of their neighbourhood; and
they it is who preserve some charm for the Faubourg, who help us to
regard it with some indulgence and sympathy in its futile discontent.
For what can be the benefit to itself or to France of this fine attitude
of disdain? Every part of a nation should go with the times, and the
Faubourg would have served its own cause as well as its country’s in
abandoning its belated ambitions, and making the best of its existing
circumstances. It feeds its pride on its absurd exclusiveness; and
who is the better for this? It is largely due to this insane vanity, that
Paris has become the centre of rowdy cosmopolitanism, the
pleasure-ground of the entire world, for it is the titled malcontents
who attract the class they are pleased, with signal ingratitude, to call,
contemptuously, rastas, instead of looking after the affairs of their
country. Since they will not earn their right to live, they must be
amused, and amusement is the costliest thing in the world. Not
having enough money for this profession, they needs must set
themselves out for the capture of alien millions; and then when the
foreign millions fall into their laps, by way of Frankfort, or New York,
or South America, they mourn and lament because the foreigners
take root, Parisianised by the sorceress Paris, and cry out that
France no longer belongs to the French, and that Paris is sold to a
band of cosmopolitan miscreants.
CHAPTER III
SOCIAL DIVERSIONS AND DISTINCTIONS
With a race that has so thoroughly mastered the art of living, and
not merely working or vegetating, the question of diversion is of
paramount interest. In the fashionable world, sport monopolises the
better part of man’s hours. This is an overseas passion, adopted with
frenzy and fervour. M. Rémy de Saint Maurice has given us the
odyssey of the record cyclist in an amusing and humorous book, Le
Recordman, where we see the wealthy idlers of France in awed
adoration before the prowess of the racing-wheel. The champion
cyclist raises storms of emotion wherever he runs, be it in Paris or in
the provinces. When he returns to his native town, all the authorities
come to meet him and do him honour.
The French race is essentially a conversational and not a sporting
one. It has a natural predilection for the amenities of life, and we feel
how inappropriate is this present craze for rude and unsocial games.
You need only watch a Frenchman on horseback, and contrast him
with a British horseman to assure yourself of the fact that the point of
view of each is quite different. The Anglo-Saxon rides ahead with the
air of thinking only of his horse. The Frenchman trains his beast, like
himself, to have an eye to the arts and graces, to curvet and prance
minuettingly, to arch its neck as he himself bows, and he brings a
suggestion of the salon among the shadows of the Bois de
Boulogne. Should there be a mortuary chapel on their road to this
sophisticated paradise, stand and note the pretty way these dashing
creatures will salute death. Spaniards would do it, I admit, much
more gracefully, for in the art of salutation the Spaniard comes first
beyond a doubt. But you will not see anywhere in the British Isles so
pleasing a spectacle. Some bend altogether over their steeds, hat
curved outward on a wide sweep; others pause midway, less
ostentatious and theatrical in their respect, and hold their hats in a
direct line from their eyebrows, admirably suggestive of diplomatic
reticence, younger and elder men all expressing every shade of
effective recognition of alien grief with a subtlety, a dramatic felicity of
movement and line the stiff Anglo-Saxon could never hope to
achieve. Of course the supercilious Englishman would say he had no
mind to play the monkey, and find a cause for just pride in the rigidity
of his body, and the stoniness of his well-trained and inexpressive
visage. But here I differ from him. A man loses nothing by outward
grace, and there is no reason on earth why he should rejoice in the
fact that he cannot bow.
The motor craze has superseded the cycle craze. The bourgeois
bicycles so much that the youth of fashion needs something to
distinguish him on the road from his inferior brother. So somebody
came to his rescue with the motor-car. Go to Paris if you would
realise what a perilous thing the crossing of a street may be. In such
a neighbourhood as the Place Pereire it is almost mortal. I imagine it
as a machine invented by the upper classes to replace the guillotine,
and run down the miserable foot-passengers to avenge the
beheadings of a century ago. Whenever I return home, and discover
that I have lost a purse, a book, a packet according to my invariable
habit, I am so thankful to feel that I am still alive, in spite of the
automobile which charges through the streets in such a dreadful
way, that I balance loss and gain, and count myself still a winner in
the game of life by every new day to my account. In London you are
everywhere enveloped in a sense of public protection. The cab
drivers know how to drive, a feature of their trade they are most
imperfectly aware of in Paris. The policeman is there when he is
wanted, and, thanks to him, the nervous passer-by is valiant and
unafraid. But in Paris the driver regards him with an eloquent
hostility. His one hope is to get a free chance of running over him. He
is insolent, overbearing, and menacing, unfettered by policeman or
law in his man-crushing career. And, as if regretting the very slight
limits still left him, Paris cast forth upon the public way the motor-car.
This machine of destruction hisses along, leaving a trail of petroleum
in the air, and you have barely time to start back for its passage,
such is the fury of the horror in the hands of its fashionable owner.
There are many motor-cars in use for the big shops and public
offices; but these, being in no sense competitive in luxury, measure
the ground by a speed less fatal, the drivers seem to desire to leave
you whole, and suggest by their pace and bearing, some glimmering
of humanity in their heart. For it is only the rich young men who give
one the notion of wishing to avenge the massacres of the French
Revolution. For the benefit of these flowers of the race, exhibitions of
motor-cars take place, under the patronage of dukes and counts
more or less authentic. And, so encouraged, these wild Parisians set
out in their automobiles for the harmless and distant provinces, and
charge down the long French country roads with purpose often more
deadly than that displayed in the capital. The newspapers acquaint
us with frequent accidents; and whatever the general sentiment
regarding these accidents may be, I always feel that they are a well-
merited chastisement. Why must the poor, the obscure, the
inoffensive clerk and shop-girl, go in fear and trembling of their lives,
that the privileged few may add a fresh sensation to their list of
entailed emotions? Is not the luxury of a horse good enough for
those busy idlers, without adding heart disease to our inherited
disorders?
Boxing and fencing are also favourite exercises, as well as polo
and tennis amongst games. One of the more serious of diversions is
the duel, the first of which must be fought in early youth, and the last
when temperament and politics shall have said their final word. Then
come the amusements of club life, which absorb a good deal of
masculine leisure, of course, and where men meet to talk and be
entertained, as well as to eat, and read the newspapers. The races
and the horse-show are sources of pleasure at which every self-
respecting Parisian drinks. Not to be connected with horses or
exhibitions would be almost as bad as not to possess an automobile,
not to be seen in the foyer on great theatrical nights, not to have
fought a duel. But beyond even all these pleasures are the noisy
suppers of the fashionable restaurant, where everybody who is
anybody meets “tout Paris”; where the dresses of the women find
rivalry in the decorations of the men, and the scene approaches the
ideal paradise, the mundane city peopled with brilliant personages.
In all things the French bourgeoise is more difficult to divert than
her aristocratic sister. She is much more particular and infinitely
more restricted in her ideas upon feminine liberty. While the women
of the upper class arrogate to themselves the right to amuse
themselves in whatever fashion they like, with lovers or without
them, bicycling, skating, shooting, on horseback, in automobile (the
Duchesse d’Uzès was the first Frenchwoman to obtain a certificate
as woman driver of the motor-car), private theatricals, they can
smoke or scale the mountains of the moon with impunity. All these
varied avenues of distraction are rigorously denied the bourgeoise.
She is the most conventional of creatures, and anything like marked
originality in one of her sex terrifies her and fills her with distrust. She
was bred in the conviction that girls should resemble their great-
grandmothers, be clothed until marriage in the integrity of imbecility,
and after marriage in the narrowness of piety, and know no other
amusements than those strictly suitable to a “feminine” woman. The
path her mother and grandmother trod is the path she must never
deviate from. She must be just as religious as they were, taking care,
however, to follow the fashions of her own class, in order to guard
from so dangerous and disreputable a pitfall as originality, which,
with her, means pronounced eccentricity. When she lives in Paris
she dresses well; but the province often transforms her into an
inconceivable shape of dowdiness. In Paris, thanks to the lectures,
music, drama, literature, the multiple elements of culture, it is
impossible for her to escape, unless her days be entirely devoted to
domestic economy and good works; she is rarely destitute of that
agreeable worldliness that makes commerce with her, however
shallow and superficial she may be, facile and often instructive. And
when she has the hardihood to plunge into deeper waters and think
for herself, when she ceases to be beset with a craving for the
ordered in conventional circles, and to think ill of originality and
individual character; there is no woman on earth more charming,
more capable, of readier wit, of less intellectual prudery, wedded to a
wholesome independence of judgment and principle.
But as I have said, the amusements of the bourgeoise, “big” or
“little,” are very restricted: books, theatres, balls, dinner-parties, with
the excitement of religious ceremonies, an academy reception, a
noisy sitting of Parliament, the hourly expectation of revolution, a
correct evening party,—the dullest thing on earth wherever it takes
place. But, on the other hand, we may be sure she will find ample
entertainment in looking after her admirably managed establishment,
in making her own and her husband’s means go a very long way in
accomplishing a thousand little domestic meannesses unknown to
the thriftless Anglo-Saxon, and all with a certain geniality and
discretion that win her the esteem and goodwill of her fellows. For of
womankind she is the most genial and well-mannered, and though
she may, in straitened circumstances, deny every pleasing luxury to
her family, her good humour will keep those around her in good
humour, and the counting of lumps of sugar and of grains of coffee
will seem a slight matter compared with the flavour of domestic
courtesy that accompanies the process. I have known of an English
family where at table forced strawberries and peaches were daily
eaten, and vegetables at a fabulous price, upon the finest damask
and priceless china, to the accompaniment of glasses flung by
sisters and brothers at an argumentative head, plates flying, and
oaths showered like missiles. Who would not prefer the economical
French middle-class table, where, in well-to-do families, lunch is
often served on shining oilcloth or table as polished as a mirror, to
save washing, and where the amenities are as carefully guarded as
if the household were on view?
In this world the young men, as elsewhere, have the best of it.
Theirs the licence of manhood in all things. The moment dinner is
over they put on their evening suit and file off (filer, as they say
themselves, in their pleasant French slang) in the quest of pleasure.
If they are well-to-do they have no difficulty in getting accepted in the
world of third-rate titles. Tarnished dukes will cordially shake their
hands. As there is no peerage in France to control aristocratic
pretensions, they may have as much as reasonable man can desire
of the society of marquises and counts, provided they take these
exalted personages on trust, and do not seek to examine too closely
their blazons. The method of making one’s self a count or a baron in
Paris under the Third Republic is very simple. You may purchase a
Papal title at a not exorbitant cost. In Abel Hermant’s Le Faubourg, a
porcelain manufacturer was awarded the title of count by the Pope in
return for a dinner-service he sent him, which was explained on the
grant as pour service exceptionelle. In France and America only are
Papal titles taken with gravity, and pronounced with all the sounding
magnificence of hereditary names. But a simpler way still, and less
costly even than the interference of Rome, is to buy a plate, and
have graven on it first a name prefixed by the particle de. When this
has been accepted without demur, and the newspapers have a
dozen times announced you here, there, and everywhere as M. de
⸺, then boldly apply the title of your predilection, and behold you
are, without more ado, a noble of France. No need of papers or
permissions. You are noble by the grace of your own goodwill; and
as most of the people around you are playing the same game, there
is no earthly reason why your friend should be more of a count than
you are of a baron. And so you may aspire to a larger dot from your
bride. If you are in the army, you may even look as high as your
general’s daughter; and when you travel abroad or journey in the
provinces, you will be made to understand what a fine thing it is to be
able, thanks to your own valour and judgment, to inscribe yourself in
hotel books as M. le Baron or M. le Comte. You will be served better
than when you were plain Mr. So-and-So. Waiters will help you off
and on with your coat with a deference hitherto not enjoyed by you in
your anterior plebeian state, and the society papers will record your
great doings with gusto and fervour. Who, under these
circumstances, would not be a count or a marquis? Had I known
years ago of the facilities and advantages offered in France to titled
adventurers, I might have had the wit and wisdom to style myself
countess of this or baroness of that, the sole existing representative
of an Irish King or a Norman house. Indeed, such is the
predisposition of the French bourgeois to believe in the noble origin
of his acquaintance, that one stoutly maintained before me that O
and Mac were the Irish equivalents of count; and my remark that
every second washerwoman or policeman in Ireland rejoiced in
those attributes of nobility was received with frosty incredulity. A
French officer’s wife of the name of Mahon assured me that her
husband was of noble origin, and related to Marshal MacMahon; but
that, unfortunately, the papers identifying the relationship were lost,
and, in consequence, they could not call themselves MacMahon. As
the good lady really believed every word she was saying, I could not
in courtesy point out to her that Mahon and MacMahon are equally
common names in Ireland, and, for that matter, in the British Isles,
and that every MacMahon deems himself a connexion of the late
marshal, though not one would have thought of claiming the
relationship if Marshal MacMahon had remained in obscurity.
A substantial source of income is occasionally derived by the
authentic nobles for the presentation of the other kind into the halls
of social greatness, and for standing sponsors for them in exclusive
clubs. Another source of income for avid noblemen lies in their
shooting and hunting grounds. So much is paid for an invitation, still
more for the button, which permits parvenus to hunt on equal terms
with their so-called betters. The extraordinary things these nobles
will do passes the imagination. I know of a viscountess who
possesses magnificent hunting land on which men from all parts are
invited to hunt. The guests departing naturally tip gamekeepers and
servants according to their means. Every tip, by order, under penalty
of expulsion from the château, must be brought intact to the
viscountess, and out of these tips are the servants paid their wages.
The life of fashion in Paris is pretty much the same as the life of
fashion elsewhere. Men and women ride in the Bois in the early
hours, and it must be admitted that they could not find a pleasanter
spot to ride in anywhere. The landscape is charming, and if you
break away from the Allée des Acacias—the Parisian Row—you
may even make a feint at losing yourself under columns of tall trees,
by little, moss-grown paths, where the branches meet overhead, with
ever in view grassy rolls of sward and bright trellises of foliage above
the broad white roads. In the early hours this trim paradise is cool
and quiet; and even an Anarchist on foot will have no cause to envy
his prosperous enemy on horseback, for the same delights of herb
and leaf, of sky and water, are his at a cheaper rate. Indeed, there is
no land on earth where a good-humoured taste of vicarious
pleasures may be so freely and fully enjoyed as in France. Amiable
petits gens sit on chairs and watch the great parade of the Bois
without a trace of envy in their looks, comment on dresses, horses,
equipages, bearing, as if it were but a pageant got up for their
benefit. I am not sure that this is not one of the advantages of
Society—one of its objects—to minister to the kindly and generous
vanity of the workers of a country. These, by their labours, maintain
it, dress it, wash for it, build for it, manufacture for it, keep in order for
it the public roads, give the best of their blood, brains, nerve, and
force to its triumphs, and are content to see how well the result of all
this gigantic travail of a race looks in the show hours of national
existence. The big dressmakers are repaid when, sitting in their loge
of inspection, they watch the effect of their several creations on
Varnishing Day, at Auteuil or Longchamps. The artistic temperament
is at the root of all this contentedness, of these subtle gratifications
which the Philistine workman does not apprehend. The Frenchman
brings this sentiment of art into all he does. The word “artist” is
applied to cook, dressmaker, milliner, hair-dresser. In many ways M.
Demolins has shown us that the race is inferior to the Anglo-Saxon
races, but it has one essential superiority—the absence of vulgarity
in the artisan and shopkeeping classes. You can hold converse with
pleasure and profit with your washerwoman, who also will, in all
probability, be something of an artist, with the artist’s personal point
of view; with your char-woman, your hair-dresser; and the grocer’s
boy on his daily rounds, if you come in contact with him, you will find
to be an intelligent and well-mannered youth. It is only when you get
a little above this class that you light upon a trace of commercial
vulgarity. The commis voyageur is something of a trial on the public
road. He is not a pattern of manners, and he is apt to be aggressive
in his desire to obtain the value of his money. Go still higher, among
the wealthy bourgeois, and in no land of all the world will you find
men who can comport themselves worse. In their attitude to women
they seem to possess no standard of courtesy whatever. When a
Frenchman of this class is polite to a woman, you may be in no
doubt of his views in her regard, and you may be perfectly sure of
her social and pecuniary value; for he is the least chivalrous, the
least kind, the least disinterested of mortals, speaking generally,
though here, as elsewhere, you will find noble exceptions. I hardly
know an American or English woman who has travelled or stayed
any time in France who has not had occasion to note how much less
courteous to women Frenchmen are than their own men. Two young
English ladies, finding themselves in some dilemma with regard to
trains or luggage, had occasion to call on one of the chiefs of the
Gare du Nord. This gentleman, elegant, disdainful, and fatuously
rude, received them in a luxurious office, fitted up with such
splendour as to suggest some of the complications of the Parisian
drama, and bore himself towards them with such intolerable
insolence, that, on going out, one of the travellers, to be even with
him, said: “Everything may be found in Paris, I see, except a
gentleman!” This, of course, is angry exaggeration, for nobody can
be more delightful than a Frenchman, when he chooses to give
himself the trouble to please and to serve; but it is as good an
example as I can give of the attitude of the French functionary to the
public. Put a uniform of any sort on a Frenchman, invest him in any
kind of office, and he is apt to become insupportable. Rudeness he
practises as part of his official dignity. It never occurs to him that he
is there to assist the public. He conceives himself to be there to
insult and domineer over the public.
In France, social distinctions are less insusceptible of permutation
than elsewhere. Everything is possible in a land where a tanner may
hobnob with a Czar, be embraced and addressed by that august
personage as “friend.” The nations of Europe may object to this state
of things, but the nations of Europe must put up with it. Amongst
these same nations France cannot be left out of the reckoning. Her
capital is always felt to be the best morsel of foreign travel. It is she
who gives “tone,” for I do not speak of anything so obvious as the
unquestioned prestige of her fashions. A day may come when this
prestige shall have passed elsewhere, but even when that day
comes Paris will continue for long years to subsist upon her ancient
renown. Even now there are signs of revolt against her sovereignty.
For in my own town, Dublin, contempt for her fashions is openly
expressed, it being alleged here that the women of Dublin dress with
far greater taste than their sisters of Paris. Those who are inclined to
make light of these pretensions should go to Dublin in the Horse
Show week, where I am assured that the dresses of the girls and
women of Dublin leave Paris nowhere. So the good people of Dublin
say, for they have a fine conceit over there, and profess to hold
Europe in light esteem. But in spite of this it is not improbable that
Paris will continue to maintain its superiority.
Under republican rule, woman has no official position, is in all
matters of state a mere cipher. And so it is not possible for the
President’s wife to start a fashion, or for any Minister’s wife to guide
the vagaries of taste. This in itself suffices to explain to us the fact
that a large majority of women are anti-republican. They feel that
their sex is insulted by a Government which takes no recognition of
their charm and influence, presumes to govern without the
assistance of their presence, without any loophole for their
unauthorised supremacy. There is no chance for a Pompadour under
a Republic, and whatever other abuses may exist to-day, ladies of
light morals cannot hope to attain heraldic glory and hereditary
wealth by the “primrose path of dalliance” with royal Lotharios. And
so social distinctions are now in France more complex and less
stringent than under the ancien régime. Complexity lies in the variety
of claims not known in former days, when the division between the
classes was sharp and infrangible. In the world of toque and robe
there are men who count themselves the superiors of the crusaders;
in the army there are generals of plebeian origin who think
themselves the first of Frenchmen; there are fashionable doctors and
surgeons, painters, authors, politicians, men of science, and
merchant princes who regard themselves almost as the equals of the
crowned heads of Europe.
All these varied ranks of society meet at a general point—social
pretension. Wealth is the sole degree they really acknowledge,
though “good family” is their vaunted consideration. They are aware
that fashion and birth are no longer synonymous terms, that the goal
is quickest won by the longest purse. A duchess with a hundred a
year may feast on her own prestige in the eyes of a few intimates,
but the world at large will forget her existence to run after the
capitalist of yesterday’s standing. With the suppression of the power
of the aristocracy, its removal in a body from the governing centre,
the field was left free to money and talent; and with industry and
education both may now be said to be within reach of everybody.
The aristocracy groan, ineffectual and undignified, while a large