Try this exercise. Below you will find an Ishikawa (fish bone) diagram set up for project management using the PMI knowledge areas. Place a project failure at the head of this fish bone diagram, for example, schedule failure or late schedule or something like that. Then walk through each of the other major bones and see if those other knowledge areas can contribute to a late delivery. I think you will find that all of these things are connected and can lead to poor outcomes due to this interconnections if the project manager does not treat the project as a system of systems.

PM Ishikawa.jpg