In The Real World

  Manufacturing   ProjectsAtWork  

With a hunger for knowledge, project managers can grow to trust their instincts as much as methodology, says NewGrange cofounder Donna Fitzgerald.

Donna Fitzgerald has run multi-million-dollar global projects in the IT, finance and new product development arenas for tech-sector giants like Intel, Oracle and Sun Microsystems. Yet the PMP designation is notably absent from her title, and she has strong opinions as to why. But her independence hasn't prevented her from being an active, visible member of the project management community, particularly as moderator of the NewGrange e-mail group she helped create five years ago. Projects@Work recently chatted with her.

What makes a good project manager?

Donna Fitzgerald: I believe it's a depth of knowledge about the business. Most good PMs come up the ranks in finance, engineering and manufacturing. In finance, I got to see everything we were doing to stay alive as a company. It gave me knowledge of engineering, manufacturing and sales. It let me see the business as an integrated whole. Sometimes IT doesn't get that, and your nose-down software developer won't have that. What happens then is there is a missing depth to the project management skill. When you have true skills in your area, you know what's going to bite you. That's the key to risk management. You intuitively know how to spot early warning signs.

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