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The Practical Project Manager
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
Project managers are trained to believe in process and methodology--it is the framework for their entire project management beliefs. But at some point in their project management careers--usually around the time that their first project kicks off, they get a healthy dose of reality: No one else cares.
You see, the problem is someone forgot to train the team, the sponsors, the customers, etc. on project process and methodology--they still have unrealistic expectations that a defect-free product can be delivered on their timeframe, under budget and feature-rich (based on near vapourware requirements).
Project managers are faced with this incongruity every day. In the real world, the process is often sacrificed for the short-term business needs (real or perceived); the role of the PM is sacrificed for the needs of the project to have "someone" (read: the PM) get an urgent task done. There are any number of articles dedicated to managing stakeholder expectations, communicating the value of appropriate project process, etc., but frighteningly little that will help the PM manage their way out of such a situation in the real world. Let me try and help.
The need for practical project management
The business is now firmly in the driving seat for project decisions: Y2K is now a distant memory, corporate governance and accountability is the new reality. The first generation …
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"I would never die for my beliefs, cause I might be wrong." - Bertrand Russell |