Ask the Question, Silly!

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.

  Communications Management   CRM   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Stakeholder Management   Talent Management   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)  

I don’t like writing from a perspective of someone who has done it all, knows it all and can tell you all about it--I am just as flawed as the next PM, I just have more to say about it than most. However, as I move through my career and am faced with a new year that threatens me with a milestone birthday whether I like it or not, I do have to face up to the reality that I have at least been making project management mistakes for longer than many of you.

As such, I want to use this article as a plea to those of you who are starting out on your project management careers--don’t make all the mistakes that I made, or that the PMs ahead of you in your organizations made. Learn from our mistakes and make your life easier. I don’t even mind (too much) if you have a laugh at my expense.

More experienced PMs are one of the greatest sources of assistance that you can have, use them and ask as many questions as possible. There really is no such thing as a stupid question--except perhaps the one that you never ask for fear of embarrassing yourself.

The Rumor Mill
Very early on in my project management career, I was asked to take over a project from someone who had just been fired from the company. That’s a pretty daunting prospect for someone who barely knows their WBS from their charter. Everyone kept asking me what had happened to my predecessor …

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