Informal Project Management: Good or Bad?

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.

  Leadership   New Practitioners  

I know a lot of project managers whose first project was rather informal. I also know many people who have never been project managers—but who still have to lead informal projects. And I know some people who never want to be a project manager because of their experience on an informal project.

So, what’s the verdict…are informal projects good or bad?

An informal project
Let’s start by defining what an informal project is. We all sort of know without necessarily being able to put a definition to it. As far as I am concerned, it is a temporary piece of work (a project) that isn’t managed using any formal structure, approach or control. It might be a piece of work being carried out by a business area that doesn’t generally do projects, and therefore doesn’t have formal project management set up. It may be a less important item that isn’t worth giving to a PM, or it may be a small piece of work that doesn’t require a formal management and control structure.

Essentially, it’s just a group of people coming together to develop and execute a set of tasks—and who need a little bit of coordination and control. It often appeals to organizations as a good starting point for someone who may be a good candidate to become a PM because it gives them a bit of a taste of what project management might be like.

Project…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.