Informal Project Management - Is there really such a thing..?
From the PMO Setup T3 - Tips, Tools, and Techniques Blog
by Mark Price Perry
| Informal (adjective) / a manner that does not take things seriously. |
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Informal Project Management - Is there really such a thing..?
How many times have you heard the term "informal project management" or "informal project manager"...? If you are like me, then chances are that you have heard it quite often. Why is it that we view and call some projects formal and others informal? Is this because a project is only formal if it is an IT project or a project of the PMO? Does this mean that all other projects carried out by folks throughout the company or organization are something less of a project? Regrettably, to many people within the "formal" project management community the answer is yes and they have a blind eye to and are oblivious of such "informal" projects.
I must admit, I am not one of those people and let me tell you why. Consider this real life example. -- Excerpt taken from Page xxxi, Business Driven PMO Setup; Practical Insights, Techniques, and Case Examples for Ensuring Success, with permission from J. Ross Publishing
"Scott, an enterprise software sales representative, was managing a large sales opportunity. The sales effort, which I call a project, was a temporary endeavor spanning nine months, utilizing numerous resources, guided by a project plan, seeking to achieve a unique outcome; in this case a decision by the customer to purchase and implement a two million dollar security software solution for identity and access management. Scott’s company, an $80M publicly-traded firm with a market capitalization of $3B, was forecasting a $20M performance for the quarter which included Scott’s $2M sale as it had been forecasted by management and committed to investors. Regrettably Scott’s project schedule for the sales opportunity was not very thorough. He did not allow sufficient time for the customer legal team to review the software contract and services statement of work and, as a result, the sale, and thus revenue recognition for the firm, slipped into the next quarter. When Scott’s firm posted the revenue results for the quarter which fell short of the company’s prior forecast to investors by $2M, the amount of Scott’s slipped sale, the stock price plummeted from $84 per share to $42 per share in just one day. Scott’s project management skills or lack thereof cost the firm over $1.5B in market capitalization."
I would hope that you would agree that the value of all project management to an organization, not just the formal projects of the PMO, is tremendous. Rather than calling such projects informal and ignoring them, why don't we recognize them and find a way to help..!
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Posted on: June 13, 2009 10:06 AM |
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Comments (5)
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Diana Rusnakova
Project Management Office & Controlling| Slovak Telekom a.s., Slovakia
Bratislava, Slovakia
In my company, we have many „informal“projects. The issue is, that actually these „informal“projects do not want to become formal projects, because they know (or their sponsors and project managers know), they will lose part of their decision power and will be monitored more closely. We are a strong line organization on our way to become a matrix organization. We have a team of project managers – „universal soldiers“who work on all types of corporate projects – these are the formal projects. On the other hand there are specialists in line organization who work on „informal“projects. Actually they are usually informal only until they do not impact some other projects or company’s resources.
The issue with informal projects is that our PMO has almost no visibility of them; even they are using the same internal resources.
Erick Cruz
Programming Manager| Concentrix
Pasig, Philippines
The most exasperating thing about informal projects is that they started as informal and grow to become formal projects. Some even started through word of mouth - something like this - 1) hey, can you research this tool to be used for this client, they will be needing this etc. etc. 2) hey, what happened to the tool I told you about? Our client is expecting it and we need to deliver by this date... huh?.... Nope, it never happened to me yet.... blessed be the heavens above! :-)
Pedro Anicama Blacido
Functional Analyst - Project Consultant| Globokas Peru
San Martin De Porres, Lima, Peru
Hi Diana: I understand exactly what you say. The main point is you mention: The loss of power of decision. But in the company where I work, this has an additional impact is the acceptance of products with low approval ratings, only to meet dates. This is a very common problem with some project managers or PMOs I know, but the pressure to comply with a date (often poorly estimated due to lack of information or experience) sometimes results in a forced or early acceptance, the hopes that once the finished project can "repair" minimal defects, which often are not as minimal ending block the project or generate very critical problems.
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
It is often the case of operational project that often don't need ressource from outside the "service" in which the project is taken place.
They use ressource time not available for official project, time spend on operational budget!
RMA GOYAL
PM Consultant| Self
Fl, United States
An old post from 2009 sounds so relevant after 6-7 years; many a times my teams ask me to be less formal in management and ask me to "chill" about the processes. However, there is nothing called Informal PMship, its a job with very high risk and needs to be done with formal procedures and methods to ensure success!
This is my opinion, what does my co-PMs think?
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"In the real world, the right thing never happens in the right place and the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to make it appear that it has."
- Mark Twain
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