What makes project management fun? Let me spell the ways!

 

This thing we do can often be very challenging – having to deal with suspicious sponsors, squabbling stakeholders and Teflon team members can make us question our rationale in choosing this over any number of other professions.

To counter such thoughts, let me provide some reasons as to why, while frustrating, project management is also fun!

P is for People, without which our projects won’t succeed

R is for Risks, which we hope our risk owners shall read

O is for Objectives, though our projects sometimes have none

J is for Jargon – you’ll agree our profession has some!

E is for Effort estimates, which can make sponsors cry

C is for Communication, which can be hard if you are shy, and

T is for Teams, which we strive hard to build

M is for Milestones, on schedules they look like diamonds in the rough

A is for Assumptions, of which we never log enough

N is for Negotiate, which we have do each day

A is for Authority, which we’d have if we had our say

G is for Gantt, we secretely love his charts

E is for Emotional Intelligence, with which we hope to win stakeholders’ hearts

M is for Monte Carlo, where some day our luck we want to try

E is for Earned Value, which we’d all like to apply

N is for Network diagrams,  which we don’t like to draw, and

T is for Templates, which our PMOs insist we use, because they lay down the project management law!

I is for Issues, projects have those, never doubt, and

S is for Schedule, which newbies think project management is all about!

F is for Float, which is good for your schedule AND your boat

U is for Unanimous agreement from key decision makers, which our decisions need to pass, and

N is for Near-critical path activities which (if we ignore them) can bite us in the ***

(Note: this article was originally written and published by me in July 2013 on my personal blog, kbondale.wordpress.com)