As a Project Manager, do you consider yourself an Innovator, Renovator, or Administrator?
Different project managers look at the world in different ways. How do you see your role?
• Innovator – You come in and look for opportunities to manage projects in completely new and different ways.
• Renovator – You come in and start with what is already in place and change it around to make it better.
• Administrator – You accept what is already in place and work within the established guidelines. Saving Changes...
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Renee GalligherIT Project Manager 3, PMP, ICP| Idaho State Board of EducationMeridian, Id, United States
I would have to say that depending on the project and team, each apply. I've done all three!
As an IT project manager with a background in software quality, one has to live the Plan, Do, Check, and Act Deming credo. Each project must have, periodically throughout its lifecycle, lessons learned which is ultimately a PDCA practice. This means that being a Renovator is essentially applying PDCA best practices. If what is already in place, is working well, then I say leave it. How do you know it's working well - well PDCA and lessons learned of course! Saving Changes...
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
In most projects, I start off with the Innovator's mindset looking for new and innovative ways to manage a project, then end up renovating during the planning and hope to make what's in place better.
As I start executing and controlling the project, I end up as Administrator accepting the inevitable fate of the project and just work within the established company dogmas and hope that my project gets done on time, within budget and actually delivers as promised.
Saving Changes...
Hi - interesting. Most of the time I am a renovator.
I work as a PM for banking clients here in Singapore. Most of the time, my clients have already established PM practices and want my company (a consulting firm) to adapt to what they have, use their templates, etc.
So I think I am more of a Renovator or Administrator in your lingo.
An Innovator tends to be come in if the project is troubled and a new core team needs to be installed.
I recall being an innovator only once, when I was assigned a quality project by the top management to define and implement the S/W Developement Life Cycle of our in-house development team; such that -
(1) it is neither too documentive and time consuming to fulfill the requirements of the process as with the traditional SDLC models;
(2) Nor is it too casual in approach whereby people tend to give away the SDLC process importance and lose on project deliverables.
The innovative work (although un-bookish) was that I studied and blended phases (w/deliverables) of Traditional and Agile Models; thus optimizing the SDLC processes to suit the requirements of the top management as well as fulfulling all the typical SDLC requirements.
Other than that, I have been more of Administrator and Renovator.... Saving Changes...
I think most PMs tend to be administrators or renovators. We have PMBoK, various project methodologies and templates in place built up over time to handle a company's projects so some tweaking may be necessary, but it depends on how flexible your PMO is. These artifacts and methodologies have been improved with lessons learnt and the pain of previous projects.
As project management is all about risk management, going in as an innovator with untried tools and techniques could be considered risky as you could be throwing the baby out with the bath water!
Also in Zaffer's response he(?) talked about innovation in the SDLC not in the project management methodology. Projects can be innovative in WHAT they deliver, the product, but there is a difference in innovation in HOW they deliver the end product. I am not sure Zaffer was innovating in project management. Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
I would like to add one more role - Integrator.
Sometimes you have to work in environments that have different practices and ways of doing things. It is an important skill to be able to integrate and work along all these practices to have a smooth project delivery. Saving Changes...
Mary Grace LazoProject Manager| SMITS, Inc.Mandaluyong, Philippines
I think I was more of an administrator and integrator so far but sometimes a renovator, if the project requires. Saving Changes...
Appreciate your insight, Julie... espcially this one...
"As project management is all about risk management, going in as an innovator with untried tools and techniques could be considered risky as you could be throwing the baby out with the bath water! "
Although, implementation of SDLC Best practices may not be in tthe list of S/W Development Projects I have mostly managed and delivered, yet I consider it to be a "QA Implementation Project" with its own project lifecycle; Project Initiation through Project Closure.
In this case, we may not be delivering a product, but we are in turn delivering a standardized monitoring and control tool.
And I agree with you that the innovation I have mentioned is more specific to SDLC Processes (WHAT) than Project Management (HOW) itself, as the Project Lifecycle remained the same in this project, just as any other S/W Development Project.. Saving Changes...
Imran ManirSenior Project ManagerBurton On Trent, United Kingdom
Hi Jennifer,
Predominantly, I see my role as a PM as a change implementor and problem solver. If you are asking how we "manage" our projects, then we can use all three of your definitions, I'm constantly looking for opportunities to improve how we manage our projects and we all have to adhere to a minimal level of established guidance, i.e. financial reporting.
The extent to which I apply these depends on the context of the project and the risk of being an innovator, renovator or administrator to the way the project is managed. Saving Changes...
Kimberly JohnsonPrincipal| KAJ Consulting Inc.Scandia, Mn, United States
I believe if you work in the new product development space you have to be an Innovator and comfortable with ambiguity and lots of change. Saving Changes...
