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WHY I LOVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT – DELICIOUS COMPLEXITY
Through some mysterious series of events, I became a full-fledged nerd at an early age. I loved all things mathematical. As evidence of my early nerd-hood, I asked for a complete set of the books of Euclid for Christmas when I was very young and studied it every night. Why? It was complicated, tricky and with a small mistake – led me down the wrong path. Something like a modern video game actually.
ENGINEERING BACKGROUND
Later at University, I studied Electrical Engineering for the same reasons. You could represent a very complex machine, with adjustments and controls; and while you planned for the right output, you very likely didn’t get it. Often you got something slightly off, or sometimes even WAY off what was expected. Arcs, sparks, ozone, snaps… All indications of something not quite right. But normally, you could get something working just the way you wanted.
As a young adult, I went to work at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston TX, USA. There again, I found complex problems - very complex problems. We had predicted solutions and many times difficult-to-obtain results. But we did get results. And, I admit, I had a large ego. I was a native New Yorker, a smarty and was working in a dream job. A LARGE EGO. (Later to be tamed, I quickly add).
One day, my section chief asked if I would manage a group of engineers to solve a small part of a big problem – a PROJECT! Not knowing what a project was, or what managing one meant, I of course, said yes. Thereby, another accidental project manager was created. My project was a small part of the solution to the TAEM problem (Terminal Area Energy Management) or, “How do you take the Orbiter from on-orbit, lacking any fuel, and return it to a landing strip to a roll-out?”
LEADING A PROJECT TEAM
Being expected to lead a group of like-minded individuals, things became infinitely more complex. We had a diverse set of skills, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, programmers and so on. Each one had their own deliciously complex world to deal with. And, each world was different. Finally, it dawned on me that now that I was supposed to lead this team, I realized I had the most complex device of everyone. I had a group of HUMANS!
There were no equations, no indicators, no displays no controls – yet I was charged with making this gloriously complex “machine” work. Human interactions, emotions, abilities, intuition – all sorts of things came into play. Things that ProjectManagment.com is filled with discussions of became my new learning area. I had finally discovered the world’s most deliciously complex machine. A team of humans trying to accomplish something.
But, there was help. We had a great set of OPA – Organizational Process Assets and it was a very good set. There were standards for planning, for monitoring progress, for assessing risk, for all the things on the “technical” side of Project Management. And, I had wonderful mentors that I still keep in contact with today.
DEFENDING THE TRUTH
Part of our culture was a monthly project review. This is where the Project Manager stands up in front of an audience of seasoned professionals and defending “their good works.” There was one PM on stage, and about 100 or so people in the audience. At first, it felt as if their job was to throw stones at me during my presentation. Audience member: “Mr. Maynard, could you please explain why you chose to ignore the possibility that your solution may exceed computational capacity?” Me: “Uh…”
But it quickly became clear this peer review was a wonderfully-crafted educational process to teach me methods to manage a project and at the same time pretty much cured my large ego issue. They would point out what I had missed, what I should consider, what I could have done better. In other words, how to manage or control the deliciously complex machine – the project and the team.
So, the bottom line of this essay is the same as the title. Why do you love project management? Because it’s a deliciously complex
Oh! I almost forgot! I met my wife at NASA, on a project. That's part of the love story too. But she worked with scientists not engineers. Oh well...
