As quite some people here I have some of experience is project management, approx 16-18 years, and coping with quite a lot of frustrations in an increasing way lately.
With all your experience you can see certain situations years ahead, and every time over and over again the same happens, while nobody seems to listen. My experience is to manage this efficiently by considering the company you actually work for as a 3rd party supplier. Nevertheless enough is enough and playing the nanny is not something I want to maintain too long. Same with certifications and courses, companies tend to send heaps of people to courses and get certified, resulting that 85% returns to work and make the same mistakes again, the certification at least insured a little raise which seems the most likely objective at the end.
Therefore my question to the group; which companies do you consider mature in Project management, as in level 5 Continuous Improvement, so that it enables to actually use your experience, get progress and people are open and eager to use your experience to improve?
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Michael, are you sure this is a CMM issue..? It sounds like you have grown apart from your organization. It also seems like you have experience and skills that you are not able to effectively use, your day to day frustrations are increasing, and positive change is not happening fast enough for you. You might very well find these same issues in any large CMM level 5 organization as well. Forget CMM for a moment, have you considered working in a different organization altogether, perhaps a smaller organization, but one in which you are more involved and have greater responsibility for how things go? I only say this because after 17 years of working for a "great" company, I found that it was time to leave. Your post reminds me of how I felt at the time and how some, not all, of my friends and colleagues that are still there still feel. Sounds like you can do better somewhere else. Don't be afraid to give it a try. Worse case, you can consider yourself a 3rd party supplier. Cheers. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
Mark,
Thanks for your reply. I agree with your point of view, after the MoD, Lucent, Logica, Alcatel and Onetel. The latter didn’t survive some badly managed projects due no project framework at all (!!!) although I was very successful in recovering mobile number portability and implementing some processes the cancer could not be removed and the patient died. Now I am at a reasonably small company who just got acquired and is getting bigger, so the focus changes more towards shareholders and short term wins instead of medium to long term, which is sad as the drive to improve is reducing.
Then again, small companies mostly get not involved in high budget/risky/technology projects, and that is a pity as these projects are the interesting ones where you can sink your teeth in.
Michael
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Michael, congrats on the LNP project! As an interested spectator, it was interesting to follow how LNP came into being. I understand your comments about the small company you are now with being focused on shareholders and short term wins and not medium to long term things which is resulting in less drive to improve things. I could easily be wrong, but I don't agree with your comments, entirely. Small companies often do a very good job of focusing on their core business and objectives. They might not have a formal project selection scorecard, but I suspect they have very specific criteria in mind, such as shareholder impact, business impact, timing, cost, risk, etc. And unlike large companies that can sometimes be slow to act, small companies are rarely slow to act or slow in anything. Hence, with your skills, background, and experiences, you have a wonderful opportunity to make a tremendous impact and difference. You can help to introduce or fully optimize the thinking on how best to meet the company's objectives (shareholders and wins), so improvement doesn't stall. Continuous short term wins and value, that is what Kaizen is all about. You might find being a catalyst for continuous improvement to be very "interesting", rewarding, and enjoyable, as well as helpful in facilitating dialog and justifying those mega projects that you like to do. Get all of the low hanging fruit picked, they will give you a ladder. Best regards. -- Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
