I didn't realize it at the time, but when I was Director of Marketing for a Fee-Based Asset Management firm, I put together a team, worked with multiple parties, made the decisions on procurement (or at least submitted them to the stakeholders) for 3 major marketing projects.
They all were a disaster -- I was really inexperienced and didn't understand the importance of how collaboration and communication influenced the outcome.
In the end, the brochures that I did all of the work on but was forced to work on the budget of $3000 was assigned to someone else. The other person took the exact same work, made zero changes and procured the design specialist that we had used for years with a budget of $10,000. While the design worked out great and the feedback was almost 100% positive, the person made mistakes with the grammar and had typos throughout. She couldn't even plagiarize my work correctly! It cost the company another $10,000 to reprint.
It was a mistake on my part not to push harder for the proper designer and it's a lesson I learned and won't soon forget. Saving Changes...
The very first project I believe was a Microsoft Exchange Server installation and configuring user accounts etc. for a health organization. It took around 3 months. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
William, please let me say this: nobody said you that you are performing project management from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. Then, the same you make in your personal like the same you have to do when you lead an initiative. The degree of formality will vary depending on organizational culture but formality is related to documents to create and agreements to get. Saving Changes...
It would have been near the start of my career when I had to manage the technical infrastructure aspects of an office move for the small company I was working for. That was my first exposure to the concept of competing constraints on projects as well as understanding the importance of knowing which constraint is the highest priority to your customer and key stakeholders!
Kiron Saving Changes...
Jim BrandenSenior Project Manager| Retired from UNC Charlotte - IT Services - PPMOCharlotte, Nc, United States
William, while my high school and college years included many projects, e.g. theater lighting, planning regional events, etc., my first ‘on the job’ project was as the architectural designer for a church. Architectural training was the best background for maturing my pm mindset. I discovered PMI 25 years into my career and discovered someone named my project planning tools a “WBS”!
Jim Saving Changes...
