A chef does not use every ingredient or a carpenter every tool.

Project management, like being a carpenter or a chef is not about using every tool or every ingredient for each project.  The skill in project management is knowing what tools to use and when to use them and this is often based on circumstances which are best judged by experience.

SIMPLICITY IS AN ART-FORM

Project management is more an art-form than a science since the latter could guarantee success based on a formula and there is considerable evidence that despite all good intentions most projects fail to achieve their intended outcomes. This is not a failure of science, this is often a failure of management and leadership and why were revere the art of leadership.

There are many different project methodologies: PRINCE2, Agile, ADAPT, and plenty more outlined in book texts, course materials and on the internet. Indeed there are possibly as many approaches as there are types of project from that the tangibles which may design, build, test, and deliver IT Systems to those intangibles that deliver corporate, individual or social change.

However at their heart projects have the following

    Some form of governance, organisation, or control (governance)
    An idea of what it is there are trying to deliver (scope)
    Some activities, tasks, products, outcomes or outputs (results)
    There will be a need to communicate and co-ordinate (people)
    There will be risks, issues and opportunities that need to be dealt with (issues)
    An indication of time-scale: at least a begining, middle and end (lifecycle)
    Some element of budget, cost or funding (funding)

They are principally about managing resources and getting people to do tasks, to achieve outcomes. This is not significantly different from the role of working mother in the average household who must do all these things on a daily basis. Watch any family help their nursery child do a project for school and you’ll see full blown project management, usually in a highly stressful environment and against a very tight deadline!

DE-CLUTTER YOUR THINKING

I was recently asked by a student on a management course to help them with their assignment on Project Management. The candidate intuitively understands project management, but like many students faced with an assignment her head fills with every example, of tools knowledge and experience, chart, graph, model as well as text book, guide and website and they became unable to articulate their experience and expertise.

Whilst different project methodologies might use different terms, success is about articulating clear concepts. So whilst we might talk about Approval, Initiation and Planning stages we could translate that into Beginning.  Similarly Design, Build and Test could be Implementation or Execution. Whilst some might snobbishly expect you to use the jargon, it is just jargon and less important than the concept and understanding for which it is the title.

PEOPLE TRUST WHAT THEY CAN UNDERSTAND

Suppose you visited two doctors about your dodgy knee. Doctor A said “let’s look at the knee” asked some simple questions and then offered some simple advice. He might mention a technical term, and then immediately explain it in simple terms that are relevant to you, your job, your lifestyle and importantly you knee.

Doctor B by contrast told you about every anatomy class he ever attended. He talked about every technical term, and pointed to the rows and rows of books, journals and certificates that testify to his knowledge and passion.

You might be impressed by Doctor B, but it is my experience that Doctor A’s more simple, personal and easy-to-follow approach is more likely to win trust, belief and behaviour change than Doctor B.

CONTACT

Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader, with a background in Technology and Business Analysis. He was Project Manager for the commercialization of a major public utility and responsible for Operations Change and Sales Support for one of the ‘big four’ banks. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses.

Tim’s current project is for the Incorporation (commercialisation) of Ports of Jersey, which is recognised as one of the most significant and complex aspects of government modernisation ever undertaken by the States of Jersey.

Tim HJ Rogers
Email: TimHJRogers@AdaptConsultingGroup.com
Mob: 07797762051
Skype timhjrogers
Web: www.ciChange.Org
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