Project Management

If you present people with the 5 immutable facets of project management, you get a positive response: What does ‘done’ look like? How will we get to ‘done’ Do we have the resources to get to ‘done’ What obstacles will we encounter on the way? How do we know we’re making progress? People want the answers, yet when you start talking about Project Management the room goes cold. Why?

The US Government is a great source of Project Management resources and while I plan on giving an overview of what is available for free in the near future, I stumbled across an item from NASA’s “ask” that I just had to share. The US Inspector General released a report recently attempting to answer why NASA projects so often seem to cost more and take longer than originally planned. While the full report weighs in at 72 pages, I’d recommend everyone interested in Project Management to read at least the overview.

While I’d have loved to start with something juicier, I find myself out of the habit of narrative writing. As a result, to get back into the habit I’m making things easier on myself by writing more straightforward posts to get things going. There is a surprising amount of ambiguity when people say ‘project management’ given how long the discipline has existed. Part of the problem sits with the variety of ways companies use the title ‘Project Manager’ – from team lead type roles to designated nagging managers through full-blown classic project managers and scrum masters.

During the day, I work as a Project Manager and I love it. I’ve always been a process person, making it a great fit for me. I spend a lot of time thinking about project management as a discipline and a process along with the challenges I regularly face and really want to share. As a result, pm blogging will commence shortly! It may not be as exciting as discussions on sensing soil moisture levels, but hopefully everyone will learn something in the process.