Through the Phases

Project management forms a major part of my working life.  I started off as a “Techie” albeit pretty light touch with a focus on multimedia development, web design and usability.  Working in a small team I needed to have a good understanding of the broad range of activities our service was involved with.  Here and there I was asked to help out with projects before starting to manage them myself.  I’m now part of a team that coordinates a range of larger projects (in some cases programmes themselves*) that form part of a larger programme (portfolio).

I’d really like to reflect on what I’ve learned in a series of blog posts and explore lessons I’ve learned to date.  To start with I thought it was worth gathering a few definitions, albeit pretty well known.  Please feel free to add any you might have using the comments facility below.

“Project: An enterprise carefully planned to achieve a particular aim, a piece of research work by a school or college student.

Management: The process of managing – be in charge of; run, supervise (staff), administer and regulate (resources), succeed in doing or dealing with, succeed despite difficulties; cope.”

(AskOxford.com, 2010)

“Project management is the process by which projects are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised.  Projects are unique, transient endeavours undertaken to achieve a desired outcome.  Projects bring about change and project management is recognised as the most efficient way of managing such change.”

(Association for Project Management)

“…project management is not a ‘black art’, nor does it need to be a minefield of jargon and bureaucracy.  Most of project management is plain, common sense…”

(JISC infoNet, 2009)

“Project management is much more than the tasks carried out by a project manager.  Project management is a combination of the roles and responsibilities of individuals assigned to the project, the organisational structure that sets out clear reporting arrangements and the set of processes to deliver the required outcome.  It ensures that everyone involved knows what is expected of them and helps to keep cost, time and risk under control.”

(The Office of Government Commerce – OGC, 2009)

“A management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified Business Case.”

(OGC, 2005, p.7)

“A temporary organisation that is needed to produce a unique and predefined outcome or result at a prespecified time using predetermined resources.”

(OGC, 2005, p.7)

At a recent conference on Mediating Boundaries I had the fantastic opportunity of listening to Etienne Wenger who spoke passionately about 45 degree walkers and social artists which really captured my imagination.  In essence people who can communicate effectively between senior management and operational personnel, and those that can really manage/facilitate change effectively.  For me, these are key attributes of project managers and an area I’d like to investigate further.

If you closely analyse the definitions above there is a lot of repetition: temporary; change; unique; outcome; and the one I must emphasise, common sense.  Something I’ve found over the past six years is that communication is vital.  The 2009 OGC reference above pays particular attention to this and I really couldn’t agree more.  The last point I’d like to make is that projects are fun!  As many of the above definitions allude to; projects are unique, temporary structures to achieve a specific outcome that allow you to work with people you might otherwise have never met.  To me that’s a pretty cool thing to be a part of.

*Pardon the PRINCE2/MSP blasphemy :-S

References

AskOxford (2010) Manage.  Available at: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/manage?view=uk (Accessed: 6 May 2010).

AskOxford (2010) Management.  Available at: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/management?view=uk (Accessed: 6 May 2010).

AskOxford (2010) Project.  Available at: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/project?view=uk (Accessed: 6 May 2010).

Association for Project Management (No Date) Definitions.  Available at: http://www.apm.org.uk/Definitions.asp (Accessed: 6 May 2010).

JISC infoNet (2009) What is Project Management?  Available at: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/project-management/index_html (Accessed: 6 May 2010).

The Office of Government Commerce (2005) Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2.  2005 edn. TSO (The Stationary Office).

The Office of Government Commerce (2009) Project Management.  Available at: http://www.ogc.gov.uk/delivery_lifecycle_project_management.asp (Accessed: 6 May 2010).