Here are five thoughts about project management from my recent course at the Business School at Auckland University.
- All knowledge work is project work.
- Tidying my room is not a project.
- Other people are necessary.
- There is a budget.
- There is a framework.
This is part of my non-MBA, MBA. It’s the second in my mini-series of project management.
And it’s “for idiots” because I’m an idiot for not looking into this seriously before now.
1. All knowledge work is project work
I kinda despise the term, but these days I’m a knowledge worker. At least until I run away to sea and join a band of pirates.
My job now is more or less digital and I often work with people who are geographically dispersed.
I’m not sitting on the beach in Bali sipping cocktails. At least not yet.
It’s a far cry from the couple of thousand hours of classroom-based training that I did through the late 90s and early 00s.
But here is my recent realisation – a pithy aphorism that I’m certain that I’ve plagiarised from somewhere:
- All knowledge work is project work.
2. Tidying my room is not a project
Tidying my room or cooking dinner is not a project.
I’m might consider it to be a project, but it’s not. At least not in the language of project management.
It’s a task.
A task is the lowest building block of a project. A task typically involves one person, it’s just little and often the timeframe is short.
In other words, it’s just me.
Tasks require time management and projects require project management.
3. Other people are necessary
Project management implies other people. Other people are a necessary evil in project management.
For proper project management methodology to make sense you really need to be working with 6 to 12 people over 6 to 12 months.
Projects contain multiple tasks and project success is often driven by the actions of others.
4. There is a budget
A project has a budget and a good project manager needs to be across the budget.
This is another blindspot for me personally. I’m OK with basic stuff, but anything that starts to sound like accounting gives me an instant headache.
This is on my list of things to fix. I don’t need to become and accountant, but I’d like to understand how it all works a bit more than I do now.
4. There is a framework
Project management has a recognised framework from a recognised body of knowledge. I didn’t realise this was the case.
It’s a new discipline relatively speaking. But it’s highly formalised. The body of knowledge is about 1000 pages long.
I haven’t read it, but here’s a summary in three lines:
- Organise. Why and who for?
- Plan: timeline and costing
- Control (paperwork) and Direct (getting people to do stuff). These last two are in parallel.
Thoughts…? Let me know in the comments.
