What Project Management Really Is: A To-Do List With Dates!

I agree that project management is for everyone - we can all benefit from the basic principles of project management such as creating those to-do lists and acting upon them toward an overarching goal.

However, I have to disagree that project management is only to-do lists with deadlines. I think a lot more has to go into project management to make it successful, such as incorporating communication and collaboration around all tasks and projects. When team members work together on projects, the outcome is much better than what just one person could have done by checking off a task on their to-do list.

Great observation. Very few folks actually project-manage, say, construction of a 20-story office building. The vast majority of PM work — doubly so when you include all the folks functionally managing projects without being called project managers — consists of relatively straightforward tasks coupled with relatively complex communication surrounding them. Who needs what, who has what issues, and so on far outweighs task dependencies.

Alastair Cockburn has a theory/hierarchy of use cases in software development that applies to PM, also. Who needs what; how do they get it; what can go wrong; and what do you do about it. A lot of PM is about asking and answering those four questions.

I hope
… Risk management, quality management,scope management, change management, vendor-management, team management …
is on your to-do list.

That was quite funny Stephen! This post is an oversimplification of what project management really is, and no, it’s not for everyone…

If your project consisted of maybe three very simple tasks, a to-do list would not be a bad idea. But if those three “simple” tasks that sub-tasks, what then? Most projects aren’t as simple as this advice would solve. Theorists are trying to come up with ways to make difficult projects, project situations, etc. easier. While the process of thinking these ways up is time-consuming (and a project in itself!) that’s not what makes project management so hard. What makes it so hard is NOT using the available tools and methods you should be using as a PM.

I strongly DISAGREE with this post and I think it represents a typical view of people who don’t fully understand project management. It’s also indicative of the fact that so many people today “call” themselves project managers without having the formal training. Keep in mind that not everyone who’s “in” project management understands or does what they do well. If you’re going to simplify, project management is more than just a to-do list with dates, it’s also a “way of thinking.” That means project management is a make-sure-everything-is-accounted-for, show-me-the-evidence way of thinking. Although most project managers do not apply all of the principles in the PMBOK on a daily basis, the familiarity of these principles enhances a person’s understanding of how to manage projects in general, so the *way of thinking* like a project manager becomes second-nature. Not everyone thinks that way, so project management is not for everyone.

I will tell my 8 year old son (once i’m home today) to develop the schedule for the federal project we’re working on. According to this post, he should be able to do it. I would also like to take a vacation with my husband, maybe he can manage the project as well, manage the risks/issues/conflicts/resources/stakeholders . Although this seems complicated it can all be done by the power of to-do lists.

I believe that in many cases, IT Project Management is way over the top in terms of process, however I couldn’t disagree more with this post.

If as the author says PM is just a list with end dates, then let me educate the author. PM is the ability to create the list in the first place, understand what order the list must go in in order for the end result to happen, and knowing what to do when things on the list go bump, while keeping the whole end date in check. It is also knowing which items on the list are most critical to the end result.

Hello Everyone. First of all, many thanks for all of your comments. I will try and answer everyone at the same time in this comment!

The title and content is intentionally simplistic more to drive home the point that really underlies the whole thing which is essentially that I feel PM has become a focus for process rather than the end result i.e. the delivery of a successful project to the end customer. We have created a plethora of PM practices and principles around PM that essentially are often not required for the bulk of projects that are run out in the business world. The point Steven made is correct - most of us do not deliver massive scale projects. We deliver far smaller pieces of work which are equally important to the customers we are delivering for.

Of course all of the other things are important - change control, risk management, budgetary discipline etc, but the degree of management of those items needs to be in perspective to the scale of the project.

A to-do list, while inflammatory in nature, can be as complex as you want/need it to be. It can be a 1500 line gantt chart in MS project with multiple dependencies or it can be a note-book with the half dozen things that need to be done to get a small piece of work done. The to-do list can be your risks - what are they (the list), what do we need to do about them (if anything) and if anything (by when) dates.

I was not trying to belittle/insult the PM industry in the slightest. I have spent nearly 18 years in the IT/Telecoms world heavily involved in projects and am well aware of both what project management is and the purpose it serves.

The projects that went well were when the PM/PMO focused on the end-game/customer with a greater emphasis than those who succumbed to complex and intense processes and the need to have the internal machinations of that process fulfilled regardless of what was happening in terms of delivering and satisfying the customer.

The trick is to get the process to serve the project, not the other way around i.e the project not the process is the end result.

I hope that clarifies the point that was being made.

Best to you all
Barney

“I feel PM has become a focus for process”

You ‘feel’, based upon what? Do you really think I care about process when I’m knee-deep in the mud, trying to get the people around the table for a major problem just discovered; at the same time listening to a team-member who has personal problems; while trying to get to grips with the latest change request the customer has asked?

“most of us do not deliver massive scale projects”

Really? Did you check lately? Who is ‘us’ anyway? Can you substantiate ‘most’ by any number? Do you really think people that are organising a birthday party are visiting this site for some Howto tips?

Sorry about the rant. I tried to be funny before, but your reply just got my blood boiling. This post just doesn’t make any sense. I sincerely hope the ‘Hut’ updates its quality criteria.