Project Management in Real Life

The Project Manager

Having project management certifications and taking classes will help you prepare for the adventure that you will go on when you accept a Project Manager position. Now for reality. Do think you can serve PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) or Agile Project Management on a platter to your team to deliver a project on schedule. Well wake up or go back to sleep and keep on dreaming. PMBOK is a must to know but know how to make it work to your advantage.

Being a good PM means that you should be staying on top of trends in the profession. Read blogs from project managers that have real life experience walking the walk to help you gain knowledge that might be helpful for future projects someday. Approaches and techniques are a hit and miss. Just keep on trying to you hit pay dirt. You will. Being a good PM means that you have genuine desire to take on a role to have people trust in you to follow your roadmap to achievement. 

Chicks Assembled 

The Team

Every team you come across in your PM role will be different. You need to get into their heads to understand where they are coming from. You want to bring out their best and not go to battle with them. Not an easy task but who said being a PM is a cakewalk. Groom your team one day at a time. You must gain the trust in your team to be successful or it will be a bumpy ride following your roadmap to success. Everyone on the team plays an important role no matter how small it is.

Getting Your Chicks Assembled

The ultimate reward is when the team is on the same page. You might not have ducks to get in a row. You might have chicks to corral. The main objective is that everyone knows their role on the team.

What Project Management means to me in a nut shell

The Project Manager is the person responsible for deliveing a project from inception to completion. The Project Charter is your foundation to run the project. A team of subject matter experts will be assigned to tasks to be executed at specific stages in the project with a deadline to allow subsequent tasks to execute on schedule. The Project Manger will have to keep on top of all activities by using delegation at times to ensure everything is being monitored properly.

Qualities of the Project Manager:

- People skills to lead your team.

- The go-to person that needs to know everything.

- Problem solving skills to keep the project moving. 

- Report writer of concise status reports.

- Meeting organizer.

- Sense of humor.

- Lifetime learner.

- Keep it simple.

- Good listener. 

- Confidence 

- Thick skin.

- Speaker

There is so much more to Project Management that I could go on and on about it. 

Project Management is an adventure.