Never Let Project Management Prevent Progress
We’ve all seen it. The bureaucracy, the red tape, the forms. The clichéd lines at the DMV just to find out that you have the wrong form. We live in a society that is filled with administrative burden – those tasks that we have to perform because it makes the system function. We all hate it. And unfortunately, that’s been many of our shared experiences with project management – just a bunch of administrative hurdles that gets in the way of doing the work we all know needs to get done. It begs the question, is there a purpose to the admin?” Is it really a burden if there is a purpose? Ultimately, it’s how you look at it.
One of Incipient Group’s (IG) tenets is to never let project management prevent progress. That certainly does not mean that we should throw away the opportunity to manage the project because any planning, documentation, reporting, or measurement would prevent progress. Quite the opposite, it means that the management of a project needs to be flexible to the needs of the project. Afterall, the aforementioned actions can help in moving the project forward.
A standard approach to planning a schedule would be to flesh out an entire schedule before ever venturing into development. This is a perfect example of management preventing progress as not all details five months from now are even known. It does not excuse the need for planning a schedule, but it begs the opportunity to map out details in the near term, while reserving the right to revisit future details when they are closer to a reality.
Similarly, the idea of creating a Gantt Chart for a two-week project seems ludicrous. So why bother to plan at all – just execute. But just because a written down schedule isn’t needed, does not excuse a discussion of requirements and maybe an end-of-the-week progress check to ensure that initial development matches desired outcomes.
Weekly Updates are another loathsome project management norm. We’ve all taken part in weekly updates where everyone has nothing of significance since work is underway. So why do a weekly update for the sake of a weekly update. Instead, provide updates at a frequency that makes sense for the project. For example, on a two-year project, there may be a need early on in the planning process to provide leadership an understanding of the direction on a high-frequency basis. But during the development phase, less frequent updates are necessary.
And project management must also consider the team involved in the project. What works for one project may not for another given the individuals and teams involved.
So, is project management just administrative burden? I must admit that when it slows progress without purpose or exists just to justify a job – yes. But when project management facilitates quick action, reacts to risks with predetermined countermeasures to quickly right the course, meets the disparate needs of the various participants, and when it helps provide guidance so decisions can be made independently of the leadership team, then it is no longer a burden and adds value.
Ultimately, it is the role of the project manager to tailor the management of the project to the project. Never let the management become the project.
