What I believe about Project Management

There is nothing better than the proud feeling of seeing your finished work. It’s bittersweet: you put in all the long hours, blood, sweat and tears, just to see it sail off into the world. If you’ve ever worked on something that you’ve spent months trying to get right — whether you’re an engineer, artist, writer, chef, musician — you know the feeling I’m talking about. 

When I started my career in project management, I never thought it would lead me down a path of more self discovery, challenges, and realization of what is possible when amazing people come together. I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible colleagues, who have taught me that human ingenuity has no boundary.  I believe humans live to create, to build and to explore new paths. I believe that we as a human race are capable of any goal imaginable. If we can get a 10,000-ton pile of steel to sit in the ocean for 40 years and survive Category 4 hurricanes, if we can design spaceships that can land safely back on Earth and cars that can drive you to work, then nothing is off limits.

But why is it that despite the wealth of talent out there, so many projects fail? According to IPA benchmarking, between 35% to 65% of Mega projects (larger than $1 billion) are deemed failures. 

I believe that stellar project management is the most important factor in whether or not a project is successful. You can have the world’s most brilliant people working together towards a common goal, but without a solid team of project managers, wires will get crossed, miscommunication will be frequent, and time and money will be lost. 

Take the Mars Climate Orbiter crash in 1998, for instance. Every engineering professor has ingrained into their students the reason why it crashed: engineers didn’t convert units from English to metric. A simple mistake with a huge $125 million price tag.

Many write off the astronomical blunder as being inevitable because of how complex the project was. As a project manager, however, I see this as a major failure in both the organizational structure, interface management, and planning of the project.

I believe that  some people are born to lead the development of new creations and initiatives. Without these people, these heroic efforts and Mega projects are doomed to failure. These people are project managers. 

The energy and effort to complete a project on schedule and on time can be tremendous. The pain of a project being cancelled can be intense. With all the collective intelligence and genius we have on this earth, we need project managers that can help steer the ship. And if you’re up to the challenge, there’s never been a better time to get on board.

Interested in learning more about project management? Visit: theomarproject.com.