Projectization and Essentials of Project Management for Non-project Managers
Posted by business | management | Posted on April 23rd, 2010
Professional Project Management is becoming more pervasive. Like “electrification” occurred during the era of proliferation of electricity, “projectization” is occurring throughout the workforce and organizations. Most of the emphasis I have seen is on professional project management. However, most people will not be professional project managers, but rather will be team members, support personnel, subject matter experts, department managers, C-level executives, and the like. This article explores what is being said about this broader workforce in a projectized world.
The essential question is, “What knowledge level about project management do non-project managers need to have in order to function effectively on professionally managed projects?” One parallel situation over the past 25 years has been the proliferation of computers. Virtually everyone in the work force has needed to acquire at least a user-level knowledge of computers and a variety of software packages. This has included understanding the basics of Windows and MS Office, competence in using the internet, and the ability to use a variety of applications. Similarly, a basic level of knowledge is required to function effectively in a projectized world. Here are 5 key areas of focus for non-project managers to be effective in the world of projects:
1. A project has a beginning and an end, with smaller beginnings and ends in between. – Understanding the anatomy of a project can help to distinguish between other things that actually are not projects, but may be termed such. This will put a non-project manager onto the same page conceptually as a professional project manager.
2. Understand the difference between the plan for a product and the plan for a project. – This is one of the most common misconceptions. This often occurs for those with deep technical abilities, which often makes workers more “product centric”. They mistakenly think that a clear description of the product, whether written, in drawings, or some other representation is enough. The problem is that there are many issues and challenges surrounding that product that are in the realm of “project management”, not “product management”.
3. See that all projects need to be, at some level, an implementation related to the overall objectives of the organization. – Everyone in an organization should have a pretty good, albeit general, idea of where the organization is going. If that is not true, it may be a failing of upper management as often as an employee or associate. What is important here is that, given the assumption that the individual understands in general terms the overall objective, directives, and current initiatives of the organization, that they have the basic sense to ask and seek to understand how the project aligns with those objectives.
4. Recognize that projects are budgeted in terms of time, money, and resources, and that they need to achieve objectives within constraints on these resources. – This is a basic fact of life, and scarcity as a concept is one of the foundations of economics. A mature awareness of this fact should spawn a curiosity and awareness that there are constraints on all projects, and should encourage questioning on the part of any team member about the constraints on their given projects. Awareness of project constraints on the part of team members is a healthy development for any project manager.
5. Understand what a stakeholder is. – Stakeholders are anyone who is affected by the project. Recognizing that there are many potential stakeholders will raise awareness of risks and opportunities. Stakeholder awareness should become second nature to project managers and non-project managers alike as part of a projectized culture.
Competence in understanding and incorporating the above into day-to-day activities can bring project skill “ownership” to non-project managers such that they are very effective on most projects. In fact, they will likely be able to manage portions of projects or small projects on their own.
There are many other topics that can be of interest to everyone in the organization. In the process of becoming “projectized”, an organization needs to continuously educate everyone in the organization. The indoctrination of everyone in the basic essentials of project management is part of that. The results will be more successful projects, smoother functioning teams, and alignment across the organization within the important function of managing projects.
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Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of quality in all organizational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, government, and service industries, as well as NASA space and science programs. Total Quality provides an umbrella under which everyone in the organization can strive and create customer satisfaction at continually lower real costs that result in profitability.
The thought that it is continuous must be qualified with a statement that it must be emphasized by management and exercised at all levels to be functional if quality is to improve continuously. Every time I’ve implemented a TQM as CEO I have seen initial gains that were substantial, but to get secondary or tertiary results, the TQM had to be reemphasized and implemented again and again. Some mountains still need to be climbed even when the summit has been reached. There always seems to be a higher peak next door.
Good luck in your quest.
so saving the climate will let us survive without having to do major ass adaption, a low carbon economy will create more jobs and help us get out of the recession and we will be leaving a healthier, more intact planet to future generations! is that bad?!
Can I make a small suggestion?
Repeat the last few seconds of your previous videos with the next one…
It’s really hard to figure out what’s going on…Especially when you have to wait for the video to load, and you forgot how the last video ended…
Thanks~
This must be an exam question. Go back to your books first.
Because management can be so full of themselves and forget why they are in that position. Sooner or later power goes into people's head and they forget what the business is about. For example, it is really easy for someone sitting in the headquarter of McDonald's to forget life of minimum wage people in front of a grill.
Management should periodically look at the business from various perspective, and if they still decide to keep same old way of doing business at least it is an informed decision.
Best wishes.
he outright says it would. did you watch the video?
you know the earth is warming when people living in the Caribbean start complaining about the heat. and people in new york are actually glad when it gets warmer. record breaking temperatures
Yep, most degrees are NOT confined to just one area of careers. With that business degree and depending on the school system, you might be able to teach in some of their schools.
i have something else to add:
is it bad to conserve resources for future generations? even if global warming isn’t real, why should we leave a polluted, resourceless hunk of rock for our kids? climate change is real, (and we have solid, real proof that we are causing it), so we should have some moral and ethical considerations to save the huge amount of species here on earth, BUT we should think about our own KIDS.
Both exist in columns and rows, not one or the other.
and yes it is.
I've owned two condos and in both situations the builder selected the management company. Once the association was turned over to the owners, then the home owner's association had the power to hire/fire the management company.
Do you know who your board members are? It's always been my neighbors and we could approach them with concerns. You could also attend the next board meeting.
Good luck.
I have created a simple, but useful page, which has all the links to this series of videos listed in the correct order.
The site name is of the standard format with the usual (US) extension after the dot. The site name is then followed by a forward slash and the name of the page, so the first word is my site name and the second bit is the page name (but you need to put D O T h t m on the end).
pharmgateway howitallends
answer this question
The FMC (also called FMS – Flight Management System in some installations) is generally a remotely mounted computer, located in the avionics bay along with the radio receiver/transmitter units, TCAS, EGPWS, etc. The MCDU is the actual display screen and keyboard that you see in the flight deck. It's just a "dumb" control panel for the FMC. The radios work the same way; controllers/displays in the flight deck, actual radios in the avionics bay.
The FMC sends guidance commands to the flight director, which drives the autopilot.
Pilots monitor progress by viewing information displayed on the multi-function display (MFD). It's usually set to display a moving map that can be configured to show flight plan waypoints, high or low navigation aids, airports, airways, etc.
The columns represents action or inaction.. the rows represent the uncertainty of the debate “Alarmists being right or skeptics being right.”
Essentially Action is buying insurance, inaction opting out of insurance. Global Warming is the reason your making a choice to buy insurance or not..
The economic harm is the cost of the insurance.. The only Jedi Mind Trick is Greg implying that it wouldn’t cost money for insurance.
To me, human relations would be the best.
Our purpose is to attempt to change attitudes and instill responsibility for personal actions.
We can achieve these aspects through understanding the human psyche and applying known methodologies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, within the judicial context.
Not for nothing but the current growth in GDP is ~2.9% which would mean a total halt in economic growth.. During the Great Depression there was stagnant growth of around 1.7% (3% is $2.7 Trillion)
Also its no Jedi Mind Trick.. the columns represent the certainties… the rows are the variables.. which is why the economic harm is a certainty and global warming is still a variable.
You should know that.
Films and tv programs represents a true view about the business industries . If you need more information search in a search engine by filling the related options, good luck