What is good project management?
July 31st, 2009
I try to ask myself this on a fairly regular basis. I feel it keeps me focused on building the right tool for the job, rather than just the shiniest one in the box.
Consequently, the more I’ve thought about this question, the more keep coming back to another question: How long? This seems to be the most prevalent question in project management, and is the basis for nearly every project management decision we make. How long ago did they ask for this? How long will it take to do? How long have you been working on it? How much longer until we’re done? Then, when we’re done, we ask: How long did that take? How much longer is that than we thought it would take?
There are dozens of “how long” questions in project management, and this is simply because managing a project, is managing time. People, budget, service these are all just tangible realizations of time. The distillation of nearly every facet of a project, to its most basic unit, leaves time.
So, it seems clear to me that a tool designed to make project management easier, should place great emphasis on reducing the effort required to answer these “how long” questions. Odd that I’ve yet to see one that does.
What does good project management mean to you?
