If we believe work is project related then the earliest homo sapiens had a project approach to gathering food, hunting for food, building shelter, and propagating their clan. Each of these activities had a beginning and end with a specific life-driven purpose. Sounds like a project to me.
Managing by projects is not new. Architectural, accounting, legal, engineering, consulting, and other highly creative professional service organizations have been doing projects for years. Let’s look at what defines a project:
- Specific objective. The result, objective, or deliverable may be reducing nonconformances by 50%, building a bridge, making 10 cold calls a day, taking the kids to the zoo, designing an ad, or planning a party. Meeting objectives is performance management.
- Satisfy stakeholders. The completion of a project is often not good enough. It must be completed on time, on budget, and satisfy many stakeholders. Satisfying stakeholders is customer management.
- Specific start date. The project starts at an agreed upon time. ‘Do as you say and say as you do’ is an example of self-management.
- Defined date. The project may end when the goal has been achieved or when all resources have been consumed. Or, a project may become an ongoing process of continuous improvement. Finishing the project on time and on budget is an example of risk management.
- Resources. Resources, such as equipment and monies, are required to complete the project. Managing project resources efficiently and effectively is execution management.
- Skills. People or teams must have the skills to complete the project successfully. Ensuring project team member have the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities is knowledge management.
Life Lesson Earned: All critical project elements map one-to-one to Working It critical practices. Why? Companies want to get things done faster, better, and cheaper.