Our next project management breakfast is devoted to «good project management». If project management is a multidisciplinary body of knowledge, difficult to be academized, the «good» project management does not provide much more precision to the locution.
For a short statement in 360 seconds, I have come up with only three words: servant, realities and priorities. They relate to the team, the subject matter and the methodology.
Servant is the one who serves. In the PM-context, it could be defined like project management as a service. Putting the attention first on people. Then it comes the rest. And people are the team members, but also your customer and other stakeholders. If you have to be demanding because the project needs it, demand yourself first. The effect will be double: authenticity as manager and appreciation to the others.
Realities. Because managing projects is about managing realities. Nothing of speculative or wishful thinking. Having many possibilities is great to leverage the options, but at the end you have to come down to the earth. Typically it is also the «fair middle» between optimism and pessimism. This reality check is specially useful in a crisis project.
The last one, is the priority setting. The resources are limited per definition. When assigning resources, a thoughtful assessment of the priorities is key for a healthy project management. And not once, but many times, till achieving a continuous priority-setting cycle. Because the priority of today is a secondary issue tomorrow. Time, people and money will find their efficient way if priorities are correctly set.
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