The International Community for Project Managers (ICPM)

Actually, let’s ‘Progressively Elaborate! and what does that term mean for a PM?

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” - Winston Churchill

As perhaps true with your own experience, many new PMs become overwhelmed at the beginning of a project with trying to answer the following question: “How can I define a reasonable budget and schedule for my project when I don’t know exactly what our deliverables are or how much money and resources I have?”. People often assume the solution is to build a complex and detailed schedule (in whatever tool is used by their organization) and a detailed budget, making multiple guesses and assumptions (estimating) or "pestering" your project team to provide information they know will be inaccurate (because they don’t know the details any more than you do at the time either) then spending the rest of the meeting time shoehorning or ‘time boxing’ the real-time developing schedule into the initial whimsical model. Not only does this action cause the PM and their team undue stress but also lowers the expectations of the project team and stakeholders (not least of which is the Customer) for any projected accuracy and confidence in the eventual outcome.

One of the most basic fundamentals of leadership is the ability to delegate work. All too often when people get frustrated, human nature prevails and the gloves come off. Leaders begin micromanaging and stepping on those below them, and worst of all, stepping on those doing the "actual" work. Sure, there may be a time when intervention is necessary, but two of the keys to being a successful leader are developing a team that understands the challenges of today's rigorous programs and to provide an environment in which they have the freedom to perform without bounds. Freedom to do the things that they do best and apply them to program execution.

I thought the best way to start this series of articles was with a quick personal introduction and a outline of where I expect this dialogue to take us. Program Management encompasses so many aspects of both the technical and soft-skills side of business that the discussion path is not hard coded. We'll call it more of a vision. Here we will talk about what it takes to become a program manager, what it takes to run a program, and the gamut of challenges that reside therein. So hopefully this column earns a regularly scheduled moment of your valuable time, and perhaps a little stimulating feedback as well!