Something about the scale of this project is dubious. Nay! Evel.
Project management is a profession.
Project management is a discipline.
Project management is a skill.
Project management is a function.
Project management is a process.
Project management is knowledge.
Whatever it is, project management is useless without scale and project management helps no one if it is not scaleable.
Compare an accounting function of a Fortune 50 company to an accounting function in a 60-person organization. The goals are the same, the business function is critical, but the processes of a Fortune 50 accounting department would cripple a start-up. The start-up employee would topple over trying to maintain form and procedure of a Fortune 50 department and never get time to build the company.
Scale is important to the tools, the techniques, and the discipline needed.
The best project management and the mature project management organization realize that yes, a project management plan rolls up and includes the following:
- Quality management plans,
- Schedule management plans,
- Scope management plans,
- Risk management plans,
- Communication management plans,
- Cost management plans,
- Change management,
- Staff management plans,
- Work breakdown structures, and
- Resource management plans
But to demand the process and procedures of project plan sign off and closing have all of these as well as the multitude of tools to design these, is a matter of scale as well as a matter of sanity.
Project Management Scale
Accounting and project management both demand discipline, but both enable business operations, they do not cripple business operations. The least amount possible to fulfill operational success, without gumming up the works.
The ability to translate project management rigor to the proper level of control within an operating environment is particularly acute for organizations that manage subsidiaries or manage divisions of various size.
Whether an Enterprise Project Management Office, a Project Management Office, or a project manager, know your audience. Sure, push for standards, but realize the business of business is business, not unwieldy process chart protocols and templates.
Most, if not all, chafe at process and rigor and discipline. Push-back on accountability may forever be with us, but let’s try to manage risk with project management, not through intimidation.
No one likes the accounting office, if we are not careful, no one will like the project management office let alone the project manager who arrives to join a team.
Let’s work smarter, not harder – together.
No doubt I got some things wrong, or left out some important ideas. Please let me know what you think and suggestions you have for me to add value.
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