A Warning

Someone, somewhere once said that project management is not for the faint of heart. I also read somewhere that the only time a project manager should be comfortable is when he or she is between projects (and one could beg to differ on that as well). The point being, project managers have a lot staked up against them.

Projects are projects because they are complicated. Even the little projects will generate pages of requirements, hours and hours of discussions, disagreements, budget concerns, resource issues, stakeholder buy-in concerns and schedule complications and more.

In my experience, there is no difference between large and small projects, other than scale and the magnitude of impact (good or bad). The fundamental issues are the same, the problems similar and the pressure is always there.

This is a tough and often misunderstood job. There are too many in the profession who are sophomores and dilatants, practicing without understand or sometimes caring. There are too many executives in the world who don’t see a need for project management or PMOs. I am constantly seeing project management struggling to be justified and that annoys me to say the least. I have too often had stakeholders say ‘can’t we forget all this project management stuff and get to the work?’

So what’s my point? Am I just throwing some grenades in the room and walking away? Hopefully not.

My point is to take this warning seriously. Make sure that a career in project management is what you really want, that you are committed to a discipline whose purpose is to jump into the middle of chaos and conflict and then bring about order and agreement. If being comfortable and secure is one of your requirements, you should find a new role. If you are willing to be uncomfortable and prepared to be under appreciated (most of the time) in exchange for some of the most interesting work out there, then jump on in.

For the record, I love being a PM!