Project Management is just Common Sense

One of the things I do is Project Management, I have been formerly trained in the PRINCE2 methodology but mostly find my self in organisations that use Process Based methodologies which loosely follow the PMP, at least at a high-level. More recently, we see an Agile methodology in use (to some degree).

What’s all the hoopla?

When I started down this path, I didn’t really understand the differing methodologies at the time, but I did a little research and signed up for a PRINCE2 course. As it turns out, the PRINCE2 methodology, whilst customisable to suit any project size, is very typically ‘British’ in that it seems to have a lot of inherent bureaucracy, this in itself is not a huge issue, but as I found out later, trying to manage projects using PRINCE2 in a ‘non-PRINCE2-shop’ wasn’t terribly efficient.

I am not going to bash PRINCE2, I think it, like most things, has some real benefits and it did introduce me to the whole concept of methodologies, furthermore I still refer to my PRINCE2 book for occasional guidance, especially when trying to explain a methodology to someone else.

I want to be a PM, but I don’t know which Methodology is for me…

I have a little advice for the budding Project Managers out there to get you started right away:

Project Management is just Common Sense

• You need to understand the end ‘product’ before you can begin
• What are your constraints i.e. Money, Time, People,
• What are the Risks and Issues and how do you plan to mitigate them?
• Who will do what?
• How are you going to track the activities and schedules?

Methodologies have their place, but again, common sense shows you how to do something

Clearly you can’t close a project before you have initiated a project You can’t paint a room without buying the paint.. Equally, You can’t install servers into your shiny new server room without first building a server room and buying those servers Formal methodologies are great for structure, but that structure doesn’t need to be 47 individual processes…

The following structure will work fine for most things:

• Initiate
• Plan
• Do
• Finish