Project Management Basics You Should Know

I see project management just walking in the streets.  I see project management in the newspaper.  I see project management in movies.  I see project management everywhere.

Remember what a project is?  It is a unique effort with a finite beginning and a finite end.  Your job is always to work yourself out of a job.  Street repairs, bridges, dive operations, iPhones, they are all projects.  They end one day.  Furthermore, depending on how they are managed they may actually be programs.  This is, of course, many interrelated projects.

What about your own life?  Do you have project management in your life?  Of course you do.  Things like cutting the grass are a program because you always have to do it.  Removing a tree that is done once is more of a project.  However, even building a deck can be a program.  You have the construction project, the annual cleaning project, and so forth.

Then you have those financial challenges in your life.  If you have a mortgage, that certainly is a project.  What if you have kids that want to go to college?  The financing of college is a project and the kids themselves are a project.  Additionally, a wife is damn sure a project.  🙂

I’m not saying you should be as dysfunctional as me when it comes to seeing projects everywhere, but I am saying they are in your life.  So, this point alone should cause you to be more aware of them and always continue your education of project management basics.  Continuing education is, of course, a requirement for certification.

I remember nearly 20 years ago, my PMP number is 60,596, when people would ask “What does a project manager do?”  I mean, shit, really?  Projects have been in our lives since cave man days and we still ask questions like this?  It shows a lack of understanding and it is our collective job to educate people.  I was proud when people I worked with said “I now know how important the job is because you did it right.”

However, even with people who don’t understand project management basics that you have to train, you must always maintain your self-confidence and thick skin.  That’s part of your mission in promoting the craft.  It can get lonely out there, I know, and at times you may seem like the guy in the forest screaming at the trees, but if you are going to make project management part of your career, you absolutely must do it.

I, for one, have a true love of this profession.  It was because of project management that we went to the moon and created incredible products that changed the world.  You may just be working on a website or you could be working on a missile system that protects a country, but because of your skills, the world will be changed.  Not many people get to say that.  This is a good place to be and I intend to continue travelling the world and doing what I love.

Your path to business success starts with the understanding of project management basics!