You Managing Projects or Projects Managing You!!

Well! Nothing to insult anybody's work as a Project Manager. I see project management as an art where you have to constantly learn by "what works" rather than "what are the normal practices". The most important factor is operating environment which changes very rapidly and often we fail to notice the changes and how it is impacting my project with the same pace.

Project Management is a simple thing in an ideal world but we do not live in an ideal world. As mode of communications are increasing, I feel more is communication gap and more confusion leading to chaos. Additionally, I feel we Indians have by nature poor skills as Project Manager barring one, Mr. E. Sreedharan.

I searched in old Hindi/Sanskrit literature about project management. I didn't find anything. Then I looked at various processes in Hindu Marriage and how these are carried day-by-day. If you look at a Hindu marriage by project management angle, you will get insights into what project management basics our old sages would have taught.

1) The first thing is - no parallel processing. Every process is pre-planned and pre-defined by a Pandit and it can't be changed unless something goes wrong in either family.

2) Role Definition: Roles are very clear. There is no ambiguity on which task will be carried by whom.

3) Time Management: Pandit has defined time for every event in advance. People do back calculation and make prior arrangement.

So, what I conclude is: Project Management is all about doing basic things correctly. If you try to do things faster or parallel, you may make your boss happy but it is more or less certain that you will screw lives of less mortals here or there. Project Management is doing things as it should be without being over smart.