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What is Project Management?

It's becoming harder to answer the question: what is project management? The number and range of projects in our organisations means that the need for project managers has increasingly expanded beyond the notion of a few experts schooled in the art and science of project management.

More and more managers include managing projects as a part of what they do. Project-based organizations (rather than traditional Bureaucratic structures) are becoming more common, or at the least projects are more commonly a part of every manager's job, as flatter structures, and the need to be more responsive and adaptable, point toward tackling projects more frequently in all aspects of work.

In this article we take a look at an alternative perspective to explore how our view of what is project management might be changing and how we can all make the most of these possible changes.

When Projects and the "Day Job" Blurr.

There perhaps has been a blurring between what is a project and what is the day job. If you take Tom Peters perspective almost everything we do can and perhaps should be thought of as a project. But why should you adopt this view?

Peters talks about finding "WOW" projects: projects of significance or special projects, or alternatively turning what you do in your day job into "WOW" projects. Peters uses a classical perspective to define project management as a task that has a beginning and an end, as well as deliverables along the way. Then he adds that a WOW project should have goals and objectives that inspire you and inspire others.

Taking this view of what is project management may require you to re-frame how you think about you day job and projects. Often of course there isn't a choice about the projects you are asked to manage. That may be so, but you do have a choice to re-frame that project and make it something special, and something with which you can build your own track record.

What is Project Management? Is it the Day Job?

Seeing more of what we do as projects can be helpful in a number of ways:

Projects, because they have a beginning and end, can be something we focus on

- making our day job more focussed.

Projects have clients or people for whom you are delivering.

Thinking of tasks you do as projects gives what you do a client focus ( whether the client is external or a another department or some other internal person or group)

Projects often have an exhilaration factor and can be exciting to be involve in.( they of course can also be deeply frustrating!)

Improve your negotiation and persuasion skills. More and more we have to negotiate people's time and support anyway in our day jobs

Think about how you can enlist people to work with you on your project

Find or re-shape projects so that they show the value that you add.

Project management is becoming not solely the domain of a few specialists but more a core competence for all managers, whether they are a project team member, act as enablers (setting up a project for others to manage) or actually manage projects.

What is project management? Perhaps project management is becoming the new day job!

You can find out more about Project Management Guidelines in our articles about Project Management Basics. Still pressed for time? Follow this link for the full list of Manage in a Minute pages.

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