Everything you know about project management is wrong

To someone else. Why?

Some project managers accidentally stumble into the profession. Others enter the field on purpose. Both groups tend to settle into a particular way of managing projects, and over time it seems most form specific ideas about what works and what doesn’t from their experience.

Projects in general have some similarities.

• producing something new
• there’s a team
• there are stakeholders

I can’t think of any universal constants in projects right now. There seems to be an inherently larger number of specific differences you could cite among projects.

• location/culture
• product type
• technologies used
• organizational culture
• regulatory requirements
• size of project in $$
• length of project
• stakeholder personalities
• team personalities
• industry
• specialties
• etc.

In the end, this is why someone who has held a particular philosophy for 20 years about project management can be rediculed for holding that belief from someone else. It’s worked for 20 years, how can it be wrong?

The punchline: Let’s not get so dogmatic about our project management frameworks, methodologies, and techniques. Use your experience in a particular situation to manage projects to success. Keep your mind open to other approaches: .a paradigm shift just may be good for you!

About the Author Josh Nankivel is a Project Planning & Controls Control Account Manager and contractor for the ground system of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, a joint project between the USGS and NASA. His academic background includes a BS in Project Management, summa cum laude. He can be found writing and contributing in many places within the project management community, and his primary project management website is located at pmstudent.com. Josh can be contacted at [email protected]