Project Management Myths :: Comindwork, a better way to collaborate!

COMINDWORK: Talk: Project Management Myths

14 March, 2008 14:37

Everyone of us have their believes about how things should or should not be done, sometimes we follow myths without even knowing and without noticing them. I thought i'd give a couple of project management myths. Enjoy :)

A good project manager does not DO any work. This a common mistake when people think that to be responsible, to plan and to manage is NOT work :)
Everything should be managed according to project management methodologies - to know the theory and have some standard procedures is good, but every project is unique, so even if your methods fail, don't panic; trust yourself and your team.
Customer always knows exactly what he wants. In most of the cases that is why someone hires specialists to do specific job, they want advices and if you are the specialist then you should know what they need. Dealing with customers is a great part of project management and getting the information about what exactly customers want is a form of art, none the less :)
Plan does not change, look at the plan and you will now everything about the project. Sadly but I don't think yet that there are plans that predict the future. It's nearly impossible to deal with all the issues that might or might not come out at the beginning of the project. And when something goes wrong and you still blindly stick to the plan, you can sunk the whole ship, instead of just slightly changing the direction. Plan is not to predict project future, it's to propose it.
The more project manager controls the team, the more efficient it is. Team works much better and faster when they are given some freedom when doing the work. Efficiency is much lower when project manager checks every hour if the task was done and if it was done exactly as he wanted. Keep in mind that usually project mangers are not technical specialists.
Trust must be earned. Without trust any project is doomed, first of all you should trust your team members from the very beginning of the project.
Project is all the Project Manager should care about. When dedicating all your time to the project (work and free) you actually will do more harm then use. You need your own purpose (apart from the project) in order to stay motivated and effective.

There are a lot more to myths then that, what project management myths do you know?

3 comments

Friday, 14 March 2008 09:22 by ~abC visitor

Project management has all the answers. In my small manufacturing facility a major decision is never made by just the project manager. I constantly pull my team together to hear their opinions, and change plans based on collective thought.

Great post! Thanks.

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Sunday, 16 March 2008 07:51 by Arturas visitor

I couldn't agree with you more, of course there are quite a few decisions that only PMs can make, although i think team should have influence on the decision making as well.

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Friday, 12 September 2008 10:38 by PM Hut visitor

If I had a penny everytime I heard someone saying (or muttering) #1. The question is, why do employees, in general, have this impression about Project Managers?

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