Customer Requirements - How do we understand them?

Project Managers and Leadership

The other day, I was sitting at Starbucks and reading a book by Ram Charan, the renowned CEO consultant on leadership. The more I ponder on it, the more I believe is the need for great leadership from project managers to get things done.

Failing to getting things executed can kill big innovations. I was reading the case study of Xerox and how the CEO Richard Thoman was fired for not being able to execute on some of the innovative ideas which he had brought to Xerox.

I do not mean to give a big leadership lecture here, but I was surprised to read that: the CEO complained that he was not allowed to select his own management. That happens a lot with us project managers too. Sometimes, we just have to work with whatever resources we have to get things done. Being able to work with people of different personalities creates diversity in team and promotes challenge and thought. Being able to consolidate the differences between the team members and creating a shared mental model is one of the biggest tasks of project managers.

Earning respect is another challenge, so you have to be knowledgeable enough to be able to help out the team members. The best approach is act as a service provider to your team rather than someone trying to manage them. By Service provider, I mean someone who provides umbrella to the team when its raining and clears stones and pebbles from the path when the team is moving forward. Empower the team! I would write another blog on strategies to empower the team.

These are some of the things which Ram Charan recommends for CEOs to do at a higher level. I am not saying that as project managers we are like CEOs or trying to act like one, but there are certainly leadership traits which we can learn. As project managers, I would recommend my fellow colleagues to be more of leaders rather than managers. By doing that, project management actually provides strategic advantage to the organization. Below is an interesting comparison between leaders and managers:

LEADER

1. Focusses on what and why

2. Innovates

3. Focusses on people

4. Inspires Trust

5. Has a long range view

6. Has eyes on horizon

7. Originates

8. Challenges Status quo

9. Does the Right thing

MANAGER

1. Focusses on when and how

2. Administrates

3. Focussess on systems and structures

4. Relies on Control

5. Has a short-range view

6. Has eyes on bottomline

7. Initiates

8. Accepts Status quo

9. Does things right

Is Project Management an Art?

The more project managers I meet, the more I find out that project management has a huge artistic side to it.

Despite having common body of knowledge such as PMBOK, are 2 project managers alike? Or the way in which they execute projects alike? Certainly not!

Like an artist leaves his distinct style on his work, I believe every project manager like an artist also has a distinct style in managing a project.

The human side is definitely very important, but is it just art? or let me reword it, is art just enough?

From my meagre experience, I have seen that there are two approaches to project management:

The Art of project management relies on human intuition, communication and capabilities to negotiate between conflicting objectives and priorities. These are critical skills for any project manager.

However, the artistic skills can be greatly enhanced by using science. The science of project management deeply complements the art side.

By science of project management, I mean usage of exisiting scientific, cognitive and mathematical techniques in an innovative fashion to improve decision making process, balancing priorities process, measurement and reporting process, conflict management process and so on for a project manager.

This is what the book I am writing is about. In any situation, how can a project manager leverage the science and combine it with his artistic style to excel as a project manager. This level of understanding helps a project manager to go beyond his typical role and add strategic value and advantage to the organization.

Beginning of the journey

With the beginning of this blog, I intend to make progress on my book on "Art and Science of Software Project Management". I intend to use this blog as a means to discuss and promote ideas with the readers.