In my last post I promised to follow-up on the metaphor that I had developed comparing movies to projects. Although project managers do not often think about themselves as “Directors,” they essentially play the same role in projects as “Directors” do in films.
I mentioned that the movie DVD “Pride and Prejudice” with its additional features had struck me over Valentine’s Day weekend as being particularly helpful in revealing some underlying lessons for project managers and their teams. One of these lessons was my reaction to Director Joe Wright’s statement in his narrative of the film in which he said that “the experience of making this film informs the film itself.”
In this context, the verb “informs” means “to give evidence, substance, character or distinction to.”
How many of us as project managers would ever say that “the experience of managing this project informs the project itself?” And yet, if you really think about it, every project manager adds substance, evidence, character and distinction to his or her project by managing the project everyday…from inception of first thought to the final close.
That is the key to successful projects. To the extent that the PMO can pass along this type of ownership of the entire project experience to project managers whose experience will “inform” the projects, we will see more and more successful projects.
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