Methodologies - Reminder as to why they're useful

In our day to day lives, we never stop to think about the good practices and principles which methodologies try to help us with and which inevitably get left to one side as we rush through just trying to get the project in on time.

But what if we began to make time to do things properly. To ensure we had everything written down and agreed? That we'd made sure we had the bases covered? Would this then provide us with the time to get all the paperwork done as we wouldn't have to rush around because we'd got everything lined up previously?

To my knowledge, no-one has ever followed a methodology through to the very end. If you have, I'd love to hear from you and whether it made a difference.

For me? I've been reminded today through teaching PRINCE2 to someone that there is a good reason why these methodologies exist and why they are so detailed. Documents I'd forgotten about which we need to ensure both us and the customer have an enjoyable project experience. IT has a bad reputation for projects....what if we decided to make a change and do things properly?

To use those inimitable IT words...."Hello World!"

I have no doubt seriously upset some very experience Project and Programme Managers out there with my little snippet, snide, jibe, whatever you want to call it about managing to be successful at what I do (no, I don't mean the flying) without having to bully, backstab or generally upset my project teams. And in my experience - this is the default status for many PM's. We are generally a race of untrusting, paranoid and pyschotically attentive to detail people who can forget we're dealing with human beings, people and not 'resources'. I object, quite strongly, to my team being referred to as if they were the flipchart. Trust me, it won't get us out of a sticky spot when it all goes wrong and late nights are called for. It just sits there, fresh paper demanding new ideas and better ways of working, judging all us people beavering away for our inadequacies. But enough about my relationship with my flipchart, thats not why you're hopefully reading this. Its certainly not why I'm writing it!

So now comes the dilemma. What to put in a first post? It must be witty and eye capturing surely....it must grab and hold attention. But forget all that. I'm writing this not so much for you, the reader, although I hope you do enjoy it. I'm writing this because I want to show people how they can also be good project managers. I want to eventually have a whole bunch of nice, well adjusted PM's chatting away to each other through this blog, helping each other out. I happen to have been blessed with a Fellowship from the BCS recently and that does indicate I know something of what I'm talking about. So does my significant global experience in managing large IT projects and programmes (yes, there is a difference...don't get me started on portfolios). And my somewhat strong self-belief that there has to be a better way than some of the things I've seen out there. So I figured there's no point berating the world, I need to share these thoughts. And see what happens. It may be this winds up being a time capsule of ideas which someone finds buried in cyberspace in the years to come, long after I've finished writing it and thinks its ground breaking and sells it as their own idea.

Well, don't. I fly planes and I have connections. I will find you....and thats a handy link into my flying piece. I am learning to fly small aircraft (don't call them planes, that really upsets proper commercial pilots. or do. for a laugh) and recently have had the blinding realisation that it has remarkable similarities to project management. You're ultimately accountable, you have stakeholders demanding pointless updates (like where you are, where you're going and why on earth you've wandered into the path of an EasyJet flight due to land), you have a fixed scope (trust me, you try and do something out of scope and bad things happen. like stalling) which constantly tries to change on you and when an issue arises which comes completely out of left field you have to make a call which can either win you accolades or plummet you into the depths of humiliation. It is true Panic Management at its best. Which when you think about it is the core of a good PM. You never show fear, never run in the hallways of the office. Something goes wrong and you calmly assess the information, make a decision and go with it. And live with the consequences. Even if that results in a 60ft bounce, 4 subsequent bounces, a broken plane and some terrified firemen while you sob your heart out (this did actually happen to me).

Feel free at this point to discuss.....