Chapter 2: Project Management for Everyone

What ‚ s in This Chapter?

• Minimizing the school-of-hard-knocks approach to learning project management

• Refusing to buy into the ‚“We ‚ re too busy to plan ‚½ argument against project management training

• The value of project-oriented thinking and how project management training can help turn your organization into one filled with ‚“project-oriented thinkers ‚½

• How common tools and vocabulary can yield uncommon successes

In the last chapter, we said that almost everyone has played the role of project manager ‚ either on the job or in part of their personal lives. Most people do remarkably well in managing projects, even though most of them have never thought of themselves as project managers or taken part in any kind of project management training. This means that a substantial part of effective project management must come from good old solid common sense. Because this is true, you can build on people ‚ s intuitive grasp of how to manage projects and teach them quite a bit about the discipline of project management in a relatively short time. This book encourages you to build on your audience ‚ s previous experience to help them add project management tools and best practices to their existing skills. If they have been successful with their projects, your goal is to see to it that they ‚ ll be even more successful when armed with the project management knowledge offered in your training program. If they have struggled trying to make projects succeed, your project management training program can offer solutions to the problems they experienced .