Job to Be Done #

In the last century most people did a certain specified job that stayed more or less the same until they moved ahead or moved on. The boss judged them by the book. Customers waited submissively until the corporation or the government or the school gave them not what they wanted but what they were going to get. Things have changed. Customers want what they want. We are seeing more frequent organizational transformations, faster development of new products, quicker adoption of new technologies, and so on. This is a global phenomenon. In other words, we must be nimbler and far more responsive to customers than we used to be. “Doing the old job” isn’t enough anymore.

Kogon, Kory; Blakemore, Suzette. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager (Updated and Revised Edition) (p. 9). BenBella Books. Kindle Edition.

Your New Role #

If you’ve quietly slipped into the role of unofficial project manager, you know you’re fighting project failure every day as you try to push through to a deadline, save a budget, or keep people (or yourself) from messing everything up.

Kogon, Kory; Blakemore, Suzette. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager (Updated and Revised Edition) (p. 11). BenBella Books. Kindle Edition.

Past Failures #

Organizations without formal project management processes fail much more often than companies that follow a process. But even those with processes fail much of the time. Here are some common reasons for failure:

• Unclear outcomes or expectations (“Why are we doing this?”)
• Lack of commitment or support from leaders (“Okay, go ahead with it, I guess . . .”)
• Unrealistic timelines (“We need this yesterday!”)
• Lack of or mismanaged budget (“You need how much more money?”)
• Competing priorities (“I’ve got to take care of my other job today.”)
• Unrealistic resources (“What could you do with half this budget?”)
• Politics (“We can’t let Enki’s department get the better of us.”)
• Lack of a big picture (“A few loose screws can’t make that much difference, can they?”)
• Poor planning (“Don’t overthink it. Let’s get started already. We know what to do.”)
• Lack of leadership (“Who’s in charge here, anyway?”)
• Changing standards (“So they want this new car to go forwards and backwards?”) ¹

Kogon, Kory; Blakemore, Suzette. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager (Updated and Revised Edition) (pp. 11-12). BenBella Books. Kindle Edition.