Project Management
Project management goes hand-in-hand with system engineering. It is impossible to successfully manage a project that has inadequate system engineering, just as it is impossible to do successful engineering on a project that is poorly managed.
While as a consultant, you are unlikely to want me to take responsibility for completely managing a project, you may nevertheless find me very helpful. I have the ability to “get my arms around” a complicated electro-optical system and to define the necessary tasks and manpower to design and build the system. I can separate smoke and mirrors from solid technology and identify the key technical issues and risks in any project. I've seen what worked and what did not work on the management of many projects.
The most common problem I have seen in project management is simple lack of organization. Getting things well organized is crucial to running a successful project. I can provide a lot of help with this, if it is needed.
Unfortunately, one can only go so far with organization, and sometimes the resources available are completely at odds with what is required for a project. In this case, my responsibility as a consultant is to tell you that this is the case.
In my opinion, one project management problem that is not sufficiently recognized is for the project manager to fail to give the technical staff adequate visibility into the overall situation of the project. When this happens, the technical staff can easily make decisions that are inappropriate in the overall context of the project, but that seem appropriate in their own context. A classic example is when the project manager fails to define and set clear priorities. The fact is that priorities will be set, if not by the project manager, then by the individual technical staff members.
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Copyright © 2002, David F. Schaack. All Rights Reserved. |