And now for the best, and final
The Music Man number, “
Ya Got Trouble”. And what’s better is there’s no need for me to start up a kickline. If you know anything about the real last scene of this film it’s that doing a high kick with a 30 pound bass drum with a 2 foot diameter attached to your chest is beyond even the magic toes of dance lord Michael Flately.
So your company is expanding, or at least the work is, and there is lots and lots and lots of stuff that needs to get done. Be it a company-wide Microsoft Office upgrade, an internal records audit, researching a new production method, or using that new production method to create a bespoke item for a customer. Everyone’s got stuff to do. Everyone’s got projects.
And these projects appear to be moving along. Everyone’s desktop is finally upgraded to Office 2007—it was used just last week to create the new surveys on the production methods you still haven’t responded to— and both the company’s use of Post Its and the number of meetings with the subject “Project Status Update” have risen 824%.
But…wait…aren’t all your peers using Office 2010 now? And you’re certain that bespoke item was supposed to be delivered over a month ago, but you can’t find a record of it anywhere and don’t remember nary a mention of it in one of those project status update meetings. Not even a Post-It!
And one day, maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but one day, your CIO, your boss, or even you may axel turn assertively in front of an in-the-red cost chart and start the song:
Folks! Well, either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge, or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of PROJECTS in our community!Ya got trouble, my friend. Right here in the company! Trouble that starts with ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for ‘Project….Management’!!
So now that you’ve gotten a standing ovation, what do you say?
More specific answers for specific situations will be discussed in later entries, but until then, take some time to download, digest, and develop our guide: Collaborative Project Management – A Brief Introduction for PMBAs (Project Managers by Accident).
As concise a title as The Music Man, our guide will get you from Short-Order Cook to Master Chef in just 10 two-sided pages! Your next project status meeting, held monthly, could be as succinct as: “We got one, two, three, four, five, six Projects in the pocket. Projects that have made the difference between in the red or in the black, and that starts with ‘B’ and that rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for ‘Profits’!”