Project Management

Project Management

Project Manager Skills and Certification

Project management is defined by the Project Management Institute as the "application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project".

Project management certification is highly desirable for those wishing to make a career in the field.

This web site discusses the use of skills to complete projects.

Also discussed is how to obtain certification. This certification is of benefit (though not absolutely necessary) for those wishing to make a profession out of the field

Project Management Certification.

The author is a professional engineer but is not a certified project manager. This is the case for most project managers with whom the author has worked.

However, for someone wanting to enter the field as a professional, certification should be their goal and would give the holder of such certification a leg up in the profession. It is not an easy certification to obtain! A major requirement is to review the literature and then pass a stiff exam. An engineering education is not required although most of the project managers with whom I worked were graduate engineers.

Several excellent organizations offer certification . One of the best known of the organizations is the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Those interested in obtaining certification will have to learn project management basics including the basic vocabulary of project managers, e.g., tasks, activity, event, node, work breakdown structure, etc. Excellent education and training is available in the form of courses and workshops,

Project Definition.

A project is defined as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. During World War 2, the Manhattan project to produce an atomic bomb was a project. Who had heard of an atomic bomb before? Even the comic books hadn't covered such a weapon.

The Apollo program was a project. It was unique in that no one had been to the moon before. It was temporary in that after the moon landings were over, the project was declared completed and no one has been to the moon since. (That will likely change soon!)

An effort to produce additional Jeep Cherokees of the same design is not a project as defined by the professional institutes. Such an effort might be temporary but the Jeep Cherokee is not a unique project.

However, an endeavor to redesign the Jeep Cherokee to get 50 miles per gallon of gasoline (instead of 17 mpg that I now get) could be considered a project because it would mean a unique product has been produced. The time-required aspect of such an endeavor might be stretching the term temporary a little since it would no-doubt take a number of years to complete it. (Considering the present energy crisis, such an endeavor would be worthy of the use of project management skills and techniques).

Managing the two projects discussed above - atomic bomb development and the Apollo Program - took an enormous effort and many managers. Without such an effort, the atomic bomb development might have been delayed for years and we might still be trying to get to the moon.

Looking at the other side of the coin, had Germany had the foresight and the project management skills, they might have gotten the atomic bomb first. Think Hitler would have hesitated using it?

I also believe Russia,- if their project management skills been adequate - might have beat us to the moon. Certainly, they were ahead of us in rocket development during the early "Sputnik" years.

Project Management Experience.

I have been fortunate to work on several enormous government projects that required major project management efforts.

Apollo Space Program. I was always interested in astronomy and Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon were two of my childhood heroes. And I can remember when Sputnik first flew and the outcry was heard that we would never catch the Russians.

President Kennedy didn't waste much time when he got elected in 1960 to begin one of the largest and most successful projects in history: to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's. Project management was a key to the success of that effort and every unit working on that project practiced the proper management techniques. Every element of that project was shown on flow diagrams and other management tools. If a project element dropped back and it looked like the delay might, in turn, delay the landing of a man on the moon, immediate pressure was put to get the element back on line.

The project management worked! Completion of the endeavor occurred. We put the man on the moon! Unfortunately, we dropped the program and, over the past couple of decades, spent too much time patting ourselves on the back over our success. Now, we may have to redo the project as the first step to putting a man on Mars in 20 or 30 years, a far grander project than the Apollo program ever was!

Minuteman Missile Project. I also spent some time in the 60's on the Minuteman missile project. The idea was to develop a land based missile and to produce and install so many of the missiles that Russia would never dare attack us. Again, project management was the key to success in managing the project, and that concept worked as we quickly put enough missiles in the ground to blow up Russia many times over.

Another missile program at the time also utilized similar techniques. That program was the Polaris missile submarine program. The program was a success.

Louisiana Coastal Restoration. I worked a number of years with the state of Louisiana as a project manager involved in the construction of projects intended to stem the huge and ongoing loss of wetlands in Louisiana. A total of about 75 or 80 projects were completed during my time there.

Although we successfully used project management techniques, wetlands loss continued at an unabated, high rate ( 25 square miles per year). You might say the operation was a success but the patient died. The wetlands loss contributed to the devastation visited on New Orleans during the great flood associated with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (a healthy marsh reduces the effect of a storm surge!)

In hindsight, it might have been better to have had the coastal restoration effort combined with hurricane levee construction, evaluation & shutdown of unnecessary canals & channels in the marsh, etc. A very large project management effort could have been used to oversee the combined effort.

A combined coastal restoration - hurricane protection system would have provided New Orleans with more protection and, at the same time, accomplished the goals of coastal restoration. I believe such a combined program is now being implemented..

I retired last year but remain very interested in the coastal restoration program. Being a resident of the New Orleans, I, needless to say, am very interested the hurricane protection system also.

Katrina & Rebuilding New Orleans. I live in the greater New Orleans area and witnessed what a powerful hurricane like Katrina can do to a vulnerable city like New Orleans. If ever there was a need for a large rebuilding project to be dedicated, project management techniques applied, and project completion accomplished, rebuilding the city of New Orleans is that project. The present effort is being managed largely by politicians and too much of the present effort has been piecemeal.

Project Management - Importance of Strategy and Planning.

Although this web page deals mainly with project management, it should be noted that a workable strategy combined with careful planning is necessary to assure that efforts are not wasted on meaningless projects. Strategy, grand strategy, tactics, and planning are discussed in detail in Planning & Strategy.

Good strategy, planning, and project management work hand-in-hand.

Summary - Management of Projects.

Project management is the key to completion of projects and obtaining certification in the field can be an important step for someone wanting to become a project manager.

Last Updated: 10/25/09

e-mail me @ vanc13@cox.net