A few weeks ago, I had to chain-saw my way into my driveway. In an odd way, it made me think about project-management tools. (This post on project management is modified from my “day-job” site, Lexician.com/lexblog.)
In addition, I don’t like chain saws. They’re scary. So I bought the mildest version, an 8 HP electric thing with an extension pole — stay away from me, nasty blade thing — and a 10″” bar. (A normal gas-powered chain saw might have a 16″ or even 18″ bar.) It’s the sharpest, or at least the nastiest, tool in my shed, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
So I turn into my driveway a few weeks ago and immediately come face to face with a downed pine tree hung up diagonally across it, blocking access by car. After gaping at the astonishingly shallow root system — perhaps 18″ deep for what had been a 30-foot-tall tree — I set out to reclaim my driveway. I spent an hour stringing 300 feet of outdoor electric cord, putting a fresh chain on the saw, and so on, until I was finally ready to attack. Cutting a hung-up tree is particularly scary, since you know in advance the chain will bind and grab as the weight of the tree tries to close the cut you’re making. But I’m still here to tell the tale, and I have some additional firewood drying on the woodpile as a result.
So what’s this have to do with project management?
Chain Saws, Tools, and Project Management
Too many project managers are subtly coerced into using inappropriate project-management tools. This applies to “”accidental”" project managers as well, those who find themselves managing a project without specific PM training.
Consider my chain saw experience. I’m not a logger, I don’t normally clear trees on my land, and I even have someone deliver precut logs when the woodpile runs low. In other words, I rarely need a chain saw. But rarely isn’t the same as never, and so I own the simplest, cheapest (and least scary) model that will get the job done.
Apply that analogy to project management. Professional project managers can make full use of a tool such as Microsoft Project, and I wholeheartedly recommend MS-Project to folks like that. (I’m a long-time user myself.) However, if you’re just starting out, tools such as MS-Project can be overwhelming, and scary. Worse, they often start you out on a complex, opaque scheduling screen that leads you to develop a Gantt chart such as the one at right. Too many relatively inexperienced project managers use a tool such as MS-Project solely as a scheduling application… or use it because they think they’re supposed to.
But scheduling is (a) not the heart of project management, (b) very complex to get even vaguely right, and (c) misleading. Schedules promote the appearance of order and control, but that’s all that’s guaranteed — appearance. That map is not the terrain; nowhere in project management is that more painfully clear than in schedule applications.
MS-Project does a lot more than scheduling. However, I’ve rarely seen any but the most skilled (non-professional) project managers use the tool beyond that point — or seen them set up a schedule that is usefully modifiable in response to changes or new information.
Scheduling applications are not the place to start if you lack deep project management experience. You don’t need the rip-snorting 18″”-bar gas-powered chain-saw equivalent — and you may well hurt yourself or your project by getting tangled up with it.
Start with simpler tools that you can fully manage — and whose strengths and limitations are clear. Most of the value in project management can be claimed via an EMail app, a word processor, a spreadsheet, and your feet.
Re the last item, get out and talk to the people working on the project. Communication is the sharpest tool in your shed. Use it well, use it early, use it often.
