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Can I Use Project Management? Yes of course!

By Kytes

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February 17, 2011

Last year I was at the PMI conference in Mumbai. The conference was about several aspects of project management including tools, applications, etc.

There was this speaker who spoke passionately about how the application of project management principles changed his & his wife’s life for good.

They were married for 10 years & wanted to start a family for a long time. However, success kept eluding them. The wife went through the post to the pillar with multiple consultations, follow-ups, etc.

She followed every advice that came her way, both medicinal and religious. Still, there was no success and there was no reason not to be successful either.

Then she met this doctor who after an initial round of talks and discussion asked her to come the following day. The next day doctor had a 6 months plan, with activities planned for every week.

There were certain deliverables (read reports) and fortnightly review meetings. The plan was tweaked to accommodate her trip planned for the following month.

The last doctor mentioned if she sticks to the plan religiously, there is almost guaranteed success. His confidence in his plan was written large on his face.

On her way back looks more confident and she kept looking at the plan running through each activity in her mind. As days goes by, she did all her activities on time.

She made an excellent team with the doctor and both of them keep refining the plan as they meet every fortnight for their review. She found more time for herself, for shopping and most importantly she knew what to do the next day, next week and next month.

That assured her making her more relaxed, and focused. This further helped the project and finally, she tasted success four months into the project (2 months earlier than scheduled).

Even the doctor was surprised and was very proud of his plan and patient.

Later husband & wife discussed what was different this time than before. The only difference was the plan & a mentor. That kept everyone on track. Regular communication made all the team members (read doctor, husband, and wife) on top of upcoming activities and they keep themselves ready for that.

Regular reviews help make the changes required in the approach at the right time. These are some of the principles of project management which make all the difference every time.

It’s rare to succeed without them. In this case, there was no tool, no bar chart & no established methodologies were used. Only a few loose white sheets, the ability to absorb the plan in her mind, and most importantly a lot of common sense, logical approach, and analysis were used.

Everyone listened to the presentation with rapt attention. I went to the speaker and congratulated him on the project’s success. On returning back on the Mumbai-Pune highway, I knew now I could sell our project management software to almost everyone in each industry.

Of course, I will need a lot of common sense, a logical approach, and Analysis to explain how they can use project management in their own job.

The very thought of making my 100% commission made me feel good & automatically speed up my car to share this good news with my wife in Pune. Cheers!

Kytes

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Kytes is an enterprise software company offering AI-Enabled Professional Services Automation (PSA) Software. Designed for IT/ITES, Pharmaceuticals/Lifesciences, GCC, Professional Services, and Consulting sectors, Kytes PSA streamlines project deliveries and accelerates the product development lifecycle (NPD).