Holding Out For A Hero
In February I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Managing Design Projects Conference organized by Adaptive Path. Scott Berkun gave the keynote and he said something that really resonated with me, “There is a lack of heroes in the project management world,” (although I do consider Scott to be a PM Hero, have you read his book, Making Things Happen?).
What he was alluding to is the fact that there are PMs working in all kinds of industries; at web design studios, at marketing firms, in healthcare, and the list goes on. In short, we’re everywhere. However non-construction-related Project Management is an emerging field, there are few role models to learn from and few resources out there for us PMs who don’t have to worry about scheduling the drywall installation after the plumbing contractors are finished. This thought was echoed throughout the day. some of the comments I heard, “I feel like I’m working in a vacuum,” “We need a PM community,” “Learning on the job is great but I’d love to have some concrete examples or resources to learn from.”
Now, things seem to be changing. Communities are forming and expanding, more PMs are speaking up and sharing their expertise and with that in mind I wanted to share with you some of my favourite PM resources. The resources I’ve included are good if you’re a Project Manager or a Something Else who does a lot of PM work or are interested in learning more about PM. Perhaps you could become a Project Management Hero.
Here goes:
- Scott Berkun’s website, essays, blog and book. Also, if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of Scott’s speaking engagements – do it!
- PMClinic listserv, also known as Patoomba: it’s a website, it’s a listserv all with a PM focus. Each week a new situation is presented to the group and we have the chance to give our two cents on it.
- No Secret blog, the author of this blog is a regular contributor to the PMClinic list and started his own blog that’s filled with (almost) daily CCrits (sounds like “Secret” stands for “Content Critical”).
- Herding Chickens: When I was studying project management the PM assigned to teach us all about Human Resources recommended this book. It was the first PM book I read cover to cover. It’s a fantastic guidebook filled with real life examples and lots of document templates.
Ofcourse there are other PM resources out there, like the PM Hut, Project Connections and pmStudent (a site I just found out about a couple of weeks ago), but the list above has the resources I go back to regularly. What about you, do you have any PM resources that you find helpful?
As a side note, I have a certificate in Project Management from UBC but I haven’t pursued a PMP designation. If you have questions about the program I attended or about PMP, please do feel free to get in touch with me. I love chatting with other PMs about ideas and experiences and am happy to share mine.