Friday, March 06, 2015

Develop the People

Why Projects Really Fail
In my previous post (the real reason projects fail) I identified a number of steps that need to be taken and the first one is fairly obvious. Is the project manager up to the job? In other words do they have the necessary skills to manage projects? 

A lot of people get thrown into project management because they are available, with no thought about what skills they need to carry out the role. A good honest appraisal should clearly identify any areas of skills shortage and development needs. But we need to be honest, not everyone can become a good project manager. Not everyone will have the temperament or basic management skills necessary. If they show promise then we should provide mentoring for them. If they are not cut out for it, then we should move them to somewhere else in the business where they can do less damage.

But this won't happen spontaneously, we have to do something about it and that is what I will be discussing in the next topic: developing the organisation.

Thank You
Many thanks to those of you who have commented on the topics in this series. Most of which have been excellent. I will be turning this series of posts into a presentation to the PMI Netherlands Summit in June and will incorporate several of your points. So keep them coming.

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