and the education continues…
Upon moving out to California, I found a contract position that turned into a permanent full time position. One of the main reasons I accepted the position was because of the hiring manager – Bill Titov. He was an absolutely amazing boss. I was really annoyed that a few months after signing on permanently, he was transferred to another area of the company.
I digress though. OOMC was a young growing company and reminded me a bit of Wilshire. I learned a lot while working there and had a true chance to stretch my project manager legs. While working at OOMC, I was able to complete my course work and received a Masters Certificate from George Washington in IT Project Management. In addition, I also earned my PMP designation from PMI and volunteered on the core project team that wrote the practice standard for scheduling.
I loved taking all the classes I did and learning the theories behind risk management, systems integration, scheduling & cost control, earned value management, contract management, leadership, software testing and of course analysis. I especially loved being in the classes surrounded by people with different experiences and perspectives. Similar to my experience as a consultant, I was exposed to many variations of doing things. My classmates were in Fortune 500 companies, State & Federal Government, small start ups and the DoD. Outside of class, we were able to have frank discussions about the projects we were each working on and the challenges we faced.
Once I completed my course work and received my PMP designation, I volunteered on the core project team at PMI to create the Practice Standard for Scheduling. That was a really amazing experience. There were nine of us on the core team and I was in awe of the professional backgrounds of my team mates. Some had been project managers for over 30 years and instrumental in the creation of PMI. One of the pm’s worked on the Big Dig in Boston and hearing her tales behind managing that program was awesome! I loved being a sponge and soaking all the knowledge up. At the same time, I couldn’t believe I was picked to be on the team. It was really awesome to realize that I did have knowledge to contribute. Especially since I had just finished my coursework. I had studied hard and knew the theories behind Project Management.
I was quick to realize though that what I was taught at school in theory, doesn’t always work in the real world! While working at OOMC, we went through three iterations of implementing a PMO. Talk about a learning experience… It was fun and accelerating and tiring and annoying all at the same time. There were projects involving securitization, pricing, LOS, data warehousing, compliance, reporting, process re engineering, you name it. It also gave me a chance to use some of the knowledge I’d gained in France when it came to managing multi located team members. Several of the projects I managed utilized off shore resources. Not only did I have to deal with cultural differences and time zones but also contract issues. It was fun and challenging.
One of the biggest lessons I learned was that project management is not a science. You can educate yourself on all the theories and methodologies you want but unless you know which pm tools to implement and when, you will never successfully deliver projects. A good project manager knows when to apply science and when to use art.
The other point that was really driven home was that if you aren’t careful, you can get stuck in paralysis analysis. Never a good thing. It was here that I was first introduced to JAD. It reminded me a lot of my early days at Pace and XP.
All the different methodologies and PMO implementations further reiterated to me that one size does not fit all and trying to force an IT department to follow one methodology for all projects is not a good idea.
