Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
I’ve had a copy of Scott Berkun’s Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management for somewhere out past six months now. I cracked it open when it first came in the mail and avidly devoured the first chapter (theory, history and introduction). Then, perhaps as a testament to the incredible number of projects cooking in my life, vocational, avocational and familial, I didn’t pick it up again until tonight. Not that I haven’t kept it out, right where I could see it, along with the other books that have made their ways into my life and are slotted for reading: technology, literature, religion, running, philosophy, music. There are a lot of them. So how’d I make it back to Berkun again? And why tonight? Probably because I’m staring down the barrel of some massive projects at work in the coming year and have spent the last few days deep in the planning process. As always, invigorating and intimidating at the same. Times like these, every additional bit of wisdom and technique helps.
In this case, Berkun’s book has a lot to offer. Berkun worked for Microsoft for 10 years in project management on software projects including Internet Explorer and Windows. He wrote The Myths of Innovation, and now trains, lectures, and consults in creative thinking and project management. You can find him at http://www.scottberkun.com.
I figured as I jotted notes during my evening reading over the next couple weeks, I’d share the tastiest tidbits here. Starting… now:
Web development and restaurant kitchens
As Berkun examines the history of project management, he points out that Web developers often feel, because of the relative newness of the Web and the broad range of complex technologies a Web developer needs to master, that the nature of their projects also must be unprecedented. Instead, Berkun argues, “the first time anyone sees the quick task management and coordination that occur in a busy professional kitchen, he’s likely to reconsider how difficult his own job is.” Having long ago worked in a professional kitchen, and having a brother who still does, I first-hand concur. “Working chefs and line cooks are culinary project managers […]. Even though kitchen staff works on a scale smaller and less celebrated than a manger of a software development team, there’s no comparison for daily intensity.”
Paradoxical Project Manager Traits
Project managers need a seemingly paradoxical balance of attitudes and personal traits. And the intuition or sensitivity to know which face of the coin to show at what time:
- Ego/no-ego
- Autocrat / delegator
- Tolerate ambiguity, pursue perfection
- Oral/written
- Acknowledge complexity/champion simplicity
- Impatient/patient
- Believer/skeptic
- Courage/fear
Confusing process with goals
Berkun warns against letting the process of project management, the checklists, become the focus, instead of the project itself. As one of his managers once told him: “Your project is your team. Manage your team, not your checklists.”
More posts on this book to come as I keep reading through it…
Tags: berkun, project management, Web
