As I mentioned in my first blog entry – the value of project management is often neglected. I believe part of the reason for this is that the common perception of project management tends to be narrowly defined. Project management is seen as a way to effectively plan and deliver a set of defined activities within a set time period, budget and according to specifications. The problem with this view of project management is that it does not allow for other more valuable factors that are part of the project to be included in its definition. As seen time and time again, the activities that happen prior and following the “traditional” view of project management (planning and execution phases) are probably the most telling activities demonstrating the value of project management. In this case, I’m talking about the actual vision, business case and impact of projects where “value” is fully realized.
In fact, not too long a young college student launched a project with no official plan, no project management training and no real project team from his dorm room that would make him the first self-made billionaire under 25. Based on his original rogue project FaceMash hacking into Harvard’s network, Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 created thefacebook.com (later changed to facebook.com by purchasing the domain for $200,000) that revolutionized social networking purely based on project vision.
The Facebook project is an excellent example of how project vision and the business case play a critical role in project management. Although the project plan was informal, the timing of the project and its alignment to what was happening in the market were spot on.
Tags: Successful Project Management
