Don't make project management impossible!

2023-09-30

I've seen many examples of the following idea:

Modern project managers are now seen as strategic partners, integral to the ideation phase as well as execution. They are expected to understand market dynamics, emerging technologies, and even the intricacies of disruptive innovation. The role has evolved into that of a facilitator for change, responsible for selecting, testing, and implementing innovative ideas and solutions within the project context.

— Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez (Source)

I don't think so.

It turns project management into something impossible that not many people can handle. Even for those who can, it's not a productive setup. It may be the only solution for a newly formed, tiny startup, but it's unsuitable for most organizations.

Why?

The state of the market, user preferences, technical aspects, and many more concerns should be considered in most projects, but not by project managers because

1. proper understanding of these things requires knowledge and experience, and we can't expect a single person to be an expert in so many different areas in addition to their primary domain of project management, and
2. even if a single person is expert enough to do all of these things, it would be so distracting that probably none of them will be done well, and
3. some of these things should be done holistically for everything in the organization rather than individual projects.

Marketing?

Have a person or department for marketing to set a holistic strategy and support all products and services in the organization rather than expecting the poor project managers to be marketing experts.

Emerging technologies?

That's why you have technical experts on the team and usually technical departments in the organization to support those individuals.

Innovative design?

Form a knowledgeable, diverse group of experts with good facilitation to generate new ideas or design existing and future products.

Value?

We can't evaluate value properly within the boundaries of a project. The value of each product or each feature in a product depends on the combination of all existing and future products and services in the organization. Therefore, there should be a portfolio management system to guide this in all projects.

Let's be realistic!

Project managers can be successful if we expect them to have an achievable set of skills and allow them to focus on a realistic set of responsibilities.

We also need to pay attention to other related roles and layers in the organization and create a complete ecosystem capable of delivering value.

Let's not make project management an impossible role; it only harms projects.

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