"The Times, They Are A-Changin’"

Posted by Deborah Bigelow Crawford | 0 Comments

Posted by Deborah Bigelow Crawford | 0 Comments

When I look back over my last 25 years in project management, I just sigh.  When I first entered this profession as Executive Director (now titled CEO) of PMI, I struggled with explaining what project management actually was to my family and friends.  They wanted to understand, but unless they were in the defense or construction industries, they really didn’t have a clue. My children told their teachers, “Mom types” …  and since I didn’t feel like they would get it, I didn’t even try to explain what I really did or what project management entailed.

Well, fast forward 25 years and everyone (or at least the majority of people) have a much clearer understanding of project management –and more importantly, its value.  Project management has become so much more than it was back then.  Project managers can no longer hide beneath layers of bureaucracy – the flattening of organizations and the ever-advancing technologies has certainly impacted that.  As a result of this visibility, project managers are being seen more as leaders of organizations, executing their strategies one project at a time.

With the expanding role of leadership come more responsibilities: responsibility to look at projects from an overall corporate perspective-not just from the time, scope, and budget perspective.  To take a business perspective when executing projects, and not being afraid to push back, if the project doesn’t align with the corporate strategy.

I am also amazed at how many people are being touched by this ever-evolving profession.  My daughters; one in pharma, one in marketing, are both working towards their PMPs –even though they proclaimed in younger years that they never wanted to do what I did!  I guess there’s no getting around it any more.  Project management will touch most careers... and that is a good thing!  I guess that’s why I sigh … who would have thought!

[Editor's note: Also in the vein of "who would have thought?" ... Debbie wrote this post weeks before Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. I guess her choice of titles was just as prescient as her choice of careers! <wink>]

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