Project Management in my Life – Chapter I – Mom’s Project – Part V (#5 in the series Project Management in my Life)
By Azra Duric
I haven’t yet mentioned that this was not my only project. In fact, I have a whole portfolio of projects under my belt and also juggle different roles within these projects. Some examples are: House Cleaning, Cooking, Guests Entertaining, Shopping and Work for Pay projects. No matter what role I would take, even if given without consent, I was expected to deliver on time, on budget and in scope.
I have to mention that my sponsor also has lot of projects in which he is the PM, along with other roles. Some of these are: Yard Work, Fixing and Driving. For these projects I usually play a client and/or sponsor role and I make sure that I frequently criticize my PM so that he achieves perfect results.
The other critical project in our organization is “Raise a Girl”, which I must admit, is becoming even more of a challenge than with Boy-A, so My Husband and have I decided to work jointly on this project. We’ll need training for conflict resolution, as well as having to pay a visit to our PMO – Steering Committee, whose members are Grandpa, Grandma, Next Door Neighbour and Best Friend. We will go there next week to strategize the approach for this project. We may need to implement the Agile project methodology in this case. I will let you know how this turns out.
The project management discipline is becoming more complex and demanding. The competition is fierce as my sponsor will demand that the final product, a-GIRL-M, be nothing less but of the highest quality. As well, it will have to meet My Family’s strategic goals. In the meantime, the “Raise a Boy” project continues to be important, even though it is in the operational stage, and some day it might even become a capital project again.
Finally, the most important business objective of this project is to expect cash in-flows over the years and to gain ROI on its initial capital invested. It is also expected, looking at five and ten year’s organizational strategic plans, that these products will create future revenue generation, by planning critical projects in their own portfolios, such as “Get Job”, “Get Married” and “Raise Children” projects.
Azra Duric is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with 15 + years of experience in the IT industry; spanning the government, financial, education and other non-profit sectors. She has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and a Post Graduate Diploma in Office Systems and Data Communications from the University of Leicester, England. Since Azra moved to Canada in 1996 she has been working in a variety of government and non-profit sectors in Ontario and has been professionally working as a project manager for the last five years. She is a member of the PMI-CTT (Project Management Institute Canada Technology Triangle) Chapter and WIPMSIG (Women in Project Management Specific Interest Group). Azra lives in Guelph, Ontario and can be contacted at durica@sympatico.ca. More information about Azra can be found on her blog http://azra-pmp.blogspot.com.
