Going back in time....I was thrown into project management(PM) when I was transferred to PWD Kelantan in Dec.,1976 as a pupil engineer to supervise the implementation of educational projects.The amount of my knowledge in PM at that time was practically zero.As the English used to say,we muddle through it.What could be worst is that most of us young professionals 'meddle' through the PM with very little guidance and supervision from our senior officers/ managers who themselves were equally at sea as far as the body of knowledge in PM.We were deemed to know by default because we are engineers,architects, QS's etc.
Most of my work in PWD were project-oriented.I pick up my whatever little knowledge that I have on the job. Sometimes, I was made to attend a short course off and on,but nothing specific to the study of project management as a discipline.
Coming back to the last year of 20th Century....
After my discussion with Tan Sri Dato' Ir. Omar Ibrahim (in March,2000),the CEO of KLCC Bhd(recently retired DG of PWD), I realised that I knew very little about PM's body of knowledge. Not only that, most of us assumed what is being practised is the right method.If we were to bench mark our current practice of PM against world best practice, a lot of us project managers will have a heart attack! All this while, with more 20 years of experience (or service, as corrected by Dato' Ir Zaini Omar,the present DG of PWD) in engineering work,I believe that I know something about PM.It is, in fact a belief based on personal assumptions.In April,2000 I went to UK and met Mr David Shannon,CEO of Association for Project Management,UK and again I discovered to my horror that what I know about PM is only the tip of iceberg! This really made me scared.May be I may have to take scuba diving lesson from Dato' Ir zaini Omar to see what is under-water? Little knowledge is very dangerous indeed!
Now I am going back to my old love,PM- a subject that I had fallen in love since in my mid 20's.I hope PM will forgive me for neglecting 'her' for so long.Not actually forgeting her, but rather conveniently taken her for granted.(in fact,there are a lot of things that we have taken for granted) Now,I am coming back with a vengeance. I am coming back not alone, but with a few more friends who have the interests of PM in our hearts.
The X-factor......
To renew this old love affair,I created a mailinglist called xproject@egroups.com on 27th. March,2000 and invited my friends who are generous enough to share their love for PM.We are going to explore and study her "body" ( the body of knowledge, actually) in greater details and have some fun while doing it.If *you* are reading this and have not joined the mailinglist please send email to:
xproject-subscribe@egroups.com
and the website is located at:
http://www.egroups.com/group/xproject
After I set up this mailinglist,every time I meet a friend who is involved in PM,I talk about the current practice in PM and try to convince them to join the mailinglist.A guy, whose name I dared not reveal,responded angrily: "What the f#*k are you talking about?? There is no f#*king project management in Malaysia.My project got delayed, my cashflows is in bl#*dy big mess.The consultants and the clients are equally ignorant of PM. We contractors are being blamed all the time!". To my mind,the contractors are no better. On another occasion when I met a big gun in PWD and requested his views about a rethinking in project management practice, he replied: "Rethinking? 90% of them are not thinking at all in managing projects".
As I wrote this note, my son asked me why there are more than 1000 'sick' projects under PWD management as mentioned by Deputy Minister of Work yesterday.I told him that I left PWD 15 years ago(lucky me?); may be when I meet my friends there,I will ask them. I am sure they have all the answers!
Currently,anybody can call him/herself a project manager.It is timely that a project manager should have proper certification to ensure that he/she is professionally qualified to undertake and manage a project commensurate with his/her level of competence.
If you agree about what I wrote here,please send me an email so that we can discuss and do something for PM and for ourselves. By the way,so far I receive a very good response to xproject mailinglist. In case you disagree, please let me know why. Thank you guys!
cara bicara #12-21/05/2000