There are 38,279 search results when I do a keyword search for “project management” book in Amazon. For such a popular discipline, it’s hard believe that it’s so difficult to hear people saying “My manager is really good.”

I think smart and dynamic people (including me) who are being managed don’t like to be managed. When there’s some minor (or a series of minor) problems in projects, we tend to exaggerate the wrong doing of the project manager and make fun of that. That’s quite possible. Everyone wants freedom and hate being pushed…

But if someone in managerial role is being accused by some many people behind…, there must be some problem…

I have been managing small and medium sized projects for a few years. I think project management in software development context is an art to make things happen. To me, the goal of project management is plain simple… lead the team to realize a software application from an idea. That “idea” can be a problem faced by the client, a concept, a belief, etc…

By leading, one needs to perform a series of skills and tricks in a dynamic combination. I think I can coarsely define the type of skills below:

• Planning – no one can make a perfect plan. Do some preliminary, then, make a plan. Follow and sensibly adjust your original plan. I really like the those project planning chapters in software engineering book. They usually accurately describes project planning issues.
• Problem solving – analyze, think and give suggestion. Of course, think quick and act quick.
• Leading and move forward – software development is like proving a mathematical formula. You need to do things step by step to move forward. You will usually find problem or error in your proof. When that happen, u revise your proof. It’s an iterative process. “Lead” is not just about leading your team. Lead your client as well. Most clients are stupid. If not, they won’t be paying u this much for this quality of work.
• Delegation – people are good at doing stuff they like with freedom. Let people do what they are good at.
• Stay focused – what’s the project deliverable? Stay focused. Deliver the product to customers. If u don’t have the ability to deliver a working product, there’s no point spending your effort try to strive for perfection in particular area u r interested (say, the layout design of a site). You get paid for finishing the stuff for the client at the client’s overall perceived quality level. Not your own absolute quality level in a very specific area u r interested in.
• Meaningful meeting – meet with a purpose and keep agenda and minutes. Meet with a purpose. When u write the agenda and can’t write anything onto it…, u’d better don’t call the meeting.
• Project management is NOT deadline management.

Anyway…. I am so paranoid today… To be honest, I’ve never worked in such a messy place in my whole career… I find no reason to stay except for money….