Having recently attended a local Project Managers Meeting with

various groups of obviously qualified, willing and able Project managers, I observed the emerging need fora PMO.

his brought a smile to my

face. As I cast my mind back

to the 1981 film "Caveman",

which lost the Oscar for best picture

in that same year. In this movie a

group of Prehistoric Neanderthals

manage to survive great odds,

through luck more than anything

else, in the face of great adversity.

Absolutely no planning, but flying, or

rather stumbling around, by the seat

of their pants.

This reminded me of the apparent

"present-day" activities of observation

business involved in many projects,

and the success thereof being based

on similar lines to this zany movie.

"Things" just happen , and by aiming

roughly in the right direction you will

eventually get to your destination with

some level of success . This appears to

be, in m a ny quarters in South Africa,

the current general approach .

I would not recommend watching

the movie as it is really frustratingly

silly and in theory you, as project

managers, should be a lot more

constructively engaged E.G. planning

how to successfully navigate to the

ABSA stadium (for the Durbanites).

This is in itself, a serious plan with all

the roadworks taking place around

the area, and the chaos around

ABSA. This is, in many instances

more project planning than many

companies do in current times .

All good Project Managers should

remain positive and time, (the

dreaded benchmark in all projects),

will solve all issues without the need

implementation and operations. My

position as General Manager requires

skills in both the General Management

and Project Management areas. I

soon discovered that anyone who

has ever been associated with any

form of management in a project

is quick to self appoint himself as a

Project Manager. It is very frustrating

to have to deal with these "experts"

who think the "be all" and "end all"

of a project is a GANTT chart and a

bill of quantities (BOQ) . I perceive

these as early warning signs and to

gauge the level of expertise of the

people with whom I will deal. If these

are the first two things I hear, I roll

my eyes and head for a good strong

coffee (without the Whisky) , in order

to brace myself for t he workload

ahead.

I also discovered this in Egypt

when I was asked to assist ina

similar hospital project in Cairo . My

Stuart Gray

PMP and PMSA member residing in KZN

normal in a big multilingual group) .

Then again, it was international ,

and maybe my South African accent,

together with the quick pace of the

presentation, did not enable all to

keep pace. The presentation was

structured around our aspects of

Implementation, Operations and

Replacement with all the necessary

project management steps. This

included the start to finish, all the

way through to implementation and

operations and was well prepared

for all the experienced and qualified

"Project Manager Delegates" .

I was a little apprehensive as there

were some really senior looking guys

and sometimes these experienced

academics can pose questions that

only very experienced people can

answer. The show-stopper was the

Q&A. The first question was, and I

quote "What Project Management

Steps did we use in our Project? "

Bring on the coffee with the whisky!

I spent a lot of time in the breakout

session doing the Dr Zeuss ABC of

project management and probably

created a lot ofbusiness forthose who

write books on project management

(no names mentioned RB).

expertise was deemed to be necessary So you see, it is not only good

to ensure the timely completion of . old SA that has these challenges.

this project. The quickest solution

was fast-track training, delegation

and the input of outside expertise - in

this case, a hands-on, experienced

implementation colleague. The

Egyptian team was however, very

able and motivated , really applied

Until CEOs, Financial Managers,

Operational Managers and the good

old General Managers have the basic

understanding of the need and value

of the Project Managers, there will

be many frustrated players on both

for variation . I am sure that the themselves learnt quickly and were sides of the fence (educated PMs and

tide will slowly turn to a situation

where PM, PMO , all the valuable

input, planning steps and successes

will become norms in the developing

business environment.

We are not alone. I have been

involved for seven years In a

fifteen year project which includes

successful in their implementation .

Similar experiences occurred

in Germany where I was asked to

present Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central

Hospital to the World Wide Project

ManagementGroup. The presentation

went very well apart from a few

blank looks from people (which is

wannabees and heathens)

Until then, the general consensus

appears to be similar to a famous

saying from the captain of the Titanic

- "Full speed ahead, there are no

icebergs so far south." When the

deck chairs start sliding better have a

good lifejacket!

o 8 N

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