I was listening to a heated discussion between two managers about project management software. They were both animated and committed advocates for their chosen platforms, and each was obviously a skilled exponent with deep knowledge and understanding. However, it gave me an eerie reminder of a case recently where a friend was weeping on my shoulder over a current digital project that was way overdue because it looked like it was still a long way from achieving what he as a client wanted.
The manager charged with the project was highly skilled, but talking to him it became clear that he had fallen in love with the process, along the way losing site of the goals and objectives. It is so fundamental, yet with increasingly sophisticated models, systems and, yes, software, there is an eagerness to get stuck into the process. Sometimes we eed to give ourselves a good kick to remember it is the objective and goals that matter – the process is just a means to those ends.
