Life and Program Management

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Experience is the best teacher!
Well, maybe! But if we all wait to gain experience and then apply
the lessons learned, we might all be dead!
And we all can’t have mentors! So we learn to mentor ourselves!!
I am currently reading the book:

The Handbook of Program Management: How To Facilitate
Project Management with Optimal Program Management by James T. Brown

Some gems from the introduction:
“Companies that survive and thrive today and that will the
future will be those that have processes in place and can repeatedly
integrate new people and new technology into their existing
processes, thus producing superior products and services”
“Yes, innovation can still be a driving force for a
company, but innovation without process is short-lived. In fact,
companies with a pure innovation strategy usually have a process for
that”
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/anthony/2009/03/why_focusing_on_innovation_suc.html

On change:
“Change makes its way to the operations environment through
the implementation of projects”
The need for program management:
“Successful program management is not magical, complicated
or difficult. However, it requires leadership and integrity to
repeatedly execute successfully. You can accomplish this with
sophisticated software packages and a cadre of consultants. Or you
can accomplish this with a calendar and a notebook”
“Tools and consultants in the absence of structured,
organized common sense usually result in program and project
failures that have pretty charts and diagrams to communicate why
they are over budget and behind schedule”
“Exceptional project managers may be able to deliver
success in isolation or sporadically in the absence of leadership
but even the best project managers fail on occasion when they work
in environments that lack leadership”
And finally Brown quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. “A
moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s experience”
Grab hold of the book and read it! It will teach you more than
just Program Management!
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2 thoughts on “Life and Program Management”

  1. Thank you, James. I have found your book a wonderful read. The insights you bring to the table are wonderful!
    I have been preparing for my PRINCE2 exams ; these textbooks are highly prescriptive and sometimes very dry! But then I read your book and things just fall into place!
    Fantastic!

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