Warning – This site is currently under (re)construction

It’s being filled with Project Management materials to help run projects in the Real World. The kinds of projects that involve real people, with their own agendas and goals, rather than the perfectly rational and ethical people that are found in textbooks. The Real World is messy, but can be very rewarding when you manage to figure out some of the ground rules.

What’s Here?

It’s a bit of a mix really. Once all of the material is in place, the order will probably be easier to sort out. The reason for the site update is because I’ve had a number of people ask if I could put up the documents that I generated while I was involved with the PMI Canadian West Coast Chapter mentorship program, particularly the reading list (including brief reviews) and notes about running projects in the “Real World”. There are also a number of materials that Milos, John and I discussed as part of the CWCC “Apprenticeship” program – a program that to my knowledge never actually launched, but had a lot of potential.

The “Real World” notation is to reflect that that training for project managers (and other careers) is not the same as doing – and most of our training methods focus on memorising an enormous amount of material, and then leting “trained” people loose on the world.  The 5th edition of the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBoK) is 619 pages, and it is very difficult to teach a new project manager which dozen or so pages of that volume are the ones that they need. Mentorship programs help bridge that capability gap: ultimately project management is about helping people get difficult tasks done. Ignoring the “people” aspect of this career and assuming that all “resources” are interchangable is generally a bad idea.

In addition there is a fair amount of material that was not included in the mentorship program, as well as materials that are useful to have as a project manager including tools and templates for reports, Project Charters and other useful documents that can really help set appropriate expectations.

I also thought some information and study plans to help prepare for the PMP exam would be useful, having helped a few folks prepare for (and ultimately pass) this exam. This was strictly not in the mentorship program materials, since preparing for the PMP exam was explicitly NOT part of the CWCC mentorship program.

Planned Content:

• Observations on Mentorship
• A Lightweight Project Management System (PMO Lite)
• Mentorship Materials (for Proteges or “Mentees”)
  • Reading list (including high level reviews and why you should read these books)
  • Things to think about
  • Objectives and influences for a project management career
• Tools and Templates
• Preparing for the PMP exam

If you want to find out about me (Scott Martin) please click here for my LinkedIn page