US News builds on a
NYT article regarding Tim Geithner's role as Treasury Secretary, which got me thinking about parallels to the project management space. ... Should the project manager who started the project in the front-end load part of the lifecycle be the one to finish it? ...
Normally, I would answer this with a firm yes, unless the project was running off the rails. A project manager should experience the full life cycle of the project and finish what they have started. It serves the person well and provides continuity to the project, the team, and ultimately to the enterprise.
However ... I have collaborated with project managers who are great starters, working in the front-end to understand business challenges, consider alternatives and navigate the politics to create a compelling business case that is sponsored for governance. And, I have also worked with project managers that are stellar finishers, who thrive on organizing and driving a concept to reality. Often, these project managers are not the same person. And, each part of the project lifecycle requires different skills to be successful. ... As this article suggests - that Geithner is not our finisher for various reasons ... Should we cultivate great starters and finishers in the project management discipline? organizing them into starters and finishers or openers and closers. ... Or, should we strive to build end-to-end process and people excellence?
What do you think about project manager specialization in the project lifecycle? ...
... "It's not even that Geithner was the wrong man for the job. He wasn't. He's just the wrong person to finish it. " ...
Via US News and World Report:
Tim Geithner Should GoLabels: career-path, development, lifecycles, project-management, project-manager, skills, specialization
