On Product Development and More...

Today, I attended a webinar entitled: "Project Management Lessons Learned From The Movies" hosted by Tony Crawford, from AlphaPM. Crawford is a seasoned veteran with over 40 years of experience in virtually all areas of Information Technology including software project management.

During the Webinar, Crawford reviewed a series of movies (including "Apollo 13", "The Endurance", "Titanic" and "Wizard of Oz") and discussed the "Lessons Learned" from each (from a project management perspective, of course).

When he discussed the “Lessons Learned” from “Apollo 13”, Crawford also reviewed some of the common ingredients necessary for project success. These include:

#1 – Clear Goals
- A project must have a clear goal that is understood by all members of the Project Team.

#2 – Defined Processes
- A process enables the Project Team to consistently perform its tasks. Just as important, it is difficult to achieve measurable improvement when the process is not well defined.

#3 – Exceptional Skills
- There are a number of skills that are needed to achieve project success. For software projects, we need people who are skilled in the craft of Product Management, Engineering, Quality Assurance and Learning Products. We also need a Project Manager who has exceptional leadership, negotiation, and communication skills.

#4 – "Can Do" Attitude
- Mindset is what enables the Project Manager and Project Team to be successful. Failure cannot be an option.

#5 – Organizational Culture
- The culture of an organization can significantly impact the likelihood of project success especially when the Project Team is faced with exceptional circumstances. Unfortunately, this is something that is difficult for the Project Manager to control.

Thanks Tony, I found your talk extremely stimulating and thought provoking.