“How much of human life is lost in waiting?” Ralph Waldo Emerson
I heard this quote at the end of the last Indiana Jones movie a couple weeks ago and it stuck in my head. Indiana and Marion waited a long time to realize that they belonged together. It’s taken me a long time to recognize a different connection.
I was talking with a wise associate last week and he opened my eyes. He said he enjoys my blog and that he likes the quality assurance tools I use that reflect my philosophy. We all like that kind of feedback so I was receptive for more. Then he said that I must be using the PMI Standard for Program Management as a reference for my work. I admitted I wasn’t. He reached over to his bookshelf and handed me the standard and I paged though it.
A lot of what I’ve been blogging about as the basis for how I look at projects was right there in the PMI program management standard. It recognizes the need for:
- Linkage to organizational objectives
- Governance of organizational capacity to ensure that projects create synergy
- Consultative skills working with stakeholders and politics
- Benefits realization
The Other Side of Risk 