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How did I get here?
Project Management is a tough job. We need to keep a track on budgets, timelines, scope, stakeholders’ expectations, our team members and even the scope of the project. Sometimes we manage big initiatives, and sometimes we manage BAU stuff. Every project has its own challenges, its own kamikaze moments and its own benefits.
Till the end of 2017, I was running a portfolio of projects that summed up to around 5 Mn. These projects were incidental and I could say I was at the right place at the right time to bag a big-ticket project as a project manager. It does sound great that as a consultant my portfolio was growing and so were my responsibilities and sleepless nights.
As I delivered these projects and the yearly budgeting cycle proceeded, these projects entered BAU or operational phase where CAPEX went down and OPEX increased and formally I had to close the projects from a delivery perspective. My next projects weren’t as big in financial numbers but were bigger in ambitions.
I entered a stage where I was being trusted with experimental projects or POC projects, where management was skeptical in committing huge money but the outcomes were significantly great and sometimes even segment defining.
Someone asked me at a candid session among friends, that isn’t my portfolio smaller than before? And that statement made me look back and evaluate what it is that was making me happier in managing these small budget projects than when I was managing big-ticket initiatives.
Trust me, this is not an exercise to justify my POC handling days of 2018, neither it is a story that I tell myself to keep myself in denial, I went back and checked my numbers thoroughly and spoke with my few team members who are enduring me since 2017 and have been working with me.
Differentiating factors
Here are a few key things that helped me focus on projects that people call experimental or POC projects, hope these help you to visualize things differently too:
Conclusion
POC Projects are risky endeavors and results are not always predictable, but they present a great opportunity to build something new for a company that hasn’t been built before or hasn’t been done in that firm before. Doing something new brings a challenge that will define your career so don’t think POC projects are waste of time. Take them as a calculated risk to advance your career and fast track your progress to become a well-rounded and experienced project manager.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Oleksandr Strozhemin Co-founder and CEO at Trinetix
13 August
Elaine Mullan Head of Marketing and Business Development at Corlytics
12 August
Abhinav Paliwal CEO at PayNet Systems- A Neo Banking Software Platform
Donica Venter Marketing coordinator at Traderoot
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