Working in project management is an excellent career choice – presenting the opportunity to change the world in large or small ways, to work with remarkable businesses and meet fascinating and intelligent people. However, it’s not exactly a utopia, and we’re likely to encounter things that cause us stress, anxiety, or annoyance.

After all my years in project management, I’ve picked up a few minor pet peeves with the profession.  Nothing major, I’m not about to pack it all in (yet).  But there are some peeves.  Here are my current top three:

• Being told “Schedules aren’t plans”.   I know.  We all know.  But when your sponsor demands to see “the plan”, close your eyes and imagine the thing they’re asking for.  Looks a bit Gantty, doesn’t it?  Now go and tell them that a schedule isn’t a plan, hero!
• Being told a PPM tool will do it better. I know. We all know. But sometimes, all we have is Excel, or an A4 pad, or a wine-stained napkin. We don’t all have a PPM tool. We don’t have the influence to get one. And if we did, we couldn’t agree on which one to get! (Please, not PlanView again…)
• Being told, “We need our sponsors to be more engaged”.  I know.  We all know.  We can observe the lack of engagement.  Yet we have membership organisations collectively wagging their fingers at us, telling us that lots of projects fail because of the lack of sponsor involvement.  Don’t tell us – tell the sponsors!  (No, we have no idea where you can find them!!!)  The only person I’ve actually seen really attempting to build this bridge, besides a handful of fearless project managers, is my friend Guy Thorpe.  Check out his content for more on that.

That’s my current pet peeves – current as they tend to change over time.  I’d like to invite you to tell me your project management pet peeves, but I’m dreading seeing how many times I’d appear in that feedback.  Be kind!!!

After sharing my pet peeves, the least I can do is share the positives too. So here is my video on why getting project manager career is a great move:​