Project Management tools take the strain

I subscribe to Computer Arts Magazine, which I generally enjoy reading. Although a lot of the articles tell us stuff we already know, it is still a good read, and often has some quite inspiring design articles. However, this month, they ran an article called ‘Project Management tools take the strain’. As a project manager in the creative industry for over 15 years I turned with great interest to this article. Boy, was I disappointed. Apparently creative project management has 4 ingredients: - A Gantt chart to keep an overview of demands and deadlines - File naming protocol - Systems for client communication - A system to keep track of outstanding bills and invoicing – to make sure that ‘money turns up when you need it’ This is a massively simplified view of the skills required by a top-flight creative project manager. Yes, project managers utilise programmes to help them run projects – from MS Project, MS Excel, Base Camp and many other tools – but the article missed the most important ‘ingredients’ for a creative project manager. That is, it is not about the software you use, but about what you bring to a project. A good project manager has experience, initiative and insight. No computer programme in the world will make up for a bad project manager; who cannot plot a critical path on the ‘back of a fag packet’, who cannot identify and mitigate against project risks, who cannot talk intelligently and knowledgeably about project planning and who cannot work out a project budget or P+L without the aid of a calculator or sophisticated programme to ‘make sure money turns up when you need it’.