Becoming a project manager was a gradual process that began long before I realised it was happening. Arguably, many people are project managers without realising that is the role that they have taken on. In a sense, all roles require an element of project management, although this will vary from job to job to a greater or lesser extent.
One of my previous roles involved the provision of specialist budgeting services to research-active employees within a well-known NHS Foundation Trust based in London. Looking back at what my job entailed with the benefit of my current project management knowledge – meeting with consultants/academics, establishing the individual needs for their research studies, assembling accurate and detailed budgets based on their feedback, ensuring the research teams have obtained the relevant internal approvals so they can submit their grant applications to the external funders, guiding the research team through the submission process, and handing the research team over to the grant management team if their applications were successful – it is clear to me now that I was managing a series of projects, with a heavy element of stakeholder management.
Each research grant application essentially touched on the 5 main project management process groups:
+ Initiating
+ Planning
+ Monitoring
+ Controlling
+ Closing
Fast forward to present day. Undergoing a series of informative and demanding courses under the Project Management Institute (PMI) has been instrumental in formalising the theories and processes that I have been practicing instinctively for several years.
It has been a privilege to deepen my knowledge of project, portfolio, programme and change management, while also taking the opportunity to acquire expertise in Disciplined Agile™, which is a specialised Way of Working in project management.
Moving up to become a Senior Project Manager is an exciting challenge that I feel more than ready to take on, and I look forward to implementing my new tools and techniques in my day-to-day deliverables.
Keep calm and let the Senior Project Manager handle it!
Kome Otobo 