More with less: the 80/20 rule of PM

摘要

Every project manager has probably thought at some point, "If only I had more time, I would be better at my job." Unfortunately, most of us aren't lucky enough to be given more time to do our jobs. Time is usually the project constraint that is the least flexible. We are constantly forced to prioritize our work, but don't always make the right choices. Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." We are proposing an end to the insanity through a redefinition of priorities using the 80/20 rule based on Pareto's Principle - in other words, focusing on the 20% of the project management (PM) work that is going to give us an 80% return on investment (ROI) in time. But just as a chef with excellent experience uses the guidance of good cookbooks and recipes to create consistently delicious meals, an experienced project manager needs to use industry standard processes, such as those produced by the Project Management Institute (PMI), as a cookbook to help reproduce consistently effective PM results.