When I go on sales calls, a project manager invariably says something like: “We use MS Project and some of our project plans have 1,000 or 2,500 or 3,000 tasks in them. Can your system handle 3,000 tasks?”
A long time ago, before PCs, one of my prospects was the Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, CA. They were interested in my company developing a linear programming model for the Oxygen Shop. On the last call, the Works Manager said to me: “I will approve this deal if you agree to send me a letter every Friday telling me the status of the project.” I agreed to do that, and he signed the paperwork.
I went back to the office and took out a piece of paper and laid out the project plan. It had between 30 – 35 tasks. I remember thinking that it was complex, that I couldn’t keep it in my head. So when someone tells me that they have project plans with 1,000 or more tasks, every time, my first thought is: What is that?
My second thought is: if you are a leader and want to know the status of a project, you talk with the project manager. The project manager says: Let me show you and they open up their Gantt chart with 1,000 tasks. It is absolutely unintelligible. Either you say: that’s absolutely unintelligible or more likely, you don’t say anything, walk away and never come back. And you think that project management is difficult.
But project management isn’t difficult, or more accurately, project management doesn’t have to be difficult. APM+ automates and simplifies every step. Check it out. Call or write me to schedule a demo. I will demo it for you. Yes, it’s so easy, the President of the company can demonstrate it!
