If I had a business critical project, and I could afford his day rate, I might be tempted to hire Darth Vader as my next Project Manager.
What makes Darth Vader a good Project Manager? I can see from your expression that I have some convincing to do. OK, it might raise a few eyebrows around the office, but let’s look at the facts.
If you recall, Episode 3 “A New Hope”, the first original Star Wars film, sees the evil Galactic Empire trying to build the Death Star. An ambitious project in anyone’s eyes. The project however was running behind schedule.
The poor chap in charge was informed by a very fancy video conference that Darth Vader was taking personal charge as the new Project Manager to get the project back on track. Darth was in true project recovery mode but how could he make the difference? He might have built C3P0 and a pod racer from scrap in his earlier incarnation as Anakin Skywalker, but he certainly had no major construction project experience.
Many organisations now elect to go this route. They have the subject matter experts but now recognise that project management requires a different set of specialist skills. The tools and techniques of project management can be applied on any project and a good Project Manager should be able to add value to any environment, whether it’s an IT implementation, a hotel build, an office refurbishment or construction of a Death Star.
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