Exploring Fundamental Elements In Program Development

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF BUZZ ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATIONS IN THE LAST COUPLE OF DECADES.

What I have found though that such procedures work well in an environment with minimum constraints and finite durations or for projects or activities where duration can be estimated. But, have you ever thought of treating your life as a “Project” and then “Project Manage” it.

In this post I am going to discuss some basic ideas, tools & techniques which can be used as per your needs to better manage your life. Most of us actually do it consciously or unconsciously anyway but knowledge certainly helps. This is purely my thought, observation or idea and should not be confused with what should be done necessarily.

So, let’s go through it.

(1) HOW IS ‘LIFE’ DIFFERENT FROM A TYPICAL ‘PROJECT’?

Life has a definite Start Date but unknown Finish Date so its duration can’t be just estimated or measured through metrics. So, we generally go by the “Life Expectancy” figures for different geographical reasons.

Life has many more known and unknown constraints. Known constraints may be limited family capacity in terms of wealth, skills or education etc.. Unknown constraints may be someone deliberately not letting you achieve your full potential which you can’t even figure out.

(2) WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN “LIFE” AND A TYPICAL “PROJECT”?

I would say plenty. Look at the nine knowledge areas as in the chart below and pretty much most of it can be correlated to life. Perhaps more can be added to it from the Knowledge Extension Areas ,too.

(3) LIFE AS A COMBINATION OF MULTIPLE PROJECTS

This is where it gets a bit tricky and calls for experience to handle but it truly is a combination of multiple projects. I give you an example. Take the biography of someone you know of and treat his various phases of life as “sub-projects”. In simple terms


 * Childhood
 * Education
 * Job
 * Business
 * Achievements & Rewards
 * Family
 * Contribution to society or the world

(4) THAT’S ALL THEORY, WHAT’S THE PRACTICAL USE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE IN SHAPING OUR LIFE?

Hard question easily answered. We never know what’s in the future.

Start with a slice of life as a sub-project and establish a Baseline. Measure progress as you go as you would do in a typical project.

Once you have done this exercise a few times, you should start seeing your life as a combination of many such “sub-projects”.

To help yourself, go through the biographies of few of your role models, make a blueprint of your own future life and work on it.

(5) WILL THIS “PHILOSOPHY” SUCCEED?

It is up to you whether you call it “philosophy” or whatever you wish, you will not be able to use it efficiently if you do not have a background in planning or project management. But, if you do you can certainly make your life more meaningful and useful to yourself and others as you will see down the line. Having knowledge and control is certainly better than no implementation and no control at all.

Good luck

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