Project Management, Project Management Training, and the Olympics

The Olympics may not only be the biggest sporting event in the world, but one of the biggest projects a PMP can handle in his or her entire career.

Every PMP dreams of that extensive, albeit stressful, project which will put all his project management training to the test. Watching all the liveries and the various events of the 2012 London Olympics, a hardcore project manager cannot help but think of all the project management processes, principles, methodologies and techniques working behind the scenes.

The explosive opening number, the daily sporting events and all the other logistical requirements – the Olympics is indeed one of the finest and grandest displays of how effective project management training pays off. It doesn’t really matter if the people behind The Games are PMI certified project management professionals. The point is the basic tenets and fundamentals of project management are definitely working on overdrive.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Faster, higher, stronger – the triad of superlatives describing what is expected from Olympic athletes. In the same fashion, the project managers running such an extensive undertaking are also expected to operate in the similar framework. Running the Olympics is project management on amphetamines.

Glitches happen in everyday projects, much more in big events such as the Olympics. Having solid project management fundamentals through an extensive project management training coupled with on-the-job experience should enable project managers to think on their feet and make decisions on a snap – literally and figuratively.

Higher from a project management perspective touches on quality. For sure, the project managers behind this year’s London Olympics have a common goal in mind – outdo whatever China accomplished in 2008.

Finally, stronger project management, which is something that cuts across all project management processes – stronger project initiation, stronger planning, stronger execution, stronger controlling and monitoring and stronger closing.

Involving the best sporting luminaries of the century and with billions of people watching, no project management training can exactly prepare a PMP to handle such leviathan of a project as the Olympics. But a good foundation is necessary which can only be acquired with a robust and constant training and education.