My first week on the job as IT PM for the city of Ventura was a short one - just two days - before heading home for the holiday weekend. Frankly, I wasn't sure exactly how I could successfully transition into the new role before the outgoing project manager say's goodbye next week, and I spent a few sleepless nights last week staring at the ceiling of my motel room, pondering the best way to pull this transition off. The answer came to me after I had left Ventura to return home to my family, and when I got up early the next morning to wade through the pile of email and notes I'd brought back home to Irvine with me. Slowly - very slowly - I began collecting the bits and pieces of information and placing them into the Q2PM "Story" which is the heart of every project which uses the Q2PM methodology. Over two days - between Friday and Saturday - I made my way painstakingly though every note and email I'd collected; and when I was done, I was startled to find that "Stories" had emerged for each of the projects I was striving to understand. This was just what I was after...though I didn't see it last week staring at the motel ceiling as I was too focused then on process and too worried about missing something important. But the big picture was there all along...it was just in front of me in the details...It's all in the details...I just had to listen carefully to what the teams were telling me and what the documents said; I needed to carefully review the issues which they're working to resolve, and to record everything I heard, and to then find a place for these facts in the project Story...and soon, the Story was no longer a mystery...the Story became my own...and the projects became my own.
Good. Maybe now I can get some sleep tonight. :-)
WOW you nail it Kurt! You've just given me some clear direction for the HMIS project which ironically is going to take up most of my time in Jan 2020