Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Leppard
Also be prepared to work out the human problems, the disagreements and such.
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This is key.
One big difference between professional PM'ing and FIRST is that FIRST is essentially a volunteer effort. Being a PM on a volunteer effort is very much like herding cats. Doing it professionally can be too, but to a somewhat smaller degree. A good FIRST PM (or leader in any capacity) is characterized more by how they deal with "human" challenges, rather than by how well they assign slack time in MS Project.
Case in point: project deadlines. Volunteers don't always accept or internalize deadlines, especially at the start of a project. Successful PMs/leaders are those who can get the team to deliver *even if there is no apparent penalty for not delivering*.
I suspect most everybody understands that already...