Project Stories – the Largely Untapped World of Personal
Experiences & Lessons Learned in Project Management

Introduction

For a majority of human history, story telling has been the primary process for both learning and teaching, for most societies and most topics. In recent years I have gained a new appreciation for the power of personal stories in project management. Thinking back on my own career, I can remember learning the most from older, more experienced, and wiser project leaders and mentors who enlightened me with personal stories or examples from their own experiences.

Formal education is extremely important, and all project management professionals should invest significant time in classes, courses and degree programs. However, I have also recently realized that it is impossible to learn everything about project management from either one’s own experience or through formal education. In addition, project managers and PM professionals must practice life-long learning, since concepts, conditions and knowledge continue to expand in this field. It is therefore necessary to learn from other people, on a continuous basis, in order to continue to grow and mature in our capabilities and expertise.

At PMForum, we are engaged in project journalism, reporting news on a daily basis from around the world of projects and project management. We cover, share and tell stories. These stories are not limited by organization, industry, geography, politics, culture or economic conditions. Projects are everywhere now, and so is project management. The challenge is to find the stories in a form that can be easily communicated and shared. It is now time for more project stories to emerge, not just stories by project leaders and project management experts, but stories from anyone and everyone working on projects.

This is the only way to truly expand our collective knowledge, perceptions and understanding of what is involved and how best to organize and manage project teams. Every project has a lot of stories. Every project involves one or more people. Everyone working on a project has a personal story, even a set of stories, about her or his contributions, role, understanding and work on the project. This article is about those project stories, where they can be found, why they are valuable, and how we can begin to tap this rich, educational and even entertaining world of personal knowledge and experience.

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