Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best Use of Time, Techniques, and People, 3rd Edition

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AS THE ACCIDENTAL PROFESSION

Project management has been called the accidental profession. It is accidental in at least two senses. First, until quite recently, it has not been a profession that people have consciously chosen to pursue. No child answers the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with the answer, “Why, a project manager, of course!” People typically become project managers after stumbling onto project management responsibilities.

Project management is an accidental profession in a second sense as well: knowledge of how to run projects often is not acquired through systematic inquiry but is gained in a hit-or-miss fashion. Having received little or no formal preparation for their jobs, typical project ...