Proud Postings: A Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects

This time in my series “Proud Postings” it’s Elizabeth Harrin from A Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects in the spotlights. She is the author of “Project Management in the Real World” and lives in the UK. I asked her: “What are the 3 postings you are most proud of?”

“The first two pieces I picked out make the cut because they both involved a lot of research. I don’t rely on other people’s analysis of the situation when I write; I make every effort to go to the source material myself so I can make my own judgements and really get perspective on the issue.”

Photography by Kieran Lynam.

Project Governance for Parliament

“So I trawled through a lot of audit reports and government documents for this case study on the Scottish Parliament. And I guess I’m also proud of it because I used it when I was the talking head on a TV programme last year.”

The Gender Gap

“I also did a good deal of digging around for the source figures behind some hot headlines about the pay gap for this piece on gender equality. When you get to the bottom of various surveys they all have different conclusions: I suppose that’s why statistics are so generally worthless when you are trying to prove a point. What was surprising though was that for all the talk about the difference in salaries between men and women you’d expect someone to come forward with some concrete actions about how their company/policy/initiative is addressing the problem. Unfortunately, action plans don’t make headlines.”

What does a PM do all day?

“Finally, I’ve chosen this post called “What does a PM do all day?” I wrote it after sitting on the Eurostar next to some loudmouth. My Eurostar travel was my sacred haven to listen to podcasts and eat airline-style food. I don’t get to do the trip as much as I’d like any more, now that I don’t live in France. The person in the seat next to me decided he wanted to chat, but project management pretty much killed the conversation. It got me thinking about what we do as a profession and how hard it is to explain what’s essentially a pretty straightforward job. I’m not that good at elevator speeches: your two-minute “pitch” for when you’re stuck in the elevator with the CEO – and this encounter forced me to think long and hard about what I would say. I don’t think I’ve cracked my pitch yet, but I’m a little bit closer!”