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IN MANY WAYS, THE PROCESS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT READS A LOT LIKE A NOVEL—BOTH HAVE A BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END. THE BEGINNING OF A NOVEL ESTABLISHES THE STORY’S FRAMEWORK AND DESCRIBES PERTINENT BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON EACH CHARACTER. AS THE STORY PROGRESSES, DETAILS ARE REVEALED AND THE PLOT EVOLVES. FINALLY, LOOSES ENDS ARE TIED UP, BRINGING THE CHARACTERS AND STORY TO A LOGICAL CONCLUSION.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFTEN TRAVELS A SIMILIAR TRAJECTORY. AT THE ONSET, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ARE DEFINED AND THE TEAM MEMBERS (CHARACTERS) FIGURE OUT HOW THEY WILL CONTRIBUTE BASED ON THEIR BACKGROUNDS AND SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE. AS THE WORK MOVES FORWARD, ISSUES AND QUESTIONS ARISE THAT MAY ALTER THE ORIGINAL PLAN (PLOT TWISTS), BUT EVENTUALLY, CONCERNS GET RESOLVED, AND THE PROJECT REACHES COMPLETION.

In anticipation of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals have spent the past few years gearing up IT departments to handle the increased demand. In fact, some say it’s the dawning of a new era for the industry, not just because of the mandate to institute electronic medical records, but rather because of the impact it’s having on entire organizations. “Healthcare reform has created pressure to deliver solutions in support of streamlined operations, but that makes it an exciting time to be in healthcare,” says Rebecca C. Fletcher.

As director for human resources systems and Oracle Business Intelligence for Baptist Health South Florida (www.baptisthealth.net), Fletcher has witnessed this transformation and the demand it’s created. For example, her team is in the midst of implementing two new systems while continuing to support the legacy programs until the new technology is fully operational. One of the most challenging aspects of this particular situation is the time constraints. With more than 15,000 employees and 2,000 physicians, the not-for-profit system—seven acute care hospitals and several outpatient and urgent care centers—is one of the region’s largest employers, with headquarters in Coral Gables. Human resources initiatives in an organization of this size typically are in constant motion and rely on IT services to keep pace. Therefore, Fletcher relies on her project management skills to help tasks stay on schedule. “Project management differs from general management in that it presents new and challenging opportunities that are time-bound, which results in a sense of urgency,” she comments. “You have to take quick action to remain in alignment with project priorities.”

It’s also her responsibility to look beyond the technical parameters and see how the work will benefit or impact others in the organization. “That’s another difference between project management and traditional management; we work with a cross-functional team to streamline operations, so there has to be a succinct balance of common goals, with an emphasis on ‘common,’” she says.

While the IT and human resources staff may have project goals in common, the overall workforce at Baptist Health is quite diverse. “South Florida is an especially diverse population, and we emulate the community we serve,” observes Fletcher. “That’s something Baptist Health is exceptional at doing.”

Baptist Health is also superior at encouraging professional development, Fletcher says. “Baptist Health has phenomenal employee support that provides you access to services and resources that are unique to your goals. It’s a matter of making the time and requesting it,” she says. “I have personally leveraged team-building and leadership coaching programs.”

As demand for IT and project management continues to grow within healthcare, Fletcher sees more opportunities opening up for others to enter the industry. However, she advises to pursue it only if it’s where your passion lies. “Even excellence can be exhausted over time, but being passionate about an organization and what you can accomplish is self-renewing,” says Fletcher. “When you find that, everything else falls into place.”

She may not have known it at the time, but when Annessa McKenzie coached high school basketball years ago, she was not only teaching her players the finer points of the game, but she also was teaching herself project management skills that eventually carried over into her corporate career. “As a coach, I was introduced to leading and organizing people toward a common goal, which provided a terrific foundation for managing projects,” explains McKenzie, Baker Hughes’ chief information security officer.

Baker Hughes (www.bakerhughes.com) was established in 1986 when petroleum giants Baker International and Hughes Tool Company joined forces. Today, the oilfield service titan specializes in creating technological solutions to assist rig operators in managing operating costs, maximizing reserve recovery, and improving return on investment. McKenzie works out of the global headquarters in Houston, guiding company-wide efforts to protect client data, personally identifiable information, intellectual property, and IT systems’ security.

Although her business team is several times larger than her basketball team, McKenzie still must motivate staff members and consultants toward one common goal—just like she did her players. In fact, to promote performance, she often uses sports examples. “I like to show sports videos in meetings because they’re uplifting … and there are similar challenges between sports and business in terms of the camaraderie and teamwork needed in executing projects,” she explains.

In the business arena, projects may encounter delays and setbacks that require resetting or establishing new deadlines, not unlike a sporting event that is burdened with “time-outs,” penalties, and the like. “A business or technical project management opportunity typically has a definitive start and end, whereby groups of people come together, solve a problem, and eventually dissolve,” McKenzie explains. “However, as I moved into leadership roles, I’ve found my passion is people, and the path a leader sets for people does not have to end.”

McKenzie points to her involvement with the Baker Hughes Women’s Resource Group (WRG), created to connect women across the company’s various sites, many of which are remote or in other parts of the world. “It was an opportunity for women to reach out to each other. I led the efforts to promote virtual forums, discussions, and teleconferences,” recalls McKenzie.

WRG began six years ago as a grassroots campaign, and has since become a global program for promoting diversity at Baker Hughes. McKenzie was critical to the start of the Gulf of Mexico program, which originally had fewer than 10 members and now has attracted hundreds of members, both male and female. She hopes efforts like WRG will motivate more women to pursue careers in both information security and the oil and gas industry, which still suffers a midcareer dropout among female technical professionals. “The gap in the talent pool is only expected to grow, thereby causing a sharp demand in IT security resource needs, and therefore, a terrific opportunity to improve diversity in the industry,” she says.

McKenzie suggests project management positions may provide another incentive to counteract the trend of women leaving the oil and gas industry. “I think project management offers the flexibility and satisfaction females are looking for,” she concludes.

Six years after the housing market bottomed out, the industry has regained some of its old vigor. Foreclosures are down while sales and home prices are up. As a result, mortgage providers are experiencing a rebound in business, as evident by the numbers Quicken Loans posted last year: a record-breaking $80 billion in home loans, surpassing the previous year’s record of $70 billion.

The Detroit-based business doesn’t operate branches like traditional banks and lenders. Rather, it is the largest online home mortgage lender and the second largest retail mortgage lender. “Quicken is a technical company that just so happens to do mortgages,” asserts Jeff Jasky, IT project manager.

Indeed, as an e-commerce business, Quicken Loans relies heavily on technology, and it’s an area of the company that is undergoing extensive expansion. “In 2010, there were 350 people in IT and now we’re more than 1,100 strong, and we’re continuing to grow,” says Jasky.

As the company has grown, so has Jasky’s career. He joined Quicken Loans (www.quickenloans.com) seven years ago as a systems engineer supporting the Windows service environment as well as other systems, and has since worked his way through several promotions. Now, as project manager, he oversees others in the department and acts as the point of contact between IT and various business units. It’s this intermediary aspect of project management that appeals to him.

“IT work is more about technical settings and configurations, and project management is more about people, processes, and coordinating things,” he explains. “I gravitate toward people, but I will always want to know the technology, too. It’s the geek in me.”

For the most part, Jasky’s days center around ensuring all parties involved in a project have the necessary tools at their ready to complete their tasks on time. He also keeps everyone informed about a project’s progress or if obstacles arise. “It’s about focusing on the execution without distracting from the project. I make sure there’s a balance of what needs to be done, what can wait, and what needs prioritizing,” he says.

He insists the Quicken leadership also seeks out the information required to continue to drive the company’s success, and oftentimes they turn to employees for feedback. “In fact, one of the first things asked of new hires is what are the things you see in our processes that can be improved. People also bring up issues or concerns in the Cheese Factory (an internal website),” he says. “There are hundreds of ‘cheeses’ a month, and any and all ideas are vetted.”

Perhaps what Jasky appreciates most about his employer, though, is the support it provides individuals to follow personal projects. For example, he is pursuing a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute, and uses “Bullet Time” to prepare for the exam. “Every Monday we have Bullet Time, which is time dedicated to anything you want to work on away from the normal tasks of what you’re doing for the company. I’ve used it to study.”

While obtaining PMP certification is his No. 1 short-term goal, in the long term, Jasky foresees himself seeking out many more opportunities at Quicken Loans. “As long at the company continues to leverage technology to drive the success of the business, then I see demand for IT and project management growing,” he states.

Pearson Inc. is a well-known brand among the school set. However, the international corporation—with main offices in London and New York City—is far more than a textbook publisher. Its line of educational products and services includes various curriculum materials, multimedia tools, and testing programs for all ages. Also part of its stable are the educational imprint brands of Prentice Hall, Addison-Wesley, and Benjamin Cummings, among others.

Undoubtedly Michael B. Watkins’ seven children and five grandchildren have read from these texts and used the multimedia tools, probably without even realizing their father/grandfather helps deliver the technology. That’s okay with him, because Watkins has seen the enjoyment students experience after he’s installed computer and IT technologies in schools. “Kids get so excited, and that gives me a big sense of satisfaction,” he comments.

After a while, the physical demand, coupled with the time demand of attending college fulltime, proved to be too taxing. Watkins didn’t have the financial luxury of not working, but neither was he ready to give up his education. Instead of straining to do both, he decided to adopt a different approach by enlisting in the U.S. Air Force.

Throughout his military career, Watkins was assigned to intelligence services, which is where he was introduced to information technology and project management. For the final four years, he operated in project management for the Electronic System Center, which included the development, implementation, and standardization of intelligence systems for the Department of Defense.

Although Watkins enjoyed the work, when he retired from the Air Force in 1993, he ventured into sales. However, a move to be closer to family meant a job change, and landing another sales position proved difficult. That’s when friends reminded Watkins of his penchant for computers. “They told me I needed to go into IT because that’s what I’d been doing,” he recalls. “I took their advice, and I’ve been in IT ever since.”

Watkins joined Pearson in 1997, and today, he serves as the solutions specialist for school technology delivery. In this role, he uses his project management know-how, not so much to supervise an internal staff, but as a coordinator between the company, clients—which in his case are 25 school districts—and various vendors. Overseeing these relationships provides him with the variety he craves.

“There’s no such thing as a typical day. The larger districts have layers of bureaucracies and smaller ones have you one-on-one with the IT director,” Watkins says. “Plus, they all have different ways of doing things and you have to work within their systems.”

To effectively meet clients’ varied demands, he enlists the aid of the diverse staff at Pearson. “Twenty years ago, one person could do everything, but you cannot work on projects today without diversity of skills and experiences. There are people who specialize in hardware or one particular computer app or language,” Watkins says. “There are challenges that come with completing projects and you have to have a cross-section of ideas to overcome them.”

Pursuing continuing education while maintaining a full-time career is more accessible than ever due to the abundance of online educational programs. Sign in from home, work, or a coffee shop before or after office hours to turn in class work or participate in forum discussions. It’s all very convenient; however, students rarely think about the technical support required to operate such a system. From the institution’s perspective, IT support is the cornerstone to running online education programs.

When the American Military University (AMU) was founded in 1991, it was a traditional distance education program catering to military personnel or those transitioning back into civilian life. At that time, the Internet was just gaining momentum, so interaction between students and instructors via computers was limited. By 1998, though, Internet technology had exploded and AMU switched over entirely to online classes.

Shortly thereafter, the organization launched the American Public University to expand learning opportunities to non-military individuals. Today, under the administrative leadership of the American Public University System (APUS), which has corporate offices in Charles Town, WV, the two schools enroll more than 100,000 students worldwide.

This concept of around-the-clock access to learning appealed to Maureen Armacost, MS. “I really liked the mission of the university to provide a means for people to get an education while maintaining everything else in life,” she says.

Armacost joined APUS (www.apus.edu) more than two years ago as the associate vice president of the IT program management office. She coordinates the roles of other project managers, making sure their teams stay on track, but with their own goals and within the larger organizational objectives. “I gather updates on status information to produce a weekly report that gives the business visibility into what we’re doing in terms of IT projects,” she explains.

Armacost spends much of her time conferring with various groups within APUS, and being able to clearly communicate is a necessity. It’s a skill she’s finetuned over the years, and one she strongly recommends for anyone interested in entering project management. “I need to communicate effectively up and down the organization, keeping everybody on the same page,” Armacost says. “That’s the biggest challenge in project management.”

Another skill she says project managers should possess is the ability to envision how the various pieces will eventually fit together, and then know how to direct everyone toward that end result, even though team members may operate independently from each other. Comparing project managers with music arrangers or conductors, she notes, “There are several instruments playing at the same time and you have to have all of them following a beat, coming together to produce something impressive. Understanding how things come together to make something special is inherent in project management, too.”

Before Jenny Lu, PMP, began working as senior director of globalization for CA Technologies (www.ca.com), she operated as project manager of globalization. Prior to that, Lu was appointed manager of public relations for business interests in Asia, even though she began her career as an applications programmer for the multi-billion dollar software development firm based in Islandia, NY. “I absolutely thought I would be a programmer for the rest of my life, but I’ve had the opportunity to have three different careers within the same company,” she admits. “And they all have a context to complement each other.”

Lu has built upon her skill set with each position. Her coding background, for example, helps her relate to the technical professionals on her current team as they translate CA product documentation into the various languages required for customers. “If there is a technology issue, I can help them with the knowledge from both a technical and linguistic point of view,” she says.

Transferring to public relations, Lu learned to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience, and she’s applied that ability to project management. “In project management, you deal with all kinds of people: developers, writers, quality assurance testers, marketing, and product design,” she explains. “You have to meet the different stakeholders’ requirements and having people skills helps.”

Her latest job assignment once again has Lu focusing on a specific function; however, she still taps into those overall project management skills. “I now know the larger processes involved and I can share that with my team. I can teach them related information from outside our function so we are working in alignment with the corporate goals,” she says.