Entries Tagged 'Project management' ↓
May 15th, 2010 — Project management
“This is out of control, I need more balance” – this has been a recurring theme for the past – let’s take a guess here – seventeen years or so.
Yes, more balance and control – give me some, please. Yet, when faced with the task of defining what balance or control really is – asked by my mentors, friends, or myself – I am suddenly short of words.
What is balance and what does it really mean?
Is it taking off the list all the tasks that were due for today, and knowing that I will have enough hours in my day tomorrow to complete tomorrow’s tasks? Or is it knowing that the lists don’t matter really as much as the actual things I am working on?
Is it going to bed at 11pm? Or at 1am, if that’s what it takes to fit a trip to the rock climbing gym into while getting all the day job work done?
Is it taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon? Or is it getting enough sleep so that there is no need to crash on afternoons?
Feeling on top of my job? Or knowing that in the midst of stress and chaos, personal creative and physical challenges are still the first things that need to happen in the morning, no matter what? (And knowing that setting up priorities in that way is something that helps everything else happen with more ease.)
I have a lot of question marks and not a lot of full stops and explanation points, I am afraid. I am open to ideas, suggestions and new vantage view points. What is balance for you?
April 20th, 2010 — Project management
When did it start?
Probably already in kindergarten. I definitely recall an obsession with maximizing the number of red stars (hello, I was born in USSR) on my first grade “performance scorecard”.
It only escalated from there. The Skanavi’s Mathematics Problems Collection for University Applicants, a Soviet classic that has remained with me for the past 15 years, surviving 6 international moves, still bears the pencil “check” marks that I placed there as I conquered its problems one by one.
I am possibly the one person alive who actually read the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (easily the driest book in the history of writing) cover-to-cover and took detailed notes.
I am the kind of person who seeks out mixed up formulas, financial knots, impossibly complicated projects – and then throws herself into the often excruciatingly painful process of untangling them, transforming them into the state of shiny perfection.
And as much as I sometimes whine and complain about the process, I actually like it. And the quest for perfection is definitely an important part of my UVP.
The line between radical responsibility and pure insanity…
…is very thin and blurred.
Oh, how much I want to:
- Check every single point off my list by 5pm (30 to-dos in my Tasks folder now, some of them overdue).
- Have every email answered quickly and thoroughly (up to 20 follow-up flags in Outlook, most of them due by the end of the week).
- Get all the photos sorted out and uploaded from last year’s Africa trip (I think we are about 18 albums behind).
- Get on top of my personal projects list in My Life Organized (300+ items, thinking about declaring a to-do list bankruptcy and starting over).
- Catch up with everyone I work with now, worked before, and all the friends I have not spoken to in a while (so many people to learn from; so many people to coach; so many loved ones thousands of miles away).
- Have all my accounts and processes documented in great detail, so that if I flip my convertible speeding on I-10, someone can pick up my work where I left off (good luck to that innocent soul).
And it would be nice to have this post double- and tripled-edited, with appropriate links inserted (I am sure hundreds of people would immediately click through to Amazon and buy PMBOK), and decorated with pretty pictures.
Oh well.
I will never be fully, absolutely, 100% done. My lists will keep getting longer. And I will keep breathing and reminding myself that it’s never about done – it’s about doing.
Join the club?
It’s free admission. To-do list list liberation movement! Let’s not get it done – let’s just do something and see what happens.
Or, maybe simply take a break – breaks almost never make it on our to-do lists.
What say you? To-do lists – are they your allies or bullies?
March 2nd, 2010 — Localization, Project management
Why would anyone talk about localization at cocktail parties? Aren’t there better topics – the food, the wine, the hostess’s dress? Why in the world would I want to discuss localization when I meet new people?
Actually, I don’t want to. When I’m at a party, I’d rather talk to people about what they are reading, thinking, or doing this weekend. In fact, I find it easier to listen and let someone else do the talking. But social conventions being what they are, people eventually ask me what I do. And then I have no choice but explain the whole localization thing.
The conversation usually goes like this.
New acquaintance (NA): So, what do you do?
Me: I’m a localization project manager.
NA: *blank stare*What?
Me: Let me guess, you’ve never heard about the localization industry, and this is perfectly normal because it’s B2B so most people never heard about it. Vastly simplified, localization is translation plus everything else – project management, engineering, publishing, testing, audio recording – that goes into production of a localized product.
NA: *slightly confused* So, what languages do you speak?
Me: *with infinite patience* Well, I do speak a couple of languages, but it’s beyond the point, because I am not a translator – I am a project manager. So what I do is speak to clients, come up with quotes and schedules for their projects, then go back to my team – engineers, translators, testers, and so on – and make the project happen.
NA: Hmmm.
Me: *climbing on my soapbox* Let me give you an example: when Microsoft decides to release Windows in 30-something languages, it’s a lot of work, and what they usually do is hire a localization company to do it for them: take the software apart, translate it, check and double-check it, put it back together, triple-check it, make sure that it still works… So that’s what a localization vendor does – translation plus everything that goes with it. Not just for Microsoft – for any company, big or small, that wants to reach international markets. And not just for documentation or software – also multilingual websites, voiceover, subtitles, marketing brochures, medical information, any kind of content.
And what a localization project manager does (what I do) is be the glue that holds everything together: keeping things on track, knowing where the client stands, where project stands, where different tasks stand. Half kindergarten teacher, half dominatrix. (OK, I only use that last sentence in very informal settings.)
NA: *very impressed* Ahhh. Fascinating. Where can I learn more about this mysterious, exciting, up-and-coming industry?
Me: So glad that you asked. Since your company is already using localization services (and if it isn’t, then it won’t be able to delay this for much longer), a good place to start would be to read some articles and watch some webinars on the topic. And I’ll be happy to answer your questions and chat more about my work – but maybe not at a cocktail party?
Further reading and watching:
P.S. Of course, the last part of the conversation never happened in real life – only in my head. But hey, now I can just give the link to this post to anyone who asks, “What do you do?”
P.P.S. After many goes at it, I still struggle to explain to give an elevator pitch for “what a localization project manager does” or even for “what localization is”. Maybe it’s time to try talking about “language services” and see how that works? What about you, have you had any luck explaining what your industry is and what you do? Want to share your pitches, in the comments or via email? Bring it on 
