Guiding Principles 8: Time management

Encourage project managers (PMs) to value time—both stakeholders’ and their own—when making project execution decisions and managing meetings.

Worth mentioning, but I’ve not come across any competent project manager who doesn’t move at an intense pace: tightly run meetings, concise communications, and clear advice.

This topic is often discussed as 'time management', but do we manage time? No. Time passes. What we manage is delivery or project performance (distinct from technical performance, or how the project object does its job).

Good delivery management comes from good information management. And if there is a primary element of project management, it is managing the flow of information to keep abreast of the state of the project, its dependencies and interfaces.

The communication system that moves information through the project team and documents the movement of information makes time management efficient and effective. Without it information is unreliable and its value to the project drops, imperiling the project outturn value.