The Parent Project: Month 1

ByElizabeth Harrin Last updated: Research & Case Studies

As regular readers will know, I’m on maternity leave. And I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the Otobos family: Jack.

A baby lying on a bed
Baby Jack, born 5 February 2013.

There was a bit of a discussion after my recent article about 6 things I didn’t know about being a project manager about how project management is like parenting, and it does have similarities. However, at the moment life here is mainly about sleeping and feeding, which has a certain repetitiveness that isn’t very project-y.

One thing so far has been particularly project-like: Jack was born on his due date, one of around 5% of babies each year who arrive exactly on time. Needless to say, my colleagues think it is hilarious that I managed to deliver this particular project bang on the final milestone.

Over the coming months I’ll be exploring how parenthood is like project management. What tips do you have?

Elizabeth Harrin wearing a pink scarf

Project manager, author, mentor

Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years.
Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects.