My girlfriend and I have just moved back into our house after some extensive building and decorating. For seven weeks we’ve been living in borrowed flats and local hotels. The whole time I’ve been popping in several times a week to see what’s going on and talk to the builder, the painter, the electrician, the brick-layer, the plasterer.

After a while I realised I was treating it like managing a software project because that’s all I know.

Now I’m not a project manager in my day-job. I’m a software developer: a code monkey, a class designer, an application architect, a team leader; but happy to let someone else manage the plan, the resources, track milestones and update the sponsors. I’ve been doing this long enough to recognise what the project manager does and how important it is, but I’ve not yet started along the common path of techies everywhere into management.

So it was a shock to realise that in my own home I’ve suddenly got several builder and decorators working for me directly with various others they bring in for parts of the work (outsourced suppliers). I’ve got a detailed list of work to do (requirements). I’ve got a timeline to try and keep everyone working without getting in each others way (project plan). And I’ve got my girlfriend anxious to get back home (sponsor).

And gradually I found myself turning it into a software project because that’s what is familiar to me. And I did find myself doing exactly what I curse project managers for: asking for status updates on each task, asking for new estimated dates for completion and asking about any problems that they found. This was my house, of course I wanted to know each detail, it didn’t matter if we would never see the wires, they all had to be in just the right place. The builders thought my frequent need for updates and repeated reminders about tiny details annoying but luckily were good-humoured enough to just get on with the work and finish everything on the original list. And they did a very good job and me and the sponsor are really happy in our newly shiny house.

Of course I’m sure my attempts to manage the project helped. At least I think I’m sure.