Is Managing a Project Like Conducting an Orchestra?

Managing a project is so often compared to conducting an orchestra the comparison is almost a cliche. It seems to me that the comparison is rather off.

An orchestra has had time to rehearse and practice over and over exactly what they are supposed to do. Indeed, they must refine their work until it is flawless. A project team hasn't got that luxury.  It has only one pass at executing the project. 

An orchestra will never be asked to work faster or redo a task. There is no such thing as crashing the music. Project teams have deadlines to meet and often need to redo work and work faster than normal.  An orchestra performance is an operation. It is perhaps the smoothest of operations.  There is no change of plans.  The audience's (stakeholders) mood will not change what the orchestra will play or how they play it.

There is a slight similarity between conducting an orchestra and managing a project. The similarity lies in the fact that both the conductor and the project manager do not make the actual product. They simply orchestrate the work of those who produce.

But then again, why pick on a conductor as the focus of an analogy? Every orchestra presentation has an actual project manager orchestrating it, scheduling the rehearsals, picking the team, selecting alternate members.

And that person is not the conductor.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? How much? Say what?

How do you know if you are still in control of a project?

One way is to ensure you know the answer to the following:

1. Who are the stakeholders in the project?
2. What are their interests?
3. What is the purpose of the project?
4. How much is the budget for this project?
5. How much is this project going to take?
6. How long will the project take?
7. What is the project schedule?
8. When is it to be completed?
9. What is the project plan?

RISK AND OPPORTUNITY

Are risks and opportunities completely different notions or they simply different faces of the same coin? Can you capitalize on a potential risk beside just avoiding the eventuation of that risk? For example, if there's a risk that your top programmer will leave for another job, and he doesn't, therefore the risk doesn't eventuate. But apart from heaving a sigh of relief, is there an opportunity there that you could take advantage of?

Suppose in your project you are expecting a lot of active opposition from environmentalist groups, and therefore allocated an extra $10,000 for the purpose of public relations and legal expenses. But for some reason, the expected opposition did not materialise and you find yourself with extra project funds and the *opportunity* to use those funds to accelerate the project. In this example: - the risk did not eventuate, and opened up an opportunity - the opportunity was there only because you planned for the risk. - you have the basic option of acting as if the risk did not materialise (business as usual), or the more advanced option of seizing the opportunity that opened up and turning it into something beneficial.