If my company were to attend a support group, this is how we would introduce ourselves:
“Hi, my name is Inteloom and I am obsessed with objects.
To fully empathize with us, let’s lay out our predicament: An obsession can be defined as a “persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling.”(Oxford Dictionary). In our context, an object is anything that you can define and manage. Hence, our ‘object obsession’ is a persistent preoccupation with anything that you can define and manage. With a definition that broad, you are right to think that we will never overcome our obsession. Matter of fact, we never plan to. We are proud to be obsessed with objects; It is why our projects succeed.
O-kay, but why should you care about our object obsession? You might be wondering how an object obsession leads to project success. Better yet, what is it to you?
Have you ever been part of a project where you:
Had to click through folders, files and emails to find the information you need?
Were uncertain about who is doing what?
Had tons of activities that were hard to track?
Felt ‘in over your head’ because your project seemed unmanageable?
Had to use tools that were creating more overhead than helping i.e you spent more time managing the tool instead of the project?
All these are signs that you are struggling to understand and manage your project realities — signs that your project needs objects.
Let me explain…
A project is “a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service”. Recall that an object is anything you can define or manage. At Inteloom, we view all projects as a series of related objects, as opposed to a sequence of tasks.
Why?
Because in reality, there are several things (objects) that you need to define and manage in order to create a unique product or service. All projects are made up of objects; the better you understand them, the better you can manage your projects.
Everything we do at Inteloom revolves around objects. Need proof? Count how many times we use "objects" in this article (23, if you’re interested). We can’t help but obsess about objects because they are the reason our projects succeed.
Why an object obsession leads to project success Project success comes with understanding and managing the project ’s reality. To understand and manage reality you need to know what is made up of. Reality is made up of a bunch of Objects.
Don’t believe me?
Look around and all you see is objects; look within, and yet again you will find objects. Your work environment is made up of objects ( desks, colleagues, computers) and so is your body( eyes, fingers, lungs). Even some things that are not tangible are objects, such as meetings, decisions, risks and benefits
From when you were young, you were taught to make sense of the world in terms of objects and their attributes, so that you can interact with what is around you. Similarly, to make sense of the project management world, you need to see it in terms of objects and their attributes.
From a management perspective, we are interested in all objects that we need to manage.
This concept of using objects( and their attributes) has revolutionized many industries such as software development, computer operating systems, aerospace, automobile, construction etc.
We are obsessed because we believe that using objects will transform the way people approach management in general.
Your Take away: The better you understand objects, the better you are at understanding and managing reality. This is why we are dedicated to understanding the structure of objects, how they relate, interact and how they evolve. We are obsessed with objects because we are obsessed with project success. By using objects you too can transform any project from a tragedy to a triumph.
To learn more about objects, stay tuned to our next article on what is an object.