Admit it or not, we’ve all been guilty of abusing PM buzzwords and phrases!
If there’s one big epiphany I’ve have learned over the years as a corporate “Salaryman“, is that a person’s frequency of use of corporate buzzwords and phrases is inversely proportional to what they actually know. In other words, the less a person knows the more they will pontificate buzzwords and phrases to masquerade the lack of knowledge and experience.
So it was with great glee, that I ran into this Gartner (ironically, a group that is notorious for peppering buzzwords in their communications) post that outlined the corporate lifecycle for the buzz forecast in 2012:
Another irony was that I used the similar graph to outline the hype cycle of the PMP certification for which I received a considerable flak from a large online community of PMP evangelist that prompted me to reply in kind.
But this graph is so much better than mine and funnier to boot!
So the next time you ask for business requirements to do PERT analysis in order to accurately calculate your CPI and SPI indexes to ensure a synergy between Business and Information Technology groups that will ensure the harmonization across disparate systems of cloud based big data realized through growth hacking techniques. Realize that this is just the “new normal” that requires leveraging a more agile toolbox so as to see how “sticky” your story points really are so that your next Sprint can be adequately pinged against the WIPs on your Kanban board. At the end of the day, it’s all about the realization or your core competency as a project manager.
Whew! So let’s be honest, haven’t you been guilty of abusing PM buzzwords and phrases? I hate to admit it, but I have been guilty of this on more occasions than I care to admit!
So what are some of your all time favorite (or that makes you cringe or roll your eyes) PM buzzwords and phrases?
Buzz words are buzz kill to any executive unless the word is an industry standard. If your audience isn’t clued into the definition of a technical or pm term, explain what you are saying in lay terms. People will smile and nod heads as opposed to be put on the defensive when you talk above them.
Saying “resource” when you clearly mean person.