Hi Guys, its time to show off your Project Management expertise in celebrating one of the longest festivals of India – Navratri. One does wonder….

Is it a festival, or is it Project Management?

Confused… we call it the Project Management of a Festival!

Though Project Management is moderately industry specific, it is immensely robust since it is applicable to any activity which has a fixed start & end date and of course a fixed goal/ outcome…

Hence Project Management can find its applicability in construction of our own home, organizing a wedding ceremony or even organizing and celebrating a festival.

Navratri is celebrated uniquely in different parts of India. With Durga Puja in the East and Garba in the West; Ramleela in the North and  Vijayadashmi in the South, Navratri festival is specific to the Indian region. Just like robustness of project Management, Navratri celebrations are rich in its appeal.

 

Garba of Gujarat (Western India) has received recognition globally. Garba nights worldwide see thousands of participants dancing to the lively and peppy tunes of Garba and fusion Bollywood beats.

 

Here are our thoughts of how the 9 key aspects of Project Management gel well with Navratri

Project Scope Management – Scope of the Navratri includes the extent of celebration, fasting, dance, delicacies and merriment. This scope is subject to the extravaganza planned. It can range from a small community event to a large gathering of over a thousand invitees! Navratri has this magnetic energy pull that one shall crave to make it big. Hence… Scope CREEP! (Though Navratri can never be CREEPY) 😀

Project Time Management – Navratri (is a Sanskrit word) which means a festival of nine (Nav) nights (ratri) and needs to be effectively balanced for the constraints that a project as usual is possibly jeopardized with! This a boon to Project Managers as “Time (9 days)” is the only triple constraint that remains constant during project management of this festival 😛

Project Cost Management – Managing the extent of expense is required for Navratri. Navrati celebration is too intoxicating to prevent over expenditure. The celebration can have spiralling expenses if gone uncontrolled. Cost management is an important part of a festival project management. The monetary dent can range from a few thousand rupees in a small society gathering to lakhs organized by hep and happening social clubs! 

Project Quality Management – Though celebrations differs from family, community, region and locality, the need for superior quality remains the same throughout. The quality benchmark and quality policies are set while planning for the celebration, maintained during execution and controlled by monitoring at regular intervals. To name a few use of check sheets, flowcharts and metrics one can manage to control the quality.

Project Human Resource Management: The volunteers and family members who are privy to the planning are the core team members to organizing Navaratri when it is a homely gathering and the event management companies when it is set in a stadium. Navratri sees several guests who shall be the clients (in project management parlance) to the organizing team members. It is the festive spirit and the devotion to the Goddess Durga that keeps the team in a united fervour.

Project Communications Management – Sending out invitations (verbal and written) for attending the celebration is one of the core functions to the celebration. Making sure there is no noise (in the communication channel) and the invite has been correctly decoded is the responsibility of the organizing team and the project manager. Several large scale events do have passes being sold to participants which is a pull communication hence message to be encoded with utmost care.

Project Risk Management – No endeavour is without risks, untimely rains, DJ not reaching on time, , power outages are part of the event and one needs to have contingencies in place to come out shining from these. Hence, Risk management is a necessary activity. 

Project Procurement Management – Procuring the right ingredients for the food and for the celebration can make festival shine with super stars. Tap the right DJ who plays the right chords for the dance, book the right venue and select the right chef and when everything is right just make sure no one is left out.

Project Stakeholder Management – Friends, relatives, family members, vendors, volunteers, helpers… all contribute to make this festival celebration a grand success. Make sure to satisfy all the stakeholders on this auspicious festival and do not miss out on giving prasaad (sweet) after offering to the Goddess (Main Stakeholder to this festival) and then to all party to this party.

The Integrated WHOLE of the above enables all global citizens to enjoy a Happy and colourful Navratri celebration!!

P.S. We have tried to list the ingredients of the Winning Plan to celebrate your festival

Authors: Vidhi Raj, PMP / Vidyesh Alve, PMP, Prince2