Classic Project Management - Indian Wedding Muhurat

-
I was talking about Project Management to a senior friend of mine....He told me about the most striking analogy from a lecture that he once attended on Project Management.

The lecture goes to say that the best example of Project Management is the Indian Wedding Muhurath. [ pronounced as 'Mo' as in 'Move'[Mu] , 'Who' as in 'Whose'[Hu] ' , 'Ru' as in 'Rumble'[Ra] , 'th' as in 'thrive'[th].

I am sure you can 'google' the word, but to put it in simple words: Muhurath is the chosen moment when the bride and the groom get married. Different customs are followed to mark this celestial moment of matrimony. In traditional weddings, a number of elaborate rituals precede and succeed the 'Muhurath'.


The bride's parents and the groom's parents agree to get the wedding done on a specific date and time. For the guy and the girl, this event means 'Engagement' where they get formally engaged to be married on the set date. The wedding date is usually set three to six months after the engagement to take care of all the wedding preparations.


The 'Things to do' list in a typical Indian Wedding :


  • Shopping for the Bride's attire and a huge list of accessories
  • Shopping for the Groom's attire and usually minimal accessories
  • Making a list of guests for the wedding from the bride's party
  • Making a list of guests for the wedding from the groom's party
  • Arrange for invitations [ 3 in number: traditional invite for relatives, modern invite for friends and colleagues, an invite for the reception, if you have more money to spend, then many more invites]
  • Arrange for the Pandit ( Prohit - Priest ) who will take care of the ritualistic procedures
  • Send email invites to people spread all over the world
  • Reserve a wedding hall for the special day
  • Calculate the approximate number of attendees
  • Arrange for accommodation for the people who might need it
  • Arrange for stage decoration and the like
  • Shop for return gifts for the attendees
  • Ensure that all plans work out as per the charted outline
  • Take care of travel and commuting needs before, during and after the wedding
  • Maintain the list of phone numbers in case of follow-up needs...


Hey, the list doesn't seem to end anywhere here... So lets just conclude that so much and more gets done for a wedding Muhurath.


There is no formal Process, Design Document, Development, Testing, Integration, Documentation and Release Plans like we have in Software Development. Still, there are inherent unwritten rules that govern this Mega Project -Wedding Muhurath and its amazing to note that people work in absolute sync to get this Project done.


Lets think about it....
  • Everyone thinks of one goal : THE MUHURATH.
  • Right people are posted at the poles to take care of the proceeds.
  • Everybody agrees to disagree on something that will not work out.
  • People in the group seek advice whenever needed.
  • There is no 'try' in most of the situations.
There could be ( am sure there are ) many more aspects to it, but the best and the important ones that came to mind are these seemingly simple but very difficult points.

If the Project Management works this way, there will never be any hassle in getting any project out on the set timeline.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is an example of a perfect metaphor...Good One!
8:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How are you placed today?

-
A very common question I got asked over the last one month's time by many of my friends. The answer has to be simple: I have a, b, c things to do or 1, 2, 3 places to go to or i, ii, iii work to complete... and the like.. This is on the basic level and probably this question doesn't need too much thought or attention beyond this.. But, I did find this question quite disturbing. One evening, on my way back from a temple, I realized the answer to this question: Where ever we are at any given point in time, we are placed at the right position to serve the right purpose at the right time!!. Just that we do not realize it. There is no reason to fret about things ( I admit that I have not yet reached that level of maturity as I write this post but I definitely realize ) when they are not in your hands. Exam results for instance. You can only put your best until the paper leaves your hands. Now, if the evaluation will happen properly is something you have no control over. Sim
Read more

Sargam - A 1992 Movie Review

-
This is a malayalam movie directed by Hariharan. Probably everyone in Kerala would have watched this many times. I got a chance to watch this movie yesterday. Brilliant make - a nice mix of psychology and music. I could identify, Vineeth, Renuka, Thilagan, and Nedumudi Venu in the movie. I wouldnt know the rest of the stars but I must say the movie has been done very well and is set in the late seventies or so it seems. Or may be the nineties itself. I would not know such a set up because I grew up in Tamil Nadu. The whole movie has been shot in a bungalow of old times. They call it Kovilagam which seems to mean Temple. I assume that the ancestors of this family had once been very rich and provided for the families working for them and lived a kingly life with great taste towards traditional arts. The family in the movie seems to be richer as well and did have regards for arts, especially music. Kuttan Thamburan had epilepsy and his close pal, Hari was around right from childhood to ta
Read more

Make a difference......

-
Andhra mess..... Once quiet, but now a noisy little food joint close to my office caters to the IT folks who crowd in during Noon for lunch. We are a group of friends who frequent this place once or twice a month for sure. We all have different preferences in meal usually. One friend of mine loves peanut powder, another does not have curd, I don't usually take rice, instead ask for extra Rotis, another friend likes to have sugar soon after the usually spicy meal. Usually we place orders for "All Veg meals" and when the waiter comes over to serve, we give out our preferences. I never knew that he knew our tastes by heart... He ensured that sugar was kept on the table, extra rotis were brought in, and peanut powder took a place in our table. We are all still amazed about the memory power that this person who serves close to hundred people a day has and how much of an impact it has on us, his valuable customers. Later when we were talking about it, we realized that a lot of
Read more