One of the main reasons I wanted to write all of this was to try to compare the role of a Project Manager (PM) with the role of a Dungeon Master (DM).
Funny enough, abbreviations are very similar to each other.
What are the similarities between one and the other? Were you could get to apply some experience from one world or the other?
Whereas there is not an exact comparison point between a game and the real world (or maybe we don‘t want to see it), let me try to explain it the way I see it.
The PMBOK 6th version contains an entire chapter dedicated to the role of the PM. This is kind of new, at least for this version of the Body of Knowledge, mostly due to the increase of the Agile methodologies that have been taking the organizations in a world where businesses try to get out of the traditional framework that was expected of a project (what we call the Waterfall framework in Project Management).
Just to give you a high level understanding of what the traditional way of executing a project is:
- Receive the requirements of the solution that the project has to achieve
- Follow any actions needed to meet those requirements, based on the guidelines of the traditional way.
- Any change that might occur during the execution has to wait until the original work is done. Then, evaluate the change and make the changes if it‘s approved.
- Deliver what was written in the requirements document.
- Close the project.
Pretty straightforward, right? In one hand, PMs were expected to be somehow like the person cracking the whip to get things done (and some people in some organizations still think that way unfortunately).
But how has that changed to meet today‘s world that has change as part of the core values of the project? One of the main responses is adopting the so called Agile methodologies, like Scrum, Lean, Extreme Programming, SaFe and others we won‘t be talking about here. There are tons of articles and videos on the Internet about those.
Bottom word for any PM who might be reading this: Agile doesn‘t mean everything will be faster… Say that to your stakeholders and stick to it. It will save you. But I digress a little. Back on track.
On the other hand, let‘s talk a little about the DM role in the game world.
As a DM, you set up the campaign, the world where the players will be living and having adventurers. You will be taking actions for any bad guy they might encounter. You will be managing what kind of loot the Player Characters (PC) find in that imaginary world. You need to keep them engaged in the story of the campaign, the setting, and many other things.
As a whole, you facilitate the game for the players.
PMBOK 6th edition, Chapter 3 page 52, “Definition of a Project Manager“:
[…] «The project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.»
Now, back to DnD world. Let’s say you buy a module (a book that contains the setting of the world, the maps, the enemies that make the encounters, the main antagonist profile; in short, everything you need to run a campaign with your players and have a good time during your sessions). It’s your responsibility as the DM to read all that, understand what’s going to happen as your players make progress in this land, prepare for any inconvenient that might arise from the table (players tend to have other ideas), and how to solve those conflicts that will happen. Again, you are responsible for achieving the campaign objectives with your players.
I realized this when I started reading more attentively the DnD modules I was getting, and after I remembered my PMP certification workshop, the more it made sense to me. I thought for a second… «I was preparing for being a PM without realizing it since I was in high-school».
Back in the day, I didn’t have the money to afford the books for Vampire The Masquerade, even more when you are on a scholarship basis and that kept up all the way until I graduated. So the Internet provided me the basic material (I offer apologies to the original publisher, but now I’m trying to get the original books somehow) and the imagination did the rest. Rules and rules, setting, lexicon and a ton of knowledge had to be taken by my mind back then, and fortunately I still remember most of it after all these years. Now that I can afford my books, I try to read them often, to check what’s new and what I can implement as a surprise for my DM or my players.
I care about the material, because I want to know the rules so we can bend them in favor of having fun.
Same thing might apply to Project Management. People tend to believe that you have to recite the book word by word… but managers and stakeholders forget often something important… Project Management is based on frameworks. And frameworks should adapt to a variety of situations. You can’t apply the exact same method to every single project.
However, one thing you never have to lose sight as a PM is the fact that you are responsible to lead a team and drive them to success.
I believe this part ran long enough for now.
I want to try to continue a little bit on the role of the PM and the DM in a following article, since I think it’s important to note some similarities between both characters.
Let me finish this by stating again some important words about both roles: PMs and DMs are facilitators, who are responsible to lead people towards a particular objective in today’s world. Both the PM and DM have a responsibility with the people they lead, but they never have to lose sight of what’s ahead of them. In the business world, you need to add value to the business and improve the team by leading a successful project, while as a DM, your goal is to lead your PCs to complete a quest or a campaign while having fun, and allowing the PCs to improve their abilities.
Thank you for reading and hope the next part will come out soon.
Stay safe!
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