What is your main task and what does a typical day at work look like for you, Heinrich?

I am a project manager. In that role, I work on different projects at msg and most of my projects are exclusively designed for the long term. For the past two years, I have been working on the “yuble” project for the AOK world. As the project manager, I have to balance the interests of the customer, employees and msg. In doing so, my goal is to protect the 35 project members we have at the moment from outside interference to the greatest extent possible and to create a good work environment for employees in order to get the best results for our customer.
Most days I have a basic structure that is filled with regular meetings, such as dailies, status sessions, coordination of current issues – or time reserved for controlling, documentation, etc. On top of that there are always last-minute topics, such as employees being out sick, infrastructure downtimes, urgent customer requests, offer and expense calculations...and then it is all about: communicate, coordinate, modify plans.

What does project management mean to you?

As a project manager, I want to give all members of the project team a work environment that makes day-to-day work fun; that allows their individual strengths to be recognized and promoted; and that leaves a positive memory after the project is over. It is my understanding that a key part of project management in software development projects is serving as the link between agile developer teams that follow a scrum method and the customer’s perspective that tends to be hierarchical, budget-controlled and result-oriented.
To me, project management also means being transparent to the team and promoting an understanding of why things are the way they are. At the same time, however, project management also means making decisions and assuming responsibility, while representing and protecting the team outwardly.

Why do you like working at msg?

I am proud to have been with msg for over ten years now since each and every person counts and is appreciated. That is further emphasized by the fair policies on working hours, a positive error culture and attainable goals. It also means my personal work/life balance is just how I envisioned it and I can organize my work in a way that allows me to react to spontaneous changes in my personal environment.
Another thing I really like about msg is the structure here with the mostly autonomous units, which in turn promote creativity, fast action and individual solutions. As a result, I don’t have to spend my work time fighting bureaucracy; instead, my hours are shaped by working with people and on solutions.