The A-Z of Project Management Survival

Reading through the entries in this A-Z, you may form an opinion that the authors are a little harsh on project managers as a race.Obviously, we're not saying that all managers are bad, but here are very many that drag everyone else down into a pit of despair.

One such group of these managers are the channellers. As ever, this is another subset of managers who come under the broad category of "Can add no value so scramble about trying to find ways to appear to add value."

Channelling is all about control of information flow. Collecting information from those who know and communicate it upwards and they are seen to be on top of the situation. Get a decision from higher management and pass it down as they're own and they are in control, reactive, happening.

This is particularly obvious when there is really good or really bad news about. The channellers are easy to spot. Volunteering to send emails, organising calls, saying things like "I'll take that to Darren, he should hear this from me." I guarantee that you have already thought of someone you know who does this.

Obviously, the game here is a spot a channeller and make sure you do the communication and watch them seethe at first; then slope off just in case someone asks them to do something.

Labels: C

You will often hear people say that "there is no Silver Bullet". And this is generally true. Such miracles tend not to happen. What you can say, though, is that there are many situations that would be significantly improved by Silver and Bullets.

It is hard to see how getting rid of useless people and paying a little more for good people can't help. Not necessarily a palatable option but quote it to people seeking miracles. It might shut them up.

Labels: S

You would probably always argue that a project will generally suffer if it has a hapless buffoon of a project manager. Strangely, this isn't always the case.

There is a particular type of hapless buffoon that knows he is out of his depth and is open to suggestion and instruction. A project that has a strong technical team can get the right thing done by telling the project manager what to do. The manager does the dull stuff, goes to the meetings, sorts timesheets etc, letting the team (or lead individuals within the team) make the major decisions and get on with the work.

Teams who work for such managers can enjoy a great degree of freedom and success if they realise that the 'leader' is easy to manipulate in this way. Keep and eye out for them, you might be missing a trick.

Obviously, the hapless buffoons that linger under the misapprehension that they are in charge and should make the decisions themselves will always cause a disaster.

Labels: M

On a recent trip to India*, I observed a strange phenomenon that has a parallel with pointless Project Managers. I saw a great number of people, mainly in uniforms, whose sole function seemed to be to wave people in the direction they were going anyway.

This was particularly prevalent in the airport, but was also seen a lot with traffic on the street. You could argue that there was job was to be there in case of incident, but it merely looked liked the were waving their arms to give the appearance of adding value to the situation.

You get a lot of Project Managers like that. Watch out for them. They have no input of their own so, instead, they give the appearance that they are giving direction but, in reality, they are only waving people in the direction they were going anyway.

Agreeing with other people's decisions, sending out emails saying "Yes, I agree, do that.", is not managing, its just waving people towards a door that is already clearly sign-posted. Don't do it. You look like a fool.

* I'm not suggesting this only happends in India, its just where I saw it and had the thought.

Labels: D

Don't panic. Really, just don't. Sure, big problems do happen and you may have to take action and say that it is urgent/critical/non-negotiable (perhaps even using bold) and escalate to the Gods, but choose the times to do this carefully.

No one likes it when you go bananas about something that really isn't that important. No one will listen to you if you do it too often. Time will come when you do have a real issue and the villagers simply won't be around to help.

On the flip-side, if you see people over-reacting in this way, try shouting 'WOLF!' at them. Everyone else will love it and you'll get the point across. Unless they don't know their fables, in which they'll just be a little freaked out, which is good enough.

Labels: W

Now we're getting to the meat.

Project Challenged Factors	% of Responses
1. Lack of User Input	12.8%
2. Incomplete Requirements & Specifications	12.3%
3. Changing Requirements & Specifications	11.8%
4. Lack of Executive Support	7.5%
5. Technology Incompetence	7.0%
6. Lack of Resources	6.4%
7. Unrealistic Expectations	5.9%
8. Unclear Objectives	5.3%
9. Unrealistic Time Frames	4.3%
10. New Technology	3.7%
Other	23.0%

So, what conclusions can be drawn from these many years of research? One broad message is that, despite all the years of innovation and experience that have passed, as Cobb’s paradox suggests, nothing much has changed. What was problem a decade ago is still a problem now. Despite tools, techniques methodologies aplenty, projects still fail and for the same broad set of reasons.

This research clearly points at the major issues in project failure and with consistent results over so many projects over so many years it would seem entirely incontrovertible. There is a common thread in all the results that is concealed behind the detail. At the heart of all project failure is the people. This may seem obvious, after all, projects are conceived by, designed by, built by and used by people. It is clear that this human factor can never be removed from projects but, by understanding the nature of the influence of people on a project, certain key failure points can be targeted and improvements made. At least in part, this is perhaps at least part of the answer to the paradoxical question ‘so why do they still fail?’.

All the great processes and tools cannot make up for the fact that people are at the core of everything we try to do, and if the people aren't up to it then there isn't an awful lot you can do about it. Except to look for a saviour.

What this all points at is that there is only one thing you need to get right. Get the right people on your project. You do this by either getting your recruitment right or, within the existing resource pool, making sure you grab the good ones.

The quality of the people at the start of the project sets the upper limit of how well everything can go before all the usual stuff starts to go wrong.

Everything, EVERYTHING you try to do is based on and reliant on people. Get good ones, make sure they are happy, give them space and let them do their thing.

Labels: P

As regular readers will observe, there is much discussion on the central concept of arses and good guys. Some may find this a somewhat vague concept. So, to bring this to life a little, we will introduce the concept of the Mean Value Coefficient.

This is being done for a few reasons:

• the concept will be used in forthcoming posts, there's a whole theory to come
• it is an extension of the nickname concept
• you just can't beat a bit of pseudo-science

The concept is very simple:

1. An individual with an Mean Value Coefficient of 1 has a neutral impact on your project, makes it neither better or worse.
2. An individual with a coefficient less than 1 has an overall detrimental impact on your project (an arse). The smaller the coefficient, the worse they are.
3. An individual with a coefficient greater than has improves your project (a good guy). The higher the coefficient, the better they are.

This has a very important use. You can simply refer to people as "MVC 0.5" and only those in the know will know what you are on about. This is sometimes safer than the more traditional "he's an arse" when you don't know who might be listening. Generally, people who don't know what MVC is will be to embarassed to ask. Its also particularly sneaky as MVC means something else too.

Labels: M