The A-Z of Project Management Survival

The railroader is the kind of person that will use his personality and blind determination to force his ideas through, regardless of other popular, or learned opinion.

You'll easily be able to classify a Railroader when you encounter one, they typically talk over other people, usually starting when the have a grasp of an idea and think they can run with it. At this point, they genuinely think they know better than everyone else in the room, including the person who was talking.

You can try to go toe-to-toe with a Railroader, and keep talking over them but unless you have the presence or seniority to carry it off and they stop, it can quickly degenerate into a babble-fest where the rest of the assembled group will be wondering what's going on.

One strategy is to use distraction to shut them up, like the magicians do. I don't suggest the, "Look, an eagle!", approach. More the open handed-stop signal, holding up your finger or pen as a blocker, hand on the shoulder, other ways to knock them off their stride. But be aware when they've sussed what you've done, they'll just start off again.

The best strategy is to let them talk themselves out first. Then pitch in with the real solution, as it's highly probable they have not grasped the whole situation and have gone off half-cocked.

That way you end up looking like the one that knows what they are talking about, which is about right.

Labels: People, R, Railroader

There is a school of thought that is rife amongst the more timid of the lesser spotted Project Manager, and that is that if you ignore something for long enough, it will go away.

While this may be true for such things as his acne and his girlfriend, it is generally never true about software projects. If you ignore a small thing long enough, it will become a big thing and when it becomes a big thing, you are more likely to feel the pain.

Of course, if you know what you're doing you will be aware of even the small things on your project and will make a conscious decision on whether you should do something about it sharpish or you can safely let it ride for a while.

What you do about it will, of course, depend on the issue and your own personal style but be sure you do something and don't just defer the decision till tomorrow. Tomorrow will have enough challenges of its own.

Labels: P, People, Procrastination

The sponge is another example of a PM out of his depth trying to add value to his project.

His project team will be telling this PM there are problems on the project, they will be sending him progress reports coloured in heavily in red felt-tip pen, they will be telling him things like, "We're going to be late", or, "We're easily going to spend double the budget", or, "We need help!"

The sponge will happily absorb this bad news and report to his management that everything is fine, brilliant in fact. So much so, the Sponge will be looking for more green felt-tip pens in the stationery cupboard. He will blissfully continue in this fashion until the point where he can hide it no more. He thinks he's keeping the management happy by telling them what they want to hear and will get gold stars and plaudits in return.

Similarly, any criticism and/or bad news, coming from further up the hierarchy, towards his project team will be soaked up by the Sponge and kept from the poor souls on the team. His management will be telling him, "The business are concerned with the lack of progress", or, "The budget seems a bit tight, do we have enought to complete?", or, "Are you sure you'll deliver what we promised on time." By acting as a Sponge, he thinks he's protecting his team from the bad press.

At the end of the day, it will all explode in his face. Carnage will ensue, with the finger of blame being pointed at everyone and everything.

Labels: People, S, Sponge

Recognisable from the fact they move quietly from meeting to meeting, with their metaphorical tail between their legs, the Lost Dog generally has a doleful expression on their face.

You'll spot them as the person who always seems to be in all the meetings you go to, but rarely contributes much. Very much the antithesis of the Echo, they will sit quietly, desparately trying to keep up what's being discussed, perhaps nodding occasionally and generally only speaking when directly invited to and then saying a little as they can get away with to avoid appearing scoobless.

Much of this is due to the fact that they feel overwhelmed by the topics being discussed. You will find many Lost Dogs in large organisations, particularly where the technology has moved on and they haven't. They're always busy, mainly because of the number of meetings they need to go to, but also because they're following somone around.

Labels: L, Lost Dog, People

It's never nice to see someone struggle. But as we know, people who are struggling tend not to stay as quiet as they should. Not being able to contribute is one thing, but using up air-time for the sake of an apparent contribution is frankly a pain.

Another facet of the Competency Mask is the Echo. Someone explains something and then the arse in question says pretty much the same thing again with perhaps only a slight change in wording or emphass. In the worst cases, the repitition is near to verbatim.

This obviously wastes time, but what is more galling is that the repitition is done with no shame, with aplomb perhaps "look at me, don't I sound clever".

No, you don't, you're an arse. You gave it away with that echo. If you get a chance say "is there an echo in here" immediately after. They won't know what you mean but it will make you feel better. Others may snigger.

You'll hear these echo people all the time. Take note of them, it's as good a giveaway as a big badge with 'useless' on it.

Labels: E, Echo, People

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, Channeller, People

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, Marionette, People

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, Directing Traffic, People

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, People

Nicknames aren't anything new. Some people get them, some don't. Some last for a while and die away, some stick for life. They can be derogatory, complimentary, used to the person's face or just behind their back, but very, very rarely, are they planned.

Here's the deal, everyone should have a nickname that is known within the inner circle of trusted friends. This isn't just for colleagues, it can be for customers, suppliers, whoever. The point is that it is very useful to be able to talk about people with other people, including the individuals themselves, having no idea who you are on about.

The important thing is that the nicknames can't be obvious. You can't call John Smith 'Smithy' or 'Bitter'. By way of example, you could call him 'Garlic'. See, you have no idea how I came up with that, but there is method to it. Its all about additional degrees of separation.

Above all, nicknames can make every conversation more fun, which is very important.

Labels: N, Nicknames, People

You know the type, you probably have some of them in your organisation; when there's a problem, they bury their head in the sand, usually because it is beyond their capabilities to do anything else.

They will ignore the inevitability of the situation, hoping upon hope that it will go away. Usually until the very last minute, when they will endeavour to get rid of the problem or otherwise attempt to make someone else responsible for their own failure to deliver. This is often too late to do anything effective and even the best endeavour to help out will result in association with the problem.

Best to avoid these people, and if it's impossible to avoid them, or you have a sneaking feeling that the hospital pass will be coming your way at the end of it all, practice a little coaching on them as an exercise in splash damage limitation.

Labels: O, Ostrich, People