The A-Z of Project Management Survival

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

Because of the single most important rule of delivering software projects – the Scoping Sword is not only a key weapon in your armoury, you must be skilled in how to use it effectively.

Picture the scenario; you start off with a nicely planned and resourced project and everything is just swell, the sun is shining and pretty flowers are blooming all around your feet. Cue the day you deliver the first cut of the new software to the customer. This is the point when you experience the phenomena known as goalpost-shifting. The customer will come back with all sorts of statements, like, “but I thought it would do X”, or, “surely you knew I needed Y”, or even, “everyone in this business knows it has to be able to do Z”. It is important to recognise it immediately and act swiftly to regain control and limit the potential damage.

First of all you need to weed out the genuine defects – of course you are going to fix them. Then you need to assess the features the customer forgot to tell you about first time round, the requirements that your code-monkeys misinterpreted and delivered wrongly and the stuff you were planning to deliver in a later phase anyway.

Once you have all of this information, you need to look at your options. If the project deadline is not moving, the customer is not stumping up any extra cash, and your management won’t sanction any extra zero-cost resource – what’s left to do?

Correct! – pick up your big Scoping-Sword and hack a chunk of features out of the project! Now don’t panic, if you’re good enough, this can all be done in a controlled and tactful manner. The customer can be shown that the additional work he needs can’t be delivered in the remaining time without something else suffering. ‘Better to remove something and deliver it in release 2.0, rather than deliver it badly in 1.0’ is always a good line. You can then re-group, re-cost and charge for it in Phase 2.

Ensure you cover any changes with the appropriate Change Control paperwork and sign-off, to ensure you suffer no repercussions later when it turns out the person that was waiting for the feature wasn’t informed when it suffered at the hands of the de-scoping exercise of week 24.

Labels: S, Scoping-Sword

People, especially customers, forget the real definition of an estimate. Its an estimate. Not a guarantee. But because they forget this they are generally unhappy if a delivery is going to be 'late'. And with lateness comes blame. And, good guys don't get blamed. Its the arses fault.

Good guys get out of this blame problem by getting good at the ancient art of Schedule Chicken. In every delivery, there is almost always a set of dependant deliverables. To win the game all you have to do is bet that one of the other deliverables will deliver late and, crucially, declare they are going to be late before you have to. Therefore, you gain the extra time their slippage offers.

So, the easiest way to for you to get some slip in your project is to let someone else do it for you and, presumably, take the blame.

Schedule Chicken should be played with caution and definitely not by an arse. Watching an arse attempt to do it is however, very funny. This is particularly good when an arse is playing schedule chicken against you and you know you are going to deliver on time. Supply misinformation that suggests to him, off the record, that you might be a bit late. He'll rub his hands together in glee hoping that you have given him a way out of his own slippage. This joy will be short lived as he finally declares that he is unable to deliver one day before the project is due and is ripped a new one.

Labels: S, Schedule Chicken

You would think that there won't be many instances where silence can be your friend. But you'd be surprised. Sometimes you will feel the need to contribute "I'm in charge here, I should be saying something." Most of the time you should fight this urge.

Admit it to yourself. There is an awful lot you don't know about and are wholly unqualified to even speculate on, never mind actually contribute. On these occasions, don't burble nonsense because of some misguided need to take part. You'll just look like an arse. So shut it and listen. This isn't about you and your ego, its about getting the problem solved.

You could always try and be useful and supportive. Try phrases like "You guys have this one covered, let me know if there is anything you need me to escalate."

Just don't say things like "Have you tried turning it off and on?" Its not helpful and your team will have a lower opinion of you based on an increasingly correct notion that you are an overpaid waste of oxygen.

Labels: S, Silence

Sometimes you might think that dealing with problems is hard. But you'd
be wrong. All you have to do is break it down into the three main
choices and work from there. Think of a Scrum Half in Rugby Union. He
receives the ball from the scrum and can do 1 of three things:

1. Deal with it himself
Tuck the ball under his arm and go for it. You always have that
choice. Deal with it yourself. Often easier but you have to consider
the possibility of a Hospital Pass.

2. Pass it on
The Scrum Half oftens chooses to release the ball to his Stand-Off.
This is often the simplest and quickest choice. Pass the problem on to
someone else. This is particularly useful if the problem you receive is
a bomb and you can get rid of it before it goes off in your hands.

3. Punt It
Take the ball and kick it as far down the field as you can. This may
only delay the problem coming back to you but it might buy you some
valuable breathing space.

Take the problem, look at these three options and take it from there.
But remember, you may only have a split second to choose before 20
stone of sweaty descends on you and crushes you.

Labels: S, Scrum Half