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Loading ...Project management’s dirty little secret
In speaking with Michael Sheppard, a PhD student at the University of Waterloo and a veteran IT project manager, I heard a refreshing bit of insight into the minefield that is the art of project management. Sheppard pointed out, quite matter-of-factly, that a big part of a team’s responsiblity lies not just in ensuring the successful completion of the project, but also in managing expectations and putting an appropriate spin on things when they break down.
Speaking of his own experiences, Sheppard commented, “It may sound a bit manipulative, but in a sense, we often have made failures into succeses by readjusting expectations and good corporate communications.”
That means mentioning the deployment of 500 new laptops on time even though the new software deployment is a month behind schedule. It means sending the right message to ensure mass panic does not set in amongst decision makers. It means keeping partnerships as healthy as they can be. And it is a dirty little secret about project management that most managers have faced and which they must be prepared to handle in most situations.
Posted on November 19th, 2007 by Greg Enright and filed under Best Practices |
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November 22nd, 2007 at 4:28 am
Hi Greg (and Michael),
Actually, I don’t find the practice of continually adjusting expectations based on actual performance to be a “dirty little secret”, but a legitimate and appropriate role and responsibility of the Project Manager/Project Team.
Why do I say this? Because despite what PMI et al may imply or claim, project management is NOT a linear process, but a complex, dynamic system- effectively a “living thing”. Based on this, the true “dirty little secret” is that Microsoft Project, Primavera, Artemis are the wrong software packages to be using, simply because they do NOT allow for the feedback loops. What we should be using are software packages such as Powersim, Vennsim, or iThink (Stella).
Best Regards,
Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo, CDT, CCE, MScPM,
from Shenzen, China
November 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Sorry to disagree mostly with Michael Sheppard. We get to review a lot of large IT projects and find most “failures” to be well hidden or highly camouflaged. One project managed to use this approach for 3.5 years while virtually nothing got delivered by continuously adjusting the expectations. By the time we arrived, Vice Presidents were yelling at each other in the hallways and every one of the 85 project members was looking to escape eventual lynchings. I would suggest Project Managers bargain hard up front on scope / expectations and seek to over achieve.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Thank you Paul and Ron for your comments.
I agree that IT projects are generally iterative in nature and require continual adjustment for which the software packages mentioned are invaluable.
I also agree that it’s no secret that the client’s perception of these adjustments must be managed carefully. The purpose is of course not to “camouflage” but to smooth out the inevitable bumps along the way. I have never been on a project in which the entire scope, and all the associated problems, could be predicted up front. Our clients however do not usually have the benefit of this experience and may not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The message I would like to send in these situations is “relax … we’ll get there if we work together”.
Regards,
Michael Sheppard
University of Waterloo
December 7th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I’ve guessed that there should be a secret
Anyway, good communication is everything. Transparency is even more. Now there are tools that help managers make their work transparent for the clients, my favorite is Wrike.com [http://www.wrike.com/]