Do you still want to be a Project Manager?

Would you do it again?  Is it time to stop?  For me I think the answer is I’d never have that kind of energy and chutzpah again, not for some random faceless corporate projects anyway, and yes, it’s time to stop.  So yeah, after hitting the glass ceiling both in terms of title and salary for this profession short of some high falutin’ overpromised and no doubt underdelivered consulting gig  I woke up one day and somehow knew this was my last program I’d deliver for the company.  It was instinctual.  (more…)

The Bad Project Management Olympics –First Entry Part 1, Surely You Can Top It

 You too can do everything wrong! And you can do it well. Let us share the wisdom of slinking by in   corporate America. Here’s the first entry up there in the “Bad Project Management Olympics”. The question is do you have the story to top it? I believe this one should be very topable however we don’t just want garden variety disasters. It really isn’t just size of the disaster that matters either, and no that comment doesn’t necessarily identify me as male. We are talking finesse and style as well as pyrotechnic project explosions. We are talking a finely tuned bad project management machine! By your entry should be real, reality is truly more bizarre than anything else we know. (more…)

Are the Triple Constraints still useful?

Scope, Schedule, Cost - they are classics, but do they remain useful?. I’ve heard many practitioners call the Triple Constraints (TC) obsolete or, at least, inadequate.

Many PMs point out that we need to factor in quality. I don’t have a problem with this one. On the other hand, I didn’t know that Scope didn’t include quality. For me, Scope never meant just a list of things or features. Without a set of acceptance/quality criteria, Scope would be too fuzzy. So, with that proviso, I think Scope is still a good one. (more…)

In Praise of MBWA (Management By Walking Around)

I am, at heart, an analyst. There is nothing that would please me more than being able to shut my door and do some thinking and come up with plans and processes — then wait for the good results to come in. Of course, there is a major flaw: people. No, the people aren’t flawed (well, at least not fatally). The flaw is the assumption that people are “rational” the same way I am.

Other people did not “see” my obviously workable (and sometimes brilliant and elegant - ha!) approaches. It was clear to me, a young manager/analyst, that this inability was due to a lack of knowledge on their part — it coulnd’t be any lack on my part, could it? (more…)

Choosing Between Your Heart, Your Lungs and Your Kidneys

One thing is for sure, there is always more to do on any project than there is time or money to do it. And as much as people hate to choose between things that seem equally vital, if everything is top priority, nothing is. Project teams used to ask for a list of “musts” and “wants” of the features required in a product, for example. Now EVERYTHING is a MUST! The “triple constraint” of schedule, cost and features used to mean that the team would maximize one and optimize another while letting the third float. Now teams are asked to deliver good, fast AND cheap all at once, and pull off myriad miracles along the way. Many executives refuse to prioritize the “critical few” from the “important many”. Mostly they look mystified and say “They’re all important.” No kidding! (more…)

Recognition and Appreciation Gone Sideways

Recognizing and appreciating your project team members is an important part of project leadership. But some people wield it like a 6-year-old who just found daddy’s gun. This is posted on behalf of a colleague who wishes to remain anonymous.  So many bridges to burn . . . so little time! - Kimberly

“I was a senior Manager at one of the big 4 consulting companies working in one of the firm’s offices with my staff. Each year the firm conducts a global employee survey to see how management is doing. Well, as it turns out our site had pretty poor scores in the “rewards and acknowledgement” area. As one would expect, word came down from high to the site partner that we needed to pay more attention to acknowledging and rewarding contributions. Here’s how it was handled. (more…)

Common Sense is Not Common Practice!

Common sense says that, when working on a project where results really matter, the team should agree on a plan of how to achieve the goals, consider what might go wrong, and make sure everyone who needs to deliver results is committed to doing what needs to be done to make it happen. Here’s a bit of news about the real world of project management: Common sense isn’t common practice! If knowing how were enough we’d all be rich and thin. (more…)