a blog about project management...

This article below is so wrong on so many levels. I guess there are many types of project managers. There are institutional PMs that work for large companies in a very formal setting. If that’s you, go find another blog.

This blog is about the project manager that’s trying to take a small company from a few guys in a garage, who all talk to each other whenever they need to do something, to a level beyond that, where we need to have procedures and documents and some order to get things done. It’s a big step that never happens in some companies.

Being a sucessful Project Manger means you know how to deal with contradictions. It’s about being “cynically optimistic”.

You know that there will always be problems, but you know that you will always find solutions.

You know that people will always let you down, but you know that people will always come through for you.

You know that people will not understand what you want them to know, but they will understand what they need to know.

You know that the client will always be angry about something, but they will always be happy in the end.

You know you want to kill some of the people you must depend on, but you will love these same people when it’s over.

You know you will not have the resources that you need, but you will find a way to make it happen anyway.

You know you everything will run late, but your team will pull together and make the deadline anyway.

You know that giving up control and letting the team have their way is crazy, but you end up with more control when they appreciate you for doing it.

Being a Project Manger is not about organizational and leadership experience, dependability, or resource management. Being a Project Manager is about fast talking, juggling too many balls, and pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Being a Project Manager is about being a magician.

Being a Successful Project Manager
Being a Successful Project Manager
Posted 4/27/2006 | by Peter Witt | The Project Management Initiative |

A successful project manager knows how to bring together the definition and control elements and operate them efficiently. That means you will need to apply the leadership skills you already apply in running a department and practice the organizational abilities you need to constantly look to the future.

In other words, if you’re a qualified department manager, you already possess the skills and attributes for succeeding as a project manager (see Figure 1-4). The criteria by which you will be selected will be similar. Chances are, the project you’re assigned will have a direct relationship to the skills you need just to do your job. For example:

Figure 1-4. Project manager qualifications.
1. Organizational and leadership experience
2. Contact with needed resources
3. Ability to coordinate a diverse resource pool
4. Communications and procedural skills
5. Ability to delegate and monitor work
6. Dependability

Project Mangers are the most important people in a project, in a business, in society, even in the entire universe!

Well, OK, maybe we’re not that important, but it always amazes me that when I take a day or two off, things seems to fall apart. It’s like no one else can think in terms of what’s good for the project. Everyone working on the the project is suddenly only looking out for themselves. What is that all about? Hello? Can anyone else see that things need to get done?

Back up support, plans, documentation can all help, but there’s no substitute, apearantly, for someone sending out an email with “Hey, how’s that going? When should I expect it done?”.

This is why I just bought a Blackberry…

Think eBiz; thoughts on eBusiness: A Train Wreck Tale: The case of the missing PM
It goes without saying that the Project Manager plays an essential role in a project’s overall success. But what happens when that project manager steps away from their role at a critical junction and what should be the best way to manage through this event? Recently this happened - where the PM left for a pre-scheduled vacation. Like pulling your quarterback off the field while your offense remains on the field, the likelihood of success falls off dramatically. Yet sometimes these things happen - a PM gets sick or gets called away. Life happens. BUT what to do next to keep the project on track?

First, all project managers should prepare for this possible risk by having back up support, documentation and plans in place. It could be that the PM cross-trains another PM or manager to take the reigns - with specific instructions on how to keep the project on track.

Secondly, if it is known, the departure of the PM should be embedded within the project plan itself. The project should work around this eventuality. Plan more risky tasks before the PM leaves or preferably after the PM returns.

And if no other back up is available, the project schedule may have to be altered. This is a tough call to make, but having the project fall off the tracks is a much worse outcome.

This is how you should deal with other people on a project. As a control freak myself, it’s been hard to let other people take responsibility to do things. When I’ve given control to people, I’ve been surprised sometimes, with the cool ideas and things that they come back with. I’ve had to learn that other people might actually have better ideas than I do, which is, of course, an amazing thing. The challenge then, is to give up control and let other people take over. You become a better manager from it, people like it and it’s good to have happy people, and it’s even better for the final product out the door.

Sorry, dude, but you’re not the best at everything. Somebody else is.

Agile Ministry

I recently have been doing the same thing with the project IǃÙm currently leading. I have strong leaders on my team, including some up-and-coming ones. When a project first starts, I am usually the one responsible for drilling down early, sitting in endless meetings, and asking the questions necessary to ensure I understand what needs to be built. During those few days after the project is defined and new developers are coming up to speed, I have to lead the team and set the pace. After that, it is time to allow them to lead. Even if they donǃÙt quite write the code that I would have, that is good. Sometimes, it is often better. Other times, it is a teaching exercise. In the midst of it, they grow, and so do you as a leader.

Here is a list of free, open source project managment software.

OpenDEN
Categories
Project Management

Project Management :
This is managing the resources needed to ensure that a project is finished on time and within budget and to the satisfaction of the end user. Project managers use tools such as PERT and Gantt charts for scheduling all the tasks that need to be completed. They are conscious of managing time, scope and resources for a project.

Interesting perspective on projects and why they fail. “They tend to fail due to cultural issues.” Darned if that ain’t true! I’ve never really had any trouble with the technical part of a web development project. It’s always the cultural stuff; dealing with the client, dealing with the IT support, dealing with stupid upper management decisions, dealing with the client (Did I mention that one already?)

My past experience has been inside corporations, dealing with internal customers. Upper management decisions had a lot to do with what happened on the project. Now I work for a small company (relative to the large corporations) that services outside clients. It’s much better here. Management supports whatever we need to do to support the client and tends to not make bad decisions based on irrelevant information. I like this much better.

ECS Home - IsnǃÙt it semantic?

Project failure is a big subject in the UK and youǃÙve been involved in a massive ongoing IT project ÇƒÏ what have you learned from it that could benefit our members?

This is a huge area ÇƒÏ an answer would fill several books. But I think IT projects are about supporting social systems ÇƒÏ about communications between people and machines. They tend to fail due to cultural issues. For example, moving control of data from someone with 20 years experience of working with it to someone else can lead to problems, as a company you lose with this approach. The original idea of the Web was about supporting the way people already work socially, but this doesnǃÙt happen with a lot of IT projects.

The view we are taking with the Semantic Web is interesting here. In the past scientists have been trained to do things top down. In the business world projects are often the bossǃÙs vision made flesh. Even software engineering is about taking an idea and breaking it into smaller pieces to work on ÇƒÏ but the software project is itself part of something larger. To make this better we need Web-like approaches ÇƒÏ IǃÙm not talking about HTML here but, rather, an interconnected approach. The Semantic Web approach can be visualized as rigid platelets of information loosely sown together at the edges ÇƒÏ rich in local knowledge, but capable of linking to things in the outside world. That approach would benefit the social aspects of projects.

There is a lot of information out there about how to manage a project. I think the best skill to have is to know where the balance is between too much process and not enough process. It’s the old saying about dancing with a women. Hold her tight, but not too tight.

There are some basic principles that need to happen in any project. Even if they are not formal, here’s a list of things that any good project manager should do. This is an excellent article. I saw it referenced at Raven’s Brain.

Project Management Principles
James R. Chapman

The Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) provides a comprehensive structure for addressing the scope of project management activities. However, there is a need to provide extra emphasis in certain areas, so the project manager is not simply confronted by an overwhelming list of techniques, clearly excessive for some project environments. Successful project management is better achieved by the intelligent application of sound principles, than by merely implementing a long list of standard techniques.

Project management principles are most often learned from experience, and they have universal validity for all projects. It is up to you to apply them intelligently to your project. I would rather trust a project manager who deeply believed in these principles and acted on them, than one who had simply learned the entire scope of project management techniques. It is a matter of emphasis. Principle Based Project Management begins with these principles:

* Rule #1- Figure out what business you are in, and then mind your own business. Figure out what business you are in. Make sure your business is viable. Select projects that are good for your business. Understand the business value in your project and watch for changes. Be diligent in your chosen business, learning and applying best practices. Define what is inside and outside your area of responsibility. 50% of project management is simply paying attention.

* Rule #2 - Understand the customerǃÙs requirements and put them under version control. Thoroughly understand and document the customerǃÙs requirements, obtain customer agreement in writing, and put requirements documents under version identification and change control. Requirements management is the leading success factor for systems development projects. More… »

Well, that’s over with. What a week. I think I did OK. I like the people here and they seem to like me. I like the people at the client company. Life is good.

I miss the drive to work every morning. I drove by the beach on my way to work and there was a little time of being alone and quiet. The radio was never turned on, on the way to work. It was nice to get “centered” before the day really started. I do miss that.

<religious comment warning> I usually spent the ride to work each morning praying. Talking to God about the day and about me, asking for help and direction, that he would guide me. It worked better some days than others… </religious comment warning>

The biggest thing that I need to adjust to is working at home. I feel like I can mess around any time I want, but I always feel like I’m “on” too. Like I never leave work. It’s a strange dynamic in my head.

A couple other people I know who work from home seem to have “a place” with a door, where they can go to “be at work”. The kids don’t yell at them and no one bothers them. I don’t have that set up. Maybe I need that. Any advice is appreciated.

I really like most of the people I work with now. Virtual people seem to be very nice people. I like that. There are always some challenges, but this is a lot better than the place I came from. I hated my last job at the end of the first week there and I definately like this one at the end of the first week here. There are some things to get used to and some things to learn, but I’ll get there. They have been pretty patient with me.

To everyone out there considering making a move to another company, the grass really is greener over here.

The one aspect of Project Management that I like the most is dealing with people. The one aspect of Project Management that I hate the most is dealing with people.

When a client is upset and telling you that your company made a mistake, I have a very direct, specific understanding of what they want and how to make them happy. If they want better responsiveness, then I can respond better. If they want less bugs, then I can work on fixing the bugs. It’s very easy to deal with people who are yelling at you. I know how to fix that.

It’s the passive-agressive clients that I can’t stand. I once had a site, at a project manager job long ago, that the designer had two designs for. One was brown. Once was blue. They both looked really good and worked well for the objectives of the client. We had a meeting. We discussed every aspect of each design. One did this a little better, while the other did that a little better. They were both very strong designs and I’d have been happy with both. We had a great designer, who did a good job. Now just pick one.

The client went back and forth and we threw in our two cents worth. A long discussion ensued. The client picked blue. Are you sure? Oh, yeah, I’m sure. Absolutely. I told him that we would start work on this and if he had any doubts, he should talk about them now. No. No. No. I want blue. Blue is best. Do that it way. OK, here we go. Thanks.

I get a phone call later, after we’ve put about hours of work into it, where he tells me that he didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone else, but he really wanted brown. He thought that we all wanted blue and he didn’t want to upset us. But now that he was thinking about it, he really wanted brown. Yes, it should be brown. Guess how my developers reacted?

This wasn’t just a case of changing his mind either. He constantly did this kind of stuff. It seemed to be a power play. He was insecure, so he wanted to be able to test his powers. He wanted to be sure that he could get people to do what he wanted. He was constantly messing with people like this, just be sure he was in control. If he could cause a commotion, then he must be powerful. This is what 3 year olds do.

If you want something, tell people that’s what you want. If you’re insecure and want to prove that you have power, just tell me. I’ll jump up and down and bark like a dog for you if you want to prove you’re powerful. Just don’t mess with my project. Don’t mess with my schedule or my developers.

I wish I had some magic advice on how to deal with passive agressive people. I don’t. They are the worst enemy of a project manager. They are not honest, so you can never really tell what to expect.

I think the best advice I can give about dealing with passive agressive people is to make them feel secure. Make them feel powerful. Make them feel like they are the boss of you. If you can throw them a bone and make them feel good, then they don’t have the urge to prove themselves to you as much.

This doesn’t always work, because they will always feel insecure about something, but it’s the best advice that I have. That, or run screaming into the night to get away from them.

God bless cranky clients.

Much better today. I got a tour of Basecamp, the Project Management software that is web based, and learned a bunch more about how things work around here. I had less phone calls and urgent emails, so I got a chance to read through some of the documentation on my projects. Why is the first day on a new job always the most urgent one?

I’m really struck by the way that things are organized differently than I would organize them. I’m not sure yet if that’s the person I’m replacing just thinking about things differently than I do, or the new company doing things differently, or maybe it’s how Basecamp does things.

I’m still trying to make sense of a lot of the documentation and how tasks are organized in the system. I’m looking at the email from clients, vs. the tasks and projects in Basecamp, vs. the time reporting system and I’m not seeing a lot of corolation, but maybe it’s me.

I’m intersted in other people’s experience with Basecamp, with all it’s chewy goodness. Where can I find tips and tricks for using it? I’ve always been a fan of 37 Signals, but I’m not getting it so far with this app. It’s OK, but there hasn’t been any “Ah ha!” moments yet.

What do you think about Basecamp?