IT Project Mechanic

Every PM I have met along my journey has had at least one, if not a few, projects that could be modestly described as troubled. In fact, I think this is a pretty standard occurrence in the Project Manager ranks – there are projects that despite our best efforts, quality training and experience, spend a majority of their time classed as Red or Yellow on a status report. Why is this happening? Is it the PM? Surely there must be one bad apple spoiling the bunch, right? Someone has done something wrong – that’s why we’re in this situation… Right?

Sadly, I’m afraid our friends in the Quality world have it right – it’s not the people, it’s the process that normally causes things to go awry.

I recall a project where our status never really crept out of Red for very long, and when it did Yellow was all we could muster. The project team contained consummate professionals all around – it was a dream team. The refrain of “process, not people” was very true on this network infrastructure project. Our scope was intentionally constrained to meet an artificial schedule deadline before the kickoff meeting had occurred. Promised were made about the project’s outcome before the WBS was created. The biggest gotcha that we were facing was no (zero, zip, nada, zilch) success criteria that could be measured – we had 100% subjective “things” that must happen for the project to be successful.

Troubled – that adequately described this effort. So why was this happening? You can surmise our causes with ease – our scope and “success” were hopelessly mismatched with our schedule and expectations. Pretty standard fair, don’t you think?

If you find yourself in a situation that looks like this, don’t despair – repair! Find ways to enlighten your sponsors and leadership about the conflict you are facing. Change the rules of the game – this takes some creativity, but hey – you’re running the project, right? Declare a new success criteria that you will measure yourself and the project with. Find gentle ways to reset expectations and adjust the reality of your leadership and stakeholders to the point where have a fighting chance for a winning project.

One of my “go-to” tools for this situation is artfully showing my leadership & stakeholders what the future will look like if we keep going the way we are. Nothing turns heads faster than a measurable forecast of future results. I’m also keen to let them figure it out on their own (with some guidance of course) – one human trait that we can leverage is the power of the inherieted idea. When your boss comes up with an idea you gave him, and claims it as their own, stand back and let them have it. If glory is your agenda, project management is probably not the best place for your pursuits, in my humble opinion!

The bottom line is the actions of the PM can have a powerful effect on the outcome of a troubled project. Our mantra should always be “action with information”; reporting the problems of the project and expecting someone else to fix them will likely keep you on the troubled project path. Experiment and find ways to see the causes of problems in your project. Above all, whether you have to fake it or not, keep your chin up and your outlook positive. Your team and the group outlook may be the key to turning the corner into the land of Green status reports.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 11:03 am and is filed under IT Projects, Leadership, Stakeholders, Tune-Ups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.