Undocumented Features

PMing Out of Control

May 28, 2008 – 8:21 am

There are many, many volumes of facts, opinions, and worst of all, opinions presented as facts and facts presented as opinions out there regarding project management and how it should best be done.  The PMI’s PMBOK (project management book of knowledge), for example, can be considered a godsend or a travesty, depending on how literal you read it and if you adopt the right processes from it for your particular organization and project.

Many project managers worry that they are not going far enough with their plan.  The opposite scenario is just as bad.  How can you tell when you’ve gone too far?  Here’s some criteria I suggest:

1) Client Satisfaction:  If the Sponsor, business owner, and other major stakeholders are happy with the results they are getting, but you are not and the processes that you’re using say you’re way off target, this is a warning sign.  There’s times when the project will get off the schedule you set.  There’s times when scope MUST expand in order for the finished product to meet the business’ needs.  There’s times when you’ll be dragged off schedule simply because (gasp) another project is more important to the company than yours, and you have to wait for resources.

If the team, the stakeholders, and the company are satisfied, and you are not, then something’s wrong.  If your PMO’s policies say that the project is at risk, but the everyone else says it’s not, then you need to re-examine your methods and criteria.  Reality is always more correct than policy.

2) Employee Satisfaction:  Do project team members avoid you when you approach, even if they’re not off-schedule?  Are people skipping your meetings whenever possible?  If so, you need to revisit your methods.  Project Management is about, above and beyond all else, communication.  Consider this:  Person A is an incredible communicator and detailed person, but they know nothing of formal PM process.  Person B is a terrible communicator but can quote the PMBOK in their sleep.  If you give each of them a project with a team of ten people, which one stands the better chance of success?

The truth is of course Person A.  Doubt that if you will, but the fact is that projects were accomplished for thousands of years before formal project management began.  The military carried out campaigns of brilliant coordination, timing and logistics without it.  It can be done without any of the tools.  The tools are useful and can make you more accurate, but they’re tools.  The craft itself is still in your organization, leadership and communication.

If people are avoiding you, there’s two possibilities:  either your tools are offending people, or your personal skills are.  You had the skills before you were a PM for someone to recognize your ability to be a PM, right?  I wouldn’t doubt those skills now.  Examine the methods you are using.  Talk to the people avoiding you and ask what they hate about the process.  Work to make the process work without being a burden.

3) Valid Outcomes:  If someone goes ‘off the reservation’, uses methods that were not part of the original project scope, but they achieve effective results that the business approves of and client is satisfied with, is that a problem?  If your methodologies say yes, then you need to consider your methodologies.  After all, you work for the company.  If the company says the new method is okay and so does the client, why don’t you?  What part of your process prevents it?

4) Over-Communication:  Believe it or not, this is possible.  I have been in a situation before, at more than one company no less, where I devoted more of my time per month communicating with the PMO than I did with two-thirds of the departments or people I managed- and in none of those cases were any of the projects I was involved with actually in trouble.  Any time that happens, the PMO is getting in the way of my effectiveness as a manager.    I’m no longer on my department’s payroll; I’m on theirs.  If we communicate that much, I don’t have time to pass on what’s communicated to my own team so that they can act on it.  How is that effective?  The data flow officially stopped at me- the team members below in the organization never got it.  The hyper-communication of the PMO failed because it choked the bottleneck (in this case, me).

Try to keep your communications, follow-ups, and meetings to what is truly needed.  This can be a balancing act at times.  It involves trusting people.  If you don’t, though, you will not only overwork yourself, you will create a self-fulfilling prophesy of failure- by monitoring closely the process too closely, you break the process.

These are examples of just four things that can go wrong if you go too far.  Choosing the right mix may seem like magic or art, but it’s not- it’s science.  All you need is observation skills.  Watch your team members and stakeholders.  Monitor their attitudes and what’s going on.  If people are unhappy, there’s invariably a reason for it.  Don’t drown the process in your attempt to manage it.

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