Archive for the ‘Project Management’ Category
Project banana skins
The discarded peel of the fruit of musa acuminata has been used by many cartoonists and animators to extract a few laughs while making a point about unexpected and unforeseen dangers. Project management jargon refers to such hazards as unknown unknowns, a term that got some media attention a few years ago through the the near-poetic utterances of an erstwhile Secretary of Defense. The perilous peel provides an excellent metaphor for unknown risks that can cause project managers to slip up.
What I like about the banana skin metaphor is that it suggests ways in which project managers can prepare for unforeseen events that could derail their projects. These risk mitigation strategies, as they are referred to in the Advanced Project Pedant’s Dictionary, are well known. However, the analogy affords an opportunity to view these from a different perspective. So here they are – simple strategies for avoiding project banana skins:
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Watch where you’re going…: This has got to be at the top of the list. If you don’t look ahead, you’re definitely going to make involuntary metatarsal contact with any peels that are in your path. Yes, I know it’s impossible to foretell the future, but it is often possible to foresee potential problems by staying in touch with what’s going on on your project. This includes being aware of status of deliverables, potential problems (as seen by indivdual team members) etc. etc.
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…but look around too: Perhaps you see no peels in your path at present. However, that doesn’t mean one won’t appear later – people eat bananas all the time, and not always within range of a garbage bin. Often project managers focus on their work to the exclusion of all else happening in the organisation. Always remember that there’s a larger world out there, one which can affect your project in unexpected ways. An example: a senior developer defects to the competition unexpectedly. It is therefore important to stay informed of developments that could have consequences for your project. A good way to do this is by developing informal channels of communication within the organisation.
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Pad your posterior: Despite your best efforts, you will at some point go heels-over-head on account of a fruit peel. Padding your rear can help reduce some of the nastier consequences of the encounter. Such protection against unforeseen occurrences is sometimes referred to as management reserve in project (and risk) management jargon. This usually amounts to a monetary allowance for the adverse fallout – for example, funding for a contractor to replace the disloyal developer.
An authoritative source claims that present-day pedestrians possess immensely improved peel perception. It now remains for project managers to follow suit. The foregoing suggestions may help.
Collaborative project sales and implementation
Many businesses implement their IT projects with the help of external parties such as consulting or software firms. In these projects, the eventual outcome – success or failure – depends critically on the relationship between the business (the customer) and the external party (the vendor). At one extreme, the relationship could be almost adversarial – which happens quite often. At the other, it could be collaborative – which happens not often enough. A recent paper entitled: A negotiation approach to project sales and implementation, published in the Project Management Journal provides a framework to support and enhance the latter approach. In this post I review the paper from a practical perspective , asking the question, “Does the paper offer any insights or ideas of immediate value to a practising project manager?”.
The short answer is a qualified, “Yes”. Read on for more.
The authors contend that project related negotiations typically suffer from the following shortcomings:
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Negotiations between the customer and vendor, which take place at various stages of the project, are typically “local” – i.e. they’re made in isolation, without much regard to possible consequences on subsequent phases of the project.
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The parties approach each of these local negotiations with only their own interests in mind, leading to a win-lose or distributive approach wherein one party gains at the expense of the other.
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People involved in the discussions are typically not trained negotiators. Consequently they approach the negotiations in an unsystematic manner.
To overcome these shortcomings the authors suggest the following:
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A project be viewed as a continuous process of joint decision-making that lasts through the project. The operative words are the italicised ones – emphasising that optimal outcomes can only be achieved through:
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a project-wide view as opposed to a local one and,
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a win-win or integrative approach to negotiations.
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The discipline of negotiation analysis be used to analyse and prepare for negotiations.
Negotiation analysis combines techniques from game theory, decision analysis and behavioural decision analysis . Additionally, negotiation analysis also includes subjective information, such as perceptions etc., that do not have analytical backing. It also acknowledges that negotiations often end up leaving both parties with sub-optimal (or inefficient) outcomes. This essentially because the negotiating parties do not exchange information that would enable them to reach efficient agreements – i.e. the parties do not collaborate. The goal of negotiation analysis is to improve collaborative (or joint) decision making to the benefit of all parties involved.
A large part of the paper is devoted to discussing the authors’ conceptual framework for project negotiations. I suspect many practising project managers will find the treatment a tad theoretical and somewhat idealised. That said, the authors do make practical suggestions on how a qualitative application of negotiation analysis can assist in managing project negotiations. I found the paper interesting, and recommend it to practitioners, if only for the suggestions it offers in improving ad-hoc approaches to project negotiations.
References:
Kujala, J., Murtoaro, J. and Artto, K., A Negotiation Approach to Project Sales and Implementation, Project Management Journal, 38 (4), 33-44(2007).
_ Driven Development
In recent years there’s been a proliferation of _ Driven Development methodologies, where the underscore can be substituted by just about any letter of the alphabet. Some examples include: Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), Feature Driven Development (FDD) and Test Driven Development (TDD). What is perhaps not as well known, is that the world of in-house application development has its own A to Z of _DD methodologies. In this post I offer short notes on those that have gained popularity (notoreity?) in Corporate IT shops.
For convenience (mainly mine!) I go through half the alphabet here, with the strictly non-binding promise to cover the remainder in a future post.
Off we go then:
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Arbitrarily Driven Development: ADD, which has many adherents in the corporate world, is characterised by a complete lack of planning or process. Also see item 3 below. This is sometimes referred to as Cowboy Coding.
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Bulldust Driven Development: BDD is employed when end users don’t have a clue as to what they want. An (often unstated) implication is that developers don’t have a clue either.
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Confusion Driven Development: See ADD above.
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Desperation Driven Development: DDD, which is characterised by frantic, undirected activity, is often resorted to when a project runs short of time, money or any other resources.
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Everyone Driven Development: This is used when every user (and potential user) wants to have a say in defining application requirements.
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Finance Driven Development: Useful when saving money is the major consideration. The methodology is characterised by ruthless cutting of corners rather than code.
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Google Driven Development: Development by way of this methodology is popular when the project team doesn’t have a firm grasp of the technology involved. Consequently the team spends many hours filling in the gaps via the well-known search engine.
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Helicopter Driven Development: This occurs when the effort is lead (piloted?) by someone with a birds-eye of the project. Difficult and nitpicky details tend to be glossed over, much to the distress of developers.
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Idiot Driven Development: This is where the project decision-maker has strong opinions coupled with little sense. See this post on Scott Berkun’s blog for more. Note that he uses a stronger, perhaps more appropriate, word to describe the decision-maker. This methodology is also known as…
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Jackass Driven Development: See Idiot Driven Development above.
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Killjoy Driven Development: Is when the project lead is a confirmed pessimist who keeps going on about how the team’s never going to make the deadline.
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Luck Driven Development: This happens when the team hasn’t a prayer of making the deadline. They press on regardless, relying on Lady Luck to do the right thing by them.
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Myopia Driven Development: This is when the project lead and the project team have no visibility of the project beyond a few days. Some dignify this mode of working by claiming they’re using Rolling Wave Planning. Don’t be fooled, though; they really don’t know where they’re headed.
Admittedly, these methodologies aren’t as well known as others that have gained acceptance through their utility or agility. This post is my small contribution in increasing general awareness of these (strictly non-agile) development methodologies.
Stay tuned for N to Z.
Eight to Late 