Reply to: Why is the Quality of PMs so low?

[MPwannadecentincome]

Question then for all you people who PM out there

If the project is delayed due to non delivery by a team member is that your fault as PM or thier fault?

The PM's fault for not being on top of the project and not escalating it early enough.

Next

If you address this with the non delivering member's boss and they have limited interest in the project they will back their staff member to the hilt whilst leaving you dangling in the wind - then what options do you have?

If this was picked up early enough then the commitment of that department / manager or lack of commitment can be escalated to the steering group whilst also finding out why there is a delivery issue from this member of staff, otherwise, its hand's up PM get the rotten eggs pelted at you and find some recovery mechanism.

Biggest issue you will come across is the lack of cohesion at the Exec level - for example the MD wants a project done half the board think it is required half the board do not - one of the main reasons why half the projects we try to work on are doomed before the first Gant is even produced.

This one is hard it depends on your relationship with the relevant board members however killing a project off "in time" is more effective that letting a bad one finish.

[suityou01]

Not too much longer, then SY01 will be coming out for a pint (with the laydees) and laughing.

You bet.

[Zippy]

Not too much longer, then SY01 will be coming out for a pint (with the laydees) and laughing.

[Pogle]

Sobs uncontrollably into his pint,


whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????????? ???????

Aw bless

[suityou01]

Why is it that the quality of PMs is so terribly low compared to the techies they "manage"? I occasionally have to deal with an irritating twat here (luckily being a PM, he's much lower down the food chain than me) - and he really is a a bull-tulipting know-nothing. Loves the sound of his own voice though and can hold forth for ages after which you wonder what exactly he has just said.
Think I'll get him sacked.

Sobs uncontrollably into his pint,


whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????????? ???????

[Hawkeye]

Question then for all you people who PM out there

If the project is delayed due to non delivery by a team member is that your fault as PM or thier fault?

Always your fault. They might not be delivering but it is the PM who is not managing them correctly. If they are wasting time, not doing their work, needing to be micromanaged etc etc then get them out of the team. One bad behaved team member can result in a domino effect across the team resulting in poor delivery. A strong team needs to be built then managed by the PM.

[original PM]

I think we are all in agreement. Have got PM duties dumped on me and I can completely understand the frustrations and difficulties (particularly managing upwards )
I know this isn't a fashionable view on here, but I did find daily scrum meetings to be helpful in keeping on top of things.

Let's all stick together - unless you are SY01's PM.

Its true daily scrum meetings are useful - but a big problem comes if your team is scattered over all four corners of the uk (or even worse the world!) it is not feasible nor practical to do this. Conference calls work but only to an extent - it is too easy for people to take the piss and not do the work.

Question then for all you people who PM out there

If the project is delayed due to non delivery by a team member is that your fault as PM or thier fault?

Next

If you address this with the non delivering member's boss and they have limited interest in the project they will back their staff member to the hilt whilst leaving you dangling in the wind - then what options do you have?

Biggest issue you will come across is the lack of cohesion at the Exec level - for example the MD wants a project done half the board think it is required half the board do not - one of the main reasons why half the projects we try to work on are doomed before the first Gant is even produced.

[Zippy]

I think we are all in agreement. Have got PM duties dumped on me and I can completely understand the frustrations and difficulties (particularly managing upwards )
I know this isn't a fashionable view on here, but I did find daily scrum meetings to be helpful in keeping on top of things.

Let's all stick together - unless you are SY01's PM.

[MPwannadecentincome]

4b (and this is the worst offence) Estimating on behalf of the developers, then getting pissed off when deadlines are not met.

I'm sure contractor's don't do this but one thing that is most unhelpful to a PM is asking for help with an estimate and not getting anything useful back either because the developers are incapable of providing anything useful or are too busy, whilst the PM is expected to manage stakeholder and business expectations at the same time - remember the business are very good at asking for 20 things to which need to be estimated, sometimes this needs a full-time person just to respond to these. My way of managing this is to create a pipeline for future work and manage the lifecycle of this pipeline - yes introducing some process as the process here may be bureaucracy but this works to my advantage in buying some time to get the request analysed properly and putting the business off when making stupid requests.

2. Fiddling around with MS Project

There are a lot of people who would say if there is not a project plan published then there is no commitment to the delivery. Even if the team have agreed a date if there is no plan / schedule showing how the team will get to that date then the date would not be believed. So unfortunately fiddling with MS Project is a necessity, what is not necessary is to go down to the umpteenth level of detail on a daily basis.

Here, agree a design before you start to code would be a big help.

would be nice, not all projects have the luxury of time, if the board want to announce something before agreeing with all the suppliers that they could deliver so that they look good to their shareholders / customers / renumeration board then you either try to work with it or eff off. tulip happens. Often.

[Zippy]

Here, agree a design before you start to code would be a big help.

You are having a bit of a 'mare at the moment, aren't you? Still on the button-free thing?

Would some spicy food help?

[d000hg]

Everyone ends up agreeing with me. Its because I'm usually right.

Alternatively, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[alreadypacked]

Er no. Stuff does overrun, and for lots of reasons. As a PM you are supposed to be able to spot this quickly. To get it back on track (and if you are lucky), you might have some options
- get more resources (goes tits up more often than not)
- drop some of the lower priority stuff (you do get em working on the high pri stuff first?)
- get more time
- fight scope creep

Donuts do not work.

Here, agree a design before you start to code would be a big help.

[Zippy]

Interesting - as a PM you are expected to manage that so it does not overrun.

You can comms up the food chain make sure you have the documentation to cover the azz but the question still remains.

"The team have given you their deadlines which they have committed to achieving - they are not delivering what do you do to get things back on track?"

apparently Donuts appears to be one answer not sure how much effect that will have but will file it away under possibles!

Er no. Stuff does overrun, and for lots of reasons. As a PM you are supposed to be able to spot this quickly. To get it back on track (and if you are lucky), you might have some options
- get more resources (goes tits up more often than not)
- drop some of the lower priority stuff (you do get em working on the high pri stuff first?)
- get more time
- fight scope creep

Donuts do not work.

[Hawkeye]

Interesting - as a PM you are expected to manage that so it does not overrun.

You can comms up the food chain make sure you have the documentation to cover the azz but the question still remains.

"The team have given you their deadlines which they have committed to achieving - they are not delivering what do you do to get things back on track?"

apparently Donuts appears to be one answer not sure how much effect that will have but will file it away under possibles!

Options could be:
1. You have to have good reasons and go back to higher management for more time and extend your plan to reflect the delays. Change Request to agree new delivery date.

2. You could encourage flexible working. Sometimes I have had my team work lates with the view that when the project moves into testing that they can work shorter days and still be paid for a full days work.

3. You re-plan and take on more heads but this will not always work unless you have knowledgeable resources on tap (I have had this once where a developer was moved onto another project and I pulled him back on to assist). Time to get up to speed normally takes weeks.

[original PM]

Bloody hell do we have here a PM who wants to learn?

always!