I had an interesting conversation this past week with a new project manager who works for one of our project office clients. Our staff was reviewing newly submitted project plans and found one that was extraordinarily detailed (it may be a new record for micro-management). I called the PM and asked why her work breakdown had so many tasks of such short duration; some as small as one and two hours in durations.
She said, "My boss wants no mistakes on this project and really tight control."
I asked, "But will your team members be submitting twice daily status reports?"
She laughed and said,. "That would be ridiculous; it'll be hard enough getting weekly status information on all these tasks."
I agreed and said, "Then don't you think you're going just a touch too far to have one and two hour tasks that we'll never actually track while they were in-process."
"I guess that's right. But how will people know what to do?," The new PM asked.
What's the answer to her question? Can we save her from micro-management?
2 comments:
I had this same problem when I first started managing software projects. In an effort to track all resource time and movements on a project, I was confusing work packages with step-by-step instructions; the latter was insulting to competent team members. I was also receiving lots tasks that resources had added themselves in an effort to account for their time.
Along came a highly experienced PM mentor who convinced me to decompose the project down to the true deliverable-oriented level. If the line item task in the schedule didn't result in a tangible deliverable, chances are it was too granular. Define what is to be done, now how to do it. If you are defining how to do it, then you are a technical lead, not a project manager.
In tracking resource usage, except for periodic status meetings and other (rare) administrative work, even work sessions and meetings that team members hold should be oriented toward producing a service or product that has been defined (through a proper WBS) to contribute to the project objectives.
Status reports on what the projecte team members are doing can be tracked down efficiently by way of making the WBS into achievements. Yes the duration also matters. But if they are measurable achievements rather than just being a task, it will be easy to track the progress and success of the achievement. I am sure the Boss will also be comfortable viewing the progress of "measurable Achievements". It is only when they do not know about this, they drive the PM crazy to get into micro-management and end up having a big to-do list. If the PM can get the WBS into measurable achivements, it is also easier to convince the Boss since it becomes easier for non-tech people also to understand the status reports on the project progress.
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