There is a disease in project management called to do listing and the infection is spread by micromanagers and sponsors who think the project management is nothing more than making a list of everything that everybody should do. This focus on activities leads to team members who mindlessly follow the nitpicking project manager's lists, even if all the steps are not necessary. It also creates team members who have no stake in the project and no interest in active problem-solving or overcoming obstacles. They just follow the to do list.
Our newest article, managing with achievements not activities highlights the difference in techniques used by project managers who are consistently successful and those who just have long to do lists.
Best regards
Dick
Dick Billows, PMP, GCA
President 4pm.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
While I basically agree with your comment, I do believe that too many project managers do NOT manage the tasks for their projects and therefore their projects go off the rails. It's a balance that too many people can't master. Once you are able to take care of the "little things" then you can manage the big things.
I have to admit I have been a very successfull with micro-managed program director for two years in the past. I always understood the detail my Project Managers were given me and knew what was going on. But I am beginning to see the life I could gain with thinking about achievement driving project managment. I have actually started one of my current projects down this path. My sponsor really understands what I am trying to do for her. My CEO really understands what affect this has for the Company. I did have one downside though, the developer I am setting up for the Work package can not divorce herself from the old days of project lifecycle management.
For example I gave her one package "Add a website GUI for an Energy Assistant Agency to pledge money real time on behalf of customers that are having challanges paying their gas bills." She says this is great, but where do you want me to change the design, unit test, and integration test time to?
I guess like all changes this will take some time to build this competency from the development team.
i agree with steven when he says that balance is the key. i think that todo lists can work in many situations because it helps stay organized, but it can also be a bad idea to rely on them.
Yes that is right. To do lists are one thing but prioritising them is another. A project manager must work together with its team members to decide whether the tasks identified are actually important, when they must be completed or if they must be done at all.
Hi Dick,
While I agree with your sentiments it seems to me that what you are talking about with achievements is defining the goals of your project.
The goal in itself does not prescribe how it should be done (i.e. the tasks) so allows the team to be more creative about how they will go about achieving the goal.
The danger is of course that the team might decide to use the most elaborate path to achieving the goal, e.g. first survey all the stakeholders, then get some public opinion, get in an expect analyst for the data, etc, etc.
Like Steven said, the key is get the balance right between goal driven (achievement focused) and task driven management.
I think, you are differentiating activity & achievement with one line - clear expectation or set result/output for every assignment so that it can be measured. I agree to what you are saying.
But i believe it really depends on the kind & size & complexity of the project and its up to Project Manager to take decision on it and assign the tasks.
And in terms of result/out/expectation, its fairly possible that it could not be described in single line and it could referred to some requirement specs or technical specs (especially for software projects).
So the key message is, Project Manager should ensure each task is assigned or delegated clearly with very clear expectation (could set result/expectation in some doc, pdf, one line brief, image etc) to help team member to do his/her job better and eventually to deliver the project with expected quality. It is also good to set review process over team member's work by Dev Lead or senior member. This will be additional check that will catch the issues before it goes to quality/testing department and help to cut down the cost and bug cycle.
I hope above information would help!
This is an interesting point of view. I have a team of web developers (idiles.com) and we strive to manage our projects well. At first we were using RUP project management framework, then we switched to agile approach and now we use Scrum. This is true that to-do lists do not work if team members has no understanding about responsibility and do not love their work. And Scrum says: leave your team alone for a sprint, allow then to find the best way of managing themselves. For some time we have been developing Gainlog (gainlog.com) and used it to manage our work. I think that we have achieved a good balance: we use task lists, track our time and discuss how we could improve the process. I believe in harmony: if all aspects of project managements are touched (like planning, risk management, communication, activity tracking and problem solving), it should go well.
Post a Comment