Comments on: Project Management Just Unnecessary Overhead? http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/ The magazine for the project age Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:09:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Claude Emond http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-468 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-468 I completely agree with your comments on Ms. Fitzgerald advices. Managing a project cannot be an underground operation or a shy, resignated adventure where you beg for support. She's on the right track on the first part when she asks for some committment to report completed tasks, thus putting some of the responsibility at the right place. However her post-mortem stuff is a team-deprived exercise, failing to recognize that it is the process of sharing feelings and opinions (the conversation) that get you to realize collectively if you were part of a success or a failure, not an end-of-project report prepared in solo by 'superprojectman'! Starting a project while being resignated and not confronting (confrontation: that's the way I do it) the stakeholders to face reality and take personal and collective responsibility for the success of the project is the sure recipe to failure. A while ago, I gave a presentation to university students (doing their Master degree in PM) where I stated that the success of a project relied entirely on the committment to say the truth and to get the truth on status, forecasts and capabilities (to meet or not to meet agreed-upon goals), at all time. I was telling students that if they had not the required means or the time to meet what was expected from them as a project manager, they just had to say NO (and tell why); a student told me (those are full grown adults having a day-time job as managers) that acting like that was like admitting that you were incompetent. My answer was that not being able to say NO, when asked for stupid deadlines and the like, was the perfect way to kill your project and be the perfect scapegoat (the incompetent in charge). For myself, I have yet to see a boss or a client rejecting my requests for support, better means and more time by saying NO to ill-thought of requests (and explaining why); and I have worked for really difficult bosses and clients, but most of them were not stupid (as the resignated project manager might think) and agreed to requested changes because they had their part to play in the success of a project and knew about it from the start, and were reminded about it by my insistant 'NOs'. Then I say 'NO' to resignation-project-management and YES to complete truth and collective accountability to tell and get the truth. Truth and realism are what makes project management (or any management venture) succeed. Voilà !! Claude I completely agree with your comments on Ms. Fitzgerald advices.
Managing a project cannot be an underground operation or a shy, resignated adventure where you beg for support.
She’s on the right track on the first part when she asks for some committment to report completed tasks, thus putting some of the responsibility at the right place.
However her post-mortem stuff is a team-deprived exercise, failing to recognize that it is the process of sharing feelings and opinions (the conversation) that get you to realize collectively if you were part of a success or a failure, not an end-of-project report prepared in solo by ’superprojectman’!
Starting a project while being resignated and not confronting (confrontation: that’s the way I do it) the stakeholders to face reality and take personal and collective responsibility for the success of the project is the sure recipe to failure.

A while ago, I gave a presentation to university students (doing their Master degree in PM) where I stated that the success of a project relied entirely on the committment to say the truth and to get the truth on status, forecasts and capabilities (to meet or not to meet agreed-upon goals), at all time. I was telling students that if they had not the required means or the time to meet what was expected from them as a project manager, they just had to say NO (and tell why); a student told me (those are full grown adults having a day-time job as managers) that acting like that was like admitting that you were incompetent. My answer was that not being able to say NO, when asked for stupid deadlines and the like, was the perfect way to kill your project and be the perfect scapegoat (the incompetent in charge).
For myself, I have yet to see a boss or a client rejecting my requests for support, better means and more time by saying NO to ill-thought of requests (and explaining why); and I have worked for really difficult bosses and clients, but most of them were not stupid (as the resignated project manager might think) and agreed to requested changes because they had their part to play in the success of a project and knew about it from the start, and were reminded about it by my insistant ‘NOs’.

Then I say ‘NO’ to resignation-project-management and YES to complete truth and collective accountability to tell and get the truth. Truth and realism are what makes project management (or any management venture) succeed. Voilà !!

Claude

]]> by: Hal http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-469 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-469 Bravo :+: Bravo :+:

]]> by: Donna Fitzgerald http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-470 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-470 I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at these comment that my advice was rooted in the fact that I was resigned to the fact that things couldn't change. Resignation simply isn’t a word in my vocabulary, so I must have chosen the wrong words or emphasized the wrong things from your perspective somewhere in my article. In the short term I will stand by my statement that any company is what it is As PM's we need to get our work done in what ever circumstances we find ourselves, and . complaining or bemoaning the fact that the company isn't different is simply a waste of time. But acceptance of this reality DOES NOT EQUAL resignation. You and I are in total agreement that nothing positive will result from an attitude of resignation or grudging acceptance. From my perspective I approach an environment that requires stealth project management as a foreign land. The customs are different and the language is different and if I want to be successful I need to figure out how I can stay true to my own set of values while at the same time not offending the natives. As I hope I have repeatedly stressed the secret is to have RESPECT for the company and their chosen culture. From my perspective resignation and respect are mutually exclusive concepts in this situation. As a side note: I want to thank who ever wrote the original review (I've seen this posted twice so I'm unsure as to the original author) for the wonderful job he did summarizing the article series and I am flattered that it interested him enough to take the time to do it in the first place. I also want to thank everyone for pointing out how easy it is to misread what I was saying. We all take certain things for granted and I appreciate beeing shown a blind spot in my thinking and in the future I will strive to be much clearer that I’m not talking about resigned acceptance of a bad situation. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at these comment that my advice was rooted in the fact that I was resigned to the fact that things couldn’t change. Resignation simply isn’t a word in my vocabulary, so I must have chosen the wrong words or emphasized the wrong things from your perspective somewhere in my article.

In the short term I will stand by my statement that any company is what it is As PM’s we need to get our work done in what ever circumstances we find ourselves, and . complaining or bemoaning the fact that the company isn’t different is simply a waste of time. But acceptance of this reality DOES NOT EQUAL resignation. You and I are in total agreement that nothing positive will result from an attitude of resignation or grudging acceptance. From my perspective I approach an environment that requires stealth project management as a foreign land. The customs are different and the language is different and if I want to be successful I need to figure out how I can stay true to my own set of values while at the same time not offending the natives. As I hope I have repeatedly stressed the secret is to have RESPECT for the company and their chosen culture. From my perspective resignation and respect are mutually exclusive concepts in this situation.

As a side note: I want to thank who ever wrote the original review (I’ve seen this posted twice so I’m unsure as to the original author) for the wonderful job he did summarizing the article series and I am flattered that it interested him enough to take the time to do it in the first place.

I also want to thank everyone for pointing out how easy it is to misread what I was saying. We all take certain things for granted and I appreciate beeing shown a blind spot in my thinking and in the future I will strive to be much clearer that I’m not talking about resigned acceptance of a bad situation.

]]> by: Donna Fitzgerald http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-471 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/2003/03/03/137/#comment-471 On to comment number 2. I was not advocating personal post project reviews as a replacement for group post project reviews. I am a complete believer in PPRs BUT I am painfully aware of the gap between what we should be doing as PMs and what most of us do as the path of least resistance. My point was that that there is never an excuse not do a personal PPR. No one can tell you no, no one can look down on you and the pay back is substantial. Again I apologize if I came across as presenting it as an either or proposition. On to comment number 2. I was not advocating personal post project reviews as a replacement for group post project reviews. I am a complete believer in PPRs BUT I am painfully aware of the gap between what we should be doing as PMs and what most of us do as the path of least resistance. My point was that that there is never an excuse not do a personal PPR. No one can tell you no, no one can look down on you and the pay back is substantial. Again I apologize if I came across as presenting it as an either or proposition.

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