Match Project Assignments to Performer Capability
June 13th, 2005 by Hal The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week |
| 042: Match Project Assignments to Performer Capability |
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If you've been around the lean movement for even a short time, then you've encountered the Japanese term muda; it means waste. Lean gets shortened to mean do only those things that add value for the customer. This is an over-simplification. Toyota uses two other terms: muri — overburdening people, process, the system, or equipment — and mura — unevenness or undue variation in the process or product. To be lean, whether in a production setting or a project setting, it takes addressing all three, usually concurrently. One of the mistakes we make on our projects that keeps us from being lean is planning for the work without regard to who will do the task and that person's capability and interests. Some teams go so far as to plan full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel. This has the effect of de-personalizing (de-humanizing?) the work of the project team. The result is a plan, schedule, and budget that don't match the reality of the project. And we wonder why a project plan is not achievable? Good project planning matches the work with the interests and capability of the specific people on your project. Even the beginner project manager understands that competence matters when we ask people to do a task. Interests might matter more. A team member who wants to learn something new comes to the task internally motivated to do his/her best. A person who loves one kind of activity but dreads another will perform differently on the two kinds of work. What is a project manager to do? Simply, talk to your team as a whole to learn what people are capable of doing, what they have time to do, and what work most inspires them. Then do your project planning. Oh, and do that plan as a team exercise rather than your own task. There's no telling what you'll learn from them! When you are done you'll have a project plan that doesn't inadvertently over-burden your team. That's not to say that at one time or anther there won't be a crunch doing the work. But you'll know that and you'll know that you've matched the task to a specific person. Next week I'll offer a tip on minimizing mura on your project.
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June 14th, 2005 at 5:01 am
Thank you for that post Hal. I always learn something when reading your blog.
June 14th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Good insight. I’ve always wondered about the projects that went sour. Looking back several did not fit the PM.