Is this an inexperienced PM?

Post #247,169 by Steve Lowe 3/8/06 12:08:53 AM Reply	Is this an inexperienced PM? From your descriptions I'd call him either inexperienced or incompetent. If he's inexperienced, he shouldn't be working on a project of this magnitude without tutelage, and his boss should know and provide that. If he's incompetent he should be removed from the PM role immediately. In either case, the project is doomed unless it gets proper management, IMO. -- Steve [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu]
Post #247,179 by broomberg 3/8/06 6:39:04 AM Reply	Pretty much a bit of both He was a mediocre VB / SQL Server programmer who moved to PM several years ago. All his projects were almost all small, Windows based systems. Anytime they floundered, he could jump in and code himself. His code was pretty bad, but when the project is small, and it is your reponsibility to declare victory, then you can get away with it.
Post #247,199 by Steve Lowe 3/8/06 11:21:14 AM Reply	Ouch Several years in PM - and 1) isn't using establushed corporate PM tools, 2) doesn't understand the schedule importance, 3) isn't taking stakeholder's needs into consideration, and 4) hasn't learned to be honest, particularly about the schedule. In my experience, there's 3 main thrusts to a project: scope, schedule and cost. Of those, the least flexible is the schedule, then the scope, and finally the budget. -- Steve [link\|http://www.ubuntulinux.org\|Ubuntu]
Post #247,269 by drewk 3/8/06 7:29:01 PM Reply	Unfortunately you're only sort-of right re: flexibility I agree with the perception that schedule is the least flexible, and that scope is a fair sacrifice to that. The disagreement I have is with the idea that you can somehow achieve schedule by increasing cost. In IT it just doesn't work that way. Mythical Man Month anybody? The only way to make schedule via cost is to spend up front. If you find you're coming in early, you can probably cut resources to save cost. If you're on time with more resources than you thought you'd need, your estimates were off and the buffer you built in was a good investment. If you're coming in late, you're coming in late. Anyone who tries to buy time with money is actually paying in quality. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #247,282 by ben_tilly 3/8/06 9:04:45 PM Reply	Actually IT does work that way. To some extent. While I agree that it is easy to spend lots of money and get no schedule improvements, it is possible to spend money in ways that will reduce schedule. For instance if you need a Perl project done yesterday and money is no object, I can name [link\|http://www.stonehenge.com/\|consulting companies] that can do it. More generally, most projects have some parts that could be parallelized if you had additional resources. Usually companies have those resources, but they are not available because they are doing other things. If you're willing to pay the cost of having those other things not happen, you can add temporary resources. And as you say, spending up front is usually the best way to achieve schedule reduction. However the tradeoffs that you can achieve are limited. And you quickly find that the schedule reduction that is achievable is limited, while the cost of those diminishing returns raises quickly. That's what I understood the observation that "schedule is the least flexible" to mean. Furthermore most people who control these budgets don't know enough about IT to understand what ways they can spend money and save on schedule, and what ways they can spend it and blow their schedule. Given how greatly the latter outnumbers the former, their odds of achieving a schedule reduction through spending money are minimal. Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #247,284 by drewk 3/8/06 9:08:16 PM Reply	Which works out, in practice, to what I said the first time === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #247,202 by ben_tilly 3/8/06 11:28:40 AM Reply	Be interested to hear about the fallout I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #247,264 by broomberg 3/8/06 6:41:57 PM Reply	Spoke to him He left a message on my phone at 2:30. Was vaguely apologetic. I was away from my office, I did a quick touch base at 5PM, and will contact him Friday morning for a recap. I assume he went to his boss for direction, his boss said make nice with me and figure out my issues. Now that it is on the table this way, I'd expect there to be either some serious scope rephrasing or schedule expansion. I simply will not allow it to go any other way, and HIS boss needs this to work. She is quite aware on a failure I'd interviewed by the company president, and with this email as part of the paper trail there is no way anyone can escape unscathed.
Post #247,283 by ben_tilly 3/8/06 9:06:44 PM Reply	Cool beans It sounds like you're going to have to spend some time training an idiot how to not screw up. But after that your company will have a better-trained idiot, which is always an improvement. (I didn't say worthwhile, just improvement.) Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)

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