Category: Uncategorized

So I got home around 10:30 last night and there already was about four inches of snow on the ground. As I pulled into my garage, I know my truck is packing the snow on the driveway into hard ice. That is nearly impossible to get up. Then I thought…hey this is a job for the Project-team blog. Before I hit the sack I sketched out a rough project plan to start first thing in the morning.

6:00A.M.- emailed the team to begin the day announcing immediate project escalation for driveway snow removal by end of day.

Pete, my lead engineer: The driveway is 25’ x 40’ long and the snow is 6 inches deep. Please determine the cubic feet of snow removal and determine the most cost efficient shovel for the job. Oh, and we may have packed ice under snow. Find a tool for that, too.

John, our labor liaison: Get with Pete and determine the number of man hours needed to remove the snow…will we need one, two…three labor resources to complete on time? Remember, we need the job finished by 5pm today. Please provide estimated labor expense accordingly.

Les, in materials procurement: Please let Pete know if any ice melt is available. Please advise as to whether there are any has mat concerns and what costs are associated with procurement.

To All: I will be on site to assess progress and will be available throughout the morning. The plan is to begin removal by noon…let’s get to work…my wife has Christmas shopping to finish!

9:00AM: received message from Pete. He has located a shovel at Lowes for $15.99 and a tile remover for the ice, $34.99.

Pete: please get a P.O. together and have Dave Johnson and Allison Fields sign off immediately. We need their signatures by 10:30 A.M. because Betty Thomas (CFO) has an 11:00 AM. and is heading straight to the airport for Christmas break. We have to have Betty’s final approval before we can purchase equipment from Lowes.

10:00AM: John sent IM stating we can only get one labor resource because all the others are currently working at 98% capacity. We can only have the one available person from 2-4pm.

10:15AM: Pete: Just ran the numbers and we can have the ice removed utilizing one person in 3.5 hrs.

10:20AM: I replied to Pete…SCOPE CHANGE! I forgot we need to include the front side walk and porch. We are talking an additional 70 square feet! Please get back to me on man hours needed.

10:40AM: Message from Pete: We will need an additional 30 minutes for the sidewalk and porch… almost a 15% increase. I will get with John and see if we can secure additional resources.

11:00AM: Email to Pete…Have you got the P.O. approved…what is your ETA for getting equipment to site?

11:10AM: reply from Pete: We only have Allison’s signature, Dave is out sick. I will need to get Eric Jansen to sign off in place of Dave. Then I still have to catch Betty for her signature…working on it!

11:45 AM: Message from Pete: I have Dave’s signature trying to catch Betty before she leaves the building.

12:20PM: Message from John: I can’t get additional resources. I know we are behind on our project plan, but it looks like we have to go with what we have.

12:27PM: Message from Pete: It looks like I missed Betty, her 11:00 A.M. meeting was cancelled and she took an early flight. Can you get a petty cash disbursement for the equipment? (I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner!)

12:30PM: My reply to all:

Project Snow Team,
Due to a minor scope change and lack of funding the snow removal project has been delayed and it looks like I will just have to do it myself. Take the rest of the day off and have a Merry Christmas!

My definition of “default behavior” is: doing what 90% of the world’s population does, when faced with a new or unfamiliar situation.  Panic and give up.  Let me explain.

The “average guy on the street” almost always acts the same way when faced with something new or unfamiliar.  He throws up his hands and asks for help.  No thought.  No research.  Just give up and ask for someone else to do it for him.  “Tell me how to do it.”

If you expect to manage projects or people, you must learn how to think independently.  And learn how to handle unfamiliar situations without exhibiting “default behavior.”  Here are some examples:

You are asked to download a program:

Default behavior: “What’s the URL again?”

Better: Google the name or look it up in your list of products.

 

You are asked to reconfigure all the users in a certain program:

Default behavior: Call tech support and ask how

Better: Explore the program and learn it

 

Your project is over-budget and stalled:

Default behavior: Ask for more money, time, and resources

Better: Huddle up and cut secondary priorities

 

You may not suffer from these exact scenarios, but the general advice is sound.  Learn to recognize your responses to unfamiliar and stressful situations, and improve them beyond the default behavior.  Career advancement depends upon it!

–ray

Here’s a small piece of advice registering as a user on this (or any other blog).  Don’t look like a spammer.  Because your account will get deleted for sure.  We won’t even ask first.

What do I mean by that?  Make sure you provide a little personal information about yourself.  Nothing that will get you into trouble, but enough to let us know you’re a human being instead of a spambot.  Spammers attack the blogs regularly, trying to register with fake names so they can post “comments,” which are really just ads for crap.  Its a despicable practice, one that requires a complete lack of integrity and moral backbone.  But hey, if your in the spam biz, you don’t have those luxuries.

–admin

CIO Insight had a short article that got my attention.  See the link below.  It caught my attention because it lists the business areas where CIO’s are not typically involved.

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Foreward/What-IT-Leaders-Dont-Do/

Areas CIO’s are not involved: 

1. Choose geographical markets to enter
2. Choose product markets to enter
3. Choose product lines to enter
4. Hiring non-IT employees
5. Acquiring other companies
6. Merging with other companies

 

I’d like to hear your opinion!  Should CIO’s be involved in these areas?  The first three are the domain of sales and marketing executives, and the last three belong to the CEO (who the CIO normally reports to).  So what involvement should the CIO have in these areas?  I would think little, if any.

CIO’s typically care about the information infrastructure of their organizations.  So how do these things apply to that.  Well, there’s web sites, databases, web services, network traffic, logins, etc, etc, etc.  I suppose that’s a fair degree of overlap.  But does it warrant anything more than a token seat at the conference table (when discussing the issues)?

Your thoughts?

 

 

–ray

I have been in sales and marketing for some time now and I work with Project Managers (PM’s) nearly everyday. It struck me the other day how similar PM’s and sales forces really are. Project Managers are sales people on many levels. Project Managers often have to sell the benefit of an idea to get their teams motivated. Project Managers identify problem areas to avoid, as do sales professionals.

An interesting twist on this is taking the problem a step further and identifying the problems’ implications and consequenses in any given project.  It is one thing to note a specific problem, but if you really want to wake the team up, talk about the implications of that problem in greater detail. Bring up examples of likely scenarios and issues that could arise. By stressing the implications, you will put a magnifying glass on the issue and focus on the ways to avoid that pothole! After all, problems come and go, but the consequences may not.

 

–Warren

Being consistent in your management style and personality is important for success. One of the first lessons in parenting is being consistent.  If you discipline your child one time for something, but then ignore that same thing a different time, you are sending a confusing mixed message.  Obviously, your project team members are not children, but the principle still applies.

Our teams depend on us for leadership and direction. As managers, if we are on a roller-coaster of emotion, our project teams will be all mixed up.

My manager when projects are late

Inconsistent behavior stifles creativity and does not allow a tolerable environment for ideas to be exchanged.  If a team member is not sure how you will react from one day to the next, they are less likely to be forthcoming with ideas and suggestions.

No matter how crazy a project becomes or how much stress leaders are under, we must be the model of consistency.  Like the commercial says, “never let them see you sweat.”

 

–Warren

Our company develops a line of products.  We sell the same off-the-shelf design to many customers.  They all essentially get the same thing: a downloadable product with a certain set of features.  But there is always somebody that needs something a little different.  That’s when they become “special.”

Developing special features for a single customer can pose special challenges to an off-the-shelf product.  This post discusses three of those challenges.

My biggest concern is punishing 99% of the customers with a feature that only 1% will use.  Suppose you add a new feature to the product that 1% of your “special” customers will use.  The other 99% may not understand it.  That’s a bad thing.  They’ll think they need to understand it, and will spend time studying it, only to learn that it does not apply.  My advice: make sure that doesn’t happen.  Bury it where only the most adventurous will find it.

The next concern is maintenance.  If you create a new feature for one customer, guess what…  You’ll have to make sure it stays working forever.  It will cost you money as long as you maintain it.  Make sure you get that money up-front, or in maintenance payments along the way.

Have you given any thought to the effect your “special” features have on the rest of the product?  In other words, will these one-off features break something else.  The more complex a product is, the more likely collateral damage will occur.

The upshot is that special features cost more money than you might think.  But you have to do them to gain new customers and satify existing ones.  It’s all part of the game.  Just make sure you are profitable doing it.

 

–newshirt

We’ve all heard the saying, “the customer is always right.”  So when a customer and vendor disagree, it implies the vendor is always wrong.  I realize this is a customer service driven idea meant to teach us to take care of our customers.

However, I have seen companies blame vendors all too often, without examining their own shortcomings.  This is an epidemic in our culture, it’s always someone else’s fault and no one wants to be accountable!

Just this week I had an opportunity to do business with a major U.S. company.  A company most everyone has heard of but will remain nameless.  To my surprise I lost their business at the last moment.  In fact, one of the VP’s had stated just days before, “I am ready to cut you a check tomorrow.”  The deal was done, right?  Well, not exactly…after a lot of meetings and numerous discussions met with many delays.  I was told that we (the vendor) were missing a key component.  What’s ironic is that I did countless demo’s and was assured that the deal was done.  The missing feature was never mentioned.  Then bam, it’s over!

We may have been able to accommodate this last minute need, but we’ll never know! We will continue to do business and press forward and I will examine what I could have done differently. 

How can a major company have a year and a half of meetings, discussions, and reach the end of a path only to find out that they didn’t really know what they wanted and then simply brush it off as a vendor problem?  It always hurts to lose business, but the vendor isn’t always be wrong.

–Warren