Project Team Blog

Have you seen the FedEx commercial with the half-pipe?  It’s halarious! As employees crash all over the place, the big boss discusses how much time FedEx is saving them, but then asks, “So why aren’t we getting more done”. One of the managers says, “Maybe we should get rid of the half pipe?” The boss ponders for a moment and says, “No, the half pipe stays.”

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5qwxqm683c

 

This kind of environment exploded during the tech boom. The feeling was that all of the dot com’s were going to make millions and competition was not a problem.  In order to recruit young talent, companies offered more than the standard benefits, i.e. health insurance, company car, etc. They offered a work environment that became a place where individualism rules. This is where today’s job market and yesterday’s collide.

 

When my father entered the work place I can picture an old-timer standing at the front of the office cracking a whip. Nobody likes that. Today we have moved to the opposite extreme. We get free massages and our choice of gourmet coffee. There are ping pong and foosball tables and the most distracting item of all…the internet! It’s easy to spend hours on the web planning vacations, reading articles and checking out American Idol results.

 

In my opinion Ramiele can sing. I think she was robbed. They should’ve sent Kristy Lee Cook home!  But that just makes my point. I am guilty like the rest. I could be more focused, after all what’s more important: the survival of my job, or playing on a half-pipe? But secretly… I hope Carly Smithson wins. What do you think?

 

–Warren

Do you use project planning software like Microsoft Project to develop project plans?  How’s that working for you?  I have a problem with it, and I’d like to find an elegant solution.

What’s the problem?  Well, building project plans is no trouble.  I can lay down the phases and breakdowns, add tasks, and assign them to employees just fine.  That’s the easy part.  I can even track time to tasks.  The problem I have is managing them later.

Let’s face it, project plans go obsolete the first week you create them.  Something’s bound to change, and managing all those changes is hard.  Yes, I know that’s what the PMO office does.  But keeping project schedules current rubs me like a cheese grater.  It’s an unnecessary overhead, and almost never gets done right.  Tasks move, change scope, go away, get added, etc, etc, etc.  You know what a headache it is…

Anybody have a better way?

–ray

There’s almost nothing good you can say about a plant closing.  Especially with potentially 9,000 people losing their jobs.  (See: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Dell-Closing-Austin-PC-Plant-in-Cost-Cutting-Drive/ )

The PC vendor announced March 31 that it would begin cutting costs and improving its efficiency in the second half of 2009 fiscal year. Besides announcing the closing of the Austin plant, Dell reaffirmed that it plans to eliminate nearly 9,000 positions as part of the cost cutting.

 The only thing I’d like to say is, “fight for it!”  I remember working for a huge company, where the average workday (in our engineering department) was five hours.  Of course, this was a 8-hour shift, but nobody worked it.  We got our coffee in the morning, caught up on the previous night’s adventures, and then did a little work before lunch.  After lunch, a little more work, and then water cooler discussions of the evening’s plans.

Needless to say, that company cut 40,000 jobs in the late 80’s.  I don’t remember ever fighting for the company’s survival, or even for competitive positioning.  The culture simply wasn’t there.

I’m sure this is not the case with Dell.  They are highly competitive.  Sometimes things like this are out of our control.  But let’s fight for our positions anyway!

–ray

Thank you for visiting projectteamblog.com!  This is our inaugural post, and we’re happy you’ve joined us.

This blog is dedicated to project teams.  We work with teams every day, developing project management products for them, and supporting them.  We work with executives, project managers, engineers, and all types of employees.

Our specialties are project plans, managing resources, and tracking projects.  Companies use projects to bill clients, develop products, build in-house tools, service customers, implement software, and plenty of other reasons.  Sometimes project costs are most important, sometimes completion time, and sometimes employee allocation.  Everyone uses projects for different reasons.  We recognize that, and will try to address our readers interests.  Please feel free to suggest topics you are interested in.

We know you’re busy, so we’ll try to keep our posts brief.  Feel free to drop by any time.  And good luck in your business!

–ray