The greatest obstacle to overcome – desire

I’ve been in different companies and in different positions and the one common theme throughout all is the outright avoidance for the #1 obstacle to change – desire. A company might be doing great or it might be on the way to nothingness, the people could be top notch or very mediocre, the work environment ranging from open and happy to slave-like and demeaning…processes non-existent to CMA Level 5 – there seems to be no common theme in what makes the people in the decision making position have the internal desire required for real improvement. Desire is the one base element needed for change, change is a very uneven, scary place to be, one that many people avoid at all cost…but for those with the desire, one that could provide the greatest benefits – but sometimes not.

The biggest push back often heard is that the company is doing great, or at least good enough, stay with the known and continue to gain rewards. That’s the old wait and see the train coming at you syndrome.

Another is the knowledge that a bad or poorly executed change could cost the person their job…this is actually the same as above – wait and see the train coming. If you’re not gaining and you’re treading water safely why swim? Sharks! Currents! Endurance! Sooner or later someone comes knocking at the door looking for big results.

The downside to being a project manager is that you often don’t have the decision making position and at best have a strong influence on the person/people that do. There’s no process to add desire, you can’t provide a drink for it (even though a few beers at the right time could help) and you can’t influence it beyond where the decisions makers want to go.

Solution:
Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I Cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can
And Wisdom to know the difference;

Why Quality Assurance ain’t

When you give a person an excuse to do less than the best, often times they accept it as the norm. QA is a good example of providing an easy out. Why put the effort into checking your own code, ensuring what you do is acceptable and going out of your way to program defensively when you can have someone else do that often painful, trying to get toward perfection type of work….

I have no real evidence, but I’ve seen enough evidence to show that the number of QA resources is directly proportional to the poor level of coding. You might say additional QA people are brought in to compensate for the quality of coding, I think the number of QA resources is more driven by allowed budget and the higher the budget the power the code quality….sounds strange, but I really think it’s true.

I’ve always felt that a good QA group would indirectly contribute through audits and improved processes, however – in most cases – they are designated as testers, fed bad apps after development mangling. So, at the end of the day, the hoped for gains from a QA group are often lost through the misuse of them and the re-direction of quality from the source of issues to the QA group who gets stuck at the end of the pipe instead of helping front-load quality. My suggestion: get rid of QA and lets see what the results are, I would wager improved overall quality within 30 days.

You always lose in a zero sum game – always

In the real world, where real things happen and theory hides in books there is little to gain from any interaction where one gains at the others lose. This applies directly to projects and project management.

Let’s look at a simple example: a project to improve market share in the hamburger market. The project includes creating a fancy website, iphone ordering and email marketing blitz…you currently have 30% of the market and hope for 40%...a healthy 1/3 increase. Could be worth an additional $50k a month if you get it…sounds beautiful. So you build the site, you create the iPhone app and you blitz the hell out of people until they start to associate you with the world’s best hamburger and you reach your goal….you might have spent $100k doing all of the including increasing your capacity to provide the additional hamburgers everyone wants. What happens day 2? When your competitor follows your lead or someone on the outside gets excited when they see the lines of customers waiting for your hamburgers? You didn’t really increase the overall demand, you just adjusted the finite demand…your initial costs and on-going support costs not just for the site and iphone app and email blitz, but also for the increased hamburger making capacity is still there as the hamburger seekers start to look elsewhere, the profit margins reduce and your new Mercedes is getting towed away by the repo man.

When you wrestle with any finite/zero-sum item you’re essentially spending to gain something that will eventually be lost – if you were able to increase overall demand, say from 1 in 10 people wanting hamburgers to 1.5 in 10 people wanting them, even if a share of that increase drifts to another hamburger provider you established a bigger pool to work from. The potential of going back to the demand where you started or even less is reduced.

What does any of this have to do with project management? Think of resource sharing, think of budget constraints, think of sponsor sharing – anyone or item that you have to timeshare with any other team puts you in a zero-sum game and continually puts you at a higher risk of failing at the end of the day. What you gain today in a finite pool will cost you more tomorrow to keep and cost you dearly if you begin to lose your share.

Escape Velocity – aka kick starting a project

Starting a project is often as difficult as ending a project (successfully). In my opinion, a projects success is largely based on the psychology make up of the company and more importantly the direct team. A highly motivated, functional, capable team can perform wonders…a team without the cohesion, dedication and determination needed for the given project will easily and quickly fail. One of the critical stages in a project is the start of one, a given project that is delayed, pushed to the side, ignored, frowned upon by management and/or delivery team will fail before it starts – how motivated can a team be when they are given a project no one wants or cares about, a self fulfilling prophecy. To help ensure a successful project delivery, a good project manager will recognize the need to get the team ‘pumped up’ about what they are doing, motivate them from the start, aggressively start the project and do what is required to keep the momentum going…just like basic physics, a stationary or slow moving object requires more energy to move…a project that is blasted off, heading in the right direction and one where all team members are locked in step will be have a much higher potential of success…no planning, Gantt chart print outs, pounds of documentation will replace the team’s determination positive or otherwise. Projects succeed by the will of the team – period.

Old technology is everywhere

I’ve been through the Old Iron Mainframe to Mini to PC transition, the standalone computer to everything/everyone connected phase, the computer as a tool to the computer is everything transition and now I’m seeing the computer is everywhere/everything to the smart phone switch.

Just recently I finally broke down and brought myself an iPhone. The famous, mind numbing, can do everything device that I thought was over played/over hyped. Well, I was very wrong and I am now realizing the smartphone switch that is/has-been happening very fast and very dramatically. Everyone is connected to everything from everywhere all the time. There’s good and bad in everything, but lets focus on the good:

• no more missed calls or being out of touch
• no more being lost
• no more not knowing what’s going on from your friends level to the international level
• the ability to shop smartly
• the ability to plan smartly
• the ability to adjust quickly and inform all
• the ability to pay without cash or card
• the ability to be entertained anywhere
• storing memories, sharing experiences

Basically anything today that you have to ‘go to’ to use is being removed to be with you – or part of you. It’s an amazing shift, bigger then (but because of) all prior technology shifts over the last 50 years.

When the client is wrong, everyone is wrong

I have experience working for both internal and external clients and all levels of them (from the bottle washer up to the cook). There have been many good relationships and some bad ones….but at all times I had the understanding – based on the age old saying – that the client is always right…but what happens when the client is wrong. Well, the way I see it is, if the client is wrong EVERYONE is wrong and everyone ends up paying for it in some way, refusal or inability to pay for services, reputation and self-esteem. When signing on to do a job we sign on to deliver a successful product, one that meets/exceeds the client’s needs and provides something positive for them. Some project managers see the delivery of what was asked in a timely/cost-effective manner as the only real measurement for them…how wrong they are. When you sign on for the job, you’re joining a team, you’re part of the group effort to make something positive happen and part of the blame if it doesn’t meet ALL of the client’s needs. Bottom line – in my opinion – if you don’t want to be part of the team don’t sign on, if you’re not at the level where you have ‘some skin in the game’ than there’s a good chance you’re not fully committed and that could be start of something bad.

Make your own something

Another great idea presented on FLOSS Weekly (http://twit.tv/floss92), MakeBot (http://makerbot.com/) – basically an open source 3d durable product printer. You create or use another’s design to print out the object in 3d, could be used to actually make something useful (scissors were mentioned on the show as something to be worked on). Imagine the ability to make simple replacement products, used by car repair shops, home hobbyist, designers, toy makers, etc. Potentially reducing the need and reducing the cost of making simple things overseas…and it’s under $1,000 TODAY! Imagine in a few years what this could mean? Perhaps a device that will bring creativity back to the US shores….however you look at it, its one of the more interesting Open Source initiatives around (beats another CMS).