Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? How much? Say what?

How do you know if you are still in control of a project?

One way is to ensure you know the answer to the following:

1. Who are the stakeholders in the project?
2. What are their interests?
3. What is the purpose of the project?
4. How much is the budget for this project?
5. How much is this project going to take?
6. How long will the project take?
7. What is the project schedule?
8. When is it to be completed?
9. What is the project plan?

RISK AND OPPORTUNITY

Are risks and opportunities completely different notions or they simply different faces of the same coin? Can you capitalize on a potential risk beside just avoiding the eventuation of that risk? For example, if there's a risk that your top programmer will leave for another job, and he doesn't, therefore the risk doesn't eventuate. But apart from heaving a sigh of relief, is there an opportunity there that you could take advantage of?

Suppose in your project you are expecting a lot of active opposition from environmentalist groups, and therefore allocated an extra $10,000 for the purpose of public relations and legal expenses. But for some reason, the expected opposition did not materialise and you find yourself with extra project funds and the *opportunity* to use those funds to accelerate the project. In this example: - the risk did not eventuate, and opened up an opportunity - the opportunity was there only because you planned for the risk. - you have the basic option of acting as if the risk did not materialise (business as usual), or the more advanced option of seizing the opportunity that opened up and turning it into something beneficial.

Things to Ensure When Running a Project

I'm compiling a list of things to ensure while running a project. The list will be relevant to me. Yours may be different. A complete list will be infinitely long.

This list will be updated as often as I recognize a need to do so.  Currently, it stands as:

1. Make sure you have a clear delineation of the project scope.
2. Make sure you have a clear and complete list of stakeholders and their expectations of the project deliverables and execution.
3. Make sure the project team is clear on the project plan.
4. Corollary to 3, have a project plan.
5. Always have a valid, real, working schedule and stick to the schedule for as long as the schedule is valid. Update the schedule when needed.
6. Have frequent completions and starts (ie, have milestones). This is intended to instill in the team the plan for the next segment of the project.

ON POLITICS ( AND NERDS )

Skill in organizational politics is a function of social skills. The more you have of one, the more you have of the other. Computer nerds are reputed to have a distaste for organizational politics. The word 'nerd' is also often used as if the word itself meant 'someone who lacks social skills'.

It takes, however, an exceptionally analytical and logical mind to become a good programmer. In other words, you have to be rather smart to be a good programmer. So how come that smartness seem to flounder in the face of organizational politics?

Some may posit that the smartness that nerds possess is of a different sort from the smartness required to engage in politics. I disagree. I'm more convinced that their smartness is just not focused on politics.

Nerds simply detest politics. Such an attitude comes out of the pureness of heart. They see politics as an unnecessary evil played by people who need to cover up for their incompetence, or people who see it as a tool to feed their greed. One of the early definitions of politics that roamed the internet was a play on the word itself tself ("poli" - many, "tics" - blood sucking parasites).

Besides the attitude toward politics, nerds are also unprepared to manage things that fight back. They deal extremely well with computers and software, which respond with a deterministic response to stimulus (IOW, they act the same way each time). Politics is about managing people. And people are deterministically unpredictable. The same request to the same person will receive a different response each time. People tend to not want to be managed and tend to want to manage. The nerd is afraid that the engaged person may attempt a coup and end up managing the nerd. Such do not happen in a nerd cum machine interaction.

The pervasive view that politics is only for the incompetent is unfortunate because it gives the viewer an unnecessary disability.

Politics is a part of organizational life. It is an essential part which cannot be removed. Anytime two or more people get together, there is going to be politics. Even if these two people happen to be the most considerate of sweethearts so madly in love with each other. She will do what she needs to do to make sure his eyes do not flit to another. In other words, she will attempt to control his behaviour. She will attempt to manage.

Politics is so pervasive that it is just unavoidable. It's like air. No matter where you sit in the totem pole you are within its reach. The lowliest messenger has to conform to politics (send the messages to the evil bitchlady on the third floor first). If you're not in the totem pole, you are not in any organization. You are unemployed.

While politics exist at the bottom and the middle, at the top it is even more acute, and the stakes higherThe politics at the top is even more pervasive. Even the highest officer in the land has to contend with politics. The US president may have the most powerful military on earth, but his power over it is limited. Even he has to play games of give and take with senators and congressmen. He also has to engage the same games with countries ranging from the big ones like Russia and China, to small ones like Venezuela, and even with close allies such as Japan, Australia, and the UK.

Politics is as unavoidable and as necessary as grooming. Unfortunately, many nerds also tend to dislike grooming -- some cats have better grooming skills.

If you cannot avoid it, join it.

The first step is to embrace a new attitude toward politics. Politics is like Galactus. It is a "force of nature." Politics is neither immoral nor moral. It is to be likened to grooming, manners, eating from plates instead of cans, and common courtesy -- society expects them and woe to those who do not conform. There is no free lunch.

That is not representative of politics. There is no getting ahead without politics.

But...what is politics?

Upon Taking on a Project

Project management is concerned with effecting a desired change. The first step is to be clear and understand two questions:

• What change does the project owner want?
• Why do they think this change desirable?

The first question clarifies what change needs to be done and provides an initial glimpse into the objective of the project. The second question helps us to understand the problem with the current situation.

Risk Management and Alligators

I read once in a project management book, very likely from one of many that James P. Lewis wrote, where projects risks are described as being like alligators over which you have to jump over in order to complete the project. The menacing reptiles may or may try to bite you, and if they do, they may or may not succeed. Risk management is a tool you can use to get you past the alligators alive and well.

I think the imagery can be further adjusted to fit reality a little better. In many projects we are racing to complete the project against competition or against time. In other words, we don't just need to get past the alligators, we need to do so quickly because there are hungry wolves tearing down behind us.

If we adopt this revised imagery, we begin to see clearly that there are trade-offs that must be faced. If there are hungry wolves closing in, we may need to get across now. We may not have the luxury of waiting for the alligators to sleep before attempting to cross. We are now able to accept greater risk. Yes, we might get a chunk of our rump bitten off by an alligator, but the razor sharp alternative is coming in fast.

Managing Web Projects, Part IV

We continue the review of J. Rodney Turner's book. In chapter 2, Turner discusses what distinguishes web projects from other projects, especially other IT/IS projects. He argues that web projects are a subset of IT/IS projects but have enough differences to make them distinct. When Turner writes that there are at least 10 key differences, I thought that would be a large number. After all, besides the technology used, how else are web projects different from IS project, as projects? The key differences he lists include: - shorter time horizons - global reach with diverse user requirements - managed from outside the IS department - multidisciplinary teams with high focus on creativity and usability - wider range of user requirements - diverse technologies - immature industry with skills shortage - undefined methodologies - fast changes in the industry - perceived greater risk. Note that the focus of the distinction is on the project, and not the product itself. That is, the focus is on the experiential difference in the undertaking of a web project versus that of a typical IS project.