Old War Stories 1

[frgood]

This is my first post here so please bear with me. After reading some of the posts here, I feel not so alone in some of the dealings I've had over the years.

1. This is an actual conversation I had ten years ago regarding a project. I was one of a team of consultants.
mgr.- " It is now the first of September and open enrollment begins October first. We would like to setup a voice responce system to handle all 2000 employees enrollment. What do we need to do to make this happen?"
ME - "Probably a miracle! We need to determine what hardware to buy, get it delivered and installed, figure out how to program it since we've never done this before.
Secondly, we'll need to understand how the software works so that we can develop the interface into our HR/Benefits system and test it."
mgr - "We have to do this. How many more consultants do we need to hire to make this happen."
ME - "None. If you order the h/w by the end of the week it will be in the building by the end of the second week. WE'll have overhost the deadline. before we can even plug it in."
mgr.- "Let me try another tack. All of our jobs are on the line for this one that's why it is so important."
me - " Isuggest we start on our resumes"
mgr. - "Okay, How about this If this was a bullet and the gun is pointed to your head which would you choice?"
me - "I'd take the bullet. I'd at least have a chance of dodging it."

At this point, Another consultant spoke up and said he would get it done. He would require hiring additional sub contractors to make it happen. I move on to other projects. In the end, Nothing ever happened. No equipment. No interface. But about $65K in billing had transpired. Two week after the meeting, I was tasked to customize the data entry screen so that data entry clerks could key faster from all the paper forms.

To this day, While I can understand where mgmt. is coming from, I still find these scenarios amusingly frustrating. I've got two more similar stories I share later.

 

[sleipnir214]

I have, one more than one occasion, explicitly told a member of management, "A [screw]-up on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

But I do like the way you phrased taking the bullet because you have a chance of dodging it.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[frgood]

My response was genuine. I have since learned that honesty can be a two edged sword.

Here's another example.
A new mgr. (same company) sat down myself and one of the other independent consultants in his office. He explained a problem he wanted resolved. We were each to give our opinion and bid for the resolution.
I spoke first. I stated that on page .. of the manual the steps were outlined on how to setup the function and it would take one his staff about 30 minutes to read and complete. My thinking was that this bit of worldly advice would save him $150 to $200/hr in cost.
The other consultant stated that he could work on a program that would handle this situation. The code would resolve 90% of the problem and that would be fine since the missing piece was not critical. This would take about a month to complete (not billed time, just factoring in workload). I was asked to leave and he went to work on the project.
To this day, Ihave seen many similar instances of this. where managers opt not for the most expedient solution but for something else. I actually have gone hungry because I did not gouge my clients. My thinking is now changing since I have a family to support and ten years of this pounding takes it's toll.
I wish someone could provide a compelling arguement for this behaviour.

 

[MDXer]

Best explination is that many people don't believe that the easiest solution sometimes is the best solution. They would rather believe that if something is complex or takes time to resolve it must be right because it wasn't easy.

"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[lionelhill]

I'm just guessing, but I've noticed that in some teams there simply is no one capable of reading the instructions and using them to carry out a simple task; or alternatively the few who could are so busy doing so that they don't have another 30 minutes....
In cases like this the boss, who is scared stiff of doing something in case it makes him look like an idiot in the eyes of his underlings, holds endless meetings to discuss what to do (it's safer..).
If your second manager was in this situation, he'd happily sign over half his budget (he has it, and he can!) to half-solve the problem, rather than commit 30 minutes that simply wasn't there to be committed!
Silly, but that's how it is...

 

[SQLSister]

Well your first post reminds me of an incident a long time ago when I was a management analyst not a computer person.

OUr HQ decided that instead of an East coast office and a west coast office we would open nine offices around the country and hire 700 new people. Decision was made in August and the managers promised that these offices would be open and in full operation by 1 October and based the production schedule on this faulty assumption.

Right! We didn't even have office space by then, let alone furniture or approved positions to even start hiring from. (This was thegoveernment, you couldn't hire without HR approving the job description adn calssifying the positions by grade, then adertising the positions and then determining the best qualified before a manager could see application to even consider interviewing.)

Needless to say we didn't make our scheduled production either, so two years later we got laid off because we couldn't meet a schedule that no organization could have possibly met. And oh yeah, the HQ managers who promised this stuff weren't laid off.

 

[bi]

Supposedly the advent of "project managers" was to end fiascos like the ones we probably have all seen and experienced. Unfortunately, the most of the "project managers" I have seen aren't any different from some of the managers described here: not having a clue about what needs to be done or how long it will take or how many people and what their talents need to be.

 

[frgood]

You bring up a good point. The role of the project manager and recently I see the advent of a new popular role the Business Analyst.
I've only come across maybe two good project managers in the past 15 years. In both cases, they knew their roles and worked within their boundaries. They were also astute enough to ask questions of the team and assess our abilities to suceed in our recomendations. They also pulled together the rest of the team to make sure we were all pulling our oars in the same direction. Not necessarily that everyone was in agreement, just that once we all decided what to do we did not sabotage ourselves. Ironically, This was the only case in which we all reported directly to these managers. They were responsible for our reviews, bonuses and advancement.
This new one, The Business Analyst, seems to be made of people that formerly were called low level managers. Lots of general knowledge and any deep knowledge may not be related to the tasks. I see a lot of ex-finance people becoming Business Analyst.
Yes all of you are correct. More and more judgements are based on political expediency, rather than good solid problem solving.

 

[rosieb]

I've seen a move towards "professional" project managers.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a feeling that a "professional" project manager does not need to really understand the project, merely how to manage it according to a particular methodology (with the assumption that if something is reported to have been completed, it really has been).

End result, project wrap-ups where the project is decreed a resounding success, but the users didn't get what they needed.

I can see that this trend has its uses in formalising the process (too many projects do get out of hand), but feel that the "old-fashioned" approach, a project run by someone who really understood the requirements and, if necessary, could get their hands dirty or challenge claims of "completion" should also be incorporated.

(I speak as one who has problems with the more bureaucratic approach, but who does see its value - I just have a hard time doing it - I'd sooner be part of the project, than be an observer)

 

[SQLSister]

Our project manager has neither management nor technical skills. She was the receptionist 3 years ago. Guess who she sleeps with?

 

[rosieb]

SQLSister

Guess who she sleeps with? Hmmm, I wonder?

What is she good at? (Don't answer)

All you can hope for is a romantic "falling out".

In any case it's bad situation. My sincere sympathy, you can't win and logic doesn't apply.

Nothing better on the horizon? With your obvious skills, surely there must be.

Best of luck

Rosie

 

[Tarwn]

I'm starting to get the feeling that the same group of people are cycling through differant companies. They don't have any real skill so they hire on as managers. When they screw that up badly enough they move on with their career and become "Professional" Project Leaders...then after that goes down the hole they decide to take their experience and become Business Analysts...wonder what the next step is.

I know this isn't just an IT/CS thing, that there are a lot of bad managers out there (and sales people)...makes me wonder if maybe I wasted my money spending 4 years on a CS degree when I could have just gotten an MBA and played solitaire the rest of my life for two to three times as much...

_{01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01100101 00111111}
The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[theoxyde]

May two times as much. To get three times as much you must have at least two years experience as a FreeCell and MineSweeper expert.

 

[lionelhill]

Ohjeohje, and to think I just wrote a big rant in some other thread on exactly this theme. Agree totally, everyone!

 

[jfrost10]

I think there is an emerging trend (thanks to the Project Management Institute) to try and put professional project managers into the work force. Alot of the issue is lack of education on the part of company higher-ups. People are given the role of "project manager" without really defining what a project manager is, or what one does. Most end up just being managers, overseeing work.

But a true project manager is educated in controlling resources, quality, and cost; and in the processes and activities that are included with that.

Hopefully in the future, we see more of these types moving into the management positions of our companies.

my .02

D'Arcy

 

[lionelhill]

Perhaps organisations thinking about project managers should look at building and construction, where they're very useful: they have to know enough about all branches of the construction trade that they can estimate how long a job will take, what it will need, what order the different jobs should be done in for best results, and they need to know when a bad contractor is trying to bluff and pull a fast one. i.e. they are real experts. It's only a useful job when it's not a trivial one, and it often isn't trivial.

 

[frgood]

Lionelhil - You make an interesting observation.
In many IT departments One seems to see a lot of project manager tasks as resource scheduling and managing expectations. It seems that the latter is nothing more than making up excuses for overruns and delays. In construction isn't there also a site manager. Their function is to keep everyone on schedule. Basically cracking the whip as needed. Whereas, in IT There is a lot of whip cracking and time crunches due to poor planning.
The majority of project planners develop schedules based not on ability to complete tasks but to compromise the tasks based on upper management schedules.
Because of business demands certain projects are crafted in an un realistic manner. As evidenced by my first story.

I would raise the question to all - Can system components be developed for an entire system using the same model as construction? Is a programmer er... software engineer the same as a sheet rocker or a framer?

 

[SQLSister]

Rosie, thanks for the compliment. Yes, I'm looking but the market around here has been very poor and most jobs require a Secret or higher clearance which I do not have (this is a BIG military area). However if anybody knows of any good jobs in Hampton Roads, let me know.

frgood, Yes you can plan IT projects properly, especially if you plan in phases. The first phase is requirements develpment. A good set of requirements will always make the actual project planning significantly easier. But all work can be broken down into tasks and time for the tasks estimated. (I know, I did this kind of work for 9 years) The problem is that most companies don't choose to plan correctly.

 

[frgood]

.....Or to stick with the plan. Many projects seem to fall behind just by the amount of time spent debating whether or not to acknowledge change requests.
One of may favorites happened about two years ago.
After spending considerable time working with the users to develop a precise solution. Since three departments required similar data we were able to come up with one DB and two simple UI's that would have addresses most of their long standing issues. I even brought the developers in at this stage to work out feasibility of the approach I wanted to take.
During the final sign-off meeting(to move this onto development). The programmers suddenly realized that they did not have the skill to code this project. They requested an additional two weeks to develop a counter proposal. The resulting conversation was a landmark in my life. With the users in the room, It was decided amongst the programmers and the managers that the users would never miss the functions that would be dropped as they would never know it was to be included in the spec anyway!
This was openly discussed as if they wee not even in the room.
The result -- The users walked away stating that this is to be expected of IT deparments and being ignored openly was no surprise. My shock at the shear rudeness of the conversation and the fact that now the developers had taken over the project (meaning an additional year of analysis) prompted me to eventually leave and I continue to look for greener pastures (or at least humane).
Yes I've been out of work for sometime now which affords me the time to submit here. I'll have to go back into consulting to make rent. But I find it is a grueling business and burn-out comes easy.

 

[SF0751]

frgood, I've gotta wonder - why didn't the users SPEAK UP in the meeting to let the rest of the room know that they did, indeed, need the dropped functions? Don't get me wrong, I've not defending anyone's actions here, but if no one let the developers know that they were out were out of line, then of course this type of behaviour would be expected.

Susan
_{You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.}
^{Aristophanes, 424 B.C.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.}