I like keeping project tasks really, really short. A week-long task is sometimes too long, but obviously satisfying when finished. I also like keeping product releases very short. A release might have only a few of these short tasks. That ensures that the product is always within a few days of release. Project scheduling is simpler when tasks are short.
Let’s do a meeting!
Does your company do too few meetings? Yeah, you heard me right… too few.
If you’re like most corporate employees, you’ll answer, “Definitely not!”
Most of the scenes in the Dilbert comic are in meeting rooms. That should tell you what Scott Adams thinks of them. Meetings are the first signs of death in a once vibrant company. But beware; lack of meetings may spell the same results.
Meetings done right should get your blood pumping for action. You should go away wanting to try something new, or hoping for change, or at least inspired to follow. Make that the aim of your next meeting!
Timesheets are boring
Why get passionate about a boring timesheet tool? They are little more than cells and dropdown choices that collect your time and expenses. An endless bucket. Pointless. Employees reluctantly fill in those monotonous little cells every Friday afternoon or Monday morning for the week prior. Time tracking is a chore with little value.
Okay, that’s one perspective…
But have you ever viewed them as an investment? Like pouring value into your organization that you can mine later? Consider that for a moment.
What if you could magically predict how long your next project would take? Or cost? What if you could walk into the next meeting with hard evidence that your company talents are unfocused and distracted? That you are fighting too on many fronts? And in too many battles without clear endpoints? Wouldn’t that be worth documenting your time for.
That’s what time tracking gives you, among other things. Still see it as a boring chore?
Vicarious Goal Completion
Bear with me… Vicarious Goal Completion is a pretty obscure title, but there’s logic to it. 🙂
Psychologists have observed a strange human peculiarity. And it relates directly to project management. It’s called Vicarious Goal Completion. Researchers first encountered it while studying fast food menus. Can I get you to bite?
When fast food menus contain a “Salad” choice or other healthy food items, people purchase the junk food instead!
Here’s why: People who see healthy items on a menu feel good about their weight loss goals and give themselves permission to indulge a little. So, they eat the burger and fries instead. In other words, they remember eating good and believe they have already attained their goals, so that gives them permission to splurge. The goals are completed vicariously through the menu itself.
Obviously, this is just a slick way of tricking oneself into dodging responsibility. They used to call this laziness. Any excuse to pig out.
I’ve notice the same behavior with software downloads and project tasks. The ratio of downloads to form-completions is pitifully low. In other words, people take the time to fill out a download form, but never actually install and test the software. Vicarious Goal Completion! The person believes they have finished the job, when in fact, they have only just begun. Filling out the form gives them a warm fuzzy feeling about the goal of procuring software, and that warm feeling is enough to satisfy them. They don’t actually care if they download, install, and test. They have met their goals and that’s all that matters.
The same is true of project management. Beware of employees who start tasks, but never complete them. Once a task is started, good feelings arise. Those good feelings give the employee permission of quit because they feel they have already finished, or full completion is within sight. Vicarious Goal Completion! Nobody likes to take their project tasks to the uttermost level of completion – unless forced to do so.
–ray
The X, Y, and Z’s of Product Development
A certain thing happens in product development… (It used to bug me to death, until I got used to it.) Your product development team just finishes a great new feature. Everybody rejoices. Good feelings, pride, and celebrations. All that… The new release is posted on the web, and you start to get downloaders. Potential customers are giving it a look. And you know they are seeing the great new feature you just added. It has “X” and “Y” new things. Everyone will love it. Everyone will buy. You’re sure of that! Finally… we’ve gotten a great product out there…
The next thing you know, you get an email from an evaluator. He can’t believe how short-sighted your product is. In fact, he’s practically indignant. It’s missing a key feature he needs, and he can’t belive you’d ever consider shipping a product without it.
He asks, “Can you do it? When will it be available?
“Maybe, next month. Can you describe it more fully?”
“Oh, I can’t wait that long… Forget it.”
The situation is that you’ve completed “X” and “Y” but haven’t gotten to “Z” yet. And that’s what spoiler-boy wants. Problem is, you never considered “Z” until you completed “X” and “Y.” Or worse yet, didn’t consider it until he pointed it out.
This is so common. People cannot see to very down the product road-map. That’s human nature. They can see “X” and “Y” but only have fuzzy glimpses of “Z.” That is, until some grumpy customer complains that it’s not in the product. He doesn’t see the hard work you put into getting the first releases out. I.e. getting “X” and “Y” out. He just sees that “Z” is missing, and feels pretty certain that he can’t do without it. He’ll move on… Somebody out there must have it. “I’ll look around…” he says.
Better get cracking. Again…
–ray
Beware of Default Behavior
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
IT is Backed Up – Forever
Consider this dilemma… The IT department is backed up for six months. It can’t take on any new projects for that time. Not even a little 4 – 8 hour database installation. With a log jam like that, they can’t get anything new in.
Management comes along with a new product evaluation. Problem is, they need IT to set up a new SQL database so they can test the system. Oops, can’t do it. There’s a six month waiting list, and nobody get to the head of the line.
So, management can’t evaluate the product. Even a product they desperately need. IT has failed the company in a big way. The frustrating thing is that most of those IT projects are probably lower priority, or impossible to complete. Incompetence has allowed such projects to block real work.
The only real solution to an issue like this is “better generaling.” I.e. better planners who know roadkill when they see it, and pitch it off the road so it can’t block the real projects. That takes a smart person with a little experience. Gain a skill like that (and a hundred others), and you suddenly become a valued member of the team.
–ray
Interview: Warren Peacock from Scoutwest, Inc.
The following text is an interview with Warren Peacock of Scoutwest, Inc. They are the developers of Standard Time® and Standard Issue® – two leading project management products. Project Team Blog wanted to hear from an authority regarding the status quo of enterprise project tracking and management, and learn what consulting and manufacturing companies face when attempting detailed time tracking. We’re talking full-blown project schedules, timesheets to track task status, resource allocation, employee status, detailed reporting services – the whole enchilada. Are most companies using these tools? Or, do they attempt to roll their own with little in-house apps and spreadsheets? Does the economy have a bearing on these choices? One thing is certain; Warren Peacock has heard it all. Let’s see what he has to say.
Q: Warren, would you say most organizations are doing an excellent, poor, or fair job of tracking project status?
A: Based on my experience I would say they are doing a poor-to-fair job, though well intended.
Q: What tools are they using now?
A: Some are using actual time tracking tools like Standard Time. However, most companies are using Excel, shareware, or shabby little in-house programs.
Q: Where do you see room for improvement?
A: One word…Efficiency. Time is our most valuable commodity and success starts with improving our use of it, regardless of the industry.
Q: Aside from acquiring better tools for project tracking, what are the other ongoing costs of tracking projects and employee status?
A: Lost billable hours, unfortunately this is very common. Also, which employees are most productive? Standard Time has one simple report that gives you that type of data. If you need to streamline costs where do you start, what do you cut? Again, the right tools can give you that detail. They will show you where you spend time as an organization. What areas are over, or under allocated. All of this is just a glimpse of improving efficiencies with project management and associated costs.
Q: And the return on investment for these tools? How do you get there?
A: That sounds complicated, yet is very simple. Most consultants and business owners I speak with estimate they are losing anywhere from 3%-10% of their billable hours. Without question a conservative estimate is 1-3 hours per week, per employee. Multiply that times their billing rate and you quickly realize how fast a time tracking tool like Standard Time pays for itself. Not to mention the loads of reports and other information available to help guide any number of key decisions, regarding customers, projects and employees. We don’t think twice about spending money on an employee’s phone, computer and any number of other items. Time tracking is just as important.
Q: Let’s talk low-hanging fruit… What can a company do to get started cheaply? Spreadsheets? Paper time cards? Smoke signals?
A: Spreadsheets work to a certain point, but again the time spent managing, compiling and crafting reports will eat an employee’s productivity and provide very basic information at best. Standard Time is less than $150 per user and easy to use. You can place it on your own computers or we can host it for you. No installation necessary. Employees can be shown the basics in 5 minutes, no down time, no compiling spreadsheets and less user error! Instantly you have more accurate information that will help propel and streamline any organization.
Project Managers: People Don’t Like To Be Led
Project management advice: People don’t like to be led, especially professionals with clear responsibilities. Nobody likes “a person who knows” to tell them what to do next. All the time. It’s demeaning and annoying. So what’s a project manager to do?
Clearly, project managers and leads need to stay a few steps ahead of team members. If they don’t, projects go astray. Why? Because it takes time to formulate a clear vision, one that won’t break down in the face of life’s challenges. Only by staying ahead of the team can the leadership maintain that strategic edge. But it’s when that strategic direction turns into tactical dictatorship that things go badly.
Some managers have such a hard time articulating their vision that they resort to dictating exact tactical steps to achieve it, rather than relying on competent people to pull it off. See the issue? It’s a difficult balance.
–ray
CIO Insight: How to Retain Top IT Workers
CIO Insight did an article listing the top 10 ways to retain IT workers. The link to that article and results are listed below. It’s pretty interesting, but appeals strictly to the least-common-denominator or employment. The results could apply to a landscaping firm.
http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Management/How-to-Retain-Top-IT-Workers/
They rated each criteria from 1 to 3, with 1 being the lowest, and 3 being the highest. Notice that the results have little to do with IT workers.
Lowest Highest
1 2 3
1. Salary: 2.82
2. Training: 2.47
3. Incentive pay: 2.40
4. Paid Time Off: 2.38
5. Flex Schedule: 2.36
6. Work Facilities: 2.26
7. Insurance Benefits: 2.26
8. Retirement: 2.13
9. Work at Home: 2.06
10. Social Environment: 1.99
I’d like to add an intagible criteria to the list: “IT Imortality.” And I’m wondering where you would place it. A 1 or a 3? Send in your comments.
IT Imortality is the chance to rise above your peers in a significant way, building products that change the industry. It involves working with the brightest and most motivated individuals on the planet. It means leading (or participating in) a product development team that makes a true impact on your generation.
Although I cannot say I’ve achieved such a lofty status, the lure has certainly been there for every company I’ve worked for. And, at least a few of my projects have impacted individuals around the world. That’s offers a sense of achievement that no cubical job can. I rate that somewhere near 3.
–newshirt