Skip to main content

5 Reasons not to listen to a PM (for Managers)

Usually a PM cares about his projects and is keen to develop them as per the planned budget, time and scope. However, managers should not listen to their PMs for the following reasons:5Reasons

1. PMs are Time Wasters

PMs plan… They study and mitigate risks and project issues in proper ways to guarantee the smooth execution of the project.

Planning is a bad practice that PMs should stop using and referring to whenever they discuss a project related issue. Plans are not really needed and in most of the times they are useless because no one follows them (all gratitude and respect reserved for PJs).

Also, it is preferable to face risks when they fire. Anyways, who really cares for risk mitigation and contingency stuff! Let’s face surprises when they arise and use panic mode to push on teams to solve their issues!

2. PMs Forecast

PMs track their projects and use trends, issues, project and client historical data to forecast project status and use corrective actions properly to maintain their projects on track.

Again, this is not needed as surprises are the most pleasant thing in the world, why eliminate them?!

3. PMs care for their Teams

PMs care for their teams although this is a bad practice that has to be avoided. Teams should be treated as “…”!

4. Projects are designated to fail

Projects and specifically strategic ones should fail no matter what the PM does and despite all efforts the team exerted or will exert. So, this is a very good and obvious reason why not to listen to PMs.

5. To find someone to blame

At the end of the project, and when things get seriously messed up, there should be someone to blame. The best candidate for this assignment is the PM, especially when you don’t listen to him from the beginning, this task becomes very easy.

Finally, PMs are PMs, whether they plan, track, forecast, report or not, it is not important. The important thing is not to listen to them and particularly when they are good PMs because they understand what they are doing and they may produce output at the end!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Ayat Elshami said…
:)
It took me too long to figure out you're pissed off at some PM Manager (no redundancy in the M and Manager here) :D
I only read this article and am so excited about reading the rest. I like the breakdown and the sarcasm.. like it better the explicit explanation of the deep self.
Missed you Menna... the first PL I ever worked with... and the first person I ever looked up to being like someday in my career :)
April 11, 2011 at 9:28 AM
Mena M. Eissa said…
Basically, actually, I am not pissed off at all :D
Please refer the Acknowledgement section, it will give you a better idea about how I feel now :)
April 11, 2011 at 1:11 PM
Fatma Ali said…
awalan mabrok el villa el gededa :P wa thaneyan to find someone to blame is my favorite :D
April 11, 2011 at 10:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle of Tactics

Sometimes referred to as the Triangle of Horror… where the PM tries his best to maintain his balance while walking on the very thin project rope between this triangle and the Project Constraints Triangle (time, cost & scope). The triangle sides represent: The Team, The Client and The Management Every side of this triangle is obsessed by the sole idea that the other two sides want him dead, i.e. the team thinks that the client and the top management want him dead and vice versa. Usually a good PM gets lost while trying to maintain this triangle in good shape to keep all parties satisfied and happy while making them think they are his first and only priority to get out what is needed from them for the sake of the project. From my perspective, this is a much harder balance to keep rather than maintaining and managing the Project Constraints Triangle… It highly depends on people, their culture, maturity level, and on the PM’s ability to understand this and deal with it in a ...
4 comments
Read more

The Bus Driver

They took some time to plan for the trip… They drew the road map, bought some food and beverages… and got equipped with the necessary tools… They were going to travel through the woods to draw the magnificent scenes which were observed by their neighbors early this year… This wasn’t their first trip together as a team, though they were all excited… The bus driver was in charge for making the big decision in the trip while taking care of the travellers’ team while of course driving the bus and communicating daily with his supervisor in the station. The map was clear, the weather was very well studied, though the bus driver expected to pass by some pitfalls in the road as there were some reparation in the way. He reported this to his supervisor and requested to take some more supplies just in case they have to camp one or two days more, but the supervisor refused “ the trip has to be completed on time and the painting should be ready for sale by the end of the week ” Anyways, ...
2 comments
Read more

The Triangle is missing The Circle

By experience -the bad one of course- I discovered that the famous Project Management triangle is missing a very important containing circle… The Strategy Circle . The Strategy Circle is my simple explanation for many of the catastrophic situations projects end up with. I totally believe that this should not happen and that Strategy exists to set goals and directions for the benefit of organizations and accordingly for the benefit of projects and teams. Unfortunately, I witnessed many cases where it was exactly the opposite. I was an eye witness of the failure of many projects and sometimes companies because of misunderstanding the meaning of Strategy and how to use it to bring companies to success. Some companies bankrupted because of this! De-formation Effect The Strategy Circle is sometimes surrounding the Project Management triangle and thus imposing pressure on it and suppressing it and some other times it is pushing on the triangle from the inside and thus inflatin...
Post a Comment
Read more