A Project Manager's Diary

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 ...

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, ...

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...

I remember that once a team member asked me to go home, sit in the balcony and have a cold drink till they finish the deployment and then call me! I was really offended by this thought and attitude because I really care for both my teams and my projects. Other teams I dealt with refused to listen to me even before knowing me, just because they hate PMs! As previously explained and recommended to managers, there are reasons for which they shouldn’t listen to their PMs . These same reasons constitute a solid base for teams not to listen to their PMs too… “ A PM cares about his projects and is keen to develop them as per the planned budget, time and scope. ” Well… here’s why teams should not listen to their PMs in more details: 1. PMs are Time Wasters PMs use the help of their teams to study projects, their feasibility and estimates to produce plans. All these activities are time wasting from some team members’ perspective… Many teams think they can start coding right away to produce ...

Who are Pretenders? Simply these are the people who Pretend … Pretenders can pretend anything in the world. They pretend they understand and they claim they are experienced. They think they are superior when compared to others and they want everybody to obey them blindly. Most of the people I met falling under this category were consultants or acting as consultants. Pretenders are characterized by the following: Think they know everything in the world Think that books contain everything Have faithful beliefs in theory and nothing but the theory Use theoretical definitions heavily Believe in all best practices Use the word should a lot… they believe what books say, no what facts prove Have an amazing superiority feeling, which may be coming from studying definitions by heart or from hiding behind their many certificates They are Theory Relatives I guess… otherwise, they might be breathing theories! Also, they: Are logical but not reasonable, while others may be r...

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: 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 thei...

Software is by far different than tomatoes! Software development depends heavily on the following factors: Requirements clarity Business complexity Client maturity Team understanding for the requirements Team experience Team productivity People mood Technology Aiding tools availability Company processes and strategy Any of these factors or the combination of these factors can heavily impact the project and its estimate. I am not saying that we cannot estimate projects, I am saying that we cannot estimate accurately, and even if the estimate is accurate, given other circumstances, the same estimate may not be accurate. The major difference between Software and other merchandises is that Software cannot really be measured. There were and are many efforts and theories trying to quantify Software and measure it, yet there is nothing accurate. Software can be measured by complexity, lines of code, effort, features, points… too many theories and models, yet none of ...