Jim Cassidy

I have spent decades learning how to program computers. It should take decades. I have dedicated myself to lifelong learning, and, to tell the truth, it’s a bit of a love affair.

Many people in the so-called entrprise do not take what I do seriously. There are two trends that I find silly. First, there is the plethora of books that promise that you can become proficient with any computer language or technology in just 21 days. Give me break! Read what Peter Norvig had to say in a very good article entitled Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years.

The other trend is expensive training that cannot possible provide much value. Training dollars are being wasted. There are companies who send employees off on four day courses to learn how to program in .NET, for example. These courses can cost $2,500 or more per person. What can you learn in four days? Really? One such course actually states: “Prior programming experience is helpful but not required.” Again, give me a break!

As Novig writes: “There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music.”

A few weeks ago, I overheard the following conversation in the elevator at a client site.

Person A: “He says that he wants a blog.”
Person B: “A Blog!? Have blogs been approved?”
Person A: “Wikis have been approved. We can give him a wiki.”
Person B: “Are you sure? You said that he wanted a blog.”
Person A: “He SAYS that he wants a blog. Let’s give him a wiki and tell him it’s a blog.”

Some people just don’t give a FLOSS. Lord love a duck!

Project managers go through stages in their personal evolution, and they can stall at any stage, as any of us can.  However, many of the project managers I have reported to in recent years have stalled at a stage where they believe that everything will work out as long as they have a GANT chart.

Everything will be fine, they seem to believe, as long as I have a record of the tasks that have to be performed and an understanding of how these tasks depend on each other. Nothing could be further from the truth. The GANT chart is just the beginning.

A GANT chart is a comforting tool because everybody understands it. A project manager can quickly show where the project is stalling, and show the impact of the stall on the deadlines.  A work breakdown is NOT a plan.

The following analogy may make this clear. If I gave you a grocery list,  and I asked you to buy me some food, you might have trouble completing the task. You may not even know where you can buy the food I need.

When you return with canned peas, I might have to explain that I really needed frozen peas. I might wave my recipe in your face and fault you for getting the wrong type of peas. As a frustrated project manager,  I might never realize that I never shared my recipe with you before sending you out.

In the simple example I give above, the list tells a project manager what he has to plan, but it is not a plan. Many project managers stop when they have their list. They have something to say for themselves if the people they report to ask them how things are going. That is all that matters. This approach is insuffient.

Two and half years ago, I worked on a project with a tight deadline. My manager took care of ordering food for members of the team who worked late. She organized rides for people who depended on public transportation. She never started by asking us how things were going, but she asked us what we needed.

She understood that overtime was necessary, and she agressively removed any barriers that would have made it hard or unpleasant for us to work late. She motivated us to work hard by staying behind with us, and she even brought us coffee. Thanks Lan!

She provided input when asked, but otherwise she stayed out of the way and waited for her scheduled updates. She asked for estimates, and held us to them. She always said thank you. She gave us the credit even though she deserved a fair share of it herself.

If a requirement was unclear, she led the charge to get us the answers we needed. She never left us hanging. Microsoft Project was used to communicate and track our progress, but she planned based on the chart. The chart was not the plan.

When we were going to deploy a new database, she asked the following questions:

1. Do you have access to the server?
2. Do you have the passwords?
3. Is there an approval or a review phase before the database can be deployed?
4. Who are you dealing with in the database group?
5. What are the risks associated with this deployment?
6. How can we be proactive to avoid these risks?

Tasks on a todo list tell what you have to plan, but the list itself is not a plan. Planning and preparing start with the task list.  It should be clear that is does not end withthe work plan. Here is another project management resource you may find useful.