Mar
18
WRITTEN BY:
Peter Wicklein
Thursday, 18 March 2010
The lessons we learn every day in our personal lives are often directly applicable to our business lives.
Consider packing to go away on a camping trip. If you’re like me, you probably pack a lot—almost too much at times. And often the excess is ‘just in case’ or your ‘plan B’ items: first aid kit, extra water, trolley jack and wheel brace, mobile phone or radio, spare tyre, just to name a few.
You think the possibility is remote that you will have a breakdown, and you hope that you don’t need any of it. But if you do have a flat tyre, or need to contact someone in an emergency, you have the items you need close at hand for a quick recovery. It makes the accident or incident more manageable and you can recover sooner and enjoy your break!
Project management is no different.
Good project managers plan for the accidents and incidents that occur on each and every project. I have never been on a project that hasn’t had its issues. If it all ran smoothly, PMs wouldn’t have a job. People get sick, time runs short, competing non-related events occur that may not possibly have been known at the start of the project—that’s why extra time, extra money and other items should be allowed for in each project.
The issue is that the current economic and business environment promotes the expectations of ‘just in time’ and ‘just enough money’ to complete projects. In fact, these drivers have been around since the late 80s (remember Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good’?), and have just been exacerbated by the recent global economic crisis. It’s created a dichotomy we have to address.
Just like your camping trip, on projects you have to prepare and make contingency available both for you and your family (your team and the project’s stakeholders). You may get pressure to take out contingencies, but remind the protagonist what would happen if the project is delayed, runs out of funds or, worse, fails. You need to discuss this clearly with your stakeholders and explain why we need to plan for contingency.
There is nothing wrong with being a pessimistic optimist on projects. The reality is, just like on your camping trips, there will be little setbacks. It’s how you plan and manage the recovery of these that sets you apart from other project managers. You are positively and proactively managing risk.
Sitting by the highway, in the middle of nowhere, on a hot day, waiting hours for the breakdown service, with the car full of family, is not my idea of a holiday. A 5-minute wheel change, and cheers from the peanut gallery in the back seat, is a much better option.
I’m sure the business stakeholders you take on your project journey will view your skill in project planning and risk mitigation in the same way.