The Dirty “Little” Secret of Project Managers

This article is spot on and this should be acknowledged by business managers as well as IT:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/03/the-dirty-little-secret-of-pro/

“Everybody knows the schedule is a joke, and we pay no attention to it. It will be done when it’s done.”

Unless of course your project fits these criteria:

• The expectations of what the project is going to deliver are clearly understood and agreed by all stakeholders – business, IT and customers
• The scope of the project is crystal clear, and doesn’t change during the project
• The project has all the resources it needs assigned before it starts
• The technology solution is thoroughly understood, and it meets all requirements
• The infrastructure required can be seamlessly added to (and integrated with) your standard architecture
• All staff resources are 100% committed to your project, with no other distractions (or annual leave, sickness, babies due etc)
• They’ve done this exact same project work several times before, so their time/effort/cost estimates are accurate
• There are no dependencies on any other projects, and no other projects which could interfere with its progress
• There is no organisational change involved, or everyone affected is already 100% on-board with the changes
• The business problems and changes required are owned by business managers – IT solutions don’t fix business problems (spoiler alert: they’re BUSINESS problems)
• There are no significant risks or issues at all

…and all variables that could affect these points are under the total control of the PM

Does that sound like any IT project you’ve ever been involved in? I didn’t think so.

The flip side of this, is that the list above gives you a checklist of the key things you need to control (or at least be keeping an eye on) to make your IT projects more successful.

Is there anything I’ve missed there? Let me know in the comments.