This is a true story. The company name
has been changed.
Background
Until now, the Acme Corporation had
published product and customer-support information on its web site. The new
project would expand the web site’s capabilities by allowing customers to purchase
from the web site.
The schedule was the driving force in
planning the project, as Acme wanted to capitalize on the crucial Christmas
shopping period. The project manager identified finalization of the technical
decisions as a critical milestone in the project. The IT Director would need to
evaluate and determine the technical direction timely. The project manager made
sure the project steering committee was aware of this significant dependency.
The situation
At the project steering committee meeting
where the technical direction was supposed to be presented by the IT Director,
he instead covered several discussion items. He reviewed his key considerations
such as fit with strategic direction, impact on the existing web site
environment, stability, and pricing. However, he had not made a decision.
The project manager made her concerns
clear; the lack of decision would have an impact on the project schedule.
The IT Director was dismissive of the
project manager’s concerns; surely it was better to wait a bit to get a better
decision. The steering committee did not pressure the IT Director to finalize
the decision.
Delay continues
The IT Director continued to delay. The
project manager followed up regularly with the IT Director, and moved as much
work as possible forward. However, with no environment in which to begin
programming, there really was very little that could be done.
The decision is made
Once the IT Director finally made the
technical decisions, the project manager could see that the work was already a
month behind schedule.
The project manager discussed her
concerns about the timeline with the project steering committee. It was clear
that the deadline could not be moved, as the retail web site was intended to
attract customers during the Christmas shopping season.
The only options were to reduce the
scope of the project, or to add resources. The project steering committee
members were adamant that that neither was possible. The budget did not permit
additional resources, and the entire scope of the project was thought to be
completely necessary to its success. The team would just have to manage to get
the job done.
Epilogue
The project manager and the team did
make a valiant effort to get the job done. The programming and testing team
members worked very long hours. However, time did run short, and some scope did
have to get cut in order to finish on time.
Although the web site was up and
running in time for the Christmas shopping season, it did not perform well
under some conditions. The project team was completely exhausted.
Conclusion
The IT Director’s and the project
steering committee’s lack of concern for the timeliness of the technical
decisions was unreasonable. When the technical decisions were finally made, the
project steering committee’s refusal to make a decision regarding resources or
scope was also unreasonable.
Both the IT Director and the project
steering committee did not recognize that the damage to the project was their
own responsibility. Instead, they
claimed credit for the project completing on time and on budget.
Copyright
2015 Debbie Gallagher
