Comments on: Project management disasters

By: Jimbo Jones

Jimbo Jones — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:29:31 +0000

Some times the PM is bad because the client is worse, though. One of the projects I’ve worked on had the client not understanding that if they were going to force delivery at a given date, they were going to get bug-ridden crap.

On that note, “working” on Christmas Eve, or at 4am, produces no usable anything.

But I do have to agree with Angry against Jake; there are really shit PMs out there, and no amount of software will help a shit PM make a project work. By the same token, shit programmer + awesome IDE = garbage. Tools are only as good as the craftsman, not the other way around.

By: PM’s and BA’s in the Trenches | IT Hire Wire

PM’s and BA’s in the Trenches | IT Hire Wire — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:11:29 +0000

[...] Project Management Disaster: Time Driven Projects [...]

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:54:26 +0000

Cubemonkey: You have indeed mastered the art of flourishing under adversity

By: Cube Monkey

Cube Monkey — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:51:48 +0000

I respectfully disagree.

I like date driven projects because I can put 60+ hours per week on my timesheet. The more silly the deadline the more hours I write down. Management loves this and I so does my paycheck.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:53:09 +0000

Mr Angry:

Must say you have a pretty low opinion of PM’s and PM sowftware. But tell me have you actually used them? I bet you used something really crap and have been put off since. Dont really blame you, there are some pretty crap ones out there.

I used basecamp once on one project, wasnt really sure what all the high commotion about basecamp was because i discovered it was not that great. It wasnt a complete waste of time, there were some good things about it. but it was a let down enough to put me off pm software for a while.

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:29:06 +0000

Tijs: That approach falls down dead when you realise the number of hurdles you face, namely the impossibility of adding enough competent people quickly enough and the way communication gets bogged down when staff numbers go off. It’s the central lesson of The Mythical Man Month – adding people to a late project makes it later.

Jake: Only people who stand a chance of succeeding in the first place benefit from PM software. Sadly, it’s most often used in dysfunctional workplaces by clueless people who end up making things worse.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:14:51 +0000

I have to say Thijs what you say looks better in theory than I presume it would on a more practical level. It raises many diffulties in terms of progress ratios and funds going to waste because its not invested in the right places at the right time. As much as I hate to admit it, it is in fact all about timing.

But Mr Angry, you definitely raise a fair point. PM software is absolutely useless if the right PROCESSES arent in place everything fucks up, with the key word being Process. The best projects I have handled wouldnt have been half so succesful as they are because the right kind of processes werent installed to begin with.

Yet I find in my experience that habitual processing techniques and progress comes easily with using PM software. I think the effects of this are psychological, because the right kind of PM software includes and utilises everyone in the PM foodchain in an almost identical fashion. Call it corny, bull-fucking-shit, but its true.

Im not saying that by using PM software makes your project flawlessly perfect, but it comes pretty damn close, because problems can be identified much earlier in the game.

But ofcourse finding the right kind of PM software for the right project is another matter altogether.

By: Thijs

Thijs — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:59:37 +0000

Another approach could be to treat the date as given, make a realistic inventory of everything that needs to be done, and make an estimate of how many developers you need.

So instead of having 5 developers to do the project in a year, get 25 developers from the start to do the project in 6 months.

Cheap, fast or good. Pick any two.

The PM may even like the idea, managing a big project is good for his ego.

By: Mr Angry

Mr Angry — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:49:04 +0000

Jake: I would say some software can be a good support to the right people and processes. But if you don’t have the right processes in place and the right people to run things, the idea that software will fix things is bullshit.

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:38:40 +0000

Most of you guys seem pretty pissed at the whole PM situation which I admit can get pretty shitty sometimes, but what do u think about actually using PM Software programmes?

There are some pretty good ones out there, but there are some pretty bad ones too.