DestroyingInformation

I'm fascinated by Jerry's recent article in CrossTalk (posted on the AYE site here: http://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/weinberg.pdf)

I see this in organizations, too.

I think often it's unconscious, like the VP who insisted that the project was on track because they hadn't missed any dates.

The project team was coding away, without the benefit of a plan or schedule, so of course they hadn't missed any dates -- there weren't any to miss.

The project may have been doing just fine, but there was really no way to know.

How have you seen Destruction of Information or Hiding Information play out on project?

What has worked to bring visibility to project?

EstherDerby 081003

That article reminded me of General Westmorland, who's demands of "I don't like those numbers! Bring me better numbers!" led eventually to insanely inflated body counts during the Vietnam war. He destroyed his own information system from the top.

DaveSmith 2003.08.10

I think that it often is unconscious, that some of these people believe their own press.

Esther, your comments reminded me of the project I worked on about a year ago. With several releases scheduled, most of the functionality slipped back one release at a time. All the independant contractors were let go before the last scheduled release, so I am not sure if anyone ever acknowledged that there was a problem. I do know that some of the managers of the smaller projects knew we were in trouble, but I do not really know what the top level project managers were told.

Certainly the Issue Log for the project listed many show stoppers, but did anyone read them except those annoying test / quality folks? If you refuse to see, hear or read anything but good news, you can go a long time without admitting that there is a problem. SherryHeinze 2003.08.11

Yah, I've seen that, too. I have some speculations about why this happens:

1) On some level, the manager knows that things aren't going well, but he doesn't know what to do about it.

2) Management knew when the original schedule was announced that it was unrealistic, but believed that "stretch goals" would spur people to greater effort.

3) Management knew when the origianl schedule/budget was proposed that it was unrealistic, but knew they'd never get approval if they stated the real figure. Once the project slips - close to the first release date, of course - the sunk cost is so high that funding won't be pulled, and additional funding will be forthcoming to realize the original benefit.

Not saying these are signs of good management....

EstherDerby 081203 --

Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2003