FocusYourProject

I've noticed that some project managers have trouble focusing their efforts on the constraints or requirements that would help them succeed. Either the project manager hears "Everything is #1 priority!" or the project manager can't decide which constraint or requirement is most important.

When this happens on your projects, what do you do? JohannaRothman 2005.05.13

This is often a problem in pronunciation - of just one two-letter word. Managers often have trouble focusing because they can't say NO. That's why I gave a No BOF last year. It's the first and most important lesson for project manager wannabes. - JerryWeinberg 2003.05.13

I am hearing two different messages in this question, so I will deal with them one at a time.

Lots of requests from outside the project, and
Lots of preconditions to allow a project with a single goal to be successful.

In either form the solution is the same: serialize. Any given unit of producing work, say a team, can really only deal with one thing at a time. So if there are multiple, whole project team sized "ship this" requests coming in, serialize them. If there are multiple things that have to happen within the project to make it successful, serialize them. And if you've got several things that have to happen in parallel, make enough independend units of doing work that any given "sub team" can serialize what it is doing.

If you get some stuff reduced to operational activities and recurring administrivia, you can do that along with one new and different thing at a time per team. But you can only really improvise, systhesize, strategize, or react to one thing at a time. Then impose serialization using Jerry's magic word, above.

-- JimBullock, 2003.05.13

I've come up with one answer that seemed to work on the "Everything is first priority" front. A previous boss told me that once when I requested a prioritization of assignments. I managed to answer, "Great! That means I get to decide the priorities!" in a very positive manner. He immediately provided a prioritization.

I've also made the "No," work recently (he said, pleased with himself), but that's a lot more delicate matter dependent on the manager as well as the managee. Now, to get this more honest method down better.

Though I'm not a project manager and perhaps what the PM must do is say "No" to himself, when his eyes are bigger than his stomach.

MikeMelendez 2003.05.14

Mike, let me add (another) pat on your back! That's a keeper!

"Great! That means I get to decide the priorities!"

--BobLee 2003.05.14

Thanks, Bob.

As a tester, I also know there are limits to that strategy. I've worked several places where a sizeable fraction of the developers believed that testers were responsible for _all_ testing. Not surprisingly, each thought testing his own software was first priority. When I have taken on that prioritization with peers, I have become the focus of great dissatification from those developers who thought I got my priorities wrong, i.e. all but one. I avoid such situations now, making clear these limits to my manager. These experiences have reinforced my belief that management with authority is important. I much prefer to tell my peers, "You need to bring that idea up with my manager. I also suggest ideas, but he decides." Of course, the manager has to support that.

MikeMelendez 2003.05.15

The "I get to decide" is a good ploy, and works about half the time. For the half time it doesn't work, try this:

"Oh, I don't get to decide? Okay, I accept that. So tell me, which is your highest priority among the first priorities?"

The important thing is not to give up. Just keep coming back with new ways to say this. Another example, come with a list of the order you're going to do things and say:

"Here's what I'm planning to do. Anything you want to change?

If this third whack doesn't do it, then you have a manager who isn't going to manage, but is just positioning himself to criticize whatever you do - to make you the fall guy. In that case, start looking. - JerryWeinberg 2003.05.15

Updated: Thursday, May 15, 2003