Waterfall or Tsunami?

Denise Thompson, PMP, is a Program/Project Manager in La Farge, Wisconsin.

  Agile   Estimating  

It’s 7:30 p.m. on Monday. I still have plenty of work to do. It’s budget season, and if you are a project manager, you are probably pretty familiar with the drill.

There is a sense of urgency to finish stuff and ramp up to start new stuff for the next year. Typically, this creates a stressed and anxious work environment that produces a negative effect on teams, demotivating and reducing team productivity.

Today in our PMO department meeting, project managers were asked to share ideas on how we can help teams perform. With very little hesitation, I said, “Release control. Get out of the way and let the teams do their work.” In response to my comment, another in our group stated, “But we still are expected to get the work done!”

This comment started a stream of thoughts that I couldn’t put to rest. So, I’ve decided to share this story with you. If it resonates, share it with your colleagues and encourage their colleagues to share. Why? The wave of change is coming to our profession. Trust me, it won’t hit us like a waterfall—it will hit us like a tsunami. Will you be ready?

Let’s go back to my story. I was too dumfounded to respond to the comment. I asked myself, “Wait, are we expected to do the work?” Um, if we are expected to do the work to complete project deliverables, then I might fall …

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