Getting It Done: Blame Game

Grace Willis is an agile transformation practitioner.

  Leadership   New Practitioners   Strategy  

Previously published in PM Network and Getting It Done: Project Management in Action.

Project managers often take the fall for failures, even though a project consists of many working parts. But the real culprit is often a lack of strategy and processes to support a project’s successful delivery.

In my career, I have not seen executives realize, much less acknowledge, the inherent bond among strategy, process and projects. Instead, I have been assigned to projects that were incomplete ideas.

It often happens like this: Something tied to operations is not working well. A decision-maker opts to try to solve the problem with a project. A project manager is hired, a staff­ member is assigned to be the project manager or a software developer is promoted to the role.

A third-party vendor—regardless of qualifications—is engaged. No one checks to see if there is a master services agreement with a similar vendor somewhere else in the organization. Team members are drafted to the project regardless of skill level, commitment and availability. The team is reluctant to voice concerns to the decision maker.

The project begins and goes wrong immediately: Tasks are delayed, and team members begin to skip meetings and conference calls—or worse, they attend but are mentally …

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