Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Feb 20, 2020 1:20 PM
Replying to Manuel Perez
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Great discussion Luis. May PM’s make the mistake of micromanaging the project team. Once they develop their leadership skills, the PM can learn how to delegate work efficiently. Good leadership skills are critical to the success of a PM.
Pursuing perfection is a goal, but perfection must be approached carefully. A PM that is a perfectionist can stall a project and even lead to cancellation.
Dear Manuel
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion
Interesting what you wrote: "Pursuing perfection is a goal, but perfection must be approached carefully. A PM that is a perfectionist can stall a project and even lead to cancellation"
What do you think about what Tom Peters wrote? Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Feb 20, 2020 7:11 PM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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Hi David,
Some years ago I worked as a contractor for a large Australian utility company. It was a technical role and I was working on a one-man project team. Despite the fact that I was working alone and I was in direct contract with the business users a PM was assigned to the project. I only saw him once and only said hello to him but he had a role on the project.
My point is the that the role of the PM is broader and handling the project team is not always the most important part of the job. Some PMs manage internal small projects without even knowing who actually works on them.
If you have a fixed budget for which a fixed scope has to be delivered you would always need a PM or someone that performs this role no matter how self-organized or effective the team is.
You can only "get rid" of the PM if you move to an activity that does not involve a fixed budget for delivering a fixed scope. I agree with you that in software development moving from projects to product development could eliminate the need of having PMs (I have seen this with my own eyes) but not all companies can do this move.
Dear Adrian
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion
I understood what David wrote in another sense:
As being the capacity that the project manager has to empower and delegate to the team the point of being dismissed Saving Changes...
Some years ago I worked as a contractor for a large Australian utility company. It was a technical role and I was working on a one-man project team. Despite the fact that I was working alone and I was in direct contract with the business users a PM was assigned to the project. I only saw him once and only said hello to him but he had a role on the project.
My point is the that the role of the PM is broader and handling the project team is not always the most important part of the job. Some PMs manage internal small projects without even knowing who actually works on them.
If you have a fixed budget for which a fixed scope has to be delivered you would always need a PM or someone that performs this role no matter how self-organized or effective the team is.
You can only "get rid" of the PM if you move to an activity that does not involve a fixed budget for delivering a fixed scope. I agree with you that in software development moving from projects to product development could eliminate the need of having PMs (I have seen this with my own eyes) but not all companies can do this move.
Hi Adrian,
You said "If you have a fixed budget for which a fixed scope has to be delivered you would always need a PM or someone that performs this role no matter how self-organized or effective the team is"
I have found that having an expert and committed team collaborating closely with a business owner is an excellent way to get that kind of delivery on time. Do you think that the average product owner always needs the support of a PM? I do of course agree that not everyone makes a good PO but PO is quite different to PM.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Feb 21, 2020 6:31 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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Hi David,
Some years ago a company for which I worked delivered a software development project in which the team members did a very good job on delivering but the company suffered a major loss. How was this possible? They didn't have a good PM. Actually they had one, a contractor having his own business but they got rid of him.
How come a project fail when the team does a very good job? Very simple, the PM does not agree with the customer on a well defined scope so the team ends up doing whatever the customer asks without getting paid. This is what happened in that case.
If there is no clear agreement on what exactly needs to be delivered how can you argue with the customer that what they are asking is out of scope? How can you raise change requests and ask for more money?
In software services when you deliver fixed priced projects having a good PM to manage the scope and the relationship with the customer is vital no matter how good or self-organized the team is.
The PO is just a fancy mane for a Business Analyst in Scrum terms, he and the other team members focus on the actual work trying to find the best solution. They however are usually not responsible for the commercial and financial aspects of the project.
In internal projects maybe you can do without PMs but when you have external customers and you want to make profit a good PM is extremely important, vital in many cases. You can get rid of PMs if you are doing purely product development but if you keep them they may end up in being some sort of glorified secretaries.
Saving Changes...
Joy IyerBusiness Leader in the Hydrocarbons Sector, Engineering Manager, Project Manager| Paton Engineers and ConstructorsMississauga, Ontario, Canada
Might I interest the team in the following HBR article which lends a different perspective to how a perfect leader is really one who believes herself or himself to be imperfect?
Perfection is really hard to achieve, as you're working with different people most of the time under different circumstances.
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1 reply by Luis Branco
Feb 21, 2020 3:28 PM
Luis Branco
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Dear Sunny
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion
Interesting what you wrote: "Perfection is really hard to achieve, as you're working with different people most of the time under different circumstances"
What do you think about what Tom Peters wrote?
Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Feb 21, 2020 7:24 AM
Replying to Joy Iyer
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Might I interest the team in the following HBR article which lends a different perspective to how a perfect leader is really one who believes herself or himself to be imperfect?
I am certain most of you will find this very insightful.....
Dear Joy
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion
Thank you for sharing with us the article "In Praise of the Incomplete Leader" published on HBR
What do you think about what Tom Peters wrote? Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Feb 21, 2020 3:12 PM
Replying to SUNNY UDOH
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Perfection is really hard to achieve, as you're working with different people most of the time under different circumstances.
Dear Sunny
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion
Interesting what you wrote: "Perfection is really hard to achieve, as you're working with different people most of the time under different circumstances"
What do you think about what Tom Peters wrote? Saving Changes...
You said "If you have a fixed budget for which a fixed scope has to be delivered you would always need a PM or someone that performs this role no matter how self-organized or effective the team is"
I have found that having an expert and committed team collaborating closely with a business owner is an excellent way to get that kind of delivery on time. Do you think that the average product owner always needs the support of a PM? I do of course agree that not everyone makes a good PO but PO is quite different to PM.
Hi David,
Some years ago a company for which I worked delivered a software development project in which the team members did a very good job on delivering but the company suffered a major loss. How was this possible? They didn't have a good PM. Actually they had one, a contractor having his own business but they got rid of him.
How come a project fail when the team does a very good job? Very simple, the PM does not agree with the customer on a well defined scope so the team ends up doing whatever the customer asks without getting paid. This is what happened in that case.
If there is no clear agreement on what exactly needs to be delivered how can you argue with the customer that what they are asking is out of scope? How can you raise change requests and ask for more money?
In software services when you deliver fixed priced projects having a good PM to manage the scope and the relationship with the customer is vital no matter how good or self-organized the team is.
The PO is just a fancy mane for a Business Analyst in Scrum terms, he and the other team members focus on the actual work trying to find the best solution. They however are usually not responsible for the commercial and financial aspects of the project.
In internal projects maybe you can do without PMs but when you have external customers and you want to make profit a good PM is extremely important, vital in many cases. You can get rid of PMs if you are doing purely product development but if you keep them they may end up in being some sort of glorified secretaries.
...
1 reply by David Portas
Feb 23, 2020 11:15 AM
David Portas
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Certainly that role of account management is important. I have usually seen the commercial side of contracts handled by an Account Manager rather than a PM because the customer relationship often goes beyond the scope of any one project. A valued client may be allowed greater flexibility in scope and cost for example.
Of course the project operating model needs to include a mechanism for controlling costs. Some teams use a PM for that but others use project collaboration tools to make any new, exceptional items visible to account management.
Some years ago a company for which I worked delivered a software development project in which the team members did a very good job on delivering but the company suffered a major loss. How was this possible? They didn't have a good PM. Actually they had one, a contractor having his own business but they got rid of him.
How come a project fail when the team does a very good job? Very simple, the PM does not agree with the customer on a well defined scope so the team ends up doing whatever the customer asks without getting paid. This is what happened in that case.
If there is no clear agreement on what exactly needs to be delivered how can you argue with the customer that what they are asking is out of scope? How can you raise change requests and ask for more money?
In software services when you deliver fixed priced projects having a good PM to manage the scope and the relationship with the customer is vital no matter how good or self-organized the team is.
The PO is just a fancy mane for a Business Analyst in Scrum terms, he and the other team members focus on the actual work trying to find the best solution. They however are usually not responsible for the commercial and financial aspects of the project.
In internal projects maybe you can do without PMs but when you have external customers and you want to make profit a good PM is extremely important, vital in many cases. You can get rid of PMs if you are doing purely product development but if you keep them they may end up in being some sort of glorified secretaries.
Certainly that role of account management is important. I have usually seen the commercial side of contracts handled by an Account Manager rather than a PM because the customer relationship often goes beyond the scope of any one project. A valued client may be allowed greater flexibility in scope and cost for example.
Of course the project operating model needs to include a mechanism for controlling costs. Some teams use a PM for that but others use project collaboration tools to make any new, exceptional items visible to account management. Saving Changes...
