In our small company, I have noticed that the all the departments feel like the product engineering department has an open door policy. Everyone and anyone that needs something simply helps themselves to who and whatever is needed. I want to control this by documenting a process but need some help. Anyone have any ideas or information that they can share with me. I really appreciate your help. Saving Changes...
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Michael BrownProject Manager| JPMorganChaseDeerfield, Il, United States
I highly recommend you pick up a book called "The Goal" - a great read which might help you isolate any bottlenecks (ie: the development area!) and make sure things are streamlined for continued process improvement. Saving Changes...
Stephen MayeSenior Vice PresidentVa, United States
I'll have to make a few assumptions, but anyway... Companies manage this problem in a number of ways. It sounds like you have a policy problem more than a process problem. I hate red-tape but sometimes a stated policy can work wonders--when supported by a reasonable and easily followed process to implement it. If you put in place the process without a policy you leave people asking, "can he/she do that?". If you put in a place a simple, reasonable process in support of a policy, it helps people get what they need in keeping with the policy.
The other comment I would make is, "Where are these people's managers?". One of the responibilities of a good project manager is to keep the resources on task. This benefits the resource (a.k.a., person) and the project on which they are working. This might actually be more important in a small company since everyone knows everyone and it is more difficult for people to run their own interference.
So, consider a policy for work assignment and prioritization and a simple process to make it work (Consider including a one-page agreement between the group/person/dept requesting the work the group doing the work. It should include the need, the type of support to be provided, estimated effort required, etc.). And, consider projectizing more of the work so that any significant resource effort is clearly associated with a defined activity. The ad hoc stuff will then seem odd (and lower priority) because its not on the schedule.
Well, if this isn't relevant to the what your doing, let me know. I might have some idea that is! Good luck... Saving Changes...
My guess is that you are experiencing one of two possible symptoms as a result of your "open door" into Product Engineering:
1) The company is performing well because the ad hoc projects are of higher value than the planned activities. If this is the case, it may be an indication that the planning process needs to be improved so that the true priorities get into the plan in the first place.
2) The company is under-performing because PE's focus is on ad hoc projects and not the goals and objectives set by the management team.
I believe there is a very simple and easy-to-implement "first step" answer in either scenario: Time Tracking.
Simply tracking the PE hours spent at the project level alone will provide you with the information you need to answer questions like "Why is Project A behind schedule?" Answer, "Because we spent more time on Project X, Y & Z." If the company is doing well, you can point out that Project A is perhaps not the true priority. If the company is not doing well, you can point out the need for management support of a stronger policy for engaging PE resources.
If you are not currently tracking how PE time is spent, it will be important to implement the process incrementally. Start with a few large time buckets and round to the hour or half hour. You won't get participation or valid data if you make it too complex.
Later, as you implement more project management techniques, you can introduce additional tracking by activity within projects, which, can be used for process improvement and estimating the effort of future projects.
You can also use the information to implement a departmental charge-back for PE services. This forces the Departments to think about ROI before engaging PE. The Department managers will resist the idea, but I have found that their overall participation and satisfaction increases when a specific value is placed on the services rendered. For example, observe how a teenager cares for a car that is given to him opposed to a car that he has to pay for himself. Saving Changes...
