My number 1 mistake was buying components from France (I'm in the US) and the terms of the procurement were "payment in Francs at the time of delivery." It took about a year for the company to make the items and ship them. So, what started off as a $4 Million USD purchase ended up at $7 Million. (The dollar lost value against the Franc). Did I have reserve for this? NO.
Number 2 mistake was thinking that resources were always people. They aren't! We had a "floor manager" whose job it was to reserve space on our assembly floor - including chilled water, power, A/C or any other special requirements. We carefully built the WBS, ordered parts and they started showing in Shipping / Receiving. One day I had a call from the guys in receiving. "Where do you want us to put this stuff?" Ooops. I didn't have a place!
Number 3 mistake was not having a WBS dictionary. We had a WBS, and it had a nice block labled: "Interface software complete." After several months, it was time for that element to be integrated. Our I/F software guy kept updating his status nicely. So, on "milestone day" I asked the software guy if he was done. "YUP." But done to him meant designed and some macro-code written. Done to me meant coded, compiled, integrated into the "load" and ready for testing. MILES APART! Now, I'm a big believer in a WBS dictionary that contains the definition of 'done' for each element. Saving Changes...
1. Expecting assistance from senior management
2. Voluntarily assisting other PMs in their activities as requested
3. Ignoring the fact that in corporate environment all are competitors
...
1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Nov 23, 2016 12:23 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
...
Anupam, assisting other PM's was a mistake? Could you explain a little? I always find positive this kind of sharing knowledge.
1. Expecting assistance from senior management
2. Voluntarily assisting other PMs in their activities as requested
3. Ignoring the fact that in corporate environment all are competitors
Anupam, assisting other PM's was a mistake? Could you explain a little? I always find positive this kind of sharing knowledge.
...
1 reply by Anupam
Nov 23, 2016 11:09 PM
Anupam
...
Maria,
Sometimes people feel threatened or insecure. I also believe like you - learning, sharing and spreading knowledge. However, sharing knowledge in a hostile environment would do no good.
Thank you for introducing your lessons learned in a dynamic fashion. I now clearly understand from your lessons learned what the WBS dictionary is. Thanks again.
Anupam, assisting other PM's was a mistake? Could you explain a little? I always find positive this kind of sharing knowledge.
Maria,
Sometimes people feel threatened or insecure. I also believe like you - learning, sharing and spreading knowledge. However, sharing knowledge in a hostile environment would do no good.
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Poor change management and documentation management. This is typically a mistake done early on and gradually corrected with experience. Saving Changes...
Ahhhh Eduard... We've all done that. One of the best "yelling at me" sessions I've had is whenI was putting in approved changes but not clearing the documentation.
Quality couldn't inspect the system -- there wasn't a valid basis to inspect against! We had to manually sort through all the approved change requests, verify that we installed it, then notify quality we were ready (for real this time.) Saving Changes...
Bruce Gay Principal Consultant| Astrevo LabsPittsburgh, Pa, United States
Here are three mistakes from earlier in my career:
1. Hovering over team members asking how long it will take them to complete their work.
2. Using task estimates from team members 'as is' in the project plan, with out having experts or managers double-check or review the estimates. Always verify.
3. Not asking suppliers for onsite inspection of their production lines.
...
1 reply by David Maynard
Nov 29, 2016 10:43 PM
David Maynard
...
Bruce!! I used to manage a projects / programs / operations turnaround business (7 years until I couldn't stand it). Number 3 was a whopper with one program. The company was bidding (and won) a contract to the US Government. To reduce their price they removed all onsite and vendor inspections of work-in-progress. What a nightmare! I could talk for hours about what happened. The only thing I got other than knowlege was one of their T-Shirts.
1. Assuming someone else was communicating with foreign markets
2. Trusting that I was given complete details
3. Not realizing how optimistic estimates were and that they ignored the impact of every other project in the queue Saving Changes...
"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious and immature."
Community Champion
