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...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
David,
Thanks for sharing your lessons learned. Very interesting. I am pretty sure everyone of us made mistakes because we learn from our mistakes.
One mistake I did was "Raising Expectations" - I discovered that the more you raise your expectation, the more you will be disappointed. Just do your best, stay in top pf things in order to make it happen. At the same time, I am also referring to raising expectations of others - It might also disappoint them and this will affect the job. Saving Changes...
1. Trusting experience people to be able to evaluate the amount of work needed for completion.
2. In a case believing we where working as a team, not competition.
3. Trusting a supplier on is delivery date, I closed a company for that!
You experience on foreign exchange is one I always put in the risk register. Saving Changes...
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.
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. Saving Changes...
Adnan ShareefEPMO Director| JEDCO (Jeddah Airports Company)Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
1. Expecting assistance from senior management.
2. Changing the scope of the project without any formal documentation.
3. Failing to conduct proper risk management which lead to facing many unforeseen obstacles.
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1 reply by David Maynard
Dec 07, 2016 3:10 PM
David Maynard
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@Adnan,
I'm a big beliver in an active risk management system. Most of the companies I visit do ZERO risk management. "If it breaks, we'll fix it!"
However, even when you do have one, and use it well, negative risks can occur. I've had that happen several times.
Saving Changes...
Mike FallonProject Manager/Scrum Master| Homesite InsuranceMalden, Ma, United States
A few years ago, I asked a software team working in waterfall to try Agile. I asked each of the team members if they had ever worked on an Agile project before, and I got a resounding 'YES' response. Then we got together for our first grooming session and I learned that everyone had worked on Agile projects before, but not by any standard framework. It might have been what they thought Agile was, which was all over the place. Ever since then, I sit with the entire project team at the start of a new project and we review our standard Agile framework to get everyone on the same page. Even if folks have worked on my Agile teams before, everyone attends for a review and to level set. Saving Changes...
@Mike That's a very interesting mistake! Great lesson learned to have a review of the methodology before you start. I think that's a good one for non-Agile too. Saving Changes...
1. Expecting assistance from senior management.
2. Changing the scope of the project without any formal documentation.
3. Failing to conduct proper risk management which lead to facing many unforeseen obstacles.
@Adnan,
I'm a big beliver in an active risk management system. Most of the companies I visit do ZERO risk management. "If it breaks, we'll fix it!"
However, even when you do have one, and use it well, negative risks can occur. I've had that happen several times.
...
1 reply by Adnan Shareef
Dec 07, 2016 5:01 PM
Adnan Shareef
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I totally agree.
Although proper risk management might save thousands of dollars in a project.
Saving Changes...
Adnan ShareefEPMO Director| JEDCO (Jeddah Airports Company)Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dec 07, 2016 3:10 PM
Replying to David Maynard
...
@Adnan,
I'm a big beliver in an active risk management system. Most of the companies I visit do ZERO risk management. "If it breaks, we'll fix it!"
However, even when you do have one, and use it well, negative risks can occur. I've had that happen several times.
I totally agree.
Although proper risk management might save thousands of dollars in a project. Saving Changes...
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