Project management

How software project managers can react to recessionary trends

Project management (PM) consultant Michelle LaBrosse shared some quick tips for PM strategies in recessionary times with me recently. These ideas gelled during an interview with Carey Earle, president of Green Apple Marketing, on her syndicated radio program, Your World, Your Way.

“We talked about great ways to use these trends as a great launch pad for new ideas, solutions and direction in the workplace,” said LaBrosse, founder of Cheetah Learning, a PM consultancy, and aPM issues blogger.

Many projects are on an “economic slim-fast” diet, LaBrosse said. Not surprisingly, she’s seeing may project managers focus on practices that save their teams’ time, cut spending and improve quality and time to market. Also, businesses are trending toward novel perks in these days when raises are rare and budgets tight. She’s seen good results when project managers reward teams in inexpensive and creative ways, such as making a premium parking spot available to a top achiever each month.

The secrecy and lack of honest documentation of the early 2000s has caused an about face, in a trend that LaBrosse and Earle call The Full Monty. “Technology brings us a whole new level of honesty whether we like it or not, but underneath the technology is a new human desire for trust and transparency like never before,” LaBrosse said. “Think: Is your documentation in good shape? Are you leaving a trail that you’re proud of? How can you be more transparent in your business?”

Finally, LaBrosse advises project managers to start noticing trends on their own. “The art and science of noticing the dramatic or subtle changes taking place will help you and your team continue to seek out future opportunities and successes,” LaBrosse said.

Agile expert advises on agile transition snags, PMO problems

Recently, I spoke with Alex Adamopoulos, CEO and founder of emergn about his company’s new agile development transition consultancy program, AgilePMO. In these remarks from our interview, Adamopoulos offers advice on agile development process adoption and his views on agile.

Emergn, is a new company, but Adamopoulos’ experience in the software service field is extensive. He is a 20-year veteran and an active blogger.

What is your agile philosophy?

Adamopoulos: A transformation program. If I think about the guiding principles of an agile engagement, they’re the same fundamental principles of a well-run global company.

What are some common problems within PMOs (Project Management Offices)?

Adamopoulos: Even when I was embedded in the outsourcing community, I thought that large enterprises had a methodical process for why they’d select a vendor, manage a project, etc. I discovered that not only did a lot of them not have them, but the ones that do have them are typically by line of business.

Could you offer a hypothetical example of a company with a PMO problem?

Adamopoulos: A good example would be a top bank, in the top three. Their investment banking side, which drives more than half of the revenue, has a PMO, and that PMO is only operated by three people. It’s fragmented across two geographies. Then, if you go to asset management side, you discover that they have one-person shops or half-person shops. That is common for eight out of 10 of our clients.

Usually, they have no metrics or measurements in place. The metrics that exist are rudimentary project metrics that do not even translate into economic numbers or business value that a CIO can sit with his boss and say, “Here’s why we are making these decisions and how they are affecting our company.”

So, it would make sense for them to explore a way to drive it more efficiently. Right?

Adamopoulos: Clearly the largest problem we see is that there is no single project or program governance in place. There is no methodology for how programs should be governed. There is a lot of waste. We see morale being affected.

What are common snags that occur in transitions to agile?

Adamopoulos: Typically, it becomes a land grab. it is very difficult for some organizations to change their existing behavior and their business psychology. Asking them to collaborate and communicate, and be more dependent upon the business in several areas [is a big deal].

The biggest risk is the psychological impact that agile can have on an organization. Right or wrong, many have already settled into their comfort zones. Agile is a very disruptive methodology, not just at the software level but at the cultural level as well. The larger risks are people asking, “How are you going to impact my job, and why? What does it mean to me in terms of the responsibilities I might have?” There needs to be a lot of coaching in the transitioning people out of their current working mindsets and into something new.

Who are emergn’s target customers?

Adamopoulos: Today, the traditional customer for us is in the application development areas of IT; but we are starting to branch out with the AgilePMO product. Our primary target is the enterprise client, meaning the tier-one enterprise, the $1 billion-plus players. That is where the majority where our business is today. Is it likely that we’ll do things below that? Probably, but it would have to be very specific, because agile enablement reshapes a company’s sourcing strategy. Those are pretty important programs, ones that aren’t taken lightly, and we’ve found that the larger companies are more ready to do those than the smaller players.

The economy has been a help for us as opposed to a hurt; the whole drive of saving money, reorganizing, efficiency has supported our model. So, organizations that have very fragmented sourcing programs are the primary focus for us.

How long do you customers need emergn’s consulting services?

Adamopoulos: I am pretty sensitive to the consulting side. I have been a customer. I don’t believe in having people from the B-team or sit there for one, two years and billing against my company.

Maybe I sound old-fashioned, but we definitely want to drive value. For some companies that may take one year or even half. We are currently doing one large scale agile transfer program for one of the UK’s largest utilities that is a 24-month roadmap, but that is something we defined up front.

British Airways is a great example. We did an entire agile transformation for them. Since they are an airline, they have a gazillion projects going on. We have begun applying a number of initial successes into some points of business. How long they’ll take? I don’t know, but in their case they want to see their entire organization become as agile as possible.

Why software projects fail and more will fail in 2009

Why do software projects fail? There are many reasons –- and they’re spelled out below –- and 2009 may bring more failures than usual as budget cuts spur project managers to make cuts in the wrong places. So said software quality consultants Lawrence Oliva and Karen Johnson when I talked to them about 2009’s software quality landscape.

Human error causes most software project failures, said Oliva — senior consultant/program manager with CH2M HILL, an Englewood, Colo.-based engineering and program management firm — so most are avoidable. Here is his list of the mistakes he sees most often and his comments:

1. Unclear requirements: “Most people don’t know what to build because they’ve never defined it. When they build the software, it fails because it doesn’t meet people’s needs.”

2. Overly optimistic and/or unrealistic schedules. “People rush or skip things if the schedule isn’t realistic. Also, companies are panicking due to the economy. They’re compressing projects and schedules.”

3. Lack of user input: This links back to requirements mistake #1. “Developers don’t talk to people who are going to use the software.”

4. Lack of executive sponsorship and support: “When management doesn’t support and protect the project, it can often be undermined by internal politics and budget cuts.”

5. Turnover and layoffs: “Projects often fail when key people leave the project early in its lifetime.” Companies’ modern habit of laying off senior and, thus, higher-paid workers -– such as senior developers –- in favor of less experienced, lower-paid workers puzzles Oliva and me. “It doesn’t make sense, because the more experienced people take a humongous amount stability, experience with them that usually isn’t available any other place,” he said. “That hurts a project and hurts a company.”

I agreed, noting that the time lost due to less experienced workers’ mistakes and learning curve probably negates the savings in salaries paid. Oliva and I discussed that companies could do total-cost-of-layoff analyses; but Oliva said companies probably wouldn’t take the time to do that. “In a poor economy, companies often make hasty and project-wrecking decisions,” Oliva said. 

Besides layoffs, the recession is leading to other foolhardy cutbacks. It seems obvious that skipping testing is a path to software project failures, but software testing consultant Karen Johnson is seeing companies do just that. Johnson told me that companies are cutting down on or even skipping software testing altogether as a recessionary cost-saving method. If this trend continues, look for more embarrassing outages caused by admitted software failures or for “undisclosed reasons.”

While researching software failures, I read a Code Diesel post on software failures by developer Sameer Bora. To Oliva’s reasons why projects fail, Bora adds these common mistakes: sloppy development practices and poor reporting. Bora also created a handy chart on why software projects fail. Printed out or used as a screensaver, even, it could provide a visual reminder of project pitfalls.

Now it’s your turn: Do these reasons for failure ring a bell? Can you think of others? Let me know by commenting below or writing to me at  Trackback URL