A software developer deals with unique situations almost every day.

Every project, every bug fix, every issue has its own unique challenges and one of a kind circumstances.

Even if the functionality has been built before in other systems or is available on other pieces of software, implementing it on a specific system or integrating it with existing code has its own set of challenges.  A developer really does work on “projects” in the sense that they work on unique endeavors that have some degree of uncertainty and risk of failure.

As far as the other side of the formal definition of a project, having a defined start and end date, that’s often a matter of controlling scope creep or change requests

Because developers are working on projects there is no single body of knowledge they can master to have answers to questions right off the bat.

When you ask a doctor about a pain in your side, there is a well documented set of potential answers and a huge body of research on the most probable answer based on other data points/symptoms reported.   They can usually give you an answer off the cuff.  And if not, there are prescribed recommend tests to further find the answer.  This isn’t the case with a software developer.

A software developer is not a doctor. No two bodies of code are the same.

Next time you ask a developer for an answer or an estimate, don’t surprised if they need time to come up with the answer. Or, if the answer they give is inaccurate or if the estimate is off.

The same is true of designers and creative knowledge workers.

A Job List or Project List has the power to keep competing deadlines off your back.

Start keeping a list of every project or job people request of your department. The list should have the project name, the person who requested it, their department, the date they requested it and the date they want it done by.

If you are like most internal marketing departments or internal IT departments, this list will get very long, very fast. It will become the living embodiment of all the competing pressures on you as a director or team member, and of the demands on your resources.

Of course, you probably already keep a list like this for managing your work, for keeping track of all your projects and the tasks everyone has to do.  It might be a paper list or in project management software.

The difference with this list is that this is a list you share.

This is a list that is openly available and public for every “client” to see.

If you are an internal department, your clients are your internal clients and it’s up to you to navigate the political territory.

If you are an independent agency, please don’t really show it to your clients.  Show it to the account managers and salespeople who are asking on behalf of the clients.

It is the list you bring out when someone else from another department asks you to get another project done, to squeeze in another job. It is the list you pull out when they make that job request and you say:

Great.

I’d love to get that job done for you. Here is a list of everything I’ve got going in the department right now. Some of them are from you. Some are from other people. Which one should I bump? Which one should I move to fit yours in?

Wait for the answer.

Nothing gets a process going for better project management or for more thoughtful allocation of resources and better decision making, than making people prioritize the work they want you to do for them.

It is also an outstanding exercise for an independent agency. It helps you evaluate which are the highest value clients, the highest value projects and it can help you better understand what makes them so valuable (so you can do more of that).

The people behind Stack Overflow, the wildly popular programmers forum, has a proposal to host ASK ABOUT PROJECTS at no cost.

Askaboutprojects.com is a leading forum for project management questions answered by a global community of project management experts (including us here at Vertabase).

You can help move this proposal forward at Area 51. This is the “staging” area for sites under consideration by the folks at Stack-Exchange.

If you are interested in project management, or have a project management question, check out the Ask About Projects website.  Its a community driven site where you can ask questions, you can answer them and you get to decide who’s answers are good or not.

Next time your client comes to you with a tight deadline, an aggressive schedule or fast turnaround, ask them “why?”

And if they are coming to you every week with tight deadlines and crunch-times and overnight deadlines or deadlines in hours instead of days or weeks, ask them “why?”

Ask them why it’s such an emergency. Ask them why it’s so important and why they need it so quickly.  And did they have the need yesterday for it? Will they have the need tomorrow for it?

50% of the time they won’t have an answer.

50% of the time they are just getting something off their desk or trying out a new idea or seeing if they can relieve some of their pressures by having something new come out of your department or your team.

(You can usually tell if this is happening when they don’t have time to look at the draft work-product you produced for them or to comment on sketches or mock-ups or even the tweaks you made based on their initial feedback.)

Next time they come to you with super rush deadlines, ask “why?”

And build it into your process.

You’ll get a lot more work done. And your clients will be happier when you have the time to dedicate to the jobs they truly value for their longer-term needs.

Incidentally, “why?” doesn’t mean you’re turning away the work or saying you won’t do it.  The idea is to put a  business case ahead of the expenditure of resources. It’s about prioritizing work so you can focus on the most important jobs and knowing what the work-product is supposed accomplish.

I will be speaking at the November meeting of the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Great Lakes Chapter. The topic is:

How To Achieve Economic Growth and Innovation Through Linchpin Project Management

Attendees receive a 1 PDU continuing education credit from the PMI.

Below is a description of the session. You can register at here.

Project management evangelist Mark Phillips will bring to life the new buzz-phrase “linchpin project management.” He takes the concept explained by author Seth Godin and defines it in everyday terms, recommending steps that project managers and other business leaders can take to create a culture of linchpin project  management.

Attendees of this presentation will learn the critical distinction between the view that project managers lead “operations” and the view that they lead “projects,” with the latter being preferable.

By seeing their roles as true managers of projects, the individuals in these roles maintain creativity by distinguishing themselves as being in charge of something unique, something that is bringing change and has never been done before.

Finally, Phillips will describe the innovation-driven authority that the best project managers can derive from their roles and provide tips for individuals who want to achieve this level of mastery.

Timothy Keirnan’s Design Critique: Products for People podcast published an interview with Mark Phillips from the Internet User Experience 2010 Conference in Ann Arbor.

The podcast discusses how designers, studios and internal art departments can use project management techniques to create better work product.  The podcast gives real-world, non-technical tips. It also goes into some of the political / personality challenges you might encounter.

If you don’t know about Timothy’s podcast, its about encouraging usable products for a better customer experience. It recently celebrated its 5 year anniversary and has included interviews with such note-worthies as Michael Graves and the creators of SnagIt.

This is not related to project management.

I read an article from the law firm, Miller Canfield, that suggests practices judges, courts and attorneys can take to restrict jurors from getting information about their trial from the internet.

You see, a jury is supposed to make its decision based solely on the evidence presented in court.  In the age of internet enabled cell phones, access to the internet at home or a library, and even TV news-stories and documentaries about ongoing cases, jurors can easily get information from other places.

It seems to me that trying to control access to this information is a not a viable long-term strategy to preserving the accurate execution of justice.

Long-term, the way justice is determined needs to change. Ubiquitous access to information is only going to increase. It can’t be controlled by trying to limit it. The Justice System needs to find ways to adapt to the new landscape.

I can imagine that this is as seismic a shift in justice as was the introduction of public in education in a society or mass literacy. Both of these changes paved the foundation for our current system of trial by jury.

Formal project management methodology can be overkill on some projects or a lifesaver on others. In general, it’s clear on when to go through the detailed steps of a methodology and when not to. It depends on the overall size of the project.

1. A short project doesn’t require much in terms of formal project management. The steps you’d go through in putting together all the documents and spreadsheets of a methodology are done automatically as part of getting the project done.
2. A long project should go through formal project management steps to make sure all bases are covered and that nothing is dropped or forgotten. (This is especially true during when gathering requirements for the project.)

The problem comes when you think the project will be short and it turns out to be a long one.

To avoid this, do a quick, 10,000 foot estimate on the project’s size before getting started. In the language of formal project management (like PMI’s Guide to the PMBOK), this is called a top-down estimate. It can be based on experience and past projects you, or other people in your organization, have done. Templates or archives of these past projects can be helpful sources of information for the estimates.

Take the time to actually put together an estimate, as opposed to just eye-balling it or basing your estimate on “gut” alone. It can save you from the headache of underestimating the tools, resources or information you need to get the project done.

My project management presentation from the Adobe Developers Summit UnConference 2009 is now available online.

It covers simple and effective tips to improve your project’s success and manage projects better.

Part Four of Four

I’ll wrap up this series with a discussion of power.

Without authority a project manager is stuck.  A project manager needs to exert some form of authority to implement changes and move the project forward.  This authority can be formally granted in the organization or informally obtained and built up over time.

A linchpin needs to make a difference and exert influence over their individual realm. A linchpin project manager needs to exert influence over a process and other people. They may or may not formally have that power. If they don’t, an organization can unlock a wave of innovation by empowering project managers to make changes. Giving project managers formal authority.

But sometimes, a  project manager needs to build up their own authority.  Somehow. There are many different ways of gaining authority and many different kinds of power or influence that you can wield.  This article focuses on the kind of authority a linchpin project manager can gain: innovation driven authority. Authority you build up by being innovative, creative and delivering results.

INNOVATION DRIVEN AUTHORITY
A linchpin takes advantage of those things they have control over, and makes a difference in that realm.

They may realize they have authority over something small (what some may consider small). But it is specifically in this realm that they can affect change by starting and finishing something that is unique. By doing their part differently, they can invest themselves in the project and make it remarkable.

They may have a different read on what the customer wants or a different feel for how the customer wants to be treated. Then, through their own internal strength and belief that its ok to be different, they let that approach influence how they run the project -and how they ask others to work on the project.  Of course, this is not without risk. Their approach might be “wrong.” They could be heading for disaster.

But a linchpin project manager combines the willingness to take risks with formal project management skills.  This includes having a system in place to monitor projects, see when they’re going off track and do course corrections (or kill the project if need be).  It includes identifying and managing risk.  It means knowing how to report progress to other people in the organization, your clients, so they can have an accurate read on what to expect.

The project might fail. But a linchpin project manager will have distinguished themselves by trying to make a difference, of being more than just a competent project manager. By being an innovator.

By building a track record of trying to do the remarkable, a linchpin project manager can build up their reputation and their authority. This is authority based on results and creativity. Innovation driven authority.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS A SOURCE OF THE REMARKABLE
Throughout the series we’ve talked about structural changes you can make in your organization to foster linchpin project management. This article talked about giving people the authority to make changes or how to gain authority through innovation.  This is no small challenge and one that even the largest companies are grappling with (see The End of Management from the Wall Street Journal).  One thing is certain, someone who is inspired to be a linchpin has a tremendous amount of creative energy waiting to be used.  If you don’t give them the room to use that energy, to exercise their abilities, they will push for the authority to do so.  And if, after pushing and pushing, they still can’t get it, they will likely try to take those energies elsewhere (or, you’ll kill that energy and lose a valuable asset).  By not creating a culture of linchpin project management you could be fostering your next competitor right in your own shop. At the very least, by keeping creativity chained up, you’ll dull that source of creativity in exchange for the average and known.

By definition, a project manager is someone who ACTIVELY applies the tools, techniques, knowledge and skills of project management to help projects achieve their requirements. The most important word here is “actively.” A project manager, in the best scenario, is an active participant in achieving results. What’s more, a great project manager really is that linchpin who is particularly focused on delivering the remarkable.