Talking to the business: our problems, their visions
The first meeting for a project is a tense affair. There can be a lot of new things coming at you all at once. New co-workers. New technology. New processes. And, perhaps most problematic, new business partners. These meetings tend to follow predictable patterns. You, the technical person, want to stick to a process, gathering basic requirements that can be put into a document. So you ask some questions about what’s going on with the business and what problems need to be solved. The business person talks rather vaguely about what she wants to accomplish. She seems excited about...
Read MoreQ&A: What do I do when I’ve lost all respect for my manager?
Question: I have a situation where I have lost all professional respect for my manager. She is a very nice person but takes advice from her best friend, who is another manager here. We can’t implement any policy or process without her running to her friend to check it out. It appears that her friend is taking advantage of this by doing whatever he wants. Any advice? Answer: It sounds like you have at least three problems here: your manager’s behavior, your manager’s friend taking advantage of her and your loss of respect for her. Let’s dispense with the easy one...
Read MoreQ&A: How do I manage three different sponsors?
Question: How do you manage your sponsors when you have three different sponsors who have varied, often competing views of where a project should go? Answer: If you’ve got three sponsors, you don’t have a sponsor. It’s like saying you’ve got three first priorities. Just as there can be only one first priority, there can be only one sponsor. In your case, what you probably have, in fact, is a disorganized steering committee that never meets and doesn’t have anyone in charge. As you’ve already figured out, that’s not a recipe for success. It’s the...
Read MorePolitics Are the Job
In the course of consulting for and coaching IT managers, the complaints I hear most often involve politics. “I’d love my job if it weren’t for the politics.” “This would be a great place to work if not for the politics.” “Politics aren’t my job. Why do I spend so much time on them?” These frustrations are usually expressed with an underlying sadness or even anger. The persistent presence and gritty reality of politics come as a surprise and a disappointment to most technical managers. I think this is so because many managers hold the...
Read MoreUsing sponsors effectively
It has become an article of faith that projects without sponsors will inevitably crash and burn. But unexamined beliefs can lead us astray, and we need to be thoughtful about how we apply any maxim. In the case of project sponsorship, more is required of us than checking a box on a form and holding monthly status meetings. In fact, some projects don’t need a sponsor. Pure infrastructure projects, for example, are unlikely to attract a real business sponsor, any more than a revamp of the office restrooms would. You can call it aligning the business with the underlying plumbing if you...
Read MoreChanging the Subject: The Real Power of Managers
If you want to really help your organization, one of the more subtle things you need to learn to do is to effectively change the subject. Over the years that I’ve advised technical managers, young and old, some patterns have become apparent. One is that most seem to go through a series of distinct stages in their understanding of the role of manager. There are different stages for different aspects of the role, but the patterns are relatively consistent. When it comes to beliefs about managers’ roles in information flow, the pattern is interesting and instructive. Stage 1: The...
Read MoreGet Political to Get Aligned
One of the perennially favorite issues on year-end surveys is the alignment between business and technology. It’s one of those things we always talk about but rarely succeed at improving. That’s not because we’re bad people with ill intentions, but because it’s very difficult to actually figure out how to fix this persistent problem. Most attempts to improve alignment involve changing project processes and adding interviews, documentation and meetings in an attempt to coerce people to agree. Generally, this seems to translate into the practice of holding a project...
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