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Just wanted to add a quick note, even though you may communicate all necessary details to your team members about what the deliverable is and when it is due, it is an excellent idea to have periodic follow up meeting to check on their progress towards completing the deliverable and if any "unexpected issues" have or will arise that would make the original deliverable change.
Couldn't agree more - there are so many downstream benefits to giving clear assignments (faster meetings, fewer meetings, greater chance of hitting deliverables, etc). It is more upfront work, but absolutely makes sense when viewed from a project planning perspective (i.e., don't give short shrift to planning phase and head straight to execution)
I completely agree with this article. It is a very interesting way to plan planning. What I agree the most is in the bullet of the estimated cost. It is important to emphasis that each member has the responsibility of reporting the manager whether they are able to complete the work in the estimated cost/time. However, it is more important to make sure that the Project manager has the discipline to check periodically if the task is still going on time. Both sides are to be dynamic as far as reporting, but I think the project manager should be not only dynamic but very aggressive to learn the status of each task before the deadline arrives.
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Here in the U.S. I urge every project manager to manage hours, not just dollars. The reason is that it has become a national secret of sacramental proportions that no one in America keeps good time records. Timekeeping is sloppy, deliberately inaccurate, or just plain not done at all.
There are two dire consequences of this. The most important from the standpoint of even a hard-nosed manager is that inaccurate timekeeping makes it impossible to ever know exactly how long it takes to build 100 Function Points of software. That means you'll never be able to accurately estimate the schedule and cost of future projects, you'll always be in the dark. You may be able to get away with it today but some day you'll wish you could divide the size of the software delivered by past projects by the hours of labor.
The other consequence is a dropoff in performance. This may seem counterintuitive but it's been proven true 100% of the time. Bad timekeeping invariably leads to overtime, because managers believe their staff can accomplish anything they're assigned by just working "harder". But the 40-hour week isn't just a tradition, it's the maximum that "knowledge workers" can work before their cognitive skills start to fail. After more than a couple of weeks of overtime, both productivity and quality slip and performance actually drops below baseline.
And of course there's a social cost to overwork. People spend less time with their families, resulting in strained marriages, poorly parented children, neglected exercise regimens, and a steady diet of convenience food. There are monetary costs as well. That convenience food is expensive, as are the additional cars and extra hours of child care that busy families need, as well as the gardeners and tax accountants.
There are two dire consequences of this. The most important from the standpoint of even a hard-nosed manager is that inaccurate timekeeping makes it impossible to ever know exactly how long it takes to build 100 Function Points of software. That means you'll never be able to accurately estimate the schedule and cost of future projects, you'll always be in the dark. You may be able to get away with it today but some day you'll wish you could divide the size of the software delivered by past projects by the hours of labor.
The other consequence is a dropoff in performance. This may seem counterintuitive but it's been proven true 100% of the time. Bad timekeeping invariably leads to overtime, because managers believe their staff can accomplish anything they're assigned by just working "harder". But the 40-hour week isn't just a tradition, it's the maximum that "knowledge workers" can work before their cognitive skills start to fail. After more than a couple of weeks of overtime, both productivity and quality slip and performance actually drops below baseline.
And of course there's a social cost to overwork. People spend less time with their families, resulting in strained marriages, poorly parented children, neglected exercise regimens, and a steady diet of convenience food. There are monetary costs as well. That convenience food is expensive, as are the additional cars and extra hours of child care that busy families need, as well as the gardeners and tax accountants.
An individual?s workload is set without discussion with the person concerned. They are informed of their responsibilities and duties by E-mail.
The amount of work each person gets is determined by dividing the total amount of work to be done by the number of people available to do it. Any complaint by an individual that their workload is excessive is given the response that ?it?s the same for everyone?. The management consider this to be a fair system as each person is abused by the same amount.
Ad hoc work is distributed on volunteers as it appears. Volunteers are people who believe it will harm their career if they do not volunteer and people who are invited to take on the work. The latter group is split further into two, those who are shamed into taking on work and those who are harassed and bullied into taking on the work.
The most effective way to pursue this tactic is to call a meeting and drop the work on the unsuspecting target. Should the target have the temerity to offer resistance then a personal visit where, with the benefit of a one to one discussion, the target may see the error of their intransigent ways.
The amount of work each person gets is determined by dividing the total amount of work to be done by the number of people available to do it. Any complaint by an individual that their workload is excessive is given the response that ?it?s the same for everyone?. The management consider this to be a fair system as each person is abused by the same amount.
Ad hoc work is distributed on volunteers as it appears. Volunteers are people who believe it will harm their career if they do not volunteer and people who are invited to take on the work. The latter group is split further into two, those who are shamed into taking on work and those who are harassed and bullied into taking on the work.
The most effective way to pursue this tactic is to call a meeting and drop the work on the unsuspecting target. Should the target have the temerity to offer resistance then a personal visit where, with the benefit of a one to one discussion, the target may see the error of their intransigent ways.
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