My boss has poor-decision making skills and it’s stalling his pet project. He wanted to overhaul our dept’s information system and the work was assigned to our in-house IT staff. Because I’m interested in project management (I’m an admin/desktop support), I was responsible for obtaining user requirements from various staff.
The problem is that there are some requirements that only he can decide on, but he gives me the runaround. He says “X would know that”, but they refer me back to him. He denies any familiarity with the area, then a month later says he’s the best person to consult with. Or he approves some requirements, then changes his mind without telling anyone until we’re at a meeting with the project manager.
We’re not getting anywhere because the IT staff are asking: “What do you want out of this system?” and his response is: “What can you do?” The project manager has drawn up a few alternatives based on the feedback we got, but my boss won’t choose one. He says we need to get more user feedback but won’t specify exactly who needs to be consulted, or sends me to the wrong people who refer me back to him. We’ve wasted a few months doing this and the project manager has warned him that the project isn’t going anywhere until he makes up his mind. Whenever the project manager advises my boss that X needs to happen for the project to proceed, he gives the task to me then sits on the results. He says this project is important, but it seems he’s hoping that if he stalls for long enough, something will happen to save him from making a decision. Now he’s also begun to blame me for the lack of progress, saying that the user requirements could’ve been collected a lot sooner.
What should I do? I’m too involved to back out of this, but I don’t want to a scapegoat for my boss’s indecisiveness. Should I tell the project manager about my boss? And what are some ways to handle changing business requirements while minimising scope creep?
