Stop a project plan crash - you are an expert

Imagine. It is now 10:30 pm and the plane is preparing to fly a long distance. In the cockpit of the aircraft, the pilot and the first mate are busy checking the aircraft systems before departure. They compare with the weather forecast, check the level of fuel and a number of technical indicators and indicators. They begin to prepare a detailed flight route.

Suddenly, the airline's general director bursts into the cabin.

')
“What the hell are you doing here? I want this plane to be in the air, and as soon as possible. ”

The pilot looks at him in horror: "But without sufficient checks and preliminary analysis ..."

“I do not care about testing and analysis. Do something already, ”the director added. “Yes, I know, analysis is considered a“ best practice, ”but we need to hurry, and we don’t have time for this whole theory from the books you insist on. I want to see PROGRESS. NOW."

The pilot and senior assistant shrink in their seats. “But we didn’t even prepare a flight route.”

The director doesn't even listen. “And why do you need so much fuel? I cut fuel costs by half. And I expect to see this plane at Heathrow Airport in London after 4 hours, and not after 7 like, you indicated in your flight plan. All clear?"

The director leaves the plane back to the runway.

The pilot and the assistant look at each other, realizing that they do not have enough time and fuel, there is no route, and they fly out without a standard check of all aircraft systems. Now disaster can not be avoided.

You will not contradict a professional pilot ... So why does business contradict professionals?

The example I described above simply cannot happen in the real world. It simply cannot be that the director doubts the pilot's professionalism, and he would never cut the fuel and time by half. However, do you find a similarity between the difficulties that fell to the pilot and the problems you face in the projects? I will assume that everyone who reads this article, the investor or customer requested to reduce the preliminary assessment of the project, to make it easier to fit into the project plan or start a project without sufficient preliminary analysis.

We, as business analysts as experts, advise organizations on change. We should expect the usual doubts from colleagues in business and project, but we also should not be afraid to challenge their opinion. It is imperative that we fulfill the role of “good criticism” in the organizations in which we work — to support them, but also to be bold enough to ask difficult questions and point out sharp facts. When it comes time to change projects, we will stand on the runway. If an alarming red light blinks, then our duty is to convey the importance of the problem to others. We must do absolutely everything in our power to prevent the crash of the draft aircraft by pointing out the risk and facilitating a meaningful decision.

What signals warn us of danger?

No route. If it is difficult to understand the direction of the project, then this is a clear indicator of the danger that it will land not where the customer wants. It is worth it to stop and understand why the project was launched and what goals and objectives were set for it.

Not enough fuel. Without sufficient resources, the project is likely to crash and burn to the ground. Here we need a simple and honest conversation: if the project is not important enough to get more resources, most likely it is not so important to do it at all.

Implausible flight time. Help the project team be realistic in terms of setting deadlines. If you do not have time to "land the project", then you have to make an emergency landing, perhaps forcibly dropping some of the desired functionality along the way. The sooner you know about it, the better, because it can change the approach to the problem.

Bad connection to the air traffic control center. The aircraft needs help in navigating the overloaded sky. Organizations need to make decisions between rival projects in an overloaded portfolio. Our counterpart flight control center is the project sponsor. He will provide supervision, take responsibility and be in touch. If it is unavailable, it is a serious indicator of danger.

I hope you enjoyed this analogy and found it useful, and that it helped you to look at the problem from a different angle.

How do you deal with problems when working with a customer? What other warning signals do you pay attention to?

From the translator: if you find any translation errors, I will be glad to correct them.
Thanks to Sterhel and lecter for help.