“Hopeless” project or 8 “stick lessons”
There are no hopeless projects. There are bad project managers to whom in the case of this project I can relate. Excessive self-confidence is harmful, and for the success of a project, it is often necessary to take care of “politics”, and not only technology. The article is written purely on their personal mistakes, respectively, more debatable than informational.
It's not easy to write about failures. Especially with the promise that there are no “failures through the fault of the customer” or “failures due to the fault of the performer”. Responsibility for the implementation of the project lies only with the project manager on the part of the customer. A company must have a person to whom everyone will point at the question “who is involved in the implementation issue ...?”. The project manager on the part of the performer, of course, must also be present, but you need to realize that this person has quite simple goals - to sign acts and receive money. If a large company invested a lot of money into the project, then, with a successful outcome, this person will also have a goal to get a “reference” on the project, which he could show to other customers. If the contractor is not satisfied, you need to change the company of the contractor, if there is not enough money for the project, you need to increase the budget from the project sponsor, or set project limits. I’m writing all this to the fact that in my case I’m not trying to write “I was disturbed by everything”, but, on the contrary, I’m well aware that if I made the right “political” decisions, the project could have been saved.
')
It all started quite banal - changing jobs. A small trading company (5 large stores in Moscow). An area of business with which you have long been familiar. Everything seems to be good, but one thing confused at the interview - will have to deal with a project that is already in the final stage. So, the best that can be said in this situation is never to take on the management of a project that is “in the final stage”. Of course, I was not so naive that I didn’t understand this at all, but I was too self-confident, because I hadn’t yet parted with the developer’s skills, and the amount of work that had to be done did not seem so great; as a last resort, if you wish, you can cope on your own. The logic here is simple: to connect to the development at 100% is equivalent to 2-3 average developers from the franchisee (I think it’s not a revelation to anyone, what is the average developer level in the franchisee, I’m not trying to “elevate my abilities” in any way). Now, if I am completely pressed, I can work up to 16 hours a day, respectively, multiply by 2. It turns out that there is already a good amount of resources, it is unlikely that much more was allocated for this project. Taking into account the fact that all these resources are extremely coordinated and do not spend time interacting with each other, they do not need management, tasks, control, clear TK, it turns out to be a quite effective team. But as practice has shown - you can fill up any project. Absolutely any.
So, when leaving for work, surprises began. The company's corporate culture was of a very strange nature, especially for a small company. Contact between employees only on "you", even within the department, and everything in this style. Plus a terrible turnover of personnel. How does this affect the project? Yes, very simple. There can be no talk of any “project team” inside. I reacted calmly to daily reporting - I got used to it already. Just used, of course, to report on the results, not on the actions.
Further, the most interesting thing is that the franchisee company (very large and well known) was going to introduce a typical UT 11 (then there were still the first releases - it just came out) without any modifications. In the warehouse, after all, but 20 people work there, 10-15 users. How not to hesitate to write it - I do not know. In addition, they were not going to introduce them from the beginning of the year and without data transfer - “jump”, as they like to call it. This is, of course, a little scared. The prospect of active participation in the development became almost inevitable.
The first desire, of course, is to see the schedule of work on the project. And it just was not there. But this is not the most interesting. There was not even a single list of tasks, proposed TK, proposed work, proposed work blocks. Of all the project documentation, only a few paid bills were found, where there were some jobs and the result of a quick survey. In the express survey, oddly enough, quite a lot of interesting things were reflected, so the “typical UT 11” didn’t even bother with it. Then I looked at the accounts in which such interesting items as “downloading weather from the Internet”, etc. were listed.
The next logical question was to find out what is the budget of the whole project. But this question of my answer from the leadership was only "budget questions do not concern you." Agreeing to this without controversy was another serious mistake of mine: the project budget issues always concern the project manager.
Further work began. I finally looked into the eyes of the people who did all this. The first thing that was logical to do was to stop all “the development of complex analytical reports” until the overload from UT 10.1 to UT 11 is working. To which they did not hesitate to tell me that the transition will be the “update” of UT 10.1 to UT 11. He replied I would really like to see it ... My joke was understood literally. It took a week and a half to figure out what could not really be updated. With overload it turned out even more fun - they refused to use data conversion. Of course, "your work - the result is important to me." Only now I have already realized who I am dealing with - just in case, clarify that the GUID needs to be preserved in this case (I think everyone understands why the transition from the base to the base by “jump” in the middle of the year is a myth, even if it turns out to be operational accounting transfer will remain accounting). Sooner or later the conversion will appear. After these few illustrative examples of RP and TRP by the performer, I stopped trusting completely. Solutions for the most part tried to take over. But it was not always easy. Try, for example, to explain to the director what a GUID is and why I need it from the performer, especially if they unanimously say “with GUID this is another week from the top”, a paid week.
Then he joined the work a bit and life began to get better: a task accounting system was introduced, at least some. A list of tasks for the project began to take shape in the first approximation, constructive and fruitful work began. I quietly wrote blanks for converting from the old system to the new one and back. And everything would be fine, but all the launch dates had already passed, it was necessary to force the start, otherwise the money could actually be dragged out for quite a long time. At this time, attempts were made, however unsuccessful, to expand their own staff of developers. Therefore, it was clear that at the critical moment of launch, it would be possible to count only on our own strength, which is now available. It was a good idea to conduct preliminary tests where employees saw the system for the first time in their life, after which the scale of the disaster became clear and had to be connected to the development.
As always, the moment of launch came unexpectedly. My working day on the launch day lasted 12 hours, and then it didn’t shrink anymore ... In 2 days, in a hurry, I had to add two-way exchange between the two bases, adjust the equipment, correct errors, level the balances; in general - to do what you usually have to do. The only thing is that from this time we still had to find time for disputes with the contractor, acceptance of work, attempts to explain what was needed of them, and why it was necessary “yesterday”, and spend a lot more time explaining to the management that the performer is engaged in some strange things, but not the ones that are needed. Thus, some working days lasted 16 hours, 18 hours.
Freelancers started working on the project. With difficulty we managed to find good specialists who, for small sums of money, turned the enormous amount of work, the franchisee never dreamed of. Yes, it is risky, yes, not reliably, but in a situation where you are worried that there are only 24 hours in a day - a lifeline. My working day began to approach the 8-hour one again.
After two or three weeks of work, with difficulty and grunting, but the company went to work at UT 11. There, of course, there were still a lot of unresolved issues, but they were not related to current work, but rather to interacting with accounting (thanks again large 1C for the separation of contractors for partners and contractors) and work optimization issues. Began to talk about the launch of 1C: Retail.
Finally, they managed to get an appointment from the management with the leadership of the franchisee to make claims to them, and it was possible to refuse their services (there were already workers in the form of freelancers). Apparently, professional negotiators arrived at the meeting and began to tell how they would deal with the problem, how much resources they were ready to allocate, and how immediately they would react to our appeals (they only forgot to mention how much it will cost).
I have not believed in miracles for a long time. It does not happen that everything was bad and suddenly it became good, but the managers apparently believed it and agreed to everything, after which I handed over all the current tasks to the franchisee, and I also distributed the consultants to the users. After a while, the management received the phrase “Oleg, we just talked, and you decided everything.”
He was called by the management, and one of the company’s managers, who generally saw me for the first time, asked me to make a report on the current and remaining tasks. I was delighted that by my efforts I have at least this information, that I already closely enough imagine what works are still to come. As it turned out, the report was needed only to say that "in this form, its leadership is not served."
Obviously, I was to blame for all the troubles, in excess of the budget (the size of which I finally found out) I was also to blame, and in general it is not quite clear what I was doing. My immediate supervisor suddenly found himself urgently busy with something, and when I understood what was going on, I stopped trying to explain something. I think they wouldn't fire me. But it hardly made sense to try to do anything further.
(C) comol
Lesson 1. Responsibility for the implementation of the project lies only with the project manager on the part of the customer.
It's not easy to write about failures. Especially with the promise that there are no “failures through the fault of the customer” or “failures due to the fault of the performer”. Responsibility for the implementation of the project lies only with the project manager on the part of the customer. A company must have a person to whom everyone will point at the question “who is involved in the implementation issue ...?”. The project manager on the part of the performer, of course, must also be present, but you need to realize that this person has quite simple goals - to sign acts and receive money. If a large company invested a lot of money into the project, then, with a successful outcome, this person will also have a goal to get a “reference” on the project, which he could show to other customers. If the contractor is not satisfied, you need to change the company of the contractor, if there is not enough money for the project, you need to increase the budget from the project sponsor, or set project limits. I’m writing all this to the fact that in my case I’m not trying to write “I was disturbed by everything”, but, on the contrary, I’m well aware that if I made the right “political” decisions, the project could have been saved.
')
Lesson 2. You can never take on the management of a project that is in the “final stage”.
It all started quite banal - changing jobs. A small trading company (5 large stores in Moscow). An area of business with which you have long been familiar. Everything seems to be good, but one thing confused at the interview - will have to deal with a project that is already in the final stage. So, the best that can be said in this situation is never to take on the management of a project that is “in the final stage”. Of course, I was not so naive that I didn’t understand this at all, but I was too self-confident, because I hadn’t yet parted with the developer’s skills, and the amount of work that had to be done did not seem so great; as a last resort, if you wish, you can cope on your own. The logic here is simple: to connect to the development at 100% is equivalent to 2-3 average developers from the franchisee (I think it’s not a revelation to anyone, what is the average developer level in the franchisee, I’m not trying to “elevate my abilities” in any way). Now, if I am completely pressed, I can work up to 16 hours a day, respectively, multiply by 2. It turns out that there is already a good amount of resources, it is unlikely that much more was allocated for this project. Taking into account the fact that all these resources are extremely coordinated and do not spend time interacting with each other, they do not need management, tasks, control, clear TK, it turns out to be a quite effective team. But as practice has shown - you can fill up any project. Absolutely any.
Lesson 3. You can fill up any project. Absolutely any.
So, when leaving for work, surprises began. The company's corporate culture was of a very strange nature, especially for a small company. Contact between employees only on "you", even within the department, and everything in this style. Plus a terrible turnover of personnel. How does this affect the project? Yes, very simple. There can be no talk of any “project team” inside. I reacted calmly to daily reporting - I got used to it already. Just used, of course, to report on the results, not on the actions.
Further, the most interesting thing is that the franchisee company (very large and well known) was going to introduce a typical UT 11 (then there were still the first releases - it just came out) without any modifications. In the warehouse, after all, but 20 people work there, 10-15 users. How not to hesitate to write it - I do not know. In addition, they were not going to introduce them from the beginning of the year and without data transfer - “jump”, as they like to call it. This is, of course, a little scared. The prospect of active participation in the development became almost inevitable.
Lesson 4. Before embarking on an existing project, you need to study the schedule of work on it, at least in order to make sure that such a project exists.
The first desire, of course, is to see the schedule of work on the project. And it just was not there. But this is not the most interesting. There was not even a single list of tasks, proposed TK, proposed work, proposed work blocks. Of all the project documentation, only a few paid bills were found, where there were some jobs and the result of a quick survey. In the express survey, oddly enough, quite a lot of interesting things were reflected, so the “typical UT 11” didn’t even bother with it. Then I looked at the accounts in which such interesting items as “downloading weather from the Internet”, etc. were listed.
Lesson 5. Project budget issues always concern the project manager.
The next logical question was to find out what is the budget of the whole project. But this question of my answer from the leadership was only "budget questions do not concern you." Agreeing to this without controversy was another serious mistake of mine: the project budget issues always concern the project manager.
Lesson 6. The project must be managed by a person whose competence does not raise doubts.
Further work began. I finally looked into the eyes of the people who did all this. The first thing that was logical to do was to stop all “the development of complex analytical reports” until the overload from UT 10.1 to UT 11 is working. To which they did not hesitate to tell me that the transition will be the “update” of UT 10.1 to UT 11. He replied I would really like to see it ... My joke was understood literally. It took a week and a half to figure out what could not really be updated. With overload it turned out even more fun - they refused to use data conversion. Of course, "your work - the result is important to me." Only now I have already realized who I am dealing with - just in case, clarify that the GUID needs to be preserved in this case (I think everyone understands why the transition from the base to the base by “jump” in the middle of the year is a myth, even if it turns out to be operational accounting transfer will remain accounting). Sooner or later the conversion will appear. After these few illustrative examples of RP and TRP by the performer, I stopped trusting completely. Solutions for the most part tried to take over. But it was not always easy. Try, for example, to explain to the director what a GUID is and why I need it from the performer, especially if they unanimously say “with GUID this is another week from the top”, a paid week.
Then he joined the work a bit and life began to get better: a task accounting system was introduced, at least some. A list of tasks for the project began to take shape in the first approximation, constructive and fruitful work began. I quietly wrote blanks for converting from the old system to the new one and back. And everything would be fine, but all the launch dates had already passed, it was necessary to force the start, otherwise the money could actually be dragged out for quite a long time. At this time, attempts were made, however unsuccessful, to expand their own staff of developers. Therefore, it was clear that at the critical moment of launch, it would be possible to count only on our own strength, which is now available. It was a good idea to conduct preliminary tests where employees saw the system for the first time in their life, after which the scale of the disaster became clear and had to be connected to the development.
Lesson 7. It is impossible to work overtime if it is not stipulated by the contract. This still will not appreciate.
As always, the moment of launch came unexpectedly. My working day on the launch day lasted 12 hours, and then it didn’t shrink anymore ... In 2 days, in a hurry, I had to add two-way exchange between the two bases, adjust the equipment, correct errors, level the balances; in general - to do what you usually have to do. The only thing is that from this time we still had to find time for disputes with the contractor, acceptance of work, attempts to explain what was needed of them, and why it was necessary “yesterday”, and spend a lot more time explaining to the management that the performer is engaged in some strange things, but not the ones that are needed. Thus, some working days lasted 16 hours, 18 hours.
Freelancers started working on the project. With difficulty we managed to find good specialists who, for small sums of money, turned the enormous amount of work, the franchisee never dreamed of. Yes, it is risky, yes, not reliably, but in a situation where you are worried that there are only 24 hours in a day - a lifeline. My working day began to approach the 8-hour one again.
After two or three weeks of work, with difficulty and grunting, but the company went to work at UT 11. There, of course, there were still a lot of unresolved issues, but they were not related to current work, but rather to interacting with accounting (thanks again large 1C for the separation of contractors for partners and contractors) and work optimization issues. Began to talk about the launch of 1C: Retail.
Lesson 8. It is necessary to require from the management a written confirmation of instructions that seem absurd.
Finally, they managed to get an appointment from the management with the leadership of the franchisee to make claims to them, and it was possible to refuse their services (there were already workers in the form of freelancers). Apparently, professional negotiators arrived at the meeting and began to tell how they would deal with the problem, how much resources they were ready to allocate, and how immediately they would react to our appeals (they only forgot to mention how much it will cost).
I have not believed in miracles for a long time. It does not happen that everything was bad and suddenly it became good, but the managers apparently believed it and agreed to everything, after which I handed over all the current tasks to the franchisee, and I also distributed the consultants to the users. After a while, the management received the phrase “Oleg, we just talked, and you decided everything.”
Bottom line: the time has come "payback for their deeds."
He was called by the management, and one of the company’s managers, who generally saw me for the first time, asked me to make a report on the current and remaining tasks. I was delighted that by my efforts I have at least this information, that I already closely enough imagine what works are still to come. As it turned out, the report was needed only to say that "in this form, its leadership is not served."
Obviously, I was to blame for all the troubles, in excess of the budget (the size of which I finally found out) I was also to blame, and in general it is not quite clear what I was doing. My immediate supervisor suddenly found himself urgently busy with something, and when I understood what was going on, I stopped trying to explain something. I think they wouldn't fire me. But it hardly made sense to try to do anything further.
(C) comol
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/217083/
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