Manager's Guide: 10 Simple Ways to Overwhelm a Project

RM is the person on whom the success of the project depends. He controls not only the execution of tasks, but also monitors the mood of the developer, reconciles with inadequate customers and understands the chaos of broken deadlines. We asked the experts - the speakers of the Project Management in IT Intensive - to talk about the typical mistakes of project managers and how to avoid them.

1. Tell only good news.

Do not be afraid to criticize the team. Error correction is a normal workflow that will help the project and its participants go forward more quickly. The main thing is not to quarrel, it demotivates.
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You need to tell both good and bad. The team must be in the same context and run in the same direction.
In this case, it is not worth once again to frighten people, if you are not sure that the problem really exists. It's like a fairy tale about a boy who screamed "Wolves!"
If you try to lead to a universal rule, tell the team what exactly can affect it.
Pavel Makuha, Product manager, Skyeng

2. Change project management models on the go

Act on the principle: "Works - do not touch." Changing something on the go is always difficult, costly and often does not justify the means. Experiments are good and important for development, but it is safer and quieter to first finish the project and try something new on the following.

Changes carry risks and "change the shoes on the go" is not always obtained. But if the manager is well versed in methodologies, understands the technology of implementation, and the decision to change the management model is made consciously - then why not?

But before you initiate the transition, you should make sure that you are not in the following conditions:

• The project has minimal temporary buffers;
• You manage one of the key projects for the company and plan to conduct an experiment on it;
• The customer is not ready for new processes;
• The project team does not agree and is not ready for change;
• The payment model does not fit in with the new management methodology (for example, Fixed Price projects are not very cool to do on SCRUM).

Mikhail Kosenko, Head of Project Management, Redmadrobot

3. Consider the customer stupid and not listen to him

A project manager who does not listen to the customer is a bad manager. At the same time, a project that accepts all edits and suggestions, even those that go against the idea of ​​the project, also makes a mistake.

If the customer came to me with a task, then he really needs something. You need to understand his business need and look for the best way to solve it.

The easiest way to agree in this case is to bring everything to money. For this I use such questions:

• What problem does this problem solve?
• What happens when it is ready?
• What are the mandatory requirements for the result?
• What is the deadline and why?
• What happens if you do not?
• How much money will bring? How much will we lose if not done?

This usually helps. But there is always a 5% chance that your customer is an asshole. If possible, avoid working with assholes.
Pavel Makuha, Product manager, Skyeng

4. Do not set priorities and change them for no good reason.

The standard priority matrix suggests the following order: urgent and important, non-urgent and important, urgent and unimportant, and already at the end of the queue, if it reaches, non-urgent and unimportant. This is well applicable at the current affairs level. Typical priorities fit well into this matrix: blocker, critical, major, minor, trivial.

Everything that seriously blocks the work of other people (users, colleagues, business) should be done without delay, most often these are unplanned tasks. Then you need to do planned tasks.

However, colleagues love to substitute concepts and set a blocker for those tasks that are important only for the director himself, turning the life of a manager into hell. Therefore, we need a definition of each priority agreed between the project participants. On their basis, you can demand a reasoned justification of priority. There is also a less formal option - to check, bring the team closer or away from the goal, each important task.

My hack to check in such cases is the question: “what will happen for the project / company / for me if I don’t do this task at all now?”.
Margarita Andrianova, Project manager, Notamedia

5. Afraid to fire an employee

If someone from the team does not cope with their duties, it causes problems for the entire project: deadlines, a busy team, forced to pick up the tasks of others, dissatisfied customers and, finally, financial losses.

The project can not dismiss anyone, but can give feedback on the work of each team member and point out points that may cause you to be fired:

• Systematic disruption of terms. The fact that the deadlines in the development of floating, all accustomed. But if a developer or designer breaks a deadline from time to time, which he himself designated - this is a reason for a conversation.
• Personal affairs in the workplace: study, part-time work, hobby, social network. If the employee most of the time is busy with anything, but not his direct work, you need to change something.
• Hush up the difficulties. This is true both for the team member and for the manager: if there is a problem, or it is only planned, we should immediately talk about it.

Olga Drozd, Product manager, MegaLabs

6. Do not analyze the project during and after implementation.

Product analysis and support are no less important than development. If the project was a failure, you need to understand the reasons for failure, if successful - to apply this experience in the future.

PM manages the development and profitability of the project, and therefore must be able to analyze the market, competitors, project performance and team activities. Therefore, PM must possess analyst skills at least at the middle level.

Each project gives us a sufficient amount of useful information - at least clearly erroneous judgments.

On one project, we launched a vertical, which in general gave a minus to the project, but a careful study showed that it was necessary and useful for our clients. As a result, we took the vertical into a separate project and got a successful product.
Leonid Yevtushenko, Project manager, OneTwoTrip

7. Do not evaluate risks.

Calculate resources, develop a plan and only then get down to business. Otherwise everyone will be dissatisfied: the customer, the management, the team and you yourself.

Impossible tasks are a challenge and an opportunity to grow from your own boundaries. However, you can not grab them, promising that everything will be unconditionally executed.

At first, I always appreciate what I will receive from this call and whether I personally need it. Then I try to understand the complexity of the problem and find solutions for them. Finally, before taking the task, I explain to the director all the risks and try to agree on the most convenient conditions.

In my life there were interesting impossible tasks that I coped with. Each of them was an incredible leap up. There were tasks that I refused. There is nothing wrong with this, since it is not interesting to anyone to give work to someone who cannot and does not want to do it.
Margarita Andrianova, Project manager, Notamedia

8. Do not trust the team and do everything yourself.

One of the main mistakes novice managers. Too great is the temptation to do everything yourself: “it will be faster and better, and we have deadlines.” The next quarter will be fixed and I will set tasks. ”

It will not work. The whole essence of the project is to achieve results with the team.

The main problem of delegation is trust. When you transfer the task is transferred and responsibility for it. To make this process easier, you can follow the scheme:

• What? Understand exactly what you plan to delegate.
• To whom? Based on the first point, to understand exactly who in your team can pass this task.
• How? Describe the task and the desired result. This will allow you to systematize the process and your own expectations.
• When? A clear deadline is just as important as the correct formulation of the problem.

Olga Drozd, Product manager, MegaLabs

9. Do not take into account the interests and skills of team members

Think not only about the needs of the project, but also about the interests of your team. Talk to everyone and find out what he likes to do, and distribute tasks.

It is better not to gesture and try to avoid turning the work process into an endless routine. If possible, we include in the sprint 1–2 minor tasks that the developer wants to do: it can be a small animation, a shadow or some kind of Easter eggs.

It is important to maintain a balance and not allow a situation when the developer begins to draw logos.
Olga Drozd, Product manager, MegaLabs

10. Refuse to experiment and everything new.

Communicate, go to conferences, learn new things - it's easy. It is much more difficult to catch up if you are too carried away with existing methods, and the entire market is already running faster and more efficiently.

If you are faced with new challenges or understand that efforts do not bring the expected result - it's time to think about the changes. For simple projects, the schedule drawn on the board and a simple table with a list of tasks can work fine. For complex complex projects, this approach is likely not to take off.

Redmadrobot uses an evolutionary approach to the development of production, changes occur constantly and in stages. We first carry out serious updates on one or two projects and, after reflection on the results of the pilot, we scale to other projects.
Mikhail Kosenko, Head of Project Management, Redmadrobot

Learn how to competently conduct projects in IT, talk with the speakers from this article and ask them questions at the intensive Project management in IT . The closest will be held on May 26 and 27.