It sounded good when we started : a project manager's guide to working with people on projects / Dwayne Phillips, Roy O'Bryan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phillips, Dwayne, 1958-

Contributor:

O'Bryan, Roy.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

IEEE Computer Society

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Project management.

Physical Description:

xvii, 319 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, [2004]

Contents:

1 It Sounded Good When We Started 3

The Product 4

The People 5

The Process 6

2 A Place Where Everyone Knows Your Name: The Project Room 8

Delphi's Project Room 9

Warning Signs of Trouble with the Project Room 10

Using a Computer 10

Off Limits 11

Posting Harmful Information 12

Not for Public Consumption 12

Creating a Good Situation 13

Devote the Needed Resources 13

Make the Workplace Safe 14

Public Displays 15

Refreshments 15

Conclusions about the Project Room 16

3 A Charlatan in Expert's Clothing: Writing a Lie

The Proposal 21

The Delphi Proposal 22

Warning Signs of Trouble with Proposals 24

Proposing to Win 24

Writing Proposals on Weekends 25

Proposing People 26

"They Said They Would Do It" 27

Creating a Good Situation 27

Determine if this Contract is Worth Winning 27

Use the Best 28

Pay the Builder to Write the Proposal 29

Be Realistic 30

Conclusions about Proposals 31

4 Leaving the Station Before Everyone Is on Board: Staffing-Up 33

The Start of Delphi 33

Warning Signs of Trouble with Staffing 35

Hurrying to Catch Up 35

"I've Been Helping So and So" 36

"I've Been Working in Area X" 37

Do Not Confuse Me with the Facts 38

Creating a Good Situation 38

Patience is a Virtue 39

Is Everyone on Board? 40

Use Your Plan 40

5 After The Party Is Over: Letting Everyone Do Their Own Thing 43

Gamma 44

Warning Signs of Everyone Doing Their Own Thing 46

Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? 46

The Dog Ate My Plan 47

Doing Something Else 48

Creating a Good Situation 49

Today is the First Day of the Project 49

If Today is Tuesday, We Must be Having Hamburgers for Lunch 50

Red Means Stop 51

Discipline and Respect 51

6 Months Have 30 Days in Them, Except Those That Don't: Planning 57

Planning Delphi 57

The Self-Fulfilling Plan 60

Warning Signs of Trouble with Planning 61

"I Wasn't Involved" 61

"I Think We Can Beat that Date" 62

"Planning Is a Waste of Time" 63

Picnic Planning 64

Relating to the Plan 64

Creating a Good Situation 65

The Cards-on-the-Wall Planning Session 65

Scale Your Plans 67

Keep Plans Public 67

Plan for Real Life 68

Know the Context of Planning 69

7 Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It: The Requirements 72

The Portable Controller 72

Attributes 75

Constraints 76

Design 76

Derived Requirements 77

Warning Signs of Trouble with Requirements 78

"I Think They Mean X" 78

"They Know What I Mean" 79

A Requirement is a Requirement 80

Requirements Creep 80

Putting Technology Into Requirements 81

"If They Can't Understand This" 82

Techniques that Help with Requirements 82

The Straight Story 83

Review Early and Often 84

Manage the Requirements 84

Draw Boundaries 85

The Stranger 86

8 If I Could Just Find a Question for this Answer: Designing Before the Fact 88

The Problem Solvers 88

Warning Signs of Trouble 89

The Block Diagram 90

We Will Use Technology X on the Project 90

This is Business 92

Patience with Projects 93

Switch Between Requirements and Design on Purpose 94

9 A Miracle Occurs Here: Schedule Tracking 98

Not Being Able to Hit the Broad Side of a Wall with a Pencil 99

Warning Signs of Schedule Avoidance 100

Schedule? What Schedule? 101

A Vote of No Confidence 101

No One's Job 102

"No One Talks to Me Anymore" 103

Someone is Mistaken 104

The Computer is Down 104

Fear of the Calendar 105

Things that Help Us Track Schedules 106

Talk to Everyone Everyday 106

A Visible Schedule 106

Use the Numbers 107

An Earned Value Tutorial 108

The Critical Path 110

10 Getting Mugged by the Facts: Risk Mitigation Strategies 112

The Story of Don the Buyer 112

Warning: Facts Approaching 113

"That Can't Be Right" 114

"That's Just His Personality" 114

"Don't Bring Me Problems Without Solutions" 115

On Risk Management 116

Addressing the Facts 118

Admit the Facts 118

Measure Twice 119

Put Out the Welcome Mat 120

Public Data 120

What? Me Worry? 121

11 A Charlatan in Sheep's Clothing: The Right Project Manager 125

The Project Managers on Delphi 125

Warning Signs of Trouble with the Project Manager 128

Hour After Hour 128

I Can Still Out-Engineer Any of You 129

Living at Work 129

Woe is Me 130

What Three Things Need to Happen? 132

Public Endorsements 133

Talk with Everyone Every Day 133

What, So What, Now What? 134

Use a System Engineer 135

The Power of Positive Thinking 136

12 But You Didn't Ask

Communicating with the Customer 139

The $80,000 Briefcase 139

Warning Signs of Failing Communication 141

Assumptions 141

"He's Not Here Right Now, But ..." 142

Puzzled Looks 142

"Heeeeere's Johnny!" 143

Fear of Fear 144

Call it a Day 144

Cultures 145

Ways to Communicate Better 146

The Satir Interaction Model 146

One Room at One Time 149

Give Me an Example 149

Be Assertive (but Not a Bully) 150

Small Words and Short Sentences 151

Precise, Concrete, and Specific 152

13 A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned: Maximum Reward versus Minimum Regret 154

The Drop Test 154

Filtering Power Lines 156

Warning Signs of Trouble in Making Decisions 157

Time is not on Our Side 157

How Many Sides does a Coin Have? 158

"We Know What to Do" 159

This Time is Last Time or Vice Versa 160

Helping to Make Decisions 161

Time is on Our Side 161

Draw a Line 162

Both Sides Now 163

Outside the Lines 163

14 Punish the Innocent By-Standers: Award Fee, Bonuses and Other Rewards and Punishments 166

The Award-Fee Contract 166

The Bottom Ten Percent 169

Warning Signs of Trouble in an Awards Program 171

"It's Lonely at the T173 171

Cause and Effect 172

We're Out of Control 173

Substitutions 173

Here Comes the Judge 174

What Can We Do to Make Awards Better 175

Communication 175

Teamwork 176

Clear as a Bell 176

What Do You Want? 177

The Daily News 177

Keep It Cool 178

15 Digging Yourself Into A Hole: Put Down The Shovel And Seek Outside Help 183

The Memory Board 183

The Cracked Solder 184

Warning Signs that Someone is Digging a Hole 186

"I'm Sure" 186

"One More Experiment" 187

The Land that Time Forgot 187

"He's Always Come Through" 188

Stop the Digging 189

An Example Is Worth a Thousand Words 189

Talk is Cheap, but Worth a Lot 190

Triggers 190

Bring in the Reserves 191

And Now for Something Completely Different 192

16 Fear of Stepping on Superman's Cape: Not Holding Meaningful Internal Reviews 194

We Don't Do Reviews Here! 194

Reviews Work Great Here! 195

Signs that Reviews Aren't Working 196

Reviews Cost Too Much 196

"Reviews Are Meetings" 197

All Day Reviews 198

"Let Them Find Their Own Mistakes" 198

"You Don't Step on Superman's Cape" 199

Helping Reviews 200

The Blame Game 200

The Product and the Producer 201

We are All in This Together 202

Speak with Care 202

17 Not Providing Adult Supervision: Do the Junior Team Members Really Need Mentoring? 206

The Portable Controller 207

Yet Another Control Interface 209

Some Adult Supervision Required 210

Hide and Seek 210

Plan? What Plan? 211

Experiments 212

"I Did it the Hard Way" 212

School Days 213

On Being an Adult 213

Talk to Everyone Every Day 214

Safety Zone 214

The Experiment Lab 215

Let's Talk 216

18 Being Too Big For Your Britches: So Much Confidence With So Little Talent (Experience) 221

This is Business, Not College 221

Warning Signs of Tight Britches 222

"All I Have to Do Is ..." 222

Vive la Difference! 223

School Days 224

Going Solo 225

How to Create a Good Situation 226

Pick a Builder 226

Acknowledge that We've Never Done this Before 227

Plan for Learning 228

Risky Business 229

19 Appointed Experts: Who Brings What To The Table 232

Setting a Few Tables 232

The New Engineer

Dwayne's Story 232

Paul the Tester 233

Portable Production Units (PPU) 235

Warning Signs of Trouble Setting the Table 236

Assumptions 236

"We'll Just Move Some People" 237

An Engineer, a Tester, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree 238

Setting a Good Table 239

Learn the Abilities of Each Individual 239

Use a Skills Matrix 240

Work with Relationships 241

20 The Shallow End of The Gene Pool: Small Projects and Large Corporations 245

The Shallow End of Delphi 245

Warning Signs of Swimming in the Shallow End of the Gene Pool 247

"Those People Are Busy Right Now" 247

The La Brea Tar Pits 248

Time for a "Do Over" 250

Corporate Policy 251

Creating a Good Situation in the Shallow End of the Gene Pool 252

Check Before Buying 252

Promises, Promises 252

Let's Do Lunch 253

Looking Ahead 254

21 Telling Your Customer What You Think He Wants To Hear and Believing It: Outsourcing 256

The Age of Delusion 256

Warning Signs of Outsourcing Trouble 258

What's Your Name? 258

Please Call Back 259

Visiting Hours are Over 269

Hard Labor 260

This is a Little Different 261

For Sale by Owner 261

Only When Necessary 262

The Three Musketeers 263

Triggers 262

"I'll See You Next Week" 264

Visit Us 264

The Healthy Skeptic 265

22 Going Where Angels Fear to Tread: There Is No Right Way to Do The Wrong Thing 268

The Great Workforce Retooling Project 268

The Supercomputer 269

Fixing a Demodulator 270

The Frequency Synthesizer Module 271

Warning Signs of Doing the Wrong Thing Really Well 272

"We must" 272

We Know 272

No Choice 273

The Universal Approach 273

Tips to Help Find the Right Way 274

Mark Twain was Wrong 274

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It 275

Three's a (Necessary) Crowd 275

The Big Picture 276

Live a Little, Learn a Little 277

23 Not Knowing What You Know: Are You Really Getting The Desired Results? 281

Driving in Fairfax County, Virginia 281

Repairing a System 282

Warning Signs of not Knowing What You Know 283

In the Eye of the Beholder 284

It's Obvious to the Casual Observer 284

Analysis Paralysis 284

Inconclusive Conclusions 285

Looking Wrong 285

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places 286

Time is (Not) on Our Side 286

If I Had a Hammer... 287

Problems with Data 287

General Terms 287

Great Expectations 288

Techniques that Help People Know What They Know 289

Three Interpretations 289

Outsiders 290

Private Eyes 290

Vive la Difference 291

Yankee Doodle 292

24 Don't Forget to Breathe: What People Often Do Wrong When Behind Schedule 295

The Big Bang 295

Single-Source Vendors 296

The 0.1% Negotiation 297

The Rack Fans 297

Warning Signs of Lack of Oxygen 298

The Quick Brown Fox 298

The Sands of Time 298

Pretty Sure 299

The Expert 300

Tips to Restore Healthy Breathing 300

One Step Ahead 301

Check Please 301

Change, Change, Change 302

Quick Without Hurry 303

25 We're Almost Out of the Woods: You Aren't Finished Until You Are Finished 305

A Y2K Story 305

Cutting the Burn Rate 307

Warning Signs of Being Out of the Woods 307

I've Got a Feeling 307

A Day Late, A Dollar Short 308

Out to Lunch 309

Contagious Diseases 309

Techniques that Help People from Being Out of the Woods 310

Everyone, Every Day 310

Let's Talk About It 311

Thinking Vice Coasting 312

The Theory of Relativity 312.

Notes:

"IEEE ; IEEE Computer Society ; Wiley-Interscience."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

ISBN:

0471485861

OCLC:

53807406