PM War Stories
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The war within. Ahmed Dhahbi Client Services Director Technocrat
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Transcript of PM War Stories
The war within.
Ahmed DhahbiClient Services Director
Technocrat
The dream...
The dream... Reality...
Client inflicted● Excessive documentation● Confirmations and reconfirmations● Meetings and more meetings● Independent audits (!)● Adversarial and aggressive behaviour
Self inflicted● Lack of project-direction & comms● Gold plating● Generous requirement interpretation● Un-budgeted innovation● Lack of solidarity● Trees and forests● ‘It’ll take 2 hours’
The issue backlog...
Client inflicted● Excessive documentation● Confirmations and reconfirmations● Meetings and more meetings● Independent audits (!)● Adversarial and aggressive behaviour
Self inflicted● Lack of project-direction & comms● Gold plating● Generous requirement interpretation● Un-budgeted innovation● Lack of solidarity● Trees and forests● ‘It’ll take 2 hours’
The issue backlog...
True Story(witnessed in a previous life)
The issue backlog...
BR-101“Migrate website from current CMS, in its current form, to Drupal.”
Gold Plating
BR-101“Migrate website from current CMS, in its current form, to Drupal.”
Gold Plating
Note:● Existing website not responsive.● Client has a hard deadline.● No requirement for responsive migration.
instead
BR-101“Migrate website from current CMS, in its current form, to Drupal.”
Gold Plating
instead
BR-101“Migrate website from current CMS, in its current form, to Drupal.”
Gold Plating
BR-101“Migrate website from current CMS, in its current form, to Drupal.”
● 1.5 month delay to launch, and:● “The brand isn’t presented correctly in the responsive version.”● “Can we change the responsive grid behaviour.”● UAT x 3 “Here’s a backlog of 70 issues that need resolving.”
Unhappy client.
Gold Plating
Client inflicted● Excessive documentation● Confirmations and reconfirmations● Meetings and more meetings● Independent audits (!)● Adversarial and aggressive behaviour
Self inflicted● Lack of project-direction & comms● Gold plating● Generous requirement interpretation● Un-budgeted innovation● Lack of solidarity● Trees and forests● ‘It’ll take 2 hours’
The issue backlog...
Client: “We’d like this changed...”Dev:
“Yeh sure, shouldn’t take more than 2 hours”
PM (thinks to herself)“What the.. what about PM time, documentation etc...”
Client: Rushes off to minute the commitment.
“It’ll take 2 hours”
1 Week Later.
“It’ll take 2 hours”
Client: “You said it’d take 2 hours”Dev:
“Yeh but we didn’t realise you’d insist on implementing it in a literal way”
PM: Sweats
(Meeting ends)
Blames it all on the Devs at the PMO call.
“It’ll take 2 hours”
