When we work with organizations that experience consistent project failure, we always find lots of fast food order-taking at the "front end" of their projects. Let’s see how this order-taking works.
Fast Food Order-Taking
The project manager stands at the drive- through window wearing a red and yellow cap that says "Projects Are Us." The executive drives up in a shiny black car, stops at the drive- through window and says, "I want to clean up customer service by March, 30th."
The project manager nods eagerly, gives the executive the "thumbs up" signal and screams at the project team:
"You two, put some new software on the grill!"
"Dan, dump some training into the deep fry!"
"Monica, we need more service rep cubicles and new computers now!"
The executive smiles, “Wow, you know how to manage a project, no needless meetings or project paper work.”
The project manager "order-taker" gives another toothy grin to the executive and says, "We are cranking and everything is in green light status. We’re already about half done."
The executive leans back thinking, then says,”I’d like a network with 30 nano-second response time and 50 gigamondo disk drives. And...can we add mauve wall coverings in the computer room? How about multi-lingual training?"
The project management order-taker grins and says, "No problem; we’re flexible. I can make any changes you want.”
The executive frowns, “I'm in a hurry, so speed it up."
The project manager whirls and whispers to the project team, saying, "Let’s go! Get something slapped together by the due date...we can tweak it later. Let's get to it!"
The PM smiles at the executive and gives the thumbs up sign.
The executive roars up two weeks later and says, “Your crappy software doesn’t work. No one knows how to use it and the new computer room is a fire hazard. And the customers are still howling about being on hold too long. That’ what I wanted fixed. This is another project disaster!"
Happy Executives at the Beginning… or at the End
The sad thing about this order-taking approach is that it makes some executives and users happy at the beginning because the project team starts work so fast. It also allows them to avoid deciding exactly what they want. But the odds of the PM delivering a successful project and having a satisfied executive users and customers at the end are just about zero. In addition the PM’s order-taking approach starts a process where there are changes each week.
Why? Because the order-taking planning process does not produce a scope definition that we can objectively measure or control. Order-taking does not make the executive commit to what he/she wants. Worse, when PMs act like order-takers, that's how the executives perceive them.
The Best Practice for Initiating a Project?
First, we abandon the order-taking: long lists of vague requirements and starting work quickly. Instead, we ask enough questions and learn enough about the executive’s business problem that the PM can subtly help them define the scope.
Executives who are not used to project managers asking questions resent it. But a savvy project manager responds to these objections with a reasonable statement like, “How can I deliver the business end result you want if I don’t know precisely what it is?”
Executives may not like that push back. But it is worth a bit of early executive dissatisfaction if it gives the PM the opportunity to define a measured business result for the project scope rather than a list of requirements that grows endlessly. Let's go back and see how to do this correctly.
Back to the Start; the Way it Should Work
The executive stops at the drive-through window and says, "I want to clean up customer service by the end of March."
The project manager answers, "Exactly what result are you looking for?”
A flash of anger washes across the executive's face, "Just get started. I want a project and I'm also in a hurry. When are you going to start work?"
The project manager says, "We'll start immediately after I understand the results you're looking for. What's the result you want from the project?"
"I need better efficiency."
The PM says, "I understand. How much improvement?”
The executive frowns in anger again, "Why are you asking all these questions instead of starting work?"
The PM politely responds, "Because it's unlikely that you'll be pleased with our work if we don't help you achieve your objectives. But I need to know what they are. So what amount of efficiency improvement do you need?"
"Enough to cut costs by 12% from the customer service department. We need training, new systems, new cubicles, etc,” the executive says.
"Well, if you want to have a 12% cost reduction by cutting staff, each customer service rep will have to be able to handle 12% more customer calls.”
The executive smiled, “Right. Then we could gradually let attrition reduce the staff. Now let’s get into the details of how to do that…”
The project manager has avoided taking on a project that was almost certain to fail.
Summary
A results-focused approach to project planning produces benefits in the whole portfolio of projects. You may wish to explore these ideas in our in-person classes for companies or our Class of One online classes for individuals.
