Typical Scenario
Production incident.
Business impatiently waiting to get fixed.
What’s going on, my dear developers?
- This is existing BAU issue and not a project one and, therefore, should be worked upon as by BAU team (Passing the Buck)
- Solution analysis will take time. How much?, we don’t know until we analyze. (Buying Time)
- We have the solution and can make the change if Business Analyst confirms there is no impact to anything else with this solution. (Gun on someone else’s shoulder)
Business Analysts:
Acting like Business’s first cousins and putting pressure to have it delivered ASAP.
Project Manager:
We’re no where close to being able to share even a simple status update with the desperately waiting Business teams! Phew!
Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Clock is ticking faster than usual. Anxiety is slow death, and an inescapable reality in the Project Management profession!
Taking the plunge:
PM is getting impatient, agitated and furious about the things not working out. Finally, he decides to take the plunge and solutionize himself.
Half knowledge is a dangerous thing. But it seems like his moves are working. Emails going back and forth. Exchanges happening. Try this and try that. Sense of movement.
The Outcome:
The excitement lasted just for a few days.
Then, the thunder stops. The dust settles. The ground is visible again.
We realize that we’re just where we started from. Same old broken functionality. Nothing changed. It was an attempt that failed. Not really. It was a case of jumping in without much planning, and more than that it was wrong person doing the job.
Time lost. Credibility lost. Increased fiction among the PM, his boss, the customers and team.
Intention was not wrong. Just that it was too much unnecessary poking in an unknown territory.
Lesson Learnt:
Mind your own business, PMs.
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Suggested reading: Is it possible to manage an IT team without a Technical Background
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