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Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

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Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#201

Post by hallihax »

convolvatron wrote: post #185
hallihax wrote: post #73

I think ljw100's advice is pretty spot on. It's very tempting to think that on a practical level, people 'need to know' what's going wrong. Unfortunately it is often very difficult to accurately or objectively assess what the underlying problems are and in many cases, what you perceive as a problem can actually turn out to be a symptom of some other issue. Project slippage happens all the time - and in and of itself…

if you're doing it right, its not boring at all. its only boring if the work and the people are meaningless abstractions, which makes moving them around on the board pretty pointless. if they are your people then there are all sorts of opportunities to reorganize what gets done first, and who is working on what, and how it all fits together. you can take a unfocussed seemingly infinite amount of work and turn it into…

Fair enough - I actually don't mind the PM side of things all that much, it's just not what flips my bits.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#202

Post by jasonm23 »

lioeters wrote: post #43
kd5bjo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's being described is an X-Y scatter plot: Necessary ^ | Simple Complex | V Nice to have

This makes the most sense to me. If I were in the OP's position, I would start discussion with the direct manager as early as possible - and begin by breaking down the remaining scope in terms of where the features are in this diagram. If the product must be "ready to ship", clearly some corners will need to be cut - especially the bottom right.

Exactly.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#203

Post by blablabla123 »

badbug wrote: post #182
blablabla123 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the point for an Engineer. There the chances to endless promotions are far higher if you stay nice and calm all the time. Hard earned experience, never got a promotion but always more money and "crazier" jobs over time. But I mean for anyone with team responsibility: staying silent is bad for you, which is okay if you're in for the career. I totally respect that, people should be ambitious if they want to. But…

I'm not saying you have to a Bright Ray of Sunshine all the time. But it might not work out so well of you are the office grouch because it wears people out.

(On the other hand...maybe the place is that bad then)

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#204

Post by dodgyb »

Be prepared for the questions that you will be asked when the alarm is raised.

Q1. Why late? Work is 'outside of comfort zone', thus accurate estimates are impossible.

Q2. When will it be ready? Scope, timescale and quality are interdependent. Ask 'the business' which two are most important to them. The remaining item will need to be revised. My recommendation would be to curtail scope and deliver the rest in phase 2. If they say timescale can be extended the revise estimates based on current velocity, i.e. if you are 30% behind where you expected, add 30% to all outstanding work items. If quality is cut, make sure they are aware of the additional support and maintenance costs that will be incurred.

Either way, do as rinka_singh says and get the PO/PM to establish a risk log accessible to all. I would add that each risk should be assigned to someone who is responsible for tracking it. Review the log each week.

Raise the alarm now because there will be dependencies, and you are probably not aware of all of them.

I would not be worried about how the alarm is percieved, if your intentions are to steer 'the business' away from a cliff it will be recognized.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#205

Post by tootie »

lostcolony wrote: post #157
tootie wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Just be real. When I joined my current company, they had a project kicking off with a ridiculously short timeline. I asked the product manager to think about how many stories were in the backlog, how many might be added as we went, how many stories they could get through per sprint given the team capacity and then you can put a rough date on it and continue adjusting every sprint as the backlog shrinks and…

Oh, hey. You had a fully fleshed out backlog, some initial tracking, with a PO who actually wanted to know rather than just tell the business "everything is okay" and block his ears (knowing that failure to deliver will reflect dev, not him). You had leaders who were willing to listen to facts rather than prioritize consensus (which brings with it the belief that because you were the dissenting voice in the room demo…

If you're the tech lead, you have to insist on it. I can give a thumb in the air guess based on an ask, but it's pretty subjective. Step 1 before giving a commitment is to ask for a few weeks of analysis. Get that high-level backlog.

I should say that I've learned this over many years, but have applied it at the highest levels of corporate America and it does work. If you present an estimate _with evidence_ it makes it so much harder for even the most grizzled IT exec to argue against you. Most are still used to thumbs in the air so if you give them something tangible, they will actually love it.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#206

Post by tootie »

lostcolony wrote: post #155
scardine wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS: you do get some leeway when you just joined a company, enjoy your honeymoon grace period.

Nope. It will tar you forever amongst anyone you say it to as someone with a bad attitude, divisive, etc. I spent three years at a company where a VP basically viewed me dimly (if, admittedly, necessary) because I delivered bad news early on. It was polite and reasonable, but he was in a difficult place, had people actively whispering "Everything is fine" in his ear, and so when it eventually did blow up (and I was o…

Attitude is important. Like I said, deliver this news as though it's inescapable objective reality. Akin to saying we can't have a picnic because it's raining. It's nobody's fault and it's not due to anyone's shortcomings. Estimating is hard, building good software takes time. This is how much time this project will take. Let us know evaluate the impact and decide how to cope. It doesn't need to be an argument.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#207

Post by lostcolony »

tootie wrote: post #206
lostcolony wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. It will tar you forever amongst anyone you say it to as someone with a bad attitude, divisive, etc. I spent three years at a company where a VP basically viewed me dimly (if, admittedly, necessary) because I delivered bad news early on. It was polite and reasonable, but he was in a difficult place, had people actively whispering "Everything is fine" in his ear, and so when it eventually did blow up (and I was o…

Attitude is important. Like I said, deliver this news as though it's inescapable objective reality. Akin to saying we can't have a picnic because it's raining. It's nobody's fault and it's not due to anyone's shortcomings. Estimating is hard, building good software takes time. This is how much time this project will take. Let us know evaluate the impact and decide how to cope. It doesn't need to be an argument.

It wasn't an argument. It was a messenger bringing bad news they didn't want to hear. And with other messengers who were actively telling him untruths about reality. And he wasn't sufficiently technical to go evaluate the claims himself; he -had- to decide who to listen to. So, unsurprisingly, he listened to the one that felt better.

You seem to believe that everyone is mature enough to hear bad news, delivered objectively, and accept it without blaming the messenger, and without dismissing it because it doesn't conform to their wishes. I wish I had your luck in bosses.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#208

Post by jasonm23 »

blahblahblogger wrote: post #161
tinco wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The X axis would go from low risk+complexity to high risk+complexity, and the y axis from low biz+cus desirability to high biz+cus desirability. You are correct that the way you described wouldn't work.

Yes it seems like an item would be posted on an axis where theoretically the item could exist on both ends?

Nice to have should really be, not necessary. Problem with that is the product team will be less likely to mark things as not-necessary. So we dub these less needed features as nice to have so there's a higher chance of negotiating about their priority.

Re: Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

#209

Post by flanker »

ljw1001 wrote: post #51

This is not going to be like the other advice you get, but I've managed many projects in different organizations and I think it is sound. First and foremost, don't sound any alarms. Many organizations have common characteristics in this regard. First, they don't expect you to be on time. Sales may think you're going to launch on time, but it's in their financial interest to think so. The rest of the org probably made…

How should you go about delivering a bad news and solutions for without being termed as a negative influence?
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