Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 212 posts

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

#161

Post by blahblahblogger »

tinco wrote: post #38
blahblahblogger wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Organized on the 2x2 with these axes X: "risk/complexity" Y:"desirability" (that's business & customer desirability.) Not to sound like an idiot here or anything, but does that mean something like this: Risk | Complexity ---------------------------------- BiZ desirability | | ---------------------------------- Cus desirability | | Can't an item be in many of these squares?

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?

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

#163

Post by bsvalley »

Setup a meeting with the dev team (only). Go over all the main features required for this release, ideally, they should already be in a form of "user stories". Depends if you're in an Agile env or not... in 2018, I hope you guys are.

Then during this meeting, run a deeper and more detailed estimate for each user story. How long would it take, what work has to be done and is it depending on any other team or future work? etc.

When you get a better understanding and know how off the original estimation/deadline is (compared to this new one), setup another meeting with your PO and your manager to share this information. Obviously you will need material for this meeting. As a lead, that's your job to create that material (slides, etc..)

That's it. As a lead, your job stops here. Any other decisions will have to be made by your PO or manager. Your role is to share that knowledge because these 2 don't have a clue about the actual work that has to be done down to the lines of code.

Good luck (you're not doing anything wrong at the moment, just bubble up the information and let them do their job).

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

#165

Post by s73v3r_ »

nojvek wrote: post #88
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…

I don’t understand why he/she needs to sugercoat things so much and do things over lunch, drinks/beer? Imagine this is a female lead asking her male boss out for drinks so she can be the casual bearer of bad news? That’s just bull. If your organization isn’t willing to get real and is blaming people instead of processes, it’s the wrong org to be. Just say things as they are. I’d just raise this in my 1:1 with boss an…

You're not technically wrong, but most of us don't have the good fortune to work in an organization where we can "be real". Yet, we still have to put food on the table. You, in the organization you work in, might feel comfortable going to your boss and boss's boss, but as you read in the parent comment, I hope you understand that not every organization is that way.

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

#166

Post by blablabla123 »

badbug wrote: post #151
blablabla123 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Third, people do shoot the bearer of bad news. You can earn > a rep as a negative person if you make _true_ predictions > out-loud that don't fit the common desire. I've heard this very often, both as advise, complaint and even in an intimidating manner. And yes, I've seen this, people who stay kind of positive stay in their position even if they screw up a project completely so it has to be "rebooted". In fact I'v…

"Perception is reality" You can be a negative/realist as long as your perceived value outweighs your "bad" attitude. The problem with this is that people are really bad at placing value on soft skills and all it takes is one clueless manager to sandbag you. Everything op said above is spot on

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 this is the recipe to make workplaces toxic and bad for the whole team.

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

#167

Post by musage »

qaq wrote: post #116
cmicali wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly disagree. I think this is the cynical view, and I'm sure is valid in many companies, but raising potential issues early is really important - other people can't fix problems if they don't know about them. It sounds like you have visibility into a problem that others may not, tell them! Don't assume people already know. Like some of the other posts said - be real. If people don't respond well to this then the…

This is not cynical this just reflects how the world is.

No, it's one persons decision to help make their part of the world so, excuse it with "that's how it is", and ignore all the people living in the same "world" and having completely different outcomes, because they retained the integrity others got tricked into giving away.

My experience with honesty is sometimes some added initial challenge, sometimes less challenge, and always a long tail of payoffs. Meanwhile, some people cheat each other and themselves in the hopes for some material gains that they hope will give them some charisma, because they threw the natural charisma that comes from a fully developed person away in the beginning, as a price of admission -- and then it never does.

Of course, if everybody went the same route, if everybody also sold out their own person, then nobody would realize what shadows of their potential these people have become, and that's why they try to drag everything into this pit of cowardly dishonesty. But even if everybody suffered from their affliction, their suffering wouldn't be lessened, therefore it's better to not join them in their suffering.

Oh, and that's not being cynical either, it's just being cold. Being cruel would be working on "immortality", so people can get what they ask for, forever. You know, as in the curse variant of "may you live a long life (as the pathetic person you are)".

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

#168

Post by shove »

What's funny is, you can armchair quarterback this all you want and it likely won't matter one bit. Toxic organizations gonna be toxic, and healthy organizations (probably) gonna be healthy. From outside, it's nearly impossible to tell which is which and by the time the OP is sure, it'll likely be too late to make any difference.

Maybe they make you the hero, maybe they make you the fall-guy. Very little you can do to influence that. Focus on the work.

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

#169

Post by badloginagain »

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…

> You landed in a really good culture

Here's the crux of the matter. Your approach needs to be tailored to the culture you're in. The higher up in the leadership chain you go, the more important your understanding of the political machinations of your company is.

All corporations have politics, even the smallest startups. Some are just more cutthroat/feudal/kafkaesque than others.

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

#170

Post by dsnuh »

scardine wrote: post #120
scardine wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how things should run if the work culture was logic based but with rare exceptions it isn't. As a borderline autistic person I have a very direct communication style and lost account of how many times I burned myself for failing to "beat around the bush". You can't say "the project is doomed" even if it is true. You can't say it will be so over budget and take so long that it would be better to cut the losses…

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

I'm not sure if you are talking about the general leeway most new employees get, or if you are saying you get a period of time as a brand new employee to point out everything you think is wrong in a matter of fact way. If the latter, I disagree.
Post reply on HN