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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?

#171

Post by lmeyerov »

Yep. Folks know (or you have bigger problems). Leadership doesn't want FUD nor misleading positivity, they want constructive & predictable leadership... even if late.

The conversation they want is, "As the leader, the risk X has now hit, and to avoid underlying Y happening again and achieving predictability goals Z, I'm leaning to A or B on this timeline with those key delivery+derisking milestones. To get there, can you help with resource/negotiation/decision C, and what are your thoughts on alternatives?"

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

#172

Post by ljw1001 »

crispyambulance wrote: post #102
trh88 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Best thing OP can do is learn from the mistakes and speak up next time during planning phases, well before deadlines slip. How do you know deadlines are going to slip when planning the project? Makes no sense.

After you gain experience from previous slipped deadlines, you can see patterns that lead to slippage and, more importantly, get wise to the smell of unrealistic expectations. That's how you know that deadlines are going to slip.

you're assuming that deadlines are set based on the amount of time the work requires. Not often true. Generally deadlines are set before anyone knows how much work is required.

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

#173

Post by borkt »

badloginagain wrote: post #169
lostcolony wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Once you realize you are at a company where telling the truth leads to a negative consequence (an incompetent manager hired after the truth told. Their first time managing a department. The department did not previously exist in the enterprise. The department is specifically to roll out a technology they have never worked with before throughout a large company.

Lets say you were in charge of the project, are intimately familiar with the technology, and had a clear plan that would lead to success but upper management wasn't happy with the timeline. Their goal seems to be to quickly complete this project to display it as a "win".

Now the new manager was brought in, does not understand or care to understand the complexity of the project, and just keeps asking "when will it be done". Then got tired of that and changed to have it done in 2 weeks which is unreasonable, and then gave you an entirely false, negative performance review based on information they apparently forgot to actually verify or they would have known it was already complete and the people who were on the receiving end of the product are incredibly happy.

HR is asking for a meeting to discuss, what do you do? Tell HR about the depth of the incompetence Tell HR you weren't getting support from upper management Tell HR to look into what on earth was the reason this specific manager was selected.

or

GTFO?

This is a real life circumstance I am dealing with. I believe in the technology but unless changes are made it will be a guaranteed failure. Upper management likes the technology and really wants success here, but I know it wont happen unless then changes are made, and the people between the senior executives and me are making it impossible to be a success.

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

#174

Post by ljw1001 »

jf- wrote: post #153
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…

OP needs to be concerned about the blame game if the project is a big deal. The manager won’t want to take blame, same for everyone else in the chain. The best thing OP can do is raise it quietly with the manager, and not terribly forcefully, note that this was raised. I also think going to anyone other than the direct manager is a bad idea. Then take some actions that can be used in retrospect as evidence that OP wa…

Often, if you 'stay positive' and don't make too many waves no-one will get blamed. Like all cultures groups of managers like to see problems as being with external groups or things outside their control, and become more tight-knit as a result.

If you do too much boat-rocking, though, you may find yourself looked on as "external" to the other responsible people, which is not a good place to be.

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

#175

Post by ljw1001 »

cmicali wrote: post #113
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…

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…

You could be right, but in my experience it is extremely unlikely that the lead is the only person who realizes that the project is going to be late.

One sign this isn't healthy environment, frankly, is that no one has (apparently) asked the lead how he/she thinks the project is going. This also suggests that they already know and/or don't want to know.

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

#176

Post by ChuckMcM »

This is such a hard question because it is intimately intertwined with the culture of the organization in which the activity is occurring.

Bottom line, stay true to your own sense of integrity and be honest with whomever asks for your assessment of the situation.

I agree with the other comments that suggest you have conversations about your management and that you journal your progress and concerns.

The cultural question is around what happens when it is obvious the schedule is going to slip. In some organizations the group looks for someone take the heat and they heap a world of pain on that person. Generally that is the person who doesn't have any record to back up their assertion that they told everyone else it was not going to work. In other groups there will be a great ceremony of replanning and another unrealistic deadline will be pronounced and the cycle will simply repeat. Sometimes organizations will want to figure out how they got the schedule wrong and apply fixes (your journal will be invaluable there).

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

#177

Post by mannykannot »

ljw1001 wrote: post #172
crispyambulance wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After you gain experience from previous slipped deadlines, you can see patterns that lead to slippage and, more importantly, get wise to the smell of unrealistic expectations. That's how you know that deadlines are going to slip.

you're assuming that deadlines are set based on the amount of time the work requires. Not often true. Generally deadlines are set before anyone knows how much work is required.

That's one of the patterns.

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

#178

Post by ljw1001 »

forapurpose wrote: post #114
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 agree with much of your premise but one problem I run into: If you have these off-the-record meetings, where is your documentation if they say, 'I didn't know it would be late'? In my experience, people not only dislike bad news, they ignore it: First they hear what they want to hear, i.e., what is not threatening to them. 'Project delivery will certainly be late' is heard as 'the next milestone will be late' or 'w…

Documentation won't save you if the shit truly hits the fan. What will save you, if anything, it's that the leadership considers you one of them.

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

#180

Post by totalrobe »

Maybe your org is different, but the way your question is worded you are a lead developer, not a project manager. I'm a believer in flat orgs to some extent, but as a product owner/pm myself, this communication should be coming from the dev project manager, along with revised timeline and/or mitigation plan. The only alarm should be to your project manager, and in the form of objective analysis of the number of items completed against the plan.
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