Ask HN: Engineering companies that are good at project management?

#1

Post by chairleader » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 4:55 PM UTC

It seems natural that a startup with a small team forego traditional project management in favor of delivering the product. However, at a certain scale, project management components start to become critical. For example, I expect that when well executed, following practices would save months of time:

  * Domain experts sign off on a plan to ensure success
  * Stakeholders agree that their needs will be met
  * Just enough design and estimation is done to plan around dependencies

My question is, who out there is getting project management right? What does it look like inside the organization - what responsibilities do engineers, managers and product managers have in order for this to work? Has anyone seen a firm successfully adopt a culture of project management?

Re: Ask HN: Engineering companies that are good at project management?

#2

Post by Spooky23 » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 8:54 PM UTC

Capital P “Project management” is about control, and usually isn’t a value add in small orgs, unless you are managing subcontractors.

The best project companies that I’ve seen are in industries with clear scopes and good financial incentives to finish. The best single example was a consortium that finished an 18 month, $500M project 15 minutes early.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering companies that are good at project management?

#3

Post by tmaly » Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 3:19 PM UTC

I have been trying to formalize a process at my organization.

I think unless it is ingrained in the culture, you are always going to have different people using different approaches.

Right now, better training is looking the most promising way to work towards better project management.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering companies that are good at project management?

#4

Post by chairleader » Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #3

I have been trying to formalize a process at my organization. I think unless it is ingrained in the culture, you are always going to have different people using different approaches. Right now, better training is looking the most promising way to work towards better project management.

Interesting. Are you going with an established project management framework or introducing practices gradually?

I agree with you about the value of training... adopting these practices should come with a change of mindset since good judgement is required to succeed in practice.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering companies that are good at project management?

#5

Post by tmaly » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 12:44 AM UTC

chairleader wrote: post #4

tmaly wrote: post #3

I have been trying to formalize a process at my organization. I think unless it is ingrained in the culture, you are always going to have different people using different approaches. Right now, better training is looking the most promising way to work towards better project management.

Interesting. Are you going with an established project management framework or introducing practices gradually? I agree with you about the value of training... adopting these practices should come with a change of mindset since good judgement is required to succeed in practice.

I am synthesizing a number of ideas from other sources in additions to adding my own experience into the design of this process