10 Ways to Manage your Project Manager
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Michael Stratton, IT Solution Manager for the Spitfire Group and author of "The Effective Project Manager" created this presentation and presented to a group of technical resources attending the Denver Visual Studio User Group on 4/27/15 at the Microsoft campus in the Denver Tech Center.
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10 Ways to Manage your Project Manager
- 1. ispitfiregroup.com i 10 WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR PROJECT MANAGER By Michael Stratton spitfiregroup.com
- 2. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com AGENDA • OPENING POLL • EXERCISE – Q/A • 10 WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR PROJECT MANAGER
- 3. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com OPENING POLL - PRIZES • BY A SHOW OF HANDS • HOW MANY OF YOU THINK THAT PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS: • VALUABLE? • NOT VALUABLE? • VALUABLE BUT MY PROJECT MANAGER IS A WINGNUT?
- 4. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com EXERCISE – Q/A • WORDS YOU WISH YOUR PM WOULD SAY? • ACTIONS YOU WISH YOUR PM WOULD TAKE? • WORDS YOU WISH YOUR PM DID NOT SAY? • ACTIONS YOU WISH YOUR PM WOULD NOT TAKE? • WHAT DOES PROJECT MANAGEMENT MEAN TO YOU? • DOES A PM ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO LEAD A PROJECT? • DOES IT HELP TO HAVE A PM LEAD A PROJECT? PROJECT MANAGER PROJECT MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE
- 5. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com Spitfire - Project Management • GUIDE ON THE SIDE • NOT THE SAGE ON THE STAGE • HOW YOU WORK THE WORK PROJECT MANAGER PROJECT MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE
- 6. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 10 Ways to Manage Your Project Manager 1. USE THE PM LOVE LANGUAGE 2. FIGHT TIMESUCKER TASKS 3. SIMPLIFY – ONE TASK AT A TIME 4. FOCUS – FAIL FAST 5. FOLLOW ESTIMATE ETIQUETTE 6. UNDERSTAND YOUR END GAME 7. GUESSING IS FOR GUESSING 8. CHOOSE THE RIGHT FORUM TO CHALLENGE YOUR PM 9. LISTEN 10.BE AGREEABLE – 75% OF THE TIME
- 7. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 1. Use the Project Manager Love Language • BE SPECIFIC • Come to your PM with a specific risk, concern, dependency, open decision • Your PM will LOVE you • Come to your PM with alternatives on how to address • Your PM will LOVE you • TRY THIS • Avoid approaching your PM with a generalized complaint • Be constructive with your feedback . . . . please
- 8. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 2. Fight Time Sucker Tasks • YOU ARE THE PM OVER YOUR OWN TIME! • Your time is your biggest asset • Protect it with your life! • Be intentional with your time (with whom you spend it, what you talk about, what you work on) • TRY THIS • If you are asked to do a time sucker task • Track the time it is taking you to complete a time sucker task • Have a conversation with your PM • Your PM needs to understand exactly how much time you’re spending on a time sucker task
- 9. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 3. Simplify – One Task at a Time • MULTI-TASKING IS A MYTH! • Never accept more than 3 tasks at once • TRY THIS • Understand your first priority and commit • Understand your second priority and carefully commit • Understand your last priority and absolutely don’t commit
- 10. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 4. Focus – Fail Fast • FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTION – FASTER – BY FAILING FAST • Every decision ever made has a chance to fail when implemented • TRY THIS • Time yourself – You are your best competitor • Give yourself 30 minutes to complete a task. • If you’re not done after 30 minutes • Are you on the right track? • Need to start over? • Time your team – If your team does is not done with a task in 4 hours. Why not? Is it the right solution? Scrap or no? Be mindful with your work
- 11. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 5. Follow Estimate Etiquette • ESTIMATE ETIQUETTE • Be Realistic – With Estimates • If you don’t know – say you don’t know • Optimism can kill a project • Pessimism can kill your reputation • If you are optimistic – say you are being optimistic • If you are a “buffer it” kind of developer – don’t over buffer –You will get found out and look silly • Try this • If you are not 100% confident in an estimate that you give, build in some buffer but tell your PM you are doing this • Have a real conversation with your PM about your estimate
- 12. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 6. Understand Your End Game • BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND • Stephen Covey • TRY THIS • Spend 30 minutes on what you think is the correct format of the final deliverable and send it to your PM to keep your PM in the loop (the fact that it is a draft doesn’t matter)
- 13. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 7. Guessing is for Guessing • NO GUESSWORK ACCEPTED • If you are not crystal clear on a task, find out fast • This is YOUR responsibility to know what YOU are working on • Not taking the time to do this turns your work effort into a time sucker task
- 14. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 8. How to Challenge Your PM • THERE IS A TIME AND A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING! • Try this • Challenge the thing, not the person • Use 1:1 time to provide feedback • Use small group time to provide feedback • Be calm and use non-confrontational yet very specific language that supports your challenge statement
- 15. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 9. Listen • IF YOU LISTEN, THEY WILL COME • Practice intentional listening • TRY THIS • Put down your phone • Close your laptop • Look your PM in the eyes • Don’t interrupt • Show respect
- 16. ispitfiregroup.com ispitfiregroup.com 10. Be Agreeable – 75% of the Time • CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES! • < 50% Agreeableness = counterproductive. • If you are sitting at 50% of the time – you just may not get it or your may not be in the right job fit • I’m not saying roll over but conflict can be seen as ‘you don’t like what you are doing’ • 75% - gives you room to provide very valuable feedback when you disagree with something. • People listen when you don’t disagree all the time • People value your feedback when you don’t disagree all the time • TRY THIS • Will your objection ultimately improve business value? • If yes, then let time and quality guide your decisions (and voice your objection!)
- 17. ispitfiregroup.com Contact Spitfire Today Info@spitfiregroup.com +1 303.485.1880 @spitfiregroup Spitfiregroup.com Thank You!
Editor's Notes
- Say a few words about spitfire. Mark. And a little about me. I wrote a book on project management. Its called “The Effective Project Manager”. Buy the book because I IS a good writer. Now, why did I write a book about project management? Because I thought a few PMs in my peer group needed a SOLID and STURDY kick in the pants! I talk about End Goals – Not Following STRICT Process. I talk about GUIDING not – DEMANDING. I am a project manager for the spitfire group and very happy to be here tonight. I didn't choose to be a project manager. It is who I am and what I do. And I hope this presentation makes you think about your daily work and how YOU go about YOUR business. If you come away with one useful tidbit I will have done my job. NEXT
- Question 1 – By Show of Hands – How Many of you think that Project Management is valuable? WHY? – Extra Credit! Question 2 – By show of hands. How many of you think that Project Management is NOT valuable? WHY? – Get the A+! Question 3 – How many of you think that your Project Manager is a WINGNUT?
- Before we get to the top 10 list - WE are going to start with an exercise – Every one of you has a vision of what a project manager DOES do and what a project manager SHOULD do. I want you to close your eyes and visualize a PM that you have worked with in the past or maybe even your current PM who is leading a project effort for your team. Think about their mannerisms. Think about their catch phrases. What burns your toast about them? On the other hand, what do you think they do well? Ready? OK. Let’s do this. Now I am going to ask some questions. Audience Participation is encouraged! NEXT What are WORDS that you WISH your project manager would say? How about thank you. Or nice work. NEXT What are ACTIONS that you WISH your project manager would take? How about standing up for you in front of others. NEXT What are words that you wish your PM did NOT say? How about NOW. I had a cio who would say Feel free to hurry. NEXT What are actions that you wish your PM would NOT take? How about asking for your status at the worst possible moment? How about wasting YOUR time in a meeting? How about telling you HOW to do YOUR job SO . . . . You just explained in real terms, the types of ACTIONS and WORDS that describe an ideal project manager. What SHOULD Project Managers DO and what they shouldn’t. WE just covered project MANAGER. The PERSON. NOW – Let’s shift to Project ManageMENT (the act of managing a project). We are shifting from the PERSON to the DISCIPLINE of PROJECT MANAGEMENT. What does Project ManageMENT mean to you? Again. We all have our own vision of this. I will give you MY vision of Project Management. Be THINKING about what it means to YOU! NEXT - What does Project Management mean to YOU? When "I" talk about Project Management – What I’m really talking about is the ability of a person to VISUALIZE the world from different perspectives. VISUALIZE how things are and how things need to be. AND have the ability to UNDERSTAND that there are many ways to get there. That’s the first Part. Here’s the 2nd Part. Project Management is ALSO about ASKING the RIGHT QUESTIONS: How do you get from A to B? WHAT is the work. WHAT are the dependencies? HOW many people do you need to pull this off? HOW will these people have to work together and WHEN? WHAT are the different ways this can be done while being budget conscious? WHAT are risks to the company? To other projects going on? ALSO – What are risks to your project? From other projects? From the Market? From Wherever? What can POSSIBLY get in the way between YOU and SUCCESS? I call ALL OF THIS . . . . . . HOW you WORK the WORK. HOW you WORK the WORK is CRITICAL to the success of any project. I've just given an example of what project management means to ME. . . . . . NOW . . . . What does it mean to you? I’d like to hear from 1 person! NEXT - “quick” Does a project manager ALWAYS have to be the one to lead a project? NO. Project management is a FUNCTION not a person. NEXT – “quick” Does it help to have a project MANAGER lead a project? IT DEPENDS. It depends on WHAT the specific role of the project manager IS – for that project. There are more than a few different ways to manage a project and I would ALMOST ALWAYS tell you that the PM that is concerned about following STRICT project protocol– THIS PM does NOT belong on every project. If you have a PM that is RESULTS oriented, can manage to milestones and remove ROADBLOCKS where needed – THIS PM is gold. NEXT
- HERE is a SIMPLIFIED VIEW of the Project Manager PERSON . . . . And the Project Management DISCIPLINE. --------------------------------------------------------------- Spitfire’s PMs are Guides on the Side. But what exactly is meant by the phrase “Guide on the Side”? It means our Project Managers facilitate success – while working NEXT TO YOU, while being VERY engaged. WE are on the battlefield with you. The Spitfire Project Manager identifies dependencies EARLY and asks the hard questions EARLY. We are risk MITIGATORS. We are Customer Focused but will NOT sugarcoat roadblocks or real challenges. The Spitfire Project Manager is EFFECTIVE and provides REAL VALUE, not just words on a page. --------------------------------------------------------------- By CONTRAST . . . The “Sage on the Stage” typically tells you exactly how to run your project . . . . . Not only that . . . They do this FROM A DISTANCE. These folks are on the stage. Far away. The Sage has PERFECT METHODOLOGY and THAT is THAT. The sage focuses 8 hours on creating a status report and trying to provide lots of WORDS that help support their existence on your project. THIS is the SAGE on the STAGE. So when you staff your next project manager . . . . . Remind yourself . . . . . It’s YOUR project. It’s YOUR company. YOU know YOUR people the BEST! Who is ANY project manager to come in and blitzkrieg your project just for the sake of doing so? --------------------------------------------------------------- In terms of how Spitfire views the Project Management Discipline - - - - - - - - - Project Management is HOW you WORK the WORK. WHAT is the Business Need/ Business Goal. And HOW do you get there? Spitfire Project Management includes both Strategy AND Execution. NEXT
- NOW – Understanding that most of you are developers – I GET that you don’t get to choose your project managers (90% of the time). So in light of your PM trying to manage YOU ---- Here is Spitfire’s list of 10 Ways YOU can manage your project manager. We will go through each one as time allows.
- The Project Manager Love Language is TALKING IN SPECIFICS. Be Specific! Always. Why? Specificity leads to Action! I can’t do anything if you say something like – My code won’t compile and I’m not going to make my 2 PM deadline, please help me out? A – I don’t code. B – PLEASE Don’t come to me with a generalized complaint. Be SPECIFIC. TRY THIS. Come to me and say Mr. PM my code will not compile right now and I’m not going to make my 2 PM deadline but I have a few ideas as to how to move forward. And here are my specific ideas. Guess what? AWESOME. Why is this Awesome? You are NOT making it someone else’s problem. You are SHOWING Accountability. You are SHOWING the drive to get to a solution. All Awesome.
- What is a time sucker task? I don't know. Maybe completing a TPS Report? Doing anything that is not necessary just to say you did it. YOU ARE THE PM OVER YOUR OWN TIME! Your time is your biggest asset Protect it with your life! Be intentional with your time (with whom you spend it, what you talk about, what you work on) We only have 24 hours in a day. How you spend those hours is up to you. Make it count. Make things happen, don’t let things happen to you. TRY THIS If you are asked to do a time sucker task Track the time it is taking you to complete a time sucker task Have a conversation with your PM Your PM needs to understand exactly how much time you’re spending on a time sucker task Remind them of your bill rate. There is a price to time sucker tasks. Be effective with your time. Fight back.
- Multitasking is a myth. Never accept more than 3 tasks at once. In fact. TRY THIS Understand your first priority and commit. Understand your second priority and carefully commit Understand your last priority and absolutely don't commit. Me, as a PM – my own little rule is to never assign more than three things to any one person at any given time. Why? I believe in FOCUS and you CANT FOCUS if you have too many balls in the air. So you should NEVER accept more than three tasks at a time. There is no reason for this!
- FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTION – FASTER – BY FAILING FAST Remember - Every decision ever made has a chance to fail when implemented TRY THIS Time yourself – You are your best competitor Give yourself 30 minutes to complete a task. If you’re not done after 30 minutes Are you on the right track? Need to start over? Time your team – If your team does is not done with a task in 4 hours. Why not? Is it the right solution? Scrap or no? Be mindful with your work
- PMs need to know the TRUTH at all times. FOLLOW ESTIMATE ETIQUETTE Be Realistic – With Estimates If you don’t know for certain – SAY you don’t know Optimism can kill a project Pessimism can kill your reputation If you are optimistic – SAY you are being optimistic If you are a “buffer it” kind of developer – don’t over buffer – You will get found out and look silly Try this If you are not 100% confident in an estimate that you give, build in some buffer but tell your PM you are doing this Have a real conversation with your PM about your estimate
- BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Stephen Covey WHY? Your PM NEEDS to have an end goal in mind. If they don’t, ask the hard questions to get them thinking about it. A task like: Design a Module to process customer orders – can mean a thousand different things. Don’t let a PM GIVE you this kind of task. And you don’t ACCEPT this type of task. Both of you need to understand exactly what the deliverable should look like before you get too far down the road. Check in with your PM at regular intervals to make sure the solution is on the right path. TRY THIS Spend 30 minutes on what you think is the correct format of the final deliverable and send it to your PM to keep your PM in the loop (the fact that it is a draft doesn’t matter) Get on the same page as your PM.
- GUESSING IS FOR WELL . . . . GUESSING Here is the NEW RULE: NO GUESSWORK ACCEPTED If you are not crystal clear on a task, find out fast. It is YOUR responsibility to GET CLEAR. It is YOUR responsibility to know what YOU are working on Not taking the time to do this turns your work effort into a time sucker task I don’t care if the PM gets frustrated with you. They shouldn’t, but if they do . . . So what? This is the right thing to do. GUESSING is for GUESSING
- THERE IS A TIME AND A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING! The next time you have an objection . . . . . . . . TRY THIS Challenge the THING, not the PERSON Take the focus off the PERSON. PMs may act tough sometimes but we sometimes get hurt feelings. Is it EVER a good idea to challenge someone in front of a large # of people? Probably not. Use 1:1 time to provide feedback Use small group time to provide feedback Be calm and use non-confrontational yet very specific language that supports your challenge statement PMs will listen to ideas that save time, add value, and that make sense. State your case slowly and calmly.
- LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN If you don’t listen to someone – like maybe a spouse (but ESPECIALLY a PM) – they don’t like it. Your Project Manager needs to know that you understand them. TRY THIS Put down your phone Close your laptop Look your project manager in the eyes Don’t Interrupt Show Respect
- BE AGREEABLE . . . . . . 75% OF THE TIME If you are agreeable – less than 50% of the time = This is just counterproductive and awkward. If you are sitting at an agreeableness percentage of 50% of the time – you just may not get it or you may not be in the right job fit at the right company. I believe the sweet-spot is 75% = This gives you room to provide very valuable feedback. WHY? Because people LISTEN when you don’t complain all the time.