IT Project Management - life on the front line

My far more technical compadre and fellow Agile Yorkshire attendee 'Agile Bert' (aka John) has joined the blogging world. Will he become a prolific blogger? Will he become a (thought) leader amongst men? Why is he called Bert? That last one actually has an answer: here

Hands up if you've ever heard someone say: "We don't have a fear-and-blame culture." And keep them up if the reaction of the 'doers' was to roll their eyes and mutter something sarcastic. It's a nice phrase to trot out at a senior leadership conference or to write in your 'best employer of 2020' application, but if you have to say it, it's probably not true. And repeating the mantra won't make it any more true. In fact, people might respect you more if you were honest and admitted that there is blame and where the boundaries lie.  At least in that scenario, the individual knows where they stand. Instead, we often have the jarring dissonance of hearing our leaders say one thing and seeing them act entirely differently. As a leader (especially a senior leader): When you stand at the front of a room and tell the assembly that there is no fear-and-blame, look at their faces.   If they mostly appear too scared to dis...

The reason I titled this post with a question mark is that I believe empowerment to be a very misused term. Here's the Cambridge dictionary definition: Of course, you know this already. Yet for some, "to empower" has become synonymous with "to abrogate responsibility" Or in other words, passing the buck to your team: 'boss we need help dealing with team x' 'you're empowered to deal with that' This is just crappy leadership. Of course , you have to empower people so you're not a blocker. Of course , you have to give people additional responsibility to help them develop beyond their current role. But when you 'empower ' someone, you retain the accountability overall.  It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card to blame them if things don't go as planned or to turn around months later and say 'well you can't complain.  I empowered you to do it and you failed' No.  If you're my bos...

I received a very earnest email from a senior IT director that implored us (the unwashed masses) to provide feedback on how 'empowered' we felt. 'Great' I thought.  I chance to voice an opinion, vent some frustration and maybe, MAYBE, even help to change things for the better (no, I'm neither delusional nor stupid - I didn't believe that last one for a second). I had a quick glance round the office to make sure my boss wasn't around - he'd have spotted the dip in productivity with a blindfold on at a thousand yards. I clicked the link (after the usual concerns that it was a test of how easily we might be caught out by phishing scams) AND ... NOTHING Because as I flexed my fingers over the keyboard I couldn't think of any examples where a lack of empowerment had hamstrung me. So I refreshed myself on the concept: Without any empowerment we would, essentially, be subject to a prescriptive and highly inflexible regime.  Trotting o...

I was sent these videos earlier on the way Spotify operates. It looks a lot closer to Agile utopia than many companies. Well worth a watch: Part 1 Part 2 If this doesn't make you want to be more Agile at work then I despair! Maybe we'll never get to this level but we can keep trying. The bad news?  Most workplaces I've experienced have been a huge distance from this experience. The good news? I wasn't sent these video links by one of my cutting edge start-up contacts, but by a Head-of Delivery in a major European Insurance company.  The desire is there and it's moving up through the hierarchy. The slow realisation that the way in which they create, buy and deploy tech is paramount is dawning. Let's focus on doing it the right way and learn from the hard lessons of other industries. Mining and textiles were thrown away in the UK in the pursuit of being cheap (at the cost of quality - and jobs). The British Automotive Industry fell apart i...

If I asked what qualifies someone to lead an IT Project you might immediately think of literal qualifications; a degree, a PRINCE2 practitioner certificate, DSDM certification. You might think of the practical skills needed to achieve Project Management tasks; the ability to plan, management of RAID/CARDI items, stakeholder communication. All of these things are vital to managing a project, but as we're often reminded: Management ≠ Leadership And projects need leaders.   Why?  Because people need leaders.  Humans are pack orientated creatures and we are most comfortable within a structure that supports and guides us.  Within a project the same is true.  The 'doers' usually thrive within a supporting structure that takes care of their (professional) needs and protects them from attack.  Without Developers and Testers the rest of the project team is just a lot of expensive * flesh. In a mature and capable project team there is a certain joy to be ...

If you're an Agile practitioner of any sort you will understand what I mean by Armchair Generals (if not, it may be an idea to check if you are one..). Apropos of nothing an email arrives that questions the management of your project in terms of whether it is properly 'Agile'. Feedback is, of course, a great tool.  But it must always be understood within the context of the person providing it. So when the email lands questioning the type of contingency you've built into your project or the depth of analysis performed on your requirements set, ask yourself: 1. Has the questioner spotted something you and the team have missed? It happens.  That's why independent reviews can be helpful. 2. Has the questioner misunderstood something about your project?  If so, maybe your communications weren't quite clear enough or they've missed something - it happens, we're all busy. If the questioner has understood the topic correctly and is simply disagreeing ...