You Can’t Have It All: Managing Expectations in Complex Projects
“You know, when I fumbled and lost the West High game, it took a whole roll of LifeSavers to make me feel better.”
“You got a whole roll?”
“Here, there’ll be other games, kiddo.”
-Commercial from 1976
A lesson in planning: Ineffectiveness is habitual.
There. It’s in print. Especially as veterans of the technology community, we feel that we can escape the ravages of ennui, entropy, etc., because we took the hard road, and it steeled us for non-failure. Our plans are exceptional, and setting those clear goals and expectations will magically coalesce the team to whip whatever schedule or project into a shining example of efficiency and excellence. (Leading to exasperation and excuses.
Several current high-tech examples come to mind, but the personal is always the best. So we offer the following lesson, still ongoing.
Yer’ Humble Author (YHA) was reminded of the rules of recently, specifically during a recent discussion with local county government officials about a complex taxpayer-funded project in our purview* that was about to tip over the top of budgetary expectations. The conversations were sanguine on at least one end, mostly because some failure is usually an option in certain circles. But it prompted several long-ago planning and organizational lessons to come to mind.
In a couple of those conversations, an old technology saying was presented. When faced with the triumvirate of schedule, features, and budget, you-the-management may pick any two. That doesn’t mean you’ll get both, but you clearly won’t get the three. Pressure comes in all shapes and sizes. And while it’s supposedly good for carbon and silica, it’s not so much for plans. Even those of us who are pretty good at screaming into the buffeting winds are eventually sandblasted to submission. Low expectations aside, it can be hard to accept that you can’t keep sliding the levers and hope nobody notices the migrating goalposts.
One opinion (the correct one) would point back to clear goals and expectations: it will cost this much and arrive on this date.
Said project still looks very good for schedule (two months left!). And the entire team is currently very focused on understanding the trade-offs that are pushing the budget and limiting any new unnecessary expectations that might occur. We’re all sure that it’ll be a non-contentious product introduction that the community will mostly appreciate. This leads to another habit good planners embrace.
YHA’s favorite direct manager (yes, they’re all ranked, and most of them know where they land on the spreadsheet) was very fond of building his organization around a simple methodology: We Suck Less. Like hikers encountering ursine denizens, sometimes it’s okay to just be a little faster. While this particular project looks to be taking 2.5% more than hoped, any someone could cast within the territorial boundaries of said government budget and find four or five similar projects that freewheeled one of the three and are currently blowing the other two. The comparisons will still create eventual kudos that will further create favorable memories when we’re done.
It’s still about expectations. Even while reminding those in charge that We Suck Less, it’s useful to gently remind the charges that We Still Suck. As said above, permission to spend above budget isn’t unlimited. So those of you in planning, please remember, pick your two and be firm in your fluidity. Your products and your customers will thank you for it.
*(When one “retires” a bit too early, one ends up volunteering skills taught in the brutal territory of high tech to help the less experientially-fortunate, which will be a common feature in this space. It’s okay to be bad at retirement sometimes.)
“You know, when I fumbled and lost the West High game, it took a whole roll of LifeSavers to make me feel better.”
“You got a whole roll?”
“Here, there’ll be other games, kiddo.”
-Commercial from 1976
A lesson in planning: Ineffectiveness is habitual.
There. It’s in print. Especially as veterans of the technology community, we feel that we can escape the ravages of ennui, entropy, etc., because we took the hard road, and it steeled us for non-failure. Our plans are exceptional, and setting those clear goals and expectations will magically coalesce the team to whip whatever schedule or project into a shining example of efficiency and excellence. (Leading to exasperation and excuses.
Several current high-tech examples come to mind, but the personal is always the best. So we offer the following lesson, still ongoing.
Yer’ Humble Author (YHA) was reminded of the rules of recently, specifically during a recent discussion with local county government officials about a complex taxpayer-funded project in our purview* that was about to tip over the top of budgetary expectations. The conversations were sanguine on at least one end, mostly because some failure is usually an option in certain circles. But it prompted several long-ago planning and organizational lessons to come to mind.
In a couple of those conversations, an old technology saying was presented. When faced with the triumvirate of schedule, features, and budget, you-the-management may pick any two. That doesn’t mean you’ll get both, but you clearly won’t get the three. Pressure comes in all shapes and sizes. And while it’s supposedly good for carbon and silica, it’s not so much for plans. Even those of us who are pretty good at screaming into the buffeting winds are eventually sandblasted to submission. Low expectations aside, it can be hard to accept that you can’t keep sliding the levers and hope nobody notices the migrating goalposts.
One opinion (the correct one) would point back to clear goals and expectations: it will cost this much and arrive on this date.
Said project still looks very good for schedule (two months left!). And the entire team is currently very focused on understanding the trade-offs that are pushing the budget and limiting any new unnecessary expectations that might occur. We’re all sure that it’ll be a non-contentious product introduction that the community will mostly appreciate. This leads to another habit good planners embrace.
YHA’s favorite direct manager (yes, they’re all ranked, and most of them know where they land on the spreadsheet) was very fond of building his organization around a simple methodology: We Suck Less. Like hikers encountering ursine denizens, sometimes it’s okay to just be a little faster. While this particular project looks to be taking 2.5% more than hoped, any someone could cast within the territorial boundaries of said government budget and find four or five similar projects that freewheeled one of the three and are currently blowing the other two. The comparisons will still create eventual kudos that will further create favorable memories when we’re done.
It’s still about expectations. Even while reminding those in charge that We Suck Less, it’s useful to gently remind the charges that We Still Suck. As said above, permission to spend above budget isn’t unlimited. So those of you in planning, please remember, pick your two and be firm in your fluidity. Your products and your customers will thank you for it.
*(When one “retires” a bit too early, one ends up volunteering skills taught in the brutal territory of high tech to help the less experientially-fortunate, which will be a common feature in this space. It’s okay to be bad at retirement sometimes.)
