TOP 10 Analogies to Project Management
Analogies are one of the cleverest tools to explain and communicate. Analogies transfer knowledge from realm to realm, clarifying the alien & vague through the lens of familiarity & acquaintance. A good analogy is like a “written picture”: worth a thousand additional words. As you can tell from the prior lines, I am a big fan of analogies, metaphors, allegories, and similar idiomatic formulas. Let´s use the tool on a favorite subject of mine which is Project Management. Let´s begin with the worst and run the list top down up to my personal favorites. With no further introductions, I give you the Top 10 Analogies to Project Management, as follows:
10. Stenographer: on the bottom of the list, the comparison of a PM to a stenographer (amanuensis). It is quite a misguided correspondence since stenography accounts only for literal transcription with no value added. In other words, it assumes a laid-back mechanization to Project Management which is the case. Furthermore, modern software platforms already do this automatically. In this sense, this analogy is more of a defamation than a fair comparison – we put it at the list´s basement, thus.
9. Executive Assistant / Tracker: in this second analogy the passive automation is less evident than the previous one, therefore I like it a bit more. Still, it doesn’t transmit the drive that the role demands. Project Management does imply massive tracking efforts (e.g., holding people accountable to deliveries / ETAs, etc.) but there´s much more to it. A PM must proactively make decisions, call to action, drive, plan. This figure does not conveys that fundamental part of the role clearly.
8. Military “Commander”: now on number 8 of the scale the military ranking analogies. The pros to this category of allegories is the fact that they depict discipline, decision-taking and risk management. However, cons are as varied as they are important. Project Management is not actually about fighting an “enemy” nor it supposes the authority degree and top-down command line that military forces proudly exert. Project Management also entails much more of negotiation skills and compromise, among other soft skills.
7. Expeditor: what I like about this one is the fact that emphasizes on the Schedule (formerly Time) Management area of Project Management. In my experience – and as per our modern world needs & trends – time is indeed the key restriction / driver against which projects are mostly driven. In other words, its the ultimate restriction. The downside is that once again, it leaves outside so much there is to the job. The Expeditor metaphor makes it to this position in the ranking, no more.
6. Coordinator: in the very middle of the list, the “Coordinator” term as a reference to a PM. It’s a fair one, I must admit, since it conveys the organizational aspects to the profession, including the need of dealing with multiple stakeholders with different needs and expectations. However, in my opinion the term has a bias to be acknowledged under the hood of the Execution phase of projects, which of course leaves out the Planning part of it – the secret sauce to successful projects.
5. Coach or QB: now on the second half of the list, beginning with the sports-world comparisons. The Coach analogy is nice – it conveys motivation, strategy, decisions, risk management. Quarterbacks are also a nice one – the role is a synonym to leadership, last-minute calls, working against the odds. The flipside to it is similar to the military figure comparisons – it transmits an “us against them” context that is not realistic.
4. Air Traffic Controller / Tower: what I really like about this one is the way it depicts in a very graphic way the Integration part to project management. Departures and arrivals are akin to deliverables and work packages, and the Tower synchronizes everything to perfection, optimizing the total output of the Team. Now to the cons of this one is the fact that air traffic is more like a continuous process that a project (there is no end to it) and the products (deliverables) are basically the same. Thus, the parable is good but indeed not perfect.
3. Router: we are now on the top three! First on the final countdown, the router. A router is a very “smart” piece of equipment. It is network gear that not only forwards information, but it also distributes it to the correct parties through the best path and in the correct format (protocol). It also must manage security aspects to it, timing, and errors. I very much like all that, but then the nature of the object per se – a router is a device – somewhat transmits a robotic picture to the profession that stalls this allegory in its current 3rd spot.
2. Orchestra Director: the Orchestra Director is a lovely way to picture a PM. It denotes the art to it, the subtle adjustments to be made during the Execution (and sometimes, not so subtle ones!) and the trust there should be between the Team. But then, to me, there is again bias in this figure toward the actual interpretation of the melody, that would be, toward the Execution phase of the project. That´s why it didn’t make it to the summit.
1. English to English Translator: I heard this one recently from a dear colleague of mine and it escalated immediately to the very top of my list. In an almost “poetical” way this analogy denotes the essence of Project Management. It succinctly captures the spirit of the profession: reading “between the lines”, chasing the true priorities, requesting clarification time after time, ensuring that actual communication happened (and not the illusion of it, as G. Bernard Shaw warned us). An outstanding allegory by all means – vague, you may argue, but it applies all across the timeline of projects, methodologies and frameworks. One analogy to rule them all!
This is my list, ranked from worst to best. Thinking aloud, perhaps the ultimate analogy would be a mix of some of the above. Perhaps. But then, this is just me – what is your favorite analogy? Did I miss any interesting ones? Share your comments please – feedback is the breeze that refreshes the mind, if yet one more metaphor is allowed in this post.
Cheers,
Fernando
PS: after writing this article, I recalled even other ones, such as a Juggler, managing many different priorities simultaneously, and even “herders”. Thoughts? Shoot!
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Reflexiones de un PM en un mal día (parte I) / The deliberations of a PM on a bad day (part I)
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL (ENGLISH VERSION BELOW)
“Los cántaros, cuanto más vacíos, más ruido hacen.” – Alfonso X el Sabio
Serrat canta “Hoy puede ser un gran día”… pero ciertamente hay días que no son así. Como Gerente de Proyectos (Project Manager – PM) estos días aciagos se presentan más seguido de lo que quisiéramos. Recuerdo uno de esos días sucedido recientemente. Con la cabeza fría, puedo identificar (al menos) los siguientes factores como parte de la receta del desastre:
- Un Portfolio Manager con una visión sesgada de los proyectos y programas bajo su cargo: diríamos que el caballero en cuestión vivía su puesto mirando siempre “hacia arriba”, hacia la Alta Dirección y el “C-Suite”, y nunca hacia el portafolio, salvo para dar direcciones.
- Un Program Manager del área en que me desempeñaba (a la cual reportaba directamente) con un estilo gerencial absurdo. Su mantra era “quédese en su caja”: una manera muy directa y poco poética de enarbolar la bandera de los “silos” o “compartimentos estancos” organizacionales. Además de ello, una limitada capacidad de escucha. y el sistema de escalación era disfuncional.
- Ausencia de un Project Charter o SOW confiable: me encontraba luchando en el proyecto desde hacía casi 6 meses y aún no existía un documento que oficializara su alcance, objetivos, presupuesto y otros “detalles”.
- Ambiente generalizado de premura y urgencia: deadline inamovible y, por decir lo menos, poco realista. Todo es “para ayer”.
- Alcance (scope) “saltarín”: la cantidad de elementos a desarollar en el proyecto cambiaba a un ritmo insólito, inclusive semana a semana – el término “scope creep” se quedaba muy corto.
- Juego de la “papa caliente” con la responsabilidad: más que un esfuerzo conjunto entre los diferentes equipos desarrollando los diferentes proyectos y programas del portafolio para entregar a tiempo la masiva cantidad de productos (entregables), el tema recurrente en el día a día era un juego político en donde lo más importante era que la culpa no recayera “en mí”: un juego de búsqueda de culpables y evasión de responsabilidades, amén de falta recurrente de coordinación y por supuesto de visión y trabajo en equipo.
- Mal ambiente laboral, epidemia del síndrome de “burnout”, faltante crónico de staff, alta rotación, etc.
Coincidará conmigo en que esta es la “tormenta perfecta”: una acumulación de factores que solo puede devenir en un proyecto / programa / portafolio fallido – independientemente del presupuesto, el cual, como adivinarán, era limitado y controlado con “marca personal”. Con el paso del tiempo, reflexioné: ¿Existirá un factor común que es el verdadero causante de todos estos (en algunos casos aparentemente inconexos) problemas? ¿Hay una causa raíz “maestra” subyacente a todo este desastre, un mínimo común denominador? Y, para rematar: ¿Es esto culpa del PM o de alguien más, y quién es ese “alguien más”? Unas cuantas lecturas, incluyendo breves repasos del PMBOK, el “Rita”, PMI´s “Pulse of the Profession”, algunas conferencias y artículos varios de estrategia y gerencia pero sobre todo un análisis concienzudo me llevaron a una conclusión general: efectivamente, hay una causa raíz detrás de todo esto: la organización como tal. Puede sonar en primera instancia como una perogullada, pero analicemóslo un momento: el problema no es el PM, tampoco el PgM y tampoco el PfM. Así que no hay que “echarse encima el muerto” en la conciencia. El problema es el SISTEMA: cuando en una organización la norma es el desorden, la sobrecarga laboral, la corrupción de prioridades, sobrecarga del pipeline de proyectos, etc. etc. entonces no es alguien, son los procesos globales de la organización los que están mal diseñados, mal implementados o mal ejecutados (o estos tres problemas a un tiempo). Y esto a su vez puede traducirse en una palabra: mala (o ausente) gobernanza: léase gobierno corporativo, pasando por elementos tácticos y cuasi-operativos.
Tenemos entonces un diagnóstico: un sospechoso, el supuesto “villano de la película”. Pero… ¿Cómo podemos estar seguros de que este es ciertamente el culpable y qué hacer ante esta triste realidad? Ánimo, hay esperanza: dejaremos esas reflexiones para las siguientes partes de este análisis, nos vemos en los próximos posts…
“Un hombre con una idea nueva es un loco hasta que la idea triunfa.” – Mark Twain
ENGLISH VERSION
“The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” – William Shakespeare
Cat Stevens sings “Morning Has Broken” in an all-positive mood, but sometimes… oh gosh it isn´t a good day. As PMs, those bad times come more often than what we would linger for. I remember one of those days. With a cushion of months in between and a fresh and more objective perspective, now I can identify (at least) the following list of factors behind the “Perfect Storm” scenario hailing over that particular project:
- A Portfolio Manager with a biased, unbalanced perspective of the programs and projects under his accountability: this person was leading with the eyes always pointing at the Executives, Sponsors and the C-Suite, with virtually no time nor attention for the team under his command.
- A Program Manager directing the area in which I was working (I reported directly to that person) with an absurd management style: that person´s Project Management mantra, preached to all the team, was “stay-in-your-box” – do not ask about other areas and projects, do not request info on the general effort status, shut up and look down. Of course, this translates into the official empowerment of organizational silos, not to mention a very limited capacity to listen.
- No Project Charter or SOW available: we were six months already into the effort, and there was no official charter nor Statement of Work… requisites were managed in a pretty muchinformal way and in any case, there was no definitive document stating the project objectives, terms and conditions.
- An universal environment of urgency: if anyone received a task or an instruction, the rationale was always urgency, “it is late”.
- Project and Program scope capable of competing in the “Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee” (remember Mark Twain´s short story? Check the link below): the scope changed week by week. The list of applications in our scope mutated sometimes even twice per week.
- Responsibility was managed like the a hot potato game: as such, the spirit was not to work as a team and actually solve issues, but to toss the blame on someone else, fast, before it hurts you. As such, the Project Team behaved in a political and evasive way, creating lack of trust and unnecessary antagonisms.
- Staff issues: we were always short on staff, people were demotivated and “burned-out”, the project suffered due to high staff turnover and attrition.
Of course, the sum of these factors create a nearly impossible scenario, regardless the budget allocated for the effort (which, of course, was limited and strictly controlled). This set of conditions steer the project / program / portfolio towards failure. As stated above, with the perspective of time and distance, I have meditated: is there a common factor, a root-cause, a minimum common denominator behind all the above listed issues? Moreover, if that is the case, what is that “sum of all fears” thing, and is the PM to be blamed? A series of lectures, including the new PMBOK v6, Rita Mulcahy´s famous training book, PMI´s latest “Pulse of the Profession” report, a couple conferences and other technical articles but mainly a lot of internal deliberation have led me to a sound conclusion: YES, there is a common cause, and it is the organization itself, the company. This may sound initially as a “duh” statement, but before you bully me, let me present the nuts and bolts to extract the real value out of it. First of all, we need to be clear that the PM (nor anyone in the project, nor the PgM of the PfM or even the Sponsor) is to be ultimately blamed. This is not a small thing: so first and foremost, don´t feel personal frustration or take the blame. The root cause lies in the SYSTEM behind the projects: its not the actors, its not the play, its the stage and the theatrical company (Shakespeare would be proud of the analogy I guess). When disorder, lack of priorities, lack of staff, work overload, high attrition, pipeline “cholesterol” and overload are the norm, then something is utterly wrong at a general level. This means that the blame is not to be put on someone – and especially not you as the PM (perhaps C-Suite, but let´s avoid the blaming exercise for the time being) but on the organizational PROCESSES, which may be faulty designed, faulty implemented or faulty executed (or a combination of those). In a nutshell, all this mess can be translated into a single evil: tainted, degraded organizational GOVERNANCE.
So, we have come to a conclusion and we now have a SUSPECT. Still, how can we be sure that this is indeed the despicable villain behind all this mess and how to tackle this inconvenient reality? We will deal with these questions in the coming posts. Stay tuned…
“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” – Mark Twain
Bonus material:
- Mark Twain´s short story – “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County“
- PMI´s “Pulse of the Profession” report 2017: click here
- PMI´s “Pulse of the Profession” report 2018: click here
- Alfonso X of Castile: click here – he is the author of the top quote in the Spanish version of the article: “Pitchers, the emptier they are, the louder they sound”
