The Rookie and I

I was actually going to call this How to train a project manager but decided against it because it would probably raise such universal questions as 'Can you really train a project manager?' So, herein I present the almost neverending saga of project managers and IT professionals.

Project management... Some think of it as an artform, others think of it as irreverent and pointless, but all agree that it often is a necessary evil. I am not going to debate either side here but just present some experiences albeit embellished of project management in the IT world. A lot of the experiences sound remarkably similar yet so different which presents a dilemma when cataloguing and classifying them. So as the author of this blog, I have taken the liberty to classify by project manager, as after all this is the key determinant and differentiator in all the projects.

The Rookie: A project management virgin for lack of a better term. Often thrown in the deep-end without actually being told how deep the pool actually is but also without being taught to swim. Thus, the onus is often on the other project team members to train and manage the project manager. As if this wasn't complicated enough, this also involves managing not only the person but the EGO. Often (and not always) you are dealing with someone who is not only underprepared in managing the project albeit the team but also doesn't realise it. A bad workman may blame his tools but first he has to actually have some. Better still, they often have a supreme confidence in their abilities where they actually truly believe that they are managing the project people. As much as I hate to admit it, that is what they should do but the clincher for me is their management style. Without the necessary tools in hand and experience to draw on, they are forced to rely on the Command and Control approach (to quote Joel Spolsky). What I like to call the kindergarten approach - I am bigger than you so you have to do what I say. Not an ideal way to manage kindergartners, let alone an IT project team. Especially in the IT world of today when one project makes you the team lead and the other makes you part of the development team. There are almost always going to be more experienced people on a team. The problem the rookie faces is he doesn't realise how to manage this. Again, the kindergarten approach - I am the 'boss' so I should tell them what to do. The net result often is that the project members either get frustrated, infuriated, insulted (often all of the above) leading to a lack of confidence in the project manager and either non-cooperation or a power struggle. Net result: IT project disaster in the making.
I don't mean to say this is always the case or that the other team members are not in any way contributors to the potential failure of the project, but having project management issues certainly doesn't help!