Project management

Project management is like cooking for a dinner party.

You have all the ingredients.

You have a whole afternoon set aside.

Like playing the piano - you can play all the notes, so how hard can a concerto be?

Except the ingredients are people, with complicated lives.

And they’re doing work under constrained circumstances (time, budget, quality…).

Some are passionate and focussed, some are distracted, possibly for good reasons.

And they can interact in surprising ways…

Having the big picture is crucial

Understanding all the systems within the project at a high level is necessary - what they do and how they interact. You need to know that the team knows the systems at the sub-atomic level. They need you to clear the path, not to do the work.

Having a crystal-clear idea of what ‘success’ looks like for the project is vital. Success for the project is maximised when success for its people is also maximised. Projects are rarely without conflict and compromise; that’s just the nature of engineering problem-solving. The challenge is not to avoid them, but to navigate them well.

That’s why it’s called ‘project management’, not ‘project observation’.

Successfully navigating the trials and compromises of a project builds trust that is essential for the times when the project enters uncharted waters.

Entering uncharted waters with a team that isn’t sure of support and empathy is a recipe for stress, burnout and ultimately failure.

Having the small picture is crucial

Effectively joining the dots on the Gantt chart requires robust understanding of the detail. Viewing the project from outside the melee of the detail work allows a different perspective that may not be evident to the team. The big picture that scheduling tools provide is always assembled from a collection of small pictures. Resource loading and critical paths can will give you the best picture when they’re based on good data.

This is where communication becomes critical; letting the team in to the higher-levels of the decision making process is also a trust-building exercise. They will benefit from knowing the constraints that are on the project from places outside their domain. Otherwise suspicion can fill the information void that is left when communication is inadequate.

Structures frequently fail at the connections

When a team works under constant pressure, their ability to empathise can get squeezed out. If you’re under pressure to deliver a system design then when resources are limited, you focus precisely on your work, and frequently the first thing to suffer is how your work interacts with those around you. Does the structures team need to redesign to facilitate the HVAC changes, or can the cable trays move in order to route the HVAC differently? In many conflicts there is no clear answer - each has benefits, each comes with a cost.

Effective project management understands this, and makes allowance for it. Transparency in the decision making process is vital here.

The wrap

So what are the essential ingredients for effective project management?

Empathy, understanding - of people, their work and their constraints - and communication.

The complexities, compromises and challenges inherent in producing seaworthy, reliable, client-fulfilling machines can rarely be simplified, they need to be embraced and allowed for. The journey can be hard, but what fulfilling work isn’t?

Take care,

Nick.