Comments on: We NEED Project Managers! http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/ Connecting Business Requirements to Technology Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:41:26 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Pete Natha http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-1039 Pete Natha Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:59:00 +0000 http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/#comment-1039 Having risen thru the ranks as a BA to Project Manager and now as a Program Director, I know that the BA and PM need each other. Simply, the two main resons why projects fail (as identified by numerous studies) is because of poor requirements and poor scope handling. The BA is the main person on a team responsible for requirements and the PM is the main person responsible for scope management. Without them both on a project, you are building a foundation on a house of cards. I recently inteviewed with a COO, who was a former CIO, of a Fortune 50 company who told me that he wanted to eliminate BAs and PMs from smaller software development projects. His justification was simple; he wanted to cut costs. BAs ad PMs on every project is expensive. But, he nevered considered the cost of re-work is much more expensive - it's the Cost of Poor Quality. Keep using this CoPQ arguement and drumming into the minds of your managers. It is the basis of modern quality theory. Quality is free - the cost of poor quality is inspections that developers do and QA does, re-work in the form of recoding and bug-fixes, and the iterative code-test-debug-retest cycyle. Tom, for all projects, the two roles must be performed by different people. The only reason it is not is for cost. But, the risk of outright project failure or small amounts of rework is not being considered by your management. They have this concept "there is never enough time to do it right the first time, but plenty of time to fix after screwing it up". The modern quality principle is "Do it right the first time"! The best way to do it right the first time is to have the best team together - a BA and a PM have to be on all (but the smallest and simplest) teams. Their respective roles are vital and should not be combined. Having risen thru the ranks as a BA to Project Manager and now as a Program Director, I know that the BA and PM need each other.

Simply, the two main resons why projects fail (as identified by numerous studies) is because of poor requirements and poor scope handling. The BA is the main person on a team responsible for requirements and the PM is the main person responsible for scope management. Without them both on a project, you are building a foundation on a house of cards.

I recently inteviewed with a COO, who was a former CIO, of a Fortune 50 company who told me that he wanted to eliminate BAs and PMs from smaller software development projects. His justification was simple; he wanted to cut costs. BAs ad PMs on every project is expensive. But, he nevered considered the cost of re-work is much more expensive – it’s the Cost of Poor Quality.

Keep using this CoPQ arguement and drumming into the minds of your managers. It is the basis of modern quality theory. Quality is free – the cost of poor quality is inspections that developers do and QA does, re-work in the form of recoding and bug-fixes, and the iterative code-test-debug-retest cycyle.

Tom, for all projects, the two roles must be performed by different people. The only reason it is not is for cost. But, the risk of outright project failure or small amounts of rework is not being considered by your management. They have this concept “there is never enough time to do it right the first time, but plenty of time to fix after screwing it up”. The modern quality principle is “Do it right the first time”!

The best way to do it right the first time is to have the best team together – a BA and a PM have to be on all (but the smallest and simplest) teams. Their respective roles are vital and should not be combined.

]]> By: CA http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-1038 CA Mon, 03 Sep 2007 14:42:02 +0000 http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/#comment-1038 LOL Barbara. I have written a few posts myself on why ONLY NOT to blame the project manager for a project failure. The PM depends on the BA a lot. I think the problem arises that most BAs come from the technology side of things - and as any developer can attest (no - i do not think they will admit to it), they tend to be perfectionists. What I mean is they cannot let working things be - they have to go back and redo it to make it better. This approach has its pros and cons depending on the situation. But take a BA with business experience, and you are not likely to see the above scenario. This is my theory. If someone can validate it, it will be great. The reason I can say this is I am BA, who has never professionally coded - but come from the business side of things. I understand the project constraints and know that it will never be 100% perfect. But if a requirement meets 80-90% of the needs, lets code. We will improve on it in future iterations. Tom, for medium to large projects I really think the two roles must be performed by different people. There is just not enough time in the day to do both these roles. I have written a post on this as well - "do you need a project manager and a business analyst?" LOL Barbara. I have written a few posts myself on why ONLY NOT to blame the project manager for a project failure. The PM depends on the BA a lot. I think the problem arises that most BAs come from the technology side of things – and as any developer can attest (no – i do not think they will admit to it), they tend to be perfectionists. What I mean is they cannot let working things be – they have to go back and redo it to make it better. This approach has its pros and cons depending on the situation. But take a BA with business experience, and you are not likely to see the above scenario. This is my theory. If someone can validate it, it will be great. The reason I can say this is I am BA, who has never professionally coded – but come from the business side of things. I understand the project constraints and know that it will never be 100% perfect. But if a requirement meets 80-90% of the needs, lets code. We will improve on it in future iterations. Tom, for medium to large projects I really think the two roles must be performed by different people. There is just not enough time in the day to do both these roles. I have written a post on this as well – "do you need a project manager and a business analyst?"

]]> By: Linda Erzah http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-1037 Linda Erzah Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:28:08 +0000 http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/#comment-1037 Barbara, I agree with you about scope creep and BAs being sometimes the cause of it :) - no offense to other BAs out there. I know I have been guilty of it many times, then was brought back to reality. I like to imagine things and sometimes I get stuck in my "what if" as you said. And it is much easier for the two hats to be different people instead of one person as in the case of Tom. Tom, I salute you!!!! You are not the only one though, and before the BA role was recognized, many project managers were doing just that. And even sometimes without the techniques, they were able to get some decent requirements and sometimes to a good level of detail. However, I believe that also contributed to lots of project failure (hope not in your case). Having one person decide when how much detail is needed and when it's enough detail is very scary. There is no accountability! How do you know it's enough if you already set the date of when you should finish? I hope no one has developped a double personality because of this delimma. You will basically have to stop yourself and have one side of you wanting to dig deeper and the other side saying: "when are you going to be done?" or "no that's too much, you can stop now." Barbara, I agree with you about scope creep and BAs being sometimes the cause of it :) – no offense to other BAs out there. I know I have been guilty of it many times, then was brought back to reality. I like to imagine things and sometimes I get stuck in my "what if" as you said. And it is much easier for the two hats to be different people instead of one person as in the case of Tom. Tom, I salute you!!!! You are not the only one though, and before the BA role was recognized, many project managers were doing just that. And even sometimes without the techniques, they were able to get some decent requirements and sometimes to a good level of detail. However, I believe that also contributed to lots of project failure (hope not in your case). Having one person decide when how much detail is needed and when it's enough detail is very scary. There is no accountability! How do you know it's enough if you already set the date of when you should finish? I hope no one has developped a double personality because of this delimma. You will basically have to stop yourself and have one side of you wanting to dig deeper and the other side saying: "when are you going to be done?" or "no that's too much, you can stop now."

]]> By: Rajeev Singh http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-1036 Rajeev Singh Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:15:59 +0000 http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/#comment-1036 While it is good to have project managers to take care of this, one thing that I always tell people is to time-box themselves. Usually, we all scope box, but time boxing is the key. On large teams a project manager may not have visibility into who is slow (or paralyzed). In such big projects the PM is usually too busy managing the outward relationship. So, comes in the Iteration Manager on who's typically responsible to manage an iteration and to ensure that the team keeps marching ahead. While it is good to have project managers to take care of this, one thing that I always tell people is to time-box themselves. Usually, we all scope box, but time boxing is the key. On large teams a project manager may not have visibility into who is slow (or paralyzed). In such big projects the PM is usually too busy managing the outward relationship. So, comes in the Iteration Manager on who’s typically responsible to manage an iteration and to ensure that the team keeps marching ahead.

]]> By: Tom Robertson http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-1035 Tom Robertson Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:12:37 +0000 http://www.b2ttraining.com/2007/08/13/we-need-project-managers/#comment-1035 Point well taken, but what if our duties include both project management and business analysis? I find I have to set deadlines and scope for myself in order to get things done on time. But it definitely would be easier with someone else taking care of that stuff. Point well taken, but what if our duties include both project management and business analysis? I find I have to set deadlines and scope for myself in order to get things done on time. But it definitely would be easier with someone else taking care of that stuff.

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