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Lessons Learnt ManagingSoftware Projects

Ramanan Jagannathan

lalgudi@yahoo.com

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About the Lessons…

•They are not specific to Software

•They are inter related

•They are not in any particular order

•They apply to ‘Real’ Life

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Here we go…

Panic

PlansRules

Humanoids?Emotions

Possibility

System

Lessons

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Panic…

•Panic is a sudden fear which dominates or replaces thinking

•Humans are vulnerable to panic and Panic is infectious

•You can’t have a plan B for everything that happens in a project

• A clear state of mind helps us to be better prepared

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“Don’t Panic”

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Possibility…

•People ask for Heaven and Earth and some time even more

•Never say ‘No’

•Always say ‘Yes, provided we get…’

•We can’t run projects on simple promises

•Project Estimates are not targets

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“In Projects,

everything is possible – provided we have

enough Time and Money”

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Humanoids?

•You may be managing a cutting edge Technology Project

•But your team is made up of people

•And Your stake holders are human beings

•Projects are the ideas of a few people, implemented by a few more, for the benefit of a vast majority

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“Projects are about People”

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Plans …

•Plans are outcome of the Planning activity

•When properly done, Planning helps us know all the variables that need to be considered

•Plans assume a certain external environment

•The external environment keeps changing

•Rarely does the plan get executed as it was originally meant to be

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Plans are less important.

“Planning is always

moreImportant

and

indispensable”

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Understand the system

•Projects are complex activities

•Relationship between various artifacts are non linear in nature

•Predicting and controlling behavior accurately is not possible

•Decisions are subject to external and internal pressures

•Traditional project management views don’t help

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“Treat projects as

complex systems to

manage better”

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Rules

•Not all projects are the same (they may be similar)

•There is nothing sacrosanct about processes/rules that worked for one project

•Ask if an existing rule fits your project. If not, be ready to discard or modify

•Be open to new way of doing things

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“Know when to Follow,

when to Break and

when to Rewrite the Rules”

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Emotion

•The impact of any desirable or undesirable event can be divided into two

•The first obvious one is the impact caused by the actual event

•The second and less obvious one is the emotions that accompany the event

•Smart Managers also know how to handle the emotional impact of an event

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“It is Important to

manage emotions”

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Lessons

•Success or Failure of a Project depends on many factors that are not in our control

•Even if a project is executed successfully, within budget and delivers the scope, it may still not be used by the end users

•Whether a project is a success or a failure, every project has something to teach us.

•Always look for the lesson

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“Every

Projecthas something

to teach.

Learn the

Lesson and Move on”

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Questions?