97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 35. We Have Met the Enemy...and He Is Us

MA, PHR, PMP. Barbee Davis

CARTOONIST WALT KELLEY, who inked the long-running comic strip Pogo, is famous for the quote, "We have met the enemy...and he is us." Nowhere is this sentiment more accurate than when describing a software project manager who is new to the software development process. Here's how to avoid having "the enemy" be you:

• As a project manager, you expect your team members to estimate the amount of time it will take them to complete a specific task. It is detrimental to the schedule if they go too far over the budgeted time. One of your tasks on the project is to hold meetings to drive team communication. You need to demonstrate the ability to estimate and deliver the meetings as meticulously as you expect your developers to estimate and deliver their code.

  When your meetings run long, you are stealing the precious programming time developers count on to meet your project schedule deadlines.

• If your project team spoke a foreign language, you would take some lessons and get a translator. Your developers do not speak your language. Buy a book, take a class, make Google your friend, and find a developer who has the gift to explain complex things in a simple way. You cannot bluff your way through this project without learning some of the concepts, terms, and challenges your team faces.

• Regardless of the perfect methodology ...