Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletters
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
IT Management
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
More E-Mail Newsletters 
 

Project Management: Making Lemonade From a Team of 16 Lemons

July 30, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - You have been tasked with developing a mission-critical system. Sixteen people have been assigned to your project team; these are their biographies (these characters were adopted from Data Warehouse Project Management, by Sid Adelman and Larissa Terpeluk Moss; Addison-Wesley, 2000):
1. Retired-on-the-Job Rudy: Rudy may be close to retirement or just a nonperformer. Whatever skills he once had (autocoder and board wiring) are either rusty or of little use on your project.
2. Bad Luck Bob: Bob has never worked on a project that has been successful. Disaster seems to follow him wherever he goes. His bad luck will undoubtedly rub off on the project.
3. Obstructionist Orville: Orville finds fault with every approach suggested and will argue every minor point that can be debated. By the time he grudgingly acquiesces, the project is way behind schedule or has been canceled.
4. Learning Lena: Lena believes she can take on her assignments only if she attends classes (all scheduled in resort locations) for the next six months.
5. Researcher Russ: Russ believes the team shouldn't move forward until it has thoroughly evaluated every tool on the market, brought each one in for extensive evaluation and testing, and visited all the reference sites.
6. Incompetent Ernie: Ernie couldn't find his mouse at high noon with both hands.
7. Oldie Goldie: Goldie has been with the company since it was founded. She knows everything and everyone. Although she works a minimal amount of time, she manages to stay employed by playing politics very well and managing to look busy. No matter what she's assigned, she works only on tasks she enjoys doing. She has seen many project managers come and go and is willing to take her chances that she will outlast you.
8. Gunslinger Gus: Gus doesn't believe in following standards, rules or anything else. Version control is an annoyance and cramps his style. He's pretty confident of the quality of his code, so his motto is "Testing is always an option."
9. Water Cooler Walt: Walt loves to discuss everything with the team, whether it's relevant to the work or not. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it only at the water cooler; he drops into the other team members' cubicles and wastes their time, and they don't know how to get rid of him, politely or otherwise.
10. Big Idea Bernie: Bernie has read everything -- and he believes everything he reads. He knows every Web site, and he attends every conference. Unfortunately, he's too busy to actually do anything productive.



Additional Resources

Xerox
By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!
Microsoft
Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.
Sybase
In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

Business Process Management: Leveraging Competencies and Streamlining Processes to Achieve Operational Excellence
(Source: IBM) BPM is a business management practice that encompasses process automation, process modeling and simulation, process modularization and service orientation, process monitoring,...  

BPM ROI calculator
(Souce: IBM) Content-rich processes, from opening a new account to customer billing, are central to day-to-day operations. These processes, however, tend to be...

Your Solution for Delivering and Optimizing Applications Across the Enterprise
Learn why a large US food processor chose Citrix NetScaler to securely deliver a new Oracle ERP solution to external partners and remote...  

BPM Survey Results: The Real-World Analysis
(Source: IBM) Business Process Management (BPM)enables faster, more confident decision making, which results in more transactions conducted, which ultimately leads to more satisfied...

Application Delivery Solutions
Learn why a $6.5 billion international producer and marketer of alcoholic beverages chose Citrix NetScaler to increase Web app performance and ensure high...  

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

8 Must-Have Features to Handle All of Your Network Demands
The functionality you need in your next load balancer. Learn how you can replace your aging load balancer with a true web application...  

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

Sustaining SOX Compliance: Best Practices to Mitigate Risk, Automate Compliance, and Reduce Costs
Since the adoption of SOX, much has been learned about IT compliance. Discover how to make SOX efforts more effective in "Sustaining Sox...  

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

 

Putting the Right Model in Place to Better Balance IT Supply and Business Demand
IT leaders manage business demands and IT resources in many ways, but which methods are most effective? Tom Welsh, senior consultant of Cutter Consortium, compares two approaches and outlines their pros and cons in this Compuware-commissioned white paper. Get objective appraisals and real-world examples for both.

Download this white paper 
CIO best practices: Optimizing your Project Portfolio Management solution for greater business value
A Project Portfolio Management discipline goes beyond ordinary project management to link IT with the business and help IT leaders better understand the benefits, cost, risks and value of all projects. Download this Compuware white paper and learn how to boost the business value of your IT organization.

Download this white paper 
Exclusive eBook: Six Project Metrics Every CIO Should Know for Application Delivery Success
Most IT organizations spend their time measuring whether projects are on time or on budget. Read this IT executive guide to learn what key data tells you the degree of quality, client satisfaction and how well requirements were met. Make these metrics part of your overall application delivery management process - and your software can't fail.

Download this eBook 
IT Planning and Control: Unveiling the Interrelationships between ALM and PPM
Listen in as Gartner Analyst Matt Light discusses two hot topics-- Project Portfolio Management and Application Life-cycle Management--and how you can bring these disciplines together to improve application quality and delivery. Get recommendations on merging the two methods and learn what type of results you can expect.

Download this podcast