What Every Leader needs to Know about Project Management

There's a concept that project managers and most leaders at software companies are familiar that would benefit ALL company leaders to understand.

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If you grasp this its going to save you massive pain and suffering on complex projects.

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Its about how to manage planning complicated projects.

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Theres two basic ways to handle a project.

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Method 1 - "Waterfall" ??

Map it all out with a detailed plan from the beginning.

Know in detail what the milestones will be, what the end result will look like, how all the pieces will work, how they will fit together, who will do what, etc.

This is a project planning method called "Waterfall".

And it is the BEST.... in certain situations ??

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Method 2 - "Agile" ????

Set a direction - a vision of what success looks like.

Rapidly create a working prototype. Its not perfect.

Look at it, get it in the hands of people who will use it, the "stakeholders".

Figure out what the most important improvements are - and make them!

Get version 2.

Continue iterating like this, until you reach your destination (sometimes? you never get there... in that case you've got yourself continuous improvement ??.

This is a project planning method called "Agile".

And its ALSO the BEST… in certain situations!

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OK great. Thats established. Lets find out what situations each is BEST in.

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There are two basic kinds of project.

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Project Type 1 - End Result and Steps are Clear

Projects where you know EXACTLY what the end result is supposed to look like.

Projects where the pieces CAN'T fit together without a plan.

Projects where if it doesn't work the first time it will be REALLY REALLY BAD. Its EXPENSIVE.

Especially those where you have already done a similar project before - and know the steps to make it.

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In this case - you may have guessed it - Method 1 "Waterfall" is best!

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Examples of these kinds of project type 1, where you should consider using method 2 ("Waterfall"):

1. Building a Watch, build a Bridge, build a Rocket.

2. Training people how to do stuff

3. Software implementations (Yup - we use this internally to onboard our customers.)

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Project Type 2 - End Results and Steps are Fuzzy

Projects where you have a concept of what you want to do and who it will benefit and how... but the details are fuzzy.

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Examples of projects type 2, where you should consider using method 2

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1. Software development, very often. (Why do software engineering projects use this when engineering projects like building a Bridge use waterfall? 2 reasons - COST (mistake when building bridge is very big and you cannot affort to make 12 of them before finding one that works) and prior knowlege (humans have build lots of bridges, where often software is trying to do something brand new)

2. Product development. Similar to software. Make it, try it, repeat and improve.

3. Marketing campaigns. Get somethign going. Make tweaks. Do A/B testing.

4. Your Company Itself. What will change and improve in how your company operates? We manage the company itself using an agile method.

5. You as a Person. Today you are version N. What will be changed/improved in version N+1?

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Layering

OK now I'm going a bit deep but I can't resist.

You can often layer Waterfall projects into Agile projects.

Take for example, Building a rocket to go to Mars.

Each time they build a rocket, its a very expensive Waterfal project. That singular rocket was constructed using a Waterfall methodology.

But at the same time they are iterating through Waterfall projects in an Agile method to get to a rocket that will actually work...

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Its the same here at Mar-Kov with our customer engagements. Each customer engagement is a Waterfall project. But each time we take learnings and new knowledge that allows us to improve for the next one!

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And the beauty is its open ended :)

Agile projects never need to be "completed"... they can keep iterating forever.

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Conclusion

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What happens if you match the wrong kind of project handling methodology with project type? IMMENSE PAIN AND SUFFERING. ????????

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When you match it right? Things flow like water.

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Have the conversation so the team is aligned on the approach. Most people intuitively have a concept of this, and mismatch between people on which method is being used creates lots of conflict.

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Whole books have been written about the two methods, and there’s lots of value in getting in the details... for all you Project Managers out there don’t jump on my for trying to condense an entire universe into one post… but I believe that a basic understanding of what kind of project are you looking at, and matching it with the right kind of approach for that project will pay big dividends for most leaders!

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