
The Most Important Word in Project Management - edragonu
http://bogdans.blogging101.ro/the-most-important-word-in-project-management/
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wanderr
I agree with this post wholeheartedly.

At my company I've seen many projects fail, and a few succeed. Our most
successful projects have also been the narrowest in scope. Once the project is
successful, it's much easier to add on things one by one because you already
have something successful. On the other hand, our most epic failure of all
time was a project that was supposed to only take a couple of months but went
on for many, many months. In my opinion, the project's biggest problem was a
lack of naysayers. Said project was going to have every feature ever. It was
going to be Facebook, but prettier and with more features. That project was
evetually killed of course, but the man hours and resources wasted on it were
quite astronomical for something that, in hindsight, should have been pretty
obvious that it would fail.

I will add that one skill I've learned is the art of saying 'later' instead of
'no'. If an idea is good but too time intensive or too low priority relative
to everything else, 'later' acknowledges that and reserves the right to
revisit later but still ultimately is a no, albeit less injurious to the ego
of the person asking.

~~~
beliverable
Thanks for your comment and for reading my post. I totally relate with your
story regarding that online project aiming at too many things things... having
a too scattered scope is as deadly as a vague scope.

And, as you say, "later" is a help in letting everyone prioritize what's
important and urgent: the vital elements for the project's success.

Thanks again for the insights!

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edw519
_So here it is, the most plain, powerful, single word you have to know, and
use when managing a project: NO_

If you aspire to mediocracy in an enterprise, then this _may_ help you
survive. Otherwise, it's horrible advice.

If you have serious competitors, then you have to find YES.

If you are attempting to do something extraordinary or for the first time
ever, then you have to find YES.

If you are building a startup, then you most certainly have to find YES.

I am _not_ saying that all things are possible. I am saying that you need to
find YES. Once you get into the habit of saying NO, you forget how to find
YES.

A simple (and timeless) example. Your customer wants Deliverable X in Time Y
using Resource Z. You know it's too much and will disappoint. So instead of
saying NO as OP recommends, you find a way to do what can be done. It may have
a few less features, may need an extra resource, or may take a little more
time.

Or better yet, you analyze the constraints long enough to find methods or
tools you hadn't considered to say YES to all of it. (We never would have
found Framework ABC if the customer hadn't forced us.)

I have often been to only person finding YES when I was surrounded by others
preprogrammed to saying NO. That's how they survived. Usually in an enterprise
or institution. That same thinking is a disaster in an achievement oriented
environment.

Finding YES forces you to stretch beyond your previously perceived limits.
Settling for NO dooms you to mediocracy forever.

Some may call this a semantic argument. I call it state of mind. How badly do
you want it? Find YES.

~~~
beliverable
Thanks for reading my post and for sharing your perspective on this. I totally
agree with you on this one. Finding YES is definitely the best mindset to
have, as a project manager - I guess this is what I mentioned as well: being a
solution seeker.

However, in order to protect "the Definite YES" (in getting things done, in
securing resources, in clarifying the scope of the project before starting the
work) from its less helping cousin ("the May Be YES"), I prefer to use "NO" to
set up clear boundaries, especially when expectations of different
stakeholders start to go wild.

Thanks again for sharing your views - great comments, much appreciated. Next
week I will have a post dedicated to those areas of project management to
which I pay careful attention when saying NO, in order to protect and
encourage Finding YES.

