> “I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years! I’m sure I’m doing it right!”
Not just for project managers but I have noticed in others and myself when I take this attitude I, and they, are usually wrong. It is best to listen, reflect, consider and reflect some more. Arrogance gets in the way of good and great teams all the time.
Ego also gets in the way. I'm working with several people right now that just leave their ego at the door and bring their smarts into the room. We are ending up with better solutions faster than we would otherwise.
Absolutely, those sins are not just for project managers but for everybody in general. Arrogance is never the solution, we should always listen and think how to improve, as there is always a way to improve.
Like the Agile Manifesto it's all about balance (IME).
One of the (many) ways I failed as a manager was to not trust my gut. To want to enable my team, even when what I thought they were pitching was questionable. I'd hoped that some technology, or this particular team would prove my own previous experience wrong. That through the power of team work and ambition it would turn out differently this time, but most of all, I couldn't figure out how to present a convincing argument to the team why I was skeptical and I didn't want to leave it at "because I said so".
On reflection, a cure might've been to ask for further analysis, both rewards and risks, balanced against costs. But that often comes with it's own cost and what I really wanted to say was: "We're not doing this because the solution in hand is good enough and better at any non-trivial price doesn't serve our business interests."
Of course being a developer myself that's a difficult message to internalize.
I guess it comes down to: I'm still not sure how to handle this situation, but experience definitely needs to be weighed heavily IMO and if your processes (and management experience) are lacking in maturity a lack of leadership in preventing a less experienced team (though very technically skilled, enthusiastic and hard working!!!) from making bad decisions can be devastating as well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, through my own mistakes managing teams, I think a lack of confidence and projected authority can be just as bad as any of the sins listed here, and is an important balance to consider on the flip-side of Arrogance.
That said, the rest of the list here is spot-on. The only nit I'd pick is Sloth. A description closer to my own experience might be one where the requirements are known, but not communicated thoroughly and clearly.
When a developer can say: "Show me where I was told this" and you can't respond with a URL to an Issue, instead relying on a months old email, Slack message that wasn't acknowledged, or no proof at all, then you have a big problem. Knowledge that isn't communicated, or analysis that's only half done, can mortally wound any project where the developers don't have the authority to decide the success parameters (time, budget or scope).
Yes, I see your point, of course one the keys for a project is to keep a decision log up to date, so the PM (or anyone within the team) can update it reflecting any technical decision, I'd update this after a team discussion regarding any issue.
I think the real point here is that setting expectations properly with both your company/sponsor and development team early, behave consistently, and reinforce if needed with gentle reminders.
I have seen many project managers start to crumble under pressure (as we all do) and decide to say yes to stop management or the client being upset; unfortunately this is a self defeating stance not only for the additional time/cost involved that has the schedules slip, but often because decisions made under emotional duress are simply not good. To make the deadline the features/benefits are generally compromised instead of useful and nobody ends up happy.
This is a great list, however I'm a little puzzled at:
> Also, another sign of being in the presence of one of the lazy PMs is to constantly receive mails from them, and rarely a call or a face-to-face conversation, because the lazy PMs don’t want to move too much and go to the team to discuss about the project status or discuss about how they can help the team.
I thought the standard complaint from engineering is always "Don't interrupt me in Code Mode for a face to face conversation or phone call! It'll take me 30 minutes just to get back into The Zone!"
The way I like to operate is: If I need an answer on something within time period N, I'll send an E-mail first. Then I'll wait Nx0.5 and then drop by your office. If you're not there or look busy [1], I'll wait another Nx0.25 and then try again. I'll only resort to interruption or a phone call if it's super-urgent or we get too close to N for comfort.
1: Busy = headphones on, developer IDE is open. Busy != Facebooking or talking about yesterday's Game Of Thrones episode
EDIT: Apparently the asterisk mark causes italics on HN
of course we don't want to interrupt all the time the developers, but we should try to encourage conversation within the team, usually mails can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. If it is possible, we should try to talk more :)
BTW, your post didn't get the attention I'd hoped, but THANK YOU for "fighting the good fight".
IMO this stuff is more important than any technical choice you could possibly make. And I happen to think some technical choices are pretty vitally important. But even so...
thank you very much for your comment, I really appreciate it. Yes, most of the time the not-technical post got submerged. But I'm quite happy with the feedback I got with my first blog post.
Not just for project managers but I have noticed in others and myself when I take this attitude I, and they, are usually wrong. It is best to listen, reflect, consider and reflect some more. Arrogance gets in the way of good and great teams all the time.
Ego also gets in the way. I'm working with several people right now that just leave their ego at the door and bring their smarts into the room. We are ending up with better solutions faster than we would otherwise.
edit: note about ego