Re: PM Woe

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

Given the situation you described previously (an out-of-control 
process butting heads with a PMO trying to assume total personal 
control), I think the approach you followed previously still sounds
like the most operable one.  Send the PMs and PMO 50 emails 
a day with requests to talk to 30 different SMEs, start a new 
document, submit a document for review, release, etc.  Be sure 
each one says "per our current process, further work on this 
project cannot continue without the requested approval."  Don't 
view the time spent on these emails as "lost project time."   If  
your group charges hours to projects, create a time tracking 
category for "obtain PM/PMO approval" and charge for time 
spent doing it.  If you schedule your projects on GANTT or 
similar charts and it takes a day to get those approvals, pepper 
every chart with dozens of one-day "PM/PMO approval" tasks 
during which project progress stands still. Give the PMO 
everything he wants and follow his process to the letter.  Bury 
him under the weight of his own requirements.  Or, if by some
inexplicable turn of events the PMO's approach actually does
bring order to the existing chaos, make your group the one he
holds up to the rest of the company as a shining example.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Barrow" <vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net>
> The problem that I'm having - as I sit here and finalize the document
> creation process for the fourth time - is that the project manager continues
> to take the version we all signed-off on and makes changes to it that
> transform it into an SLA.
> 
> This latest version makes it sound like the sun rises because he gave it
> permission.  I digress...
> 
> Take, for instance, his requirement that the tech writers email him every
> time we start on a doc.  Not impossible to do but, during an especially busy
> day, leaves us a little vulnerable to breaking the 'contract.'  I need to
> figure out a way to make sure that he gets the information for his project
> plan without giving the tech writers too many rules and regulations to
> follow.

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