{"id":1359,"date":"2008-10-30T23:10:47","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T06:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/2008\/10\/30\/contingency-people-planning-working-with-the-dark-side\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:33:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:33:27","slug":"contingency-people-planning-working-with-the-dark-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1359","title":{"rendered":"Contingency People Planning: Working with the Dark Side"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><strong>Halloween Bonus:<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>What Do These 3 Tales Have in Common?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"Devil with 3 tails\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/devil-with-3-tails.thumbnail.jpg\" \/>PM Horror Stories 5, 6, and 7<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>The Incompetent Estimator<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>The Messy Contributor<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>The &#8220;Gotcha!&#8221; Boss<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><!--more-->The Incompetent Estimator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jeff often missed his deadlines.\u00a0 It was a known fact.\u00a0 So as I approached his cube, I knew what his answer would be: <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"One Zombie\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/one-zombie.thumbnail.jpg\" \/>&#8220;Jeff, how long will it take for you to proofread this code?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well it all depends.\u00a0 How many lines are there?\u00a0 Who wrote it?\u00a0 When do you need to know?\u00a0 Let me look it over first.\u00a0 When do you need it done by?<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Horror: <\/strong>Unfortunately this time Jeff&#8217;s response was not so respectful.\u00a0 &#8220;I&#8217;ll get it done when I get it done!\u00a0 The previous project manager never required an estimate from me.\u00a0 Why do I need to give one to you now?&#8221;\u00a0 The truth is no one has ever obtained a definitive estimate from Jeff.\u00a0 Jeff may be able to write decent code, but he sure as heck can&#8217;t estimate task durations!\u00a0 His &#8220;estimates&#8221; put our entire project in jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Messy Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Andy&#8217;s status reports were, in my opinion, highly unprofessional.\u00a0 His last one had 11 typos in 3 pages!\u00a0 That&#8217;s just unacceptable.\u00a0 So I called him on it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"Messy Deliverable 2\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/messy-deliverable.thumbnail.png\" \/>&#8220;Andy, I expect high quality work from everyone on the team.\u00a0 Your last status report had too many typos in it.\u00a0 Could you please resubmit it to me before the end of the day today?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m kind of busy right now working on a critical task due later this week.\u00a0 Do you want me to stop what I&#8217;m doing just to clean up a few minor typing mistakes?\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think so: &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So once again, I made the corrections for him before sending it along to the team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Horror:\u00a0 <\/strong>A few weeks later Andy asked me to forward along a recommendation he had written asking management to spend $100K to fix a problem.\u00a0 Although I had previously given him a template for such requests, he simply ignored the format.\u00a0 Whole sections were left out and required elements were unaddressed.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there was not enough time to rewrite it, and I had to forward\u00a0it on to management: mistakes and all.\u00a0 Aaargh!<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Gotcha Boss<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kathy seemed clearly threatened.\u00a0 I noticed it right away when I was first assigned to her team to provide a more disciplined approach to project management.\u00a0 Just asking for input on a project charter would send her into a tirade about how much time I was wasting on something no one would ever use.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"Bad Manager\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/bad-manager.thumbnail.jpg\" \/>The Horror:\u00a0 <\/strong>Unfortunately things went from bad to worse.\u00a0 Kathy would continue to berate me whenever I talked to her about standardizing the forms and tools we used to manage our projects.<\/p>\n<p>Before long she began bad mouthing me in front of other team members.\u00a0 I heard about rumors she was spreading, and reports of what she was saying about me behind my back.\u00a0 I eventually filed a complaint of harassment and learned that she had been actively trying to get me fired!\u00a0 What a nightmare!<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what do these 3 tales have in common? &#8230; The writing was on the wall.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All three of these situations could have been anticipated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>The Incompetent Estimator was known for missing deadlines<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>The Messy Contributor had a history of shoddy work<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>The Gotcha Boss displayed warning signs on day one<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And each of these situations could have been improved by employing &#8220;Contingency People Planning: Working with the Dark Side&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As project managers we know how important it is to consider the project risks &#8211; the potential barriers related to time, scope, and budget.\u00a0 But what about the people side of the equation?\u00a0 How often do we consider and plan for the interpersonal risks of project management?\u00a0 As these tales indicate, not often enough!<\/p>\n<p>Consider your team members, sponsor, stakeholders, vendors, and customers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>What are the risks of working with each person?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>What is the probability this will happen?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>What is the potential impact?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>How could you help prevent high-probability, high-impact risks from happening?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>What will you do when it happens?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>What are the triggers and metrics to watch?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Granted, you might not want to share this analysis with everyone on your team.\u00a0 But you do want to be prepared when the inevitable Dark Side appears.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" align=\"left\" alt=\"darth-vader\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/darth-vader-costume.thumbnail.jpg\" \/>Doug Bedinger<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.consulting4results.com\/\">www.consulting4results.com<\/a><br \/>\n&#8220;Helping individuals, project teams, and whole organizations work better together.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Halloween Bonus: What Do These 3 Tales Have in Common? PM Horror Stories 5, 6, and 7 The Incompetent Estimator [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[385,227,428,137,88,322,131,229,1375],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-case-studies","tag-difficult-people-timelines","tag-dysfunctions","tag-human-factors","tag-interpersonal","tag-managing-stakeholders","tag-people","tag-project-horror-stories","tag-risk-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14121,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions\/14121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}