My Current Dilemma

I was assigned a new project a few months ago and was told it was a high-priority project.  Several delays have occurred due to alignment issues with stakeholders.

• What products and brands should be part of the scope?

• Which suppliers and manufacturing plants should participate?

• Should we move forward if the project is not profitable?

The analysis paralysis mentioned above has been compounded by the planning fallacy.  Some team members believe it should not take long to execute this project because we are not creating a new technology.  It’s just an “incremental change”.  This is where a project manager’s value shines brightest.

To help the team get out of the planning fallacy’s trap, I broke down each product into its individual components (bill of materials) to list the types of materials, suppliers and manufacturing plants affected.  I also described all the engineering tests needed before manufacturing can start.  This engineering analysis along with the Risk Register and project Schedule were used to explain the gap between the estimated launch date and the underestimated launch date requested by the Marketing team.  Most team members will not dig into the details of a project schedule so sometimes you have to explain the schedule a different way.

The initial Gate review has forced the team to assess this project’s priority against the entire portfolio.  We are going back to the drawing board and I predict we will move forward as a lower priority since several projects are more important at this time.

This is why I enjoy project management.  There is no typical day.  There is no typical path even though a project looks similar to others on the surface.  I like to remind people it is my job to be both pessimistic and optimistic.  I believe it is my duty to move as quickly as possible even if I estimate there is a low probability to hit a launch date.