Are We There Yet?

Are we there yet Daddy? is a common phrase we've all heard from our own children, others, and in the general public.

There are two critical concepts here, that must be understood to successfully manage a project.

1. Where is There?
2. "Yet" has a unit of measure of time, so When did we plan to get There?

The unstated question is - where are we now?

When our children were younger, we used to hike almost everyweek in the Rockies. Our guide for these trips is a friend who has climbed many of the worlds peaks and woudl take places we never thought we could go. When asked by our childern or even an adult How much longer, he would answer 10 Minutes. Well of course, the questions was asked correctly. How much longer to Where?

The 10 minutes answer became our groups joke. It was the answer to almost any question around hiking, skiing, fishing, mountain and road biking.

For the Project Manager it is common to ask the question when will we be done? And get the answer real soon.

But real soon is not a credible answer, no matter how it is worded. We'll be ready over the weekend, we're working real hard to have that to you by the end of the month, we ran into some problems, but those will be sorted out "real soon.

How Do We Break This Cycle?

1. We need a Plan - the Plan is the strategy for completing the project. The Plan to hike to the top of Green Mountain in Boulder, is just that a strategy. It is not a schedule, but a notion of how we would get there. Strategies are hypothesizes. A Hypothesis needs a test to confirm the outcome is possible. For the hiking example, we need a "test" that confirms we can reach the summit. For a project we need a "test" to confirm the products or services we are producing will arrive on time, on budget, and will actually work when we get to There.
2. We need resources - all the obvious stuff
3. We need a sequence of work activities - this is usually called a schedule. But we do need a schedule to summit Green Mountain in the summer, because it will rain nearly every afternoon and we don't really want to get wet. That rain comes with lightening and that's a generally bad idea when hiking above tree line.
4. We need to know what the problems are going to be along the way - kids that get hungry, parents get cranky that kids are hungry, it rains for no good reason and we don't have rain gear, the trail gets muddy and some people don't have the right boots.These are usually called Risks.
5. The comes the final question that needs a REAL answer, not the 10 Minutes answer. When are we going to reach the top and start back down to the car?

The answer to that question, although the last question, is the question that has to be answered using the answers to the first 4 questions.

We can't answer the last question, without answers to the first 4. Credible answers. Trusted answers. Answers in units of measure meaningful to those asking the questions. The Stakeholders. For the hike they are the hikers. For the project, they should be obvious, because they have been formally identified and placed in the Project Charter - you do have a project charter, right?