The following list enumerates 10 key attributes and responsibilities of the project manager.
1. The vision of the system belongs to the manager; he must also be the architect. The manager must understand that his vision is a subjective impression and that it must be given substance through a dialectical process with the design team.
4During the Battle of Actium, 31BC, while he was winning the battle against Caesar Augustus, Mark Antony took his flagship out of the line and sailed after Cleopatra’s ship, which had left the battle. His departure from the battle caused the battle to be lost. For this reason, Mark Antony lost the Roman Empire.
He should have kept his mind on the project at hand, instead of running after Cleopatra. He wasn’t even getting ‘‘bonus miles’’ for that trip.
2. The manager must have the experience in the critical areas of the project to a sufficient degree so as to make well-informed command decisions quickly. Critical areas include the technical and administrative functions, knowledge of organizations, methodologies, processes, proce- dures, and effective communication.
3. The manager must have sufficient dynamic energy to maintain control over the development processat all times, and at all levels, if he would like to complete the job as planned. This is not too much to ask for,5because that is what is expected of a manager.
4. The manager must provide an environment where even the most junior person can speak his mind freely, without fear of retribution. The younger engineers and scientists are closer to the technical realities of the job and can contribute immensely to the better understanding of problems needing solutions. However, they are often intimidated by the fear of looking foolish, or are muzzled by their supervisors, either out of selfish interests or to cover up their own shortcomings. A good manager would rather hear a stupid question or solution than to hear nothing at all; worse yet is for others to tell him what they think he wants to hear.
5. The manager must lead the design team, personally and daily,until the requirements and design are completed and implementation starts. At the start of implementation he need not be present at all times, but must be available to make a decision as soon as a decision is required.
6. The manager and key staff members need to understand that there will always be people who are not paying attention, even during critical design discussions.Their minds drift in and out of lock, and much of the transmitted information is lost. One must probe constantly to ensure that the message gets through and to verify that others around the design table are also listening and understanding everything that is being said.
7. To ensure clarity and retention, a technical writer who is also an engineer and who understands the software design standards used
5Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French at the Battle of Austerlitz, knew where every unit and cannon of his army was, at all times. On the eve of battle, around 4 a.m., he rose to make a personal reconnaissance of the battlefield with his staff. Still in the darkness of early dawn, he stopped abruptly in an area and asked the Corps Commander the whereabouts of the battery of artillery that was to have been at that location. The Corps Commander was embarrassed, his Chief of Staff Berthier was embarrassed; no one even knew that a battery of artillery was to have been emplaced there. Napoleon, riding ahead, led the way in the dark, searching for it. They found the battery mired down in a muddy creek several kilometers away from its intended emplacement. Napoleon the Emperor dismounted and with his staff helped to push the artillery out of the mud. He then personally took the time to emplace them at the intended position. At Austerlitz, he defeated in quick succession the Russian Army, the Austrian Army, and the Prussian Army in a brilliant set piece battle, planned down to the detail of an artillery battery. This is management at its best. It reflects careful planning, design, execution, and detailed knowledge on the part of the manager, and it gives evidence of ‘‘dynamic energy’’ by the fact that one man could control the plan, the design, and the implementation.
PROJECT MANAGER: 10 KEY ATTRIBUTES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 41
should be putting all issues, action items, and design changes into a computer as they occur and are approved.A projector with a large screen displaying schematic and alphanumeric representations of the design or action item for everyone to see is a must. In this way, the manager and the design team understand the issue and are not excused from claiming that they never saw it, forgot it, didn’t know it, or didn’t understand it.
8. No one is excused from a design team meeting, unless excused person- ally by the manager.I have often been told, ‘‘I’m leaving; I have work to do, and this is wasting my time.’’ There is a grave misunderstanding here!
The manager is responsible and accountable for the achievement of the project objectives; the budget and schedule belong to the manager. The working engineer or subsystem manager works for the project manager. The manager needs all inputs and opinions, pro and con, from as many people as possible to add more substance to the design object or to the resolution of a problem. All personnel are at the convenience of the project manager;
everyone will stay in the meeting, or leave the project.
9. When starting a project, do so by always keeping a detailed record of activities. Based on an initial understanding of the project, perform an a priori cost estimation, and write it down. Compare that later to the a posteriori cost estimation of the project. Estimate the costs in detail, and include productivity forecast estimates, like lines of code per day for all languages you are going to use, the software bugs for each language and how long it took to fix them, and document the fixes in the FRD, SRD, and SDD. Over a period of time, you—the manager and the team—will develop a great work-estimating ability.
10. Prepare a detailed post-project ‘‘after-action’’report.6This is impera- tive, because for good or for bad this is the teaching tool for the entire project team. Take as baseline the elements in the original Project Imple- mentation Plan:
The cost estimate Organization Schedule
Anticipated workflow Burn rate of project funds
Original time allocated to programming Time allocated to unit testing
Time allocated to going to meetings
6The Comparison of a Non-Standard Software Development Approach to DOD-STD-2167A, for the Global Decision Support System (GDSS) 30 March 1989, prepared at JPL for the USAF Military Airlift Command. JPL D-3216 by the GDSS Technical Writing Team.
Time allocated to prepare and present reviews Time allocated for business travel
After the comparison of how the project started and how it was completed, it will be clear where mistakes were made and where good decisions were made. It is based on such unvarnished information, often unpleasant to accept, that the future project managers get real training. In the military, this is the ‘‘hot wash-up’’ after an opera- tion. In sports, this is the ‘‘chalk talk’’ after a football game with the coach and the team, where the mistakes made are discussed and avoided in future games. It must be understood that the ‘‘after-action’’ report is the best teaching and mentoring tool for scientists and young and senior engineers alike. Schedule a one-week ‘‘project hot wash-up’’ in your schedule. It is time well spent for the company. This is how I train my staff, and how I trained my Rifle Company in Vietnam. This training, after every combat action, reduced my casualties to almost zero, while helping to achieve the tactical objectives.