15.9 Conclusion

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So there you have it. Honesty compels me to report that some of what you just read has been highly sanitized. In fact, a significant amount of rancor existed in some of the relationships described. Considerable time and energy was consumed by skirmishes among key players before uncomfortable truces could be orchestrated. I lost confidence in the feasibility of certain deliverables remaining compatible with the overall project calendar. Some engineers were vested in their development for reasons other than project goals. That led to their pressing us to keep their agenda on our docket far longer than made sense from a business standpoint.

As noted earlier in the chapter, however, this is all quite immaterial from a lessons learned perspective. That is why the eventual exclusion of these deliverables was couched in terms of degree of difficulty that although true, hardly described the pickle we sometimes found ourselves in. There will always be folks advancing their agenda, even if it eventually fails the relevancy test as far as your project is concerned. What is important in regard to this chapter's topic, however, is this. The bottom line to these experiences, and most others I have been associated with, is that most project problems arise when we fail to play the shepherd's role well enough. By that, I mean you must count the sheep hourly, be sure your Border Collie keeps the herd intact and scares off predators, and do not doze off for too long.

Quite frankly, regarding one of the deliverables cited in the foregoing sample, if I were the sole decision maker, it would have been taken out of scope long before entropy caused its demise. Keeping it on life support longer than I felt necessary was a political decision that, like many, was someone else's CYA-type thing than a sound business, technical, or project decision. My desire to cancel it was CYA, too, although in retrospect it is clear I was playing to the wrong audience.

The longer I do this job, the more flexible and less opinionated I try to appear in the political arena. That is a terrific lesson learned no matter how tough such admissions might be. Not all decisions made further up the management chain make much sense, except in the context of an executive's agenda. This is one mud puddle you do not want to land in with both feet, or head first, for that matter. As a result, at certain times, you feel like your project is getting distracted, if not damaged, by these kinds of issues. The problem is, the individual who does not share your viewpoint may sign your timesheets or purchase requisitions, so you may have to go with the flow to continue adding value where you can.

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