APPLICATION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Here are a couple more examples just to hammer home the point about the need for a single leader. In the software engineering project we've been looking at in Chapters 1 and 2, what is the story with its leader?

Well, the setup is that we have a small team of seven people, most full-time but a couple part-time , and one of the full-time people is the leader. Nice. Couldn't be simpler. Now let's look at a more complex example.

Figure 3.1 shows a proposed organization chart for a large project involving a consortium of three companies “ the prime contractor, P, and two subcontractors , S1 and S2.

Figure 3.1.

There are three logical units in the project:

• development

• installation

• support

Within each of these units, each of the contractors will have certain roles to play. For example, in the installation unit, let's say for example that Contractor P might be responsible for physical installation of the system, S1 might be responsible for data take-on and S2 responsible for education.

Each logical unit will have a project leader. In addition, each contractor will have a project manager responsible for its components across all three units. What, if anything, is wrong with this arrangement? The test is simple. Each project must have a leader, so let's see how it shapes up.

The project as a whole has a leader “ the box marked program manager. Each unit also has a leader, the project leaders. Oh, so what are the project managers doing? Nothing “ because the project leaders are doing it? Duplicating what the project leaders are doing? I don't know myself . Clearly, there are two ways to settle this. Either (1) have three people, one responsible for each of the logical units, or (2) have three people, one responsible for each contractor's contribution. All the way down the tree, a single person must be identified whose ass is on the line for each particular part of the project. This is what Step 3 is all about.

Thus, in our example, at the next level down, there would be a person responsible for each of the components such as installation, data take-on, education, etc. Be careful of organization charts . They can give the illusion that there is a single leader at each level in the hierarchy. However, look behind them, look at the one for your own organization. For example, see if the one leader principle applies “ if there really is a person whose ass is on the line for each part of the project that makes up your organization.