THE LAZY PROJECT MANAGER S WEEK

THE LAZY PROJECT MANAGER'S WEEK

The Lazy Project Manager's week goes like this.

Monday

Monday, or the first day back after a public holiday weekend , is a long day for the Lazy Project Manager. On Monday she has three things to do.

Set targets

The first is to set targets for the week. Do this as early as possible on the first day of the new week. This not only gives the team as much time as possible to achieve their targets, but also gets people back to work mentally, that is, it brings their heads back from the weekend. (We're assuming that their bodies have already arrived!)

Use your plan, your instrumentation to do this. Do it on a one-on-one basis or in a team meeting or a combination of the two, whichever makes the most sense. Each has advantages and disadvantages. One-on-one means everybody spends the least amount of time with you; meetings are synergistic “ you catch things where dependencies exist between people. Use your common sense. Then let everyone get on with it.

Daily stuff

As we described in the previous chapter, Monday is no different from any other day and so you have to do the Lazy Project Manager's daily tasks .

Any other business

Many organizations have their own regular things that happen on Mondays: timesheets have to be filled out, regular meetings for various things take place, there are routine administrative things that have to be done. These make up the third element of the Lazy Project Manager's Monday.

Tuesday “Thursday

These three days are fairly quiet for the Lazy Project Manager. All she has to do is the daily stuff (see the section The Lazy Project Manager's day in Chapter 7) and then she's finished.

Friday

Friday is busier than the preceding three days but not as busy as Monday. First there is the daily stuff to be done as before.

Then, as late as possible in the day, that is as near as possible to close of business, run round to the team, find out what happened and write a status report. These results should also be recorded in the Actual Schedule and Effort columns of the project Gantt chart or on an estimating score card (see Appendix 5). Here we are recording whether or not the targets set on Monday were met. Those who haven't met their targets have the option of the two weekend days to make them up.

Notice a couple of things here. The first is the surgical use of overtime. Many software organizations make unlimited overtime a feature of the job. If, at your job interview, they say things like "we work hard, we play hard" or "we run aggressive schedules here," you can safely assume that they expect you not to have a life outside work. The Lazy Project Manager has no time for such foolishness, but equally she recognizes that overtime is occasionally needed in the real world. The use of overtime by work hard play hard, aggressive schedule companies is done with all the finesse of a chainsaw operator. The Lazy Project Manager uses overtime like a surgeon with a scalpel, making fine cuts to superb effect.

The other thing to notice is that in doing this overtime, we are actually adding some contingency back into our project. Thus, contingency is not just something you get one crack at, but a little reservoir that you can top up repeatedly. Think of it like those old arithmetic problems where a tank of water has a hole in it so that water is flowing out, but also a running tap is filling up the tank. If you can keep some water in the tank at all times, then you will never run out of contingency, and you will never have to go back to the powers that be to renegotiate a commitment.