News
Hush Hush Projects
21-03-17
I have written in my previous article about low priority projects. What does low priority mean? Is it less important or, is it less supported or the one that not brings too much value to the company?
There are many reasons why a project would fall into the category of less supported one. I have said that it is a wobbly platform where projects stand. Sometimes a project starts with a relatively high priority but on the course of the project it can lose some levels. The Scrum management, design reviews, milestones, separating the payment with phases,… etc techniques try to prevent a sharp fall. However, there are some that they are at the bottom of the projects hierarchy.
> If a project is approaching to or in the closing phase it often loses its importance. When the design finished, the prototype is working, only a few tests left to conduct, the project team becomes smaller. That may create a false perspective, and the project starts to struggle to find necessary resources to finish properly. This would be also encouraged by receiving all or the most of the payment from the customer. A tendency to grasp a short term gain can lead improper application of the closing phase.
> If a project is one of the smaller projects of an umbrella project, the focus may shift to the other parts of the umbrella. It may be caused by the variety of the complexity of the projects. The approach is generally giving more attention to the more complex or bigger projects rather than smaller ones. All resources would be piled up to the bigger part and this small part cannot have any. The management demonstrated its best intention to cover that small part by creating this project. It is a kind of pretending that “we are covering this part”, but actually it is at the bottom of the projects hierarchy. A good example for that could be creating a committee to research the effects of the new health system change on the rural hospitals and mapping a solution for the problems. There is no control over the process of this committee’s work because it is far below the other important subjects. However you did create a research committee for that, therefore in the appearance, you cared about it.
> A project can be initiated because a part of the job was not covered by the contract. This type of projects cannot be involved by a bigger project which has already started. This small part is out of the scope and needs to be covered by another project. An example would be an electrical switch box is mentioned once in the main contract but there is not any other explanation about it. Who is responsible for the box, what the purpose is, which systems it is going to control,…etc were not explained. You need to create another mini project to design and manufacture it. None of the parties would like to pick the responsibility up because it has no budget reservation, no resources were planned for that and no time for it. Therefore, it is a kind of forced to get low priority, although you have to sort it out. Either you need very passionate project manager whom can create miracles with unassigned resources or you need to pay the money from your pocket and subcontract it to another company. The customer is not going to pay for it.
> A project that covers solving a mistake or an error of the prior project can fall into the low priority. It is a type of hush hush project too. Because it clearly points out what is the mistake which happened whether because of the design or systematic misconduct. Management would not like to emphasise it. It wants the project to be finished quickly, with minimum cost and in silence. Therefore you may not get necessary amount of resources and time. I find this type of projects are one of the most troublesome projects. The original project team is already distributed to other departments or projects, the work and record of the faulty design is not clear or satisfying to do the necessary modification. Sometimes you need to re-discover or re-engineer the work. You face angry customers and impatient management together with resources which are not directly assigned to this project. You have to use as minimum as possible people’s time and effort. Furthermore, when you finish it successfully, you cannot refer back to this project as one of the projects you have achieved; because possibly no one will you back up in your company; it was a hush hush project. These are generally the hard return of a prior project which was not closed properly. It can be count as a sustaining activity in some cases.
> A project which is relatively small and independent from other projects. In this case the only fault of the project is being small and independent nothing more. It is just a tiny project among others. The assumption is it will finish with in a very short time and the promise to the customer was given this way as well. However, it is not an important project and you get scarce support in every way. The project ends up finalised in far later than it was planned. Sometimes you may find yourself you have no team members in your project. Since you are the contact point with the customer, you absorb all the frustration caused by rather empty-promises given to him.
> A project that is out of the accustomed projects in an organisation. It is inside the company strategy but new to the company. People prefer giving more attention to what they already know than to an alien area. It can be upper management decision to add this area among the targets of the organisation. An example for that would be an avionics equipment design company encounters with a project related to harness wiring routing. Because of the lack of experience and understanding the necessities of the wring routing, the management could give less importance to this new type of project. Or a mechanical team may start to do electrical wiring projects. The team can undertake a wiring project thinking it is an easy to do project and can underestimate the important aspects of the wiring rules and regulations. The wiring routing project falls into the low priority project until some problems start to pop up.
> Process improvement projects, we do like to improve our company but not now. Interior management development projects are generally found not urgent, unless the company fails the annual performance targets. For a couple of months after the annual performance reports, they can get the highest attention from upper management. Unfortunately, the interest on self development projects gets weaker and weaker value by time. Key performance indicators and performance management tools may help to keep the iron hot. In most companies, these type of projects all together own by the General Manager, however since he is very busy with other subjects, they lose their management head and become headless. Nobody owns or officially appointed to these projects or only enthusiastic middle level managers try to manage these projects in their spare times. Therefore improvement projects fail due to lack of proper attention and resources. Better structured companies create separate departments to improve organisational management systems, or hire a management consultancy companies.
> Totally innovative, new product or invention projects that are in the strategy bucket list of the company can get a very low priority as well. Of course if the company’s production based on innovative ideas it is different; it becomes in the category of usual projects to do. But if a company’s production is focused on traditional goods or services, then innovative projects falls behind the normal ones. Nowadays, being innovative and open to invention of better techniques are commercialised promises that almost every company gives. Therefore companies from time to time feel the urge of adding some innovative projects to their annual list of projects. However in the application, always normal projects get the highest priority. The reason for that must be the risk that an innovative ones can have, and also being outside of the safe circle is not easy and free. It needs research, development, invention, discovery and these activities will take energy and resources.
> Actually very important but secret projects are very hush hush projects. You may think why they can be in a low priory project as they can be quite important. However, if you think about Enigma Project which is related to solving the German’s communication code, the risk of the project failure was very high. It has stated with lots of doubts and continued like that until the end. The danger of the losing the huge investment in the project was so big. They did not know if it was going to be successful and had little hope for it. In this type of projects you can get the money and resources for the project but it requires good amount of discussions and negotiation with the project sponsor. No-one else supports the project as they think it is waste of time and money. You are absolutely alone with you mini team with high pressure on your shoulder. You have to finish the project with the minimum number of people as this is a top secret project. The high level of risk of being unsuccessful pushes the project to unsupported projects category. You need a hero team, which are experts in their area, and keep them isolated. The project was out of site, covered well, the management does not want to see the team around. The most important part is you can never claim the existence of the project therefore its success, although you reached project objectives on time: No, you have never been the project manager nor was the project real.
> Another low priory project type can be long distance projects, as this sayingrephrases it well ”Out of site, out of mind.” For example, a construction company has a site where is very far away from the head office and has communication problems due to technical difficulties. The sponsor supplies the money for the project and you can create your project team, but the rest is yours. All the responsibility related to local problems, regulations, harsh environmental conditions, supply of goods, accommodation problems, health and safety belongs to the project manager. While the upper management is busy with the issues closer in location wise, you are not in their mind in daily basis. You cannot get immediate supply of resources, it can take months to arrive to the site.
These thypes of projects that I mentioned above are not hadled the same for all organisations. Some organisations can take them very top level priorty some not. I guess it depends on the company's maturity level and strategy. What are your low level priory projects? If you can leave a comment, it would be very much appreciated.
Derya Milner
Leading Innovation and Change
