11/4/1999 (c) Ian Davis 1

Death March“Mission Impossible”

Projects

By

Edward Yourdon

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What are they

• Death march projects are rarely billed as such. They can be hard to identify.

• Project parameters exceed the norm by 100%.

• Risk of failure > 50%.

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Why do they happen?

• When I first started hearing these stories I was puzzled, but after careful analysis I have developed a sophisticated theory to explain the existence of bizarre workplace behaviour.

• People are idiots.

• Including me.

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What are the requirements

• Want the job done twice as fast

• Want the job done with half the people

• Want the job done at half the cost

• Want double the functionality

• Want double the performance

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Why these requirements

• Politics– Power struggle between departments– Project manager may be supposed to fail– We do, or we die

• Naïve promises– Hysterical optimism– Known lies to customer

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Why continued• Cuts in project schedules

– Assumption that planners pad schedules

• We can do it over the weekend– Minor details like input, output, testing

documentation don’t count.

• Start up mentality– If your company name doesn’t include the word

Java, you’re likely to be short of resources. – You’re going to change the world.

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Why continued

• Marine Corps Mentality– Real programmers don’t need sleep– Every project is like this– We know how to get things done– It works, we’re successful and proud of it– If you can’t handle it, you don’t belong here– [Deliberate decision to create Death March]

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Why continued

• Outside pressures– The tax laws have just changed– The turn key system doesn’t turn– System must be operational by arbitrary date

• Unexpected crises– programmers quit over management practices.– Vendor has gone bankrupt.– Your about to be sued for violating ...

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Why continued

• Procrastination– We can fix the Y2K problem later– January 1st is a Saturday, so that gives us three

days to solve any problems– When did not know that 2000 was coming– [Things come as a surprise]

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Why do people participate

• Risks high but so are the rewards• The “Mt. Everest syndrome”• The buzz of intensity, .v. boredom• Naivete and youth• Want to rise within organisation, not fired• Hero complex.. Want to save the company• Regular ego boosts• Revenge

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Why not to participate

• Most projects are doomed to fail

• Not worth sacrificing life for a company

• Wife and children are more important

• Health is priceless, beating the odds isn’t

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Rewards of participating

• Sense of being valued

• Pride in the task you are undertaking

• Belief in the team

• A real life experience, real life memories

• Potential career advancement

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Hopeless projects

• We’re going to do this without all the pieces– Your going to die but think of the glory

• Were going to do the impossible– Lets put Windows NT on a 4K ROM– That would be amazing– So what.

• Keep asking the “So what” question

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Waste of time projects

• We’re going to increase profits by 3 cents per share– I’ve 100 shares, so I’m going to give up the

next six months for $3.– Am I going to get paid overtime? No that’s the

beauty of this project. Costs will be minimal.

• Lets make it a death march project– It improves moral and get things done faster.

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The players

• The owner

• The customer

• The shareholder

• The stakeholder

• The champion

• The manager

• The grunts

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The moral forecast

Kamikaze MissionImpossible

Suicide Ugly

0%

Hap

pin

ess

100

%

0% Chance of success 100%

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The value added forecast

-100-80-60-40-20

020406080

100

-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Relative effort spending on issue

Val

ue

to c

ust

omer

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Negotiation ploys• Project managers ploys

– Double and add some

• Superiors ploys– Reverse doubling (divide all estimates by 2)– Guess the number I’m thinking of

• No, no, no… good I like your estimate

– Double dummy spit• Blind rage.. followed by blind rage

• Leaves manager cowering for their life

• I work incredibly hard to produce those eggs each morning said the chicken.

• Well there is no question that you are involved said the pig, but I am committed.

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More negotiation ploys• Spanish inquisition

– Demand schedules in a high level meeting– The manager better not be heretical

• Lowest bid / gotcha– The customer leaks lower bids– The provider hides the real anticipated costs– Leak the over-runs to the customer slowly

• Smoke and mirrors– This formula says you can do it in half the time– Consultants been paid a lot of money to agree

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More negotiation ploys• Hidden costs of maintainability/quality

– I can deliver the software tomorrow– It won’t actually work– We won’t be able to make it work

• Tomorrow I won’t be here– Heck it isn’t going to be my problem three years

from now– Lets promise everything and then leave– Maybe I’ll end up with a better reference

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Some comments

• The leader who cares will not try to sell his people a bill of goods about the level of effort required, and chance of success.

• Programmers are not stupid.

• They have a keen sense of smell.

• Programmers know where the buck stops.

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Napoleans observations• When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of

the battle-field, they all have one rank in my eyes.

• Any commander in chief who undertakes to carry out a plan he considers defective is at fault. He must put forth his reasons, and insist on the plan being changed. He must tender his resignation rather than be an instrument fo his army’s downfall.

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More advice

• A general is just as good or as bad as the troops under his command make him. [MacArthur]

• Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere. [Ronald Reagan]

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Hiring issues• Hire superstars

– High risk

• Hire a well-honed mission impossible team– Sorry but all our teams quit over last mission

• Hire mere mortals, and educate them– Have to make them aware of the challenge

• Take the dregs, and convert them– Well, it works in the movies

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Doug Scotts e-mail

• I always accept more people

• I put them to work on the coffee machine

• I hang on to the occasional good person

• I help the bozos resign

• In one case I cut 80% of staff and maintained output levels.

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Bonuses

• Far more important to the underpaid

• Can lead to friction– He’s going to loose us our bonus– People at top do nothing and get lions share

• Doubling the bonus won’t double the effort– Not if people are already working 18 hour days

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Net productivity .v. hours worked

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

40 60 80 90 100 110

Hours worked per week

Eff

ecti

ve h

ours

wor

ked

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Triage

• Identify tasks as:– must do– should do– could do

• Failure to do this at beginning of project usually leads to ugly crisis towards the end

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Team jelling• Forming

– define goals, roles, and direction

• Storming– rules established, decisions made, arguments

• Norming– procedures, standards, and criteria established

• Performing– The team begins to function as a system

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Causes of teamicide

• Defensive distrustful management

• Bureaucracy and paper work

• Fragmentation of peoples activities

• Quality reduction in the product

• Phony deadlines imposed by management

• Managements desire to break up cliques

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The bottom line

• I wake up each morning determined to change the world… and also to have one hell of a good time.

• Sometimes that makes planning the day a little difficult [E.B. White]