What Makes a Good PM? A Developer's Perspective

Joe CombsPrincipal Consultant, Systems Evolution Inc.

The Challenge

Average schedule overrun on IT projects of almost 70%

Average cost overrun of 27% and higher in many cases

Harvard Business Review

Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think

September 2011

The Challenge

Top 5 reasons Projects Fail:

Requirements

Resources

Schedules

Planning

Risks

PM Solutions

Strategies for Project Recovery

2011

The Challenge

$135M of every $1B spent on projects is at risk

56% of that ($75M of the $135M) is due to ineffective communication

PMI's Pulse of the Profession

The High Cost of Low Performance: The Essential Role of Communications

May 2013

Understand The Problem Space

Deep understanding of the domain you're working in is a mustLingo, concepts, TLA's

Also need to understand the team's role in that spaceDevelopment, DevOps, Infrastructure, etc.

Know the Business

Become A Risk Management Expert

Recognize that EVERYTHING is a trade-off

Elicit the pro's and con's from the team

FACILITATE the decision making process

Understand The Subtleties Of Your Process

Are you Agile? Waterfall? Lean? Something else?

What are the boundaries with other organizations?

Meet Often - If It Adds Value

Communication is the key!

Truth be told, EVERYTHING we're all doing should be adding value

Understand Your Team

Know their capabilities

Know their personalities

Identify the gaps and work with management to fill them

Dodge The Silver Bullets

If it were easy they wouldn't need US to do it

If anyone tells you their solution creates a Nirvana for your team, RUN

Understand the trade-offs

Wrapping Up

Understand The Problem Space

Become A Risk Management Expert

Understand The Subtleties Of Your Process

Meet Often – If It Adds Value

Understand Your Team

Dodge The Silver Bullets

THANK YOU!!

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/jcombs

Twitter - @jgcombs

Blog – jgcombs.wordpress.com

SlideShare - http://www.slideshare.net/JoeCombs1/sei-pmi-talk