Re: MS Project Server

"DJSox" wrote
Wow! Project is a tool, not a substitute for proper program planning.
And after the planning is done, you still must have a way to actually
track
the progress, so one way or another you will end up using a project like
tool at some point.

There has to be some tracking/traceability/accountability, but whether the
tool for that should look like Project, I have my doubts. Don't know Borland
Tempo--can't comment on that one.

Big issue here is where exactly the breakdown is between the real nature of
software development management and, say, construction project
management--something that I'd expect Project to handle well.

There are two historic religious wars on this terrain: the software
engineering folks vs. the agile folks (heavy process vs light process), and
the software engineering folks vs. the software-as-art/craft folks. But of
course the really interesting points here are not the top-level posturing
but the details: If software development isn't a fit to classical
engineering approaches (and it currently isn't), then exactly why not, and
what, if anything, can we do either to fix that, or to redesign the
management approach and tools to be more appropriate?

Management likes project because with just one or two charts
you can capture the status a project.

Or hideously misrepresent it, depending on the skill, talent, insight,
incentives, and integrity of the person behind it. Like KPI's and PowerPoint
slides, Project takes a lot of abuse because it's most commonly used as a
substitute for deep understanding. That is, Project is used not as a tool
for planning by the manager who needs it, but as a way to produce briefing
material for higher authorities: a recognized 'evidence of diligence' that a
middle manager can use to fend off higher interest.

In my case I'm usually allotted
15 minutes for my briefing,

And that's partly what's wrong with it: it can produce, in 15 minutes, the
illusion of understanding. By creating a falsely concrete sense of what's
'done', and what's actually known about what remains to do, it enables
managers to make decisions who may or may not realize that they're
responding to the images on Socrates' cave wall
(http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html).

and you can bet your bottom dollar, I don't want to
exceed this limit without good reason.

....or you risk inviting an enquiry/decision-point you'd rather not be
elevated out of your own control?

So that's my two cents worth, Project is a just tool, not a substitute
for proper planning.

With that understanding, I doubt I'd have as many doubts about your using
it, as about its use in general.

bobD


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Getting Users to USE MS Project
    ... All good advice coming from this thread for what is a typical and very ... planning function to all of them collectively and at individual 1-2-1's. ... dependancy management, etc.) it is an exponential leap that, quite frankly, ... In our circles, we have professional schedulers ...
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  • The 10 things MS Project wont do for you...
    ... Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com "Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management" ... The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of worry and depression. ... It used what Microsoft called "Best Fit> Scheduling", it could handle priorities, deadlines and dependencies and was> ideally suited to "Process" working where the focus is on keeping all the> balls up in the air. ... I once had a person on a course who reacted to one of the features of> Microsoft Project by bleating "why doesn't it tell me what to do?" ...
    (microsoft.public.project2000)
  • Re: We need your feedback
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  • Re: We need your feedback
    ... "hold on I'll pass it over to the patch management ... >> Procedures series of SMS documentation. ... >> planning worksheets to help you write down everything before you start ...
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