Blogathon 08/23: Offer

During the dogwalk a few mornings ago I walked some of the way with a fellow dogwalker. He’s a functional HR consultant and helps large clients map their business processes and various bits of human functionality into new systems. He’s currently supporting a new system implementation, something I’ve delivered from scratch (as project manager) 30 or so times, and something I’ve stepped in to recover on failing implementations (again, as project manager) approximately 15 times. As we dogwalked we talked. Well, I listened while he talked. He has a big problem with the project he’s working on. Actually, he has a number of big problems. And they’re all being caused by the project manager’s lack of… lack of… well, lack of everything if I’m being honest.

I’ve been parachuted into enough failing projects to know that, from my fellow dogwalker’s description, that he is working on a failing project. It won’t hit any of its critical dates, it’s likely to be significantly over budget when it does complete (if it actually completes), and stakeholder. customer, and user engagement levels will be low tending towards significant unhappiness.

I asked questions about how the project, the team, and the customer/user environments were being run, and about stakeholder engagement and reporting, and SME catch-ups and scrum frequency. I also asked about milestone reporting, visibility of expectations, PMO engagement, reports to the board, and sponsor briefings. The bottom line is that most of these things don’t exist. I asked the big question. Is the project manager a contractor or a permanent member of staff. He’s a permie, obviously.

Reluctant to pay market rates, a lot of organisations have fairly junior members of staff who get a bit of project management training, because this is so much cheaper than engaging a big-hitting senior project management contractor. And it is cheaper. My contract day rate, expanded to an annual cost, is probably four times this permie’s salary. But I have decades of experience of multi-disciplinary project implementations. This permie has, I’m told, no track record at all. And a new system going into and across HR, Payroll, and Training departments and, where business process reengineering is also required is a senior project management role.

Anyway.

My fellow dogwalker asked if he could put my name forward, to the project sponsor, as a replacement. After careful consideration I declined. But it’s nice to know that I can still talk the talk.