Turning a project around

This is the first of what I hope a series of entries on practical advice on how to turn a software project around. Before I start on the subject let me tell you a story.

It is said that the great master of warfare Sun Tzu (author of the Art of War) was once trying to convince the Chinese emperor that he would be a great general to lead the emperor's troops. In order to prove that, Sun Tzu told the emperor that he could make the emperor's concubines behave like soldiers in a manner of minutes. To which the emperor laughed, the concubines did not even take the emperor's orders seriously. The emperor told Sun Tzu that if he could make his 100 concubines behave like soldiers, Sun Tzu will be the commanding general of the army.

Sun Tzu called out all the concubines, gave them spears, and told them to form in two columns of 50 concubines. At the front of each column, he placed the two favorite concubines of the emperor. He gave each of the two concubines the rank of lieutenant of the concubine army. Rank which the concubines whimsically accepted. Then he told the 100 concubines to face him while holding their spears in attack position. The concubines found this a lot of fun and followed his instructions. Then Sun Tzu grabbed a war drum and instructed the concubines to rotate 90 degrees to their right every time he beat the drum. At the first beat the concubines tried to rotate and started laughing when nobody got it right. Sun Tzu told the emperor that the first time troops make a mistake is usually the fault of the general. Therefore he would repeat the instructions and make the lieutenants responsible for the outcome. He explained the drill to the concubines again, and made a special mention to the lieutenants about their responsibility. So, Sun Tzu beat the drum again with the same results as before. The emperor and the court were truly enjoying the spectacle and laughing with the concubines.

This time Sun Tzu said that since he already repeated his order twice, that the fault was with the lieutenants. Therefore, he would cut the head of the most senior lieutenant off as an example to the others. The emperor jumped out of his seat and told Sun Tzu that he indeed appreciated Sun Tzu's wisdom and the first general opening will be Sun Tzu's. Sun Tzu told the emperor that training the concubines was his duty and that the emperor agreed to the task, therefore he should be given the liberty to finish the task. The emperor knew he had to let Sun Tzu finish. If he didn't, it will be known that the emperor went back on his word. Not a good reputation to have among generals. With the emperor looking by, Sun Tzu cut the head of the emperor's most beloved concubine. Then, he promoted the third most beloved concubine to lieutenant and told the second most beloved concubine that she was in charge. From then on the exercise went flawlessly. The emperor made Sun Tzu commanding general the army. Sun Tzu went on to win countless wars, many of them without ever fighting a battle.

The moral of the story is that if you are general, you should be ready to cut the head of careless lieutenants. If you are a lieutenant, you only get two chances.

I find this to be true with projects also. If you are managing a project, and the project gets in trouble, you will usually be given a chance in the form of time and resource to fix it. But, if you fail to fix it after that, well you read the story.

From the perspective of senior management a project is in trouble when:

a) The project is delayed and behind its planned schedule.

b) The project is costing more than planned.

c) The project is not delivering what the scope states it should.

If you want to become a software project turnaround specialist that walks in after some heads have rolled, or if you like your head attached to you shoulders you need to able to quantitatively identify to senior management why a), b), c) or a combination of the three is happening. Simple saying the schedule is too aggressive or I don't have enough resources will not do. You need numbers to back these claims. In my next post, I will explain how to use software duration estimation techniques to come up with a real time estimate for a project.

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If you want to become a software project turnaround specialist that walks in after some heads have rolled, or if you like your head attached to you shoulders you need to able to quantitatively identify to senior management why a), b), c) or a combination of the three is happening. Simple saying the schedule is too aggressive or I don't have enough resources will not do.

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it will be known that the emperor went back on his word. Not a good reputation to have among generals. With the emperor looking by, Sun Tzu cut the head of the emperor's most beloved concubine.

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