SENG411 People

From Craig

People and Politics


Politics:

  • Poly - many
  • Ticks - blood sucking insects!


You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it is going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


Whenever people get together, politics is a factor.

  • Everyone has his/her own agenda
  • Understanding politics is understanding individuals and how they are going to react given a specific situation or set of factors.


Politics can overwhelm any project so having an understanding of politics can help to mitigate the effects of these processes against the software development effort.

Components of understanding politics:

  • Who is involved?
  • What is the nature of the project?
  • What are the levels of commitment by the participants?
  • What are the key issues which can lead to political disagreements?


Who are your friends? Who are you enemies?

  • Can someone benefit from the failure of your project?
  • Can someone benefit from your personal failure?
  • Is it possible that someone will perceive your success as detrimental?


One of the key jobs of the Project Manager is to deal with the politics. If he/she is incapable of doing so, the whole project will be at risk.

Scenario: You are at the water cooler and Bill Johnson joins you and starts up a conversation. He asks you how your spouse is, how your vacation was, how your kids are, and he also remembers that you have a dog too. Then he asks about your current project, how it's going, whether you're liking it or not.

The above may seem innocent and it might indeed be. But what if you knew that Bill had been turned down for a promotion which was given to the project manager on your current project? Would that change your impressions of Bill's questions?

If there are politics involved, your responses to the questions could be relayed back to other members of the organization. Similarly, your responses may be amplified, distorted or buried.


Who are the key players?

  • Owners
  • Customers
  • Shareholders
  • Stakeholders
  • Champions


Owner

The person who pays for everything

  • Most important person to keep happy
  • Know who he/she/they is/are

Would a project get started without someone in a key position thinking that the project is important?

The new Super-Widget system absolutely, positively must be finished by January 1st or the world will come to an end. But as that order is transmitted down the chain of cmomand, the organizational bureaucracy will tack on its own list of additional constraints: The project must be programmed in a combination of Ada and RPG; and the team must include George, Harriet and Melvin (Because they are so incompetent that no other project manager will take them); and it must use the organization's newly created (but never-before used) object-oriented technology
- Death March, pp. 45-46

A direct, face-to-face meeting can help to cut through the bureaucracy


Customer

  • Person or People who actually use the system.
  • May not be aware of the politics associated with the project.

Understand that some customers may actually "lose" if the system succeeds. Their positions could be eliminated if the software actually works.

  • Legacy system replaced by a new system
  • End-users losing their jobs when the new system is installed
  • End-users who are perfectly happy with the existing system and who believe that the system will be less functional or convenient
  • End-users who worry they may not have the skills to use the new system
  • A manager's budget may be reduced in order to provide funding for the development of the new system
  • A manager who believes that the project is too ambitious
  • A manager's fiefdom will be reduced if the new system is installed


Shareholders

Co-owners

  • Do not have the authority to initiate the project
  • Have a vested interest in the outcome

It's easy to forget that these people exist, but they can have a positive or negative impact on the project.


Stakeholders

  • Will be affected by the success or failure of the project
  • Similar to shareholders but not quite so much influence


Champion

  • Friends to the project
  • Someone to defend the project in political battles


Determining the basic nature of the project

Determining the nature of the project can help determine the political impact on the people involved.

Compare the chances of success against the general moral of the people in the project.

Chances of success
Low High
High Happiness Kamikaze Mission Impossible
Low Happiness Suicide Ugly


Mission Impossible Projects

  • Expecting good returns when project succeeds
  • Convinced that a combination of hard work and technical skills will make the project's success possible


Ugly Projects

  • Project manager is determined to succeed
  • Project manager is determined to profit from the success of the project
  • Project manager is willing to sacrifice the health and happiness of the project team members to achieve his/her goals
  • Project manager is usually from outside of the company and has no personal relationship with any of the team members.


Suicide Projects

  • Everyone is doomed and everyone is miserable
  • Agreed to work on the project because the alternative is to be fired.


Kamikaze Projects

  • Project is doomed, but everyone agrees it will be a glorious failure
  • Project gives the members the ability to work with technologies that are new


Remember that public assurances from stakeholders about the project may not indicate the real situation. People higher up within an organization may be privy to information which is unavailable to others.


Assessing levels of Commitment by project Participants

Level of committment is usually influenced by the overall "style" of the project.

  • Suicide: Almost no committment
  • Ugly: dictated by the demands of the project manager
  • Kamikaze and Mission Impossible: Not Mr. Right, but Mr. Right-Now.


Key Political Issues

Most obvious: Schedule, Budget and Resource Restrictions

Other political issues:

  • Requirements Elicitation
  • Prioritization (Triage)
  • Is the system needed in the first place?
  • Disagreements about the status of the project


Political problems typically lead to significant project delays.

Everything interesting that happens in software projects eventually comes down to people
- James Bach


Talented people are your best chances of success for a difficult project.

  • Insist on the right to choose your own team.
  • Project manager has to have the right to veto an attempt to add unacceptable people to the team.

Hiring and staffing Issues

Four common strategies

  1. Hire Superstars and turn them loose
  2. Insist on a well-honed "Mission Impossible" team which has worked together
  3. Choose mere mortals and make sure they know what they are getting in to
  4. Take whomever you can and convert them to a "Mission Impossible" team
  • Superstars
    • Typically very risky
    • Superstars often don't work well with others.
    • Egos
    • High salaries
  • well-honed "Mission Impossible" team
    • One of the best strategies
    • Keeping teams in tact can be a challenge
    • Team may not currently exist within the organization
  • Mere mortals
    • Most common out of practicality
    • Most organizations don't have superstars or survivors
  • Take whomever you can
    • Avoid at all costs


Other staffing options

  • "Borrow" people from other projects/teams
  • Hire contractors
    • Beware of "gravy train" seekers


Rewards

More and more, we are seeing rewards being offered to members of project teams.

Money only goes so far

  • If someone isn't being paid enough, money is the only issue
  • If someone is being paid enough, money is rarely the issue
    • Job satisfaction is usually the biggest issue


Beware of using money as a motivational tool

  • People place different value on money
  • Money can make people turn against each other on the team
  • Stock options are risky at best
  • Equitable distribution


Other possible rewards for motivation

  • Extended Vacation
  • Paid Sabbatical
  • Perks (Take advantage of the company's ability to buy product at cheaper rates)
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