Project Pain Reliever

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Focusing Your Efforts
1.1: Whom do I have to please?
1.2: How do I define “success” on this project?
1.3: Different people want different things at different times.
1.4: I’m technically on track, but not accomplishing what people wanted.
1.5: I feel like I need to start over.
1.6: I feel all alone. Where can I turn for advice?
1.7: Management just changed the goals. How do I reset the direction?
1.8: I’m having trouble making decisions.
1.9: Sponsors won’t decide what they want.
1.10: What my sponsor wants doesn’t make sense.
1.11: What makes my project important?

Chapter 2: Motivating People
2.1: I feel like I’m the only one who cares.
2.2: Team members aren’t excited about their work.
2.3: Team members question whether the project is worth doing.
2.4: People feel like they don’t get credit for the work they do.
2.5: My team doesn’t believe in their ability to execute.
2.6: My team doesn’t believe in the plan or schedule.
2.7: My team doesn’t believe in me as a manager.

Chapter 3: Effectively Communicating
3.1: How do I gain my team’s trust?
3.2: I don’t understand what my stakeholders want.
3.3: My team members misunderstand or will not follow my directions.
3.4: What should my relationships with my team look like?
3.5: What should my relationship with my sponsor look like?
3.6: People say they don’t know what is going on.
3.7: I can’t get people to see my point of view.
3.8: Someone on my team has an answer, but I can’t get it out of them.
3.9: How do I deliver bad news?
3.10: I can’t get management to resolve an issue or dispute.
3.11: My boss won’t listen to me.
3.12: I can’t get the team to talk to each other effectively.

Chapter 4: Navigating People Challenges
4.1: The office politics are killing me.
4.2: My sponsor doesn’t trust me or give me the authority I need.
4.3: My team members pad their estimates.
4.4: Some team members lack the skills they need.
4.5: Other projects keep stealing my resources.
4.6: My team isn’t really a team.
4.7: My team spends more time arguing than working.
4.8: There is too much finger pointing.
4.9: People around me have hidden agendas.
4.10: I do too much work to manage anything.

PART B: MANAGEMENT—THE SCIENCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Chapter 5: Dealing With Constraints, Assumptions, and Scope
5.1: We took on too much.
5.2: Everything has changed. I need to reset goals and expectations.
5.3: We don’t have the resources we need.
5.4: We’re fine, but over budget.
5.5: We’re fine, but short on time.
5.6: We can get everything done on time and under budget, but not very well.
5.7: My project’s end point is a moving target.
5.8: Part of my project has no end to it.
5.9: The requirements keep changing.

Chapter 6: Building and Delivering on Requirements
6.1: My sponsor told me what to do, but there’s not enough detail.
6.2: We ended up with the wrong design.
6.3: We have the wrong technology for the job.
6.4: The design meets the requirements, but does not satisfy the project’s goal.
6.5: Beyond being done, how do I measure quality?
6.6: The team is frustrated with rework based on changing requirements.
6.7: Our specifications are unclear.
6.8: We spend too much time on documentation.
6.9: Sponsors complain that documentation and training are insufficient.

Chapter 7: Planning
7.1: I don’t understand why we need to plan so much.
7.2: How do I break down a project into smaller parts?
7.3: Everything is “top priority.”
7.4: Someone must have done this before. Where do I find more info?
7.5: I have no idea how to estimate how long this will take.
7.6: The project management software is not helping me.
7.7: My schedule is totally unrealistic.
7.8: It’s hard for me to tell what is important (the critical path).
7.9: I made some wrong assumptions.
7.10: The company’s project management process doesn’t work for me.
7.11: Everything is urgent, and I’m behind.
7.12: Oops, I forgot a chunk of work that needs to be done.
7.13: We have no Plan B.
7.14: Whenever I propose a project schedule, I am asked to compress it.

Chapter 8: Managing People Day to Day
8.1: Meetings are a waste of time.
8.2: Vendors are not delivering.
8.3: People ignore my emails.
8.4: I may not have the right team.
8.5: I am not sure how much process is enough.
8.6: I do not know enough technical stuff to manage.
8.7: There are too many issues to handle in a timely fashion.
8.8: How much status is enough?
8.9: I don’t know how to test to ensure things will work.
8.10: I can’t work well with people at a distance.
8.11: I don’t know how to balance my project and team needs!

Chapter 9: Managing Risks
9.1: I didn’t realize what could happen if this project fails.
9.2: Problems keep popping up that I did not expect.
9.3: The importance of my project changed.
9.4: My project is too dependent on a few key people.
9.5: Some of this project is beyond my control.
9.6: Costs are much higher than we thought.
9.7: I don’t know if a real risk is an “issue.”
9.8: How do I know what might be a problem in the future?
9.9: Should we end this project early?
9.10: There’s been a crisis, beyond the scope of my project!

Index