Web Project Management Analogy – Part 3:

Online Project as a Submarine:  The Crew’s View

That’s probably the most exciting part in the series dedicated to the analogy between a submarine and a project, as lot of my readers may relate (more or less) with the following experiences:

• Never assume: the assumption is the mother of all screw-ups, so don’t be afraid to ask as many details as needed in order to properly perform your job. One can not over-understand a topic: information overload can be fought by asking for more condensed information
• Voice your concerns, but resist the temptation to fight for your opinions, especially in the areas you have no experience, and bear no responsibility – much to often everyone is expert in design, usability, and marketing… but no one will get in the information architecture or documentation
• Trust your captain: unless you have serious doubts about his (mental) health, his genuine desire for the wellness of all the crew members  or about his competency in running a submarine stick with him: he knows he will be the first to be executed if things go wrong
• Repeat captain’s orders, before getting into execution: there is so much noise around, and so little margin for errors, that a miss-communication may be fatal. Over communicating is a less sin than being deaf and speechless
• Know your role, as well as others crewmen roles as who is supposed to do what: information like who’s the next in line command, might save precious time and resources, when the captain (the project manager) is unavailable
• Refuse to take responsibility for those actions in which you have no input, and virtually no authority: saying no when facing a too tight deadline is not an act of mutiny, as long as you have arguments to support it.
• Understand that, no matter how bad the destination looks like, how unpleasant the conditions of the voyage might be, you are part of a living, constrained environment: be sensitive to other’s needs and personalities
• Without delivering all is just a big waste – waste of resources, of your efforts, of everybody’s time: so ask yourself – how may I contribute to get the things done
• Don’t forget that even what seems to be a small error from your side, could jeopardize the entire mission, and even the submarine:  don’t hide the problems hoping they’ll go away anyhow
• Find reasons to enjoy every moment of your journey: most of the times you are sailing into uncharted territories, discovering new seas: think of a greater good, that delivering the scope of your project (or reaching a new destination) may bear your name, and may be enjoyed by many others, from then on
• Once you reach the destination don’t hesitate to relax a bit: celebration is probably the most undervalued part of the project

Obviously, in all my three articles are probably expressed less than half of the things running through my brain on this topic. I will write a couple more on the practical tips and sharing stories on how to avoid a couple of traps while concentrating on what works.

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Tagged as: advice, analogies, digital, team