Of course, things don’t always go as planned. To illustrate, I’ll be summarizing a failed database migration that started more than a year before I arrived on the scene. The technology stack was already selected, the mission was relatively clear, so what went wrong? Part I briefly referenced “Project Management” as a special set of skills crucial to the outcome of these types of initiatives. This is where the organization was lacking. The project lead must have the technical ability and executive authority to drive the project forward. If either of these components are lacking, the red flags are a-flapping.
Luckily for them, my involvement greatly enhanced the technical capacity of the team. Not that the existing staff weren’t capable, they just needed a little extra bandwidth. However, when it came to executive authority, we had almost none. The dedicated project manager didn’t fully grasp the nature of the work but also wouldn’t trust the team to make independent decisions. When every decision has to go through an executive (not necessarily C-Suite but someone with real project influence) who doesn’t understand or trust, nothing moves. Thus was the fate of this project. We were able to get all of the infrastructure set up and configured, but the project stalled completely when it came down to migration of the business facing reports.
My suggestion was to inventory all reporting assets, generate a time estimate per report to update connection strings and republish, then multiply the unit estimate by the number of reports. I wrote a script to handle the inventory process, estimated 1 hour per unit, and multiplied by 400 reports (the exact number escapes me). This means that 400 hours of work could be distributed to 4 developers who commit to 10 reports per week. This translates into a 10-week project with clear goals and deliverables. Did this come to fruition? No. The individuals with executive authority decided not to execute, the project stalled indefinitely, I left the project when it was clear nothing was happening any time soon.
The End.
So, what are the key takeaways from this?
1.) Skill is not enough sometimes. You also need authority to march forward.
2.) If you’re less technical than the team you’re leading, trust them or your success will be limited.
3.) The last 10% – 20% of the project is usually where teams get stuck.
4.) I’ll bail on a failing project when I have no authority to course correct. You should consider this if you’re able to see the red flags in real time.
5.) It’s possible to make a positive impact, even on a sinking ship. Don’t let one sour experience change your entire outlook.
Signing off…
-DQC