“Fear and Complexity within a project, can be an explosive mixture that makes sure any project can fail.” According to the experienced agile project manager Martin van Borselaer Fear and Complexity are the main project killers. “Fear restrains us from doing or saying the things we know are right”, Martin says during a great session he gave the company last week. “It is, in combination with complexity, the main reason projects fail.”
Fear, from the different actors within the project, can have different sources. The customer can be afraid that the project will cost too much, the quality will be bad or that he works with the wrong requirements. The supplier has it’s own fears. Under budgeting the project, dissatisfied clients, damage to his reputation or unsatisfied co-workers. A project manager can have fears like a bad functioning customer organization, team or technology he has to work with. And the team member is possibly afraid that the balance between his private live and job comes into question.
“There are also deeper fears to consider within a project” Martin tells, “you can think about things like the livelihood of the employee, loosing his job, not making promotion”. ”Or more emotionally based fears like the ego or status of actors in the project” Martin explains. “Fear is a very bad advisor in a project situation. It can offer a excessive reaction by making problems larger than they really are, or no reaction at all by denying the existence of a problem.”
In projects this can mean that we work with fixed date, price unknown scope projects, excessive analysis and design or not being able to grasp reality and therefore sticking to the original plans without necessary adjustments. Martin explains that most of these examples are based upon actors being afraid, offering false hope. Working together, not looking at the team in terms of heroes and losers, is an essential part of the solution. Transparency in the project team will facilitate mutual trust and therefore a real team where fears can be tackled.
Another project killer is complexity. “Simple is Stupid and Smart Sells are main criteria these days in IT projects. Or, at least, it seems to look that way” Martin says. “The assumption lives that we can control and predict this complexity, but the reality is that we can’t.” Martin explains that, during the start of a project we don’t know what we want and that we don’t know how to get there. Working together and steering on new insights is the only way of getting on a point where we want to be.
Working together, small steps and learning and improving are essentials to tackle both fear and complexity within a project. Organizations that know that change is to be expected and understand that steering constantly is normal will have the competitive edge. It’s essential that scope is put together on functionality, not by expertise. Bringing together expertises will reduce fear and complexity. Or at least make them more understandable. In this way we can actually manage them.
Martin van Borselaers blog is a very interesting place of knowledge on Agile project management, you should read it.
UPDATE: Martin now offers a once in a lifetime opportunity: you can get his advise, for one day, for free! So if you want to have a fresh look at this project of yours or more information on how you can do things different or even better, look on the (Dutch) Whitehorses website for more information.
