Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
The stupid question is the question not asked
 
PerlMonks  

comment on

( [id://3333]=superdoc: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??
You've identified a number of project-leader level problems, though it looks like the project was suffering from a bigger problem that you might not have has as much visibility on:

No Effective Executive Sponsor

The role of (or even the existence of) an executive sponsor is often invisible to the developers in the trenches. An executive sponsor is the person on the executive staff who is motivated to see a project through to completion. They cut through high-level roadblocks and keep things moving. Projects without sponsors tend to drift around, subject to corporate weather patterns, until some momentary crisis gives the project temporary momentum. Lots of people (including Security) will happily say NO to you unless you have a sponsor.

Here are some warning signs that indicate that the project had a serious sponsorship problem:

  1. The project took 18 months until a development task lands.
  2. The development task lands not in Engineering, but in the hands of someone in Marketing who didn't yet speak Perl.
  3. Seven months later, after doing some tests, Corporate has lost the handoff.
  4. In the meantime the original sponsor has left.
  5. People think they're powerless, and unable to get vital information from Security.

With the possible exception of Corporate losing the handoff, these aren't project manager or product manager level problems. If they were, an effective sponsor would have had the the project/product manager replaced.

I try never to get involved with a project that doesn't have a real, live, politically protected executive sponsor. Life is too short to be a ping-pong ball.


In reply to (dws)Re: A Cautionary Rant by dws
in thread A Cautionary Rant by footpad

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.
  • Log In?
    Username:
    Password:

    What's my password?
    Create A New User
    Domain Nodelet?
    Chatterbox?
    and the web crawler heard nothing...

    How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
    Other Users?
    Others making s'mores by the fire in the courtyard of the Monastery: (3)
    As of 2024-09-20 04:52 GMT
    Sections?
    Information?
    Find Nodes?
    Leftovers?
      Voting Booth?
      The PerlMonks site front end has:





      Results (25 votes). Check out past polls.

      Notices?
      erzuuli‥ 🛈The London Perl and Raku Workshop takes place on 26th Oct 2024. If your company depends on Perl, please consider sponsoring and/or attending.