Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts

Friday, October 14, 2016

Feeling resourceful...NOT!!!!




My most hated word in the workplace is NOT f**k, w***er, tosser, b***h or even bad words like the ‘c’ word and I don’t mean Christianity, Catholic or Christmas.  All of these used in context (mainly in the pub after work or moaning about a colleague) are okay at varying levels. :-)

The word I hate the most right now in any workplace is ‘Resource’.

“We don’t have the resource?”
“I need to check my resources schedule.”

The reason I cringe at the usage of such a word is purely because I believe it undervalues the skill an individual brings to an organisation.  If your company describes you and your colleagues as a ‘resource’ then it is probably time to consider a move, career change or at least stand up and say "No!".

Not so long ago we had departments that looked after the staff of an organisation, they were called personnel departments and over the years Americanised/morphed into ‘Human Resources’ or HR.  This was the transition point from a meaningful team member with skills and aptitude to a reference number and a salary ceiling associated to him or her.

If the underlying semantics used in your company is ‘resource’ then you are seen and replaceable, able to be replenished, expendable.  Whilst this to some degree is true it does strongly undervalue how hard some people ‘resources’ are to replace.

I work in the IT industry as a software engineer principally and as well as the technical skills (platform, database and languages) required to write code, you also need to have relevant business knowledge for the domain problem involved.  Thinking you can hire someone off the street that will immediately be up to speed for a large system is foolish (at best) or expensive if you are lucky as these people often come at a premium.

Back to that resource word again.....

Looking at what a resource really is we know these as consumable items like coal, sugar, soy, oil, cocoa, wool, metals (like iron, tin and steel) etc.  Many (if not all) of these are traded on exchanges around the world.  This is a perfectly good use of the word 'resource'.

The last time I looked a lump of coal hasn’t coded a single C# function (some might argue that computer aren't far from completing this), a packet of sugar hasn’t written a parsing algorithm and I am not aware of any metals, precious or otherwise, that have written code to manipulate a physics engine for your endless runner game idea.  Outside of the IT industry I haven't seen soy beans provide suicide counselling or oil build a school.

Type ‘Thesaurus Resource’ into google and there are a host of positive (enabling) words that describe resource (the human kind).  Words like ‘Ability’, ‘Capability’, ’Talent’ really stand out.

Resource is a throwaway word bandied around by project managers (in my case) and normally talentless 6ft 5” middle managers (if my last company was anything to go by).  Whenever I hear it I cringe and I am trying to correct any company culture I come across to use more eloquent and most importantly inclusive terms.  I was in a meeting only recently where we are described as resources.  Not a good feeling I must say.

So..... 

I’m beating the drum wherever I work to eradicate this cancerous word and to have is replaced by ‘Capability, Capacity, Skills, Staffing or _____________’ whenever it is used in the context of a human.

Moan over.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

D.I.Y and Project Management fusion

Whilst most people I know are off on holidays this weekend (Easter), I have the unenviable pleasure of decorating my house. Like most people I have been doing this for what appears like eternity. I wouldn't say I am a DIY addict, but I have completed my fair share of decorating rooms over the years.

So this weekend over the 4 days I have to decorate our hall, landing and stairs covering the ceiling, walls, woodwork and doors. Fit new door handles, hang pictures then prepare a bedroom and decorate ready for the new carpet that is being laid on Friday week.

Now, I actually quite enjoy decorating and once this sprint is complete I would have conquered the majority of the house. The people before us clearly never bothered with general house maintenance and as such we have had a few issues but I am pleased to say that it will soon look stunning and be a joy to live in.

The reason for the rush is that we have guests coming from overseas. I say overseas, I should say our homeland. We emigrated a few years ago and are lucky enough to have regular visitors from home. The only real trouble is that due to the regularity of visits people don’t notice progress. Especially those unpainted walls or the lack of carpet in such and so area etc.

I call it progress as I know the amount of effort that is required to make a room look great. I could have easily over painted the old walls and had a reasonable finish. But, I am an IT guy and I notice these holes in the walls, the creases in the wall paper above the door and window corners. I notice the way the light reflects shadows if the plastering is uneven and a light is on in the other room. I notice those blemishes on the wall that will be covered by a picture. Even though these blemishes are covered I know that underneath that they are still going to be there.

Perhaps, just a little, I am too much of a perfectionist when it comes to decorating, but I justify that due to my software development background. I can't craft code or applications with a bad user interface. Sometimes, I need to get under the covers of the code and reorganise and repair previous faults and issues. I wish that the previous owners of the house had invested a little time in their maintenance strategy!!!!!.

As I find myself re-engineering virtually every aspect of every room I can't help but wonder why those lazy sods did nothing.


Money could have been a factor, as could apathy, but just like with computer systems, a little bit of routine maintenance is much better than a re-architecting or re-building project.

Of the houses I have owned and renovated over the years two have stood out as being maintenance nightmares. After analysing the small amount of data I have available my only logical conclusion is to never buy a house from a couple whose surname starts with ‘T’.

The Tibbett’s and the Tankard’s. You know who you are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

I have to plan to do some things in the most efficient order. I need to do detailed preparation for some areas and have to demonstrate my good time management skills, ensure key items are performed as per the critical path, and most importantly, I need to escalate any slippage in the project to the project manager ASAP. In this case my wifelet.

There is also the added pressure in that some of the tasks need to be performed out of standard business hours. This is to avoid kiddies fingers touching freshly painted surfaces and to minimise the odour of the paint fumes permeating throughout the house. So Saturday nights glossing will commence from 7pm until the small hours. If it is anything like before (another house) then I will see daylight before I see the bottom of the paint can.

Actually that reminds me. I do need to remember to check the paint levels, application tools (Brushes), removal and cleaning tools (Sandpaper and Turpentine) before I start.

This is a pre-commencement artefacts scan. Nothing worse than getting dressed up (old clothes) ready for the painting effort, only to realise that there is a fraction of the paint required to do the job. Then you have the decision to make. Do I drive to the DIY store wearing these old paint ridden clothes?, or do I change to something more practical for the purposes?

I should be OK with resources, i.e. me. Anyhow, adding additional resources to a project at this late stage tends to make it late anyhow. And with the dependencies for some of the tasks, adding additional resources now won’t help. Some things just need to be done in a linear fashion.

I remember an ex colleague of mine from years gone by called Yuriy. He was a wonderfully intelligent software technician, he had his quirks and an abundance of quality phrases. One that stood out in particular was “Lee, it takes nine months to make a baby, you cannot add nine women to the project to get it done in a month”.

Now Yuriy is quite right with this statement, although I guess if you do add nine women to the project then you have a higher probability of creating that baby and much more fun during the project initiation phase.

So touch wood, I should be ok this weekend. The resultant smile from the wifelet, the sense of personal satisfaction and the thought of those visitors saying. “Wow!, well done Lee, this looks nice………” should make it all worth while.

This most certainly seems like project management to me and apart from the deliverables (decorating) and a lack of written ‘signed off’ requirements ("Just get it painted"). This could be one of a hundered projects I have completed over the years.


So, always plan your projects, do your analysis and seek approval before you commence. My background in software development and management should come in handy even if it does feel like a busman’s holiday.

Happy Easter.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.