Broadside

Having worked reasonably hard at work to obtain some influence in a project I believe in, I found myself at the end of last week accepting the job of temporary project manager while the current one takes a couple of weeks leave. So far so good I hear you say! Valuable experience, a career enhancing move! I thought the same too. Not a massively complex build, tight but achievable timescales and a developer I feel I can trust to deliver a high quality solution. The only issue was likely to be managing the perceptions of the "key stakeholders" all of which had their own political corners to fight.

First day on the job (Monday) I wasn't actually in the office, but I received word from the outgoing PM that there was a potential challenge to my involvement. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but advised me to clear it up. Ok, I say - after all, I'm not a PM, and I should in theory be devoting all my time to my real role. But I believe I can handle this, I'll talk to people when I get in.

Tuesday, I confirm with the "Programme Manager" (the guy with overall responsibility for all our project work) that there is such a challenge, and he confirms my assumption that it was related to whether or not I really have time. It’s come from a slightly (but not entirely) unexpected corner, but that doesn’t really change my answers.

I spend two days trying to talk to the person with an issue (he’s very busy screwing up everyone else’s projects too), eventually getting hold of him tonight. I'm prepared to the challenge to my involvement, I know my case, my arguments, I'm reasonably confidant I can win this one. What I get is a broadside, no mention of problems with my involvement. The challenge is partly to the overall design, but really (I believe although it was never said explicitly) to the involvement of my developer. Despite the fact the guy has apparently not read any of the requirements documents or the solution design, he wants to use a different developer to write a bare bones minimum compliance solution on the cheap. I'm completely unprepared for this, and as a result am steamrollered. Everything is suddenly derailed, and I've got a meeting with the customer at 9am tomorrow. I've got no idea what to say to him.

Honesty is perhaps the best policy. But it's certainly not going to be a popular one.