Mismanaging Project Managers: Mechanics

While project managers are generally held accountable for project performance, few project managers have sole control — or any control at all — of the fundamental elements that determine project performance: requirements, resources, schedule, and costs. To manage a project in today's tightly interlocked and over constrained organizations is to confront an endless stream of changes in scope, shortages of resources, demands for tighter schedules, and increases in costs.

How Senior Managers can interfere in projects

In such an environment, the project manager finds difficulty demonstrating the minimal level of performance required to support a claim of credibility for projections of delivery on time or on budget. And Management distrust of project managers and consequent interference with project work can compound the problem. Project managers would be wise to study and understand the intervention tactics Senior Managers can use, and prepare for them.

To that end, I offer this little catalog of those tactics. This post emphasizes tactics that involve intervention at the level of project management mechanics. Examples include scope, quality, risk management, staffing, and estimation. Next time I explore tactics that interfere with the project manager's ability to lead the project team.

In what follows, I use the term Senior Manager to refer to any manager or executive with organizational rank above the rank of project manager, including the project sponsor. Below are four examples of interference tactics.

Denying the iron triangle

The iron triangle of project management is the idea that Quality is determined by Cost, Schedule, and Scope. For example, if Management wants to change Scope while maintaining Quality, either Cost or Schedule or both must compensate. Changing any one of Cost, Schedule, and Scope requires compensating change in the others to maintain Quality. Yet Senior Managers are known to deny this so-called "iron triangle," and blame Project Managers for declining Quality or failure to meet schedule or budget targets when Management changes Scope.

Rejecting risks or risk plans

When project managers present for approval project plans that contain risk mitigation plans, some Senior Managers try to reduce costs by rejecting risk plans, saying, "We aren't going to spend money dealing with something that hasn't happened yet." They see cutting risk plans as a way to circumvent the iron triangle.

But there is a high cost that many don't recognize. Even if the risk doesn't materialize, rejecting the risk plan harms project manager credibility. It creates leadership and morale problems that have real costs elsewhere downstream in the project.

Using projects as parking lots

In organizations that are reluctant to terminate non-performers, for whatever reason, demand for places to park non-performers can grow. Sometimes projects serve that purpose. For example, Human Resources policy might require three months of documented non-performance to support a termination. The firing manager must then find a three-month slot to hold the non-performer.

Projects with important-sounding charters and which aren't expected to return results soon are potential candidate parking lots for non-performers. The project manager of such a project is being abused professionally, unless he or she is involved in the scam. But most have little choice. They must accept the non-performer, but they can document their misgivings for their own safety.

Rejecting estimates of effort or duration for tasks

Even though estimates of total effort or duration might have been accepted previously — on multiple occasions — the current effort estimates or duration estimates are subject to disapproval at any time.

Some project managers prepare for such changes by "padding" their estimates. By intentionally over-estimating effort or duration, they create a reserve of hours of effort, or a reserve of calendar time in the schedule, from which they can later withdraw if Management suddenly rejects previous estimates, or makes changes that create a need for additional effort or time. One problem with this approach is that it conditions Management to believe that the project managers always pad their estimates. Management is therefore encouraged in the future to demand the impossible.

Last words

Because projects have so many checkpoints where Senior Managers can withhold approval of project artifacts, interventions of the kind described here add little of value to responsibly-run projects. But one can easily imagine many more such interventions. They generally fall in the category commonly known as micromanagement. Although they are certainly harmful to the project, they might do greater harm to the organization, as they distract the micromanager from the duties that are more properly their own.   Next issue in this series   Top  

Projects never go quite as planned. We expect that, but we don't expect disaster. How can we get better at spotting disaster when there's still time to prevent it? How to Spot a Troubled Project Before the Trouble Starts is filled with tips for executives, senior managers, managers of project managers, and sponsors of projects in project-oriented organizations. It helps readers learn the subtle cues that indicate that a project is at risk for wreckage in time to do something about it. It's an ebook, but it's about 15% larger than "Who Moved My Cheese?" Just . Order Now! .

More about micromanagement

There Are No Micromanagers  [January 7, 2004]

If you're a manager who micromanages, you're probably trying as best you can to help your organization meet its responsibilities. Still, you might feel that people are unhappy — that whatever you're doing isn't working. There is another way.

Are You Micromanaging Yourself?  [November 24, 2004]

Feeling distrusted and undervalued, we often attribute the problem to the behavior of others — to the micromanager who might be mistreating us. We tend not to examine our own contributions to the difficulty. Are you micromanaging yourself?

Managing Pressure: Communications and Expectations  [December 13, 2006]

Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part I of a little catalog of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

Managing Pressure: The Unexpected  [December 20, 2006]

When projects falter, we expect demands for status and explanations. What's puzzling is how often this happens to projects that aren't in trouble. Here's Part II of a catalog of strategies for managing pressure.

Managing Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries  [December 27, 2006]

Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part III of a set of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

How to Tell If You Work for a Nanomanager  [March 7, 2007]

By now, we've all heard of micromanagers, and some have experienced micromanagement firsthand. Some of us have even micromanaged others. But there's a breed of micromanagers whose behavior is so outlandish that they need a category of their own.

Reverse Micromanagement  [July 18, 2007]

Micromanagement is too familiar to too many of us. Less familiar is inappropriate interference in the reverse direction — in the work of our supervisors or even higher in the chain. Disciplinary action isn't always helpful, especially when some of the causes of reverse micromanagement are organizational.

Lateral Micromanagement  [September 10, 2008]

Lateral micromanagement is the unwelcome intrusion by one co-worker into the responsibilities of another. Far more than run-of-the-mill bossiness, it's often a concerted attempt to gain organizational power and rank, and it is toxic to teams.

Bottlenecks: I  [February 4, 2015]

Some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks." The people around them repeatedly find themselves stuck, awaiting responses or decisions. Why does this happen and what are the costs?

Bottlenecks: II  [February 11, 2015]

When some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks," they expose the organization to risks. Managing those risks is a first step to ending the bottlenecking pattern.

What Micromanaging Is and Isn't  [April 14, 2021]

Micromanaging is a dysfunctional pattern of management behavior, involving interference in the work others are supposedly doing. Confusion about what it is and what it isn't makes effective response difficult.

On Schedule Conflicts  [May 10, 2023]

Schedule conflicts happen from time to time, even when the organization is healthy and all is well. But when schedule conflicts are common, they might indicate that the organization is trying to do too much with too few people.

Your comments are welcome

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Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming May 28: Mismanaging Project Managers: Leadership

Most organizations hold project managers accountable for project performance. But they don't hold Project Sponsors or other Senior Managers accountable for the consequences of their actions when they interfere with the project manager's ability to lead the project team. Available here and by RSS on May 28.

And on June 4: white-collar contractor sabotage

Modern firms in competitive, dynamic markets draw on many types of employer/employee relationships, including contractors. By providing privileges and perks preferentially among these different types, they risk creating a caldron of resentments that can reduce organizational effectiveness. Available here and by RSS on June 4.

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