Where to start in a new place (memo for the Project Manager)

Where to start in a new place (memo for the Project Manager)

Every RP sooner or later changes work. You are leaving an old place where you already know your way around, and enter the unknown:

  • an unknown project with unknown risks;

  • an incomprehensible manager (when you first meet him, he is a jerk, but who will he be in real life?);

  • incomprehensible colleagues;

  • incomprehensible customer.

Moreover, as a rule, the project that is given to you is already running at full speed: the team is screaming, the customer wants something, the new manager has some expectations. And it’s good if everything is so simple. And it often happens that the project is already flying into the abyss, the budget has been spent, the customer hates everyone, and the management is waiting for your handover next week (yes, there were such cases too 😊).

This is another article about what is not told in RP courses: about the soft skills that the Project Manager will need from the very first day of work. If you are interested in such stories, read my other articles on Habra and subscribe to my TG channel.Carrot in front, carrot in back“.

It looks like an RP starting a new job is like a passenger who tries to jump on a moving train in order to get to the head of the train and start driving it. And the faster the train flies, the more difficult it is to jump onto it. Well, you have about 2 weeks for everything. 4 from the force, if the vanilla place, and the train has not yet sped up.

How not to turn your neck and not get under the wheels on this glorious path – in the points below (pay attention to the sequence, it is important. Changing it can lead to unnecessary risks).

Steps

  1. Zero and most important: do not promise anything to anyone for two weeks. If you are under a lot of pressure – a week. We just say: “I’m still just getting into it, I can take a look, but I can’t promise“. In the first week or two, you can say this to anyone, even your CEO: it’s smart and neat, you don’t go where you don’t know.

    If they are pressuring and demanding a quick decision in the first week, this is a reason to seriously think about the adequacy of those who are pressuring, and whether you should stay here at all?
    It is not necessary to drag on for more than 2 weeks: a normal manager should not be a slow-witted person. 2 weeks should be enough for you to understand the project base.

  2. Talk to your immediate supervisor. What does he expect from you, what is the priority, etc. If he gives you terms and deadlines within the next 1-3 weeks, do not dare to confirm them: just listen. It’s not your promise, it’s not your responsibility. But you are an experienced RP and remember that “NO, it is impossiblewe don’t talk, we talkok, got it, I’ll go see what’s there“.

    1. I strongly advise you to write out all the expectations of your manager separately. They are important, he will evaluate you based on them at the end of the probationary period. If you achieve them – good. If something does not work out, you will have to approach and ask for help. It is not good to forget about this.

  3. Study the internal regulationsif they are. As a rule, a day should be enough at the RP level. If you spend more, you are slow or the regulations are unenforceable. If there are a lot of regulations, read only what is relevant to your work. If there are still a lot of them, don’t hesitate to ask your manager – why are there so many, and what to read from it?

  4. Then you have to meddle in the project/project plan or product backlog and TK. So you yourself will see the dates, terms, stages, tasks arranged by priority and will delve into the basic functions that need to be performed. At this stage, it is too early to get into the tracker and see the details. You just need to understand the terms, deadlines and plans for the next three months and the functionality “diagonally” to go to the executor.
    After that, you are ready for step 4 below.

  5. Talk to the performers. It is either your in-house team or a contractor. The purpose of the meeting is to gather information about the progress of cases and what problems there are.

    1. At the meeting/meetings, you check the correspondence of their words to the plan. If something does not match, ask immediately. Firstly, you will immediately show that you are oriented, secondly, you will show that you want to understand all the murky topics, thirdly, check the readiness of the team to go to your meeting (anything can happen).

    2. Collect their pain and problems. Relations with the team or contractors are almost always a pain point, it is very important to listen to everyone. You come with a clean record and can use this credit of trust – you will be told a lot. We also write everything down, shake our heads, and do not promise anything. But let’s not forget: if you just listen and put the bolt, all trust between you will collapse before it starts.

  6. Read the contract. Many project managers forget this point, and it is key. At meetings, everyone will tell you their terms and needs. You have to listen to it, it’s their expectations. But then all this must be included in the contractual obligations. No one will remember your contracts except you. At the end of the day, when the contractor or your customer sticks you in the contract, you will be in a lot of pain. For me, such a mistake by the manager is a yellow card. Two such flights – test failed, goodbye.

    1. If you are on the side of the integrator – you should know your contract by heart in terms of functionality, stages, money and penalties.

    2. If you’re on the internal IT or product side:

      1. Study all the suppliers’ obligations to you, whatever they say in point 4 above.

      2. Review all commitments that have been made to your business in accordance with the processes in point 2 above. Functional requirements, memos, agreed roadmaps – but those that were agreed in a formal way “by law”.

    This is your base. You have to fulfill everything that is formally promised or write it down as problems/risks for the change.

  7. Talk to the customer. The main customer is the last person you should meet. You have to go there ready, having behind you the results in all the points above. Moreover, there may be several responsible persons from the customer, it is necessary to talk to all of them in turn:

    1. RP of the customer, if any. It is better to meet him in person. If he is in the same city, don’t be too lazy to drive there. He is your main customer, it is very important to establish the right contact and understand all his pains and expectations. Also – we collect feedback, write it down, we don’t promise anything.

    2. Business. There is no need to hold a separate meeting here, the business, according to the idea, is going to sneeze at you – well, it has changed and changed, “they are new there every time, the main thing is to give results.” Here you can simply come to another meeting (collection of requirements, status) to get to know each other. If the business is angry with the IT team, you will see everything yourself, and you will be told what you will not see.

  8. Further take a break and process the information received:

    1. Emotional mood of all participants.

    2. Compliance of the terms in the plan and the tasks in the backlog with the expectations of all parties.

    3. Correspondence of terms in the plan and backlog to contractual and other obligations.

    4. Correspondence of the company’s processes and real work (if everything goes beyond the processes – a sign of a management mess).

    In this place, as a rule, many amazing discoveries await you. For me, for example, it happened that the whole team forgot about the contract and worked “according to concepts”. And the business customer was waiting for the work to be performed exactly according to the contract and the TK in it. It was possible to correct the discrepancy discovered in time.

  9. Next is talk to the previous RPif such an option is available and it has not been released to you. The previous RP is usually a very valuable source of information to which you can ask the question in point 7 above. But it must be filtered very carefully: you do not know the reasons for the divorce, and how dissatisfied the parties are with each other. Perhaps the RP did not have enough experience to pull the project, or maybe he sees all the problems in advance and does not want to participate in this mess. In any case, his opinion should also be listened to and taken into account.

Ugh All the steps mentioned above should take you at least a week:

  1. Guide and regulations

  2. TK and backlog “diagonally”

  3. Team and contractors

  4. Read the contract

  5. Customer

  6. Processing of results, questions

  7. Old RP

  8. In the breaks between these meetings, you must:

    1. Formulate questions and prepare for meetings.

    2. Read the TK, study the backlog – to understand, but what do you need to do?

If it took less, then one of three: you were lucky and the project is in perfect condition, you took the steps poorly, the project is small.

  1. Then you have to articulate the problems and risks you see. There is no need to offer solutions, just a list of problems, a list of risks. With this, you go to the manager and say what he considers important and why, and what is not and what to do with it (How to work with Risks, see here).

    1. If the Manager does not have time for this, it is a reason to think about the fact that there is no onboarding in the company, and you will have to work with a Manager who cannot find time for important issues, impersonating himself (and do you need it?).

  2. Form a real list of problems and risks with a solution plan and an understanding of where to go next.

  3. Always ASK!! Don’t be afraid to ask, on the contrary: everyone knows that a person who keeps everyone busy with questions really wants to find out. A fool is not the one who asks, but the one who is afraid to ask. Your manager knows that if a new employee doesn’t ask questions, he probably doesn’t understand anything and is afraid. This is a bad characteristic for you. So ask, ask and ask.

Basically, that’s all. It will take you from a week to three.

Why this sequence is important: because the input to each new step will be information from the previous one. It’s pointless to go to the customer if you don’t know the project or the terms. It’s not wise to join a team if you haven’t looked at the TK/backlog and roughly understand what it’s about. You can’t go to the customer’s RP until you talk to your team, otherwise you might accidentally blurt something out. not that. Separately, by building the steps in this way, you will be as prepared as possible for each meeting, which means you will receive the maximum amount of information. This will save time for entering the project (you won’t have to run to everyone a hundred times) and you will seem professional: everything is clear, concise, to the point.

What we have at the exit

By performing the above steps well, you will:

  1. You know the intricacies of the project: goals, why it is, who needs it, expectations from it, main functions and technical solutions, justification of the budget and deadlines.

  2. See the main problems and risks of the project: technical debt, broken promises, unfulfilled promises and inconsistencies between plans and expectations.

  3. You understand what needs to be done to align plans and expectations.

  4. You understand the pain of performers and what you need to do to keep them up.

  5. You obviously understand how realistic the terms and the planned budget of the project are.

And this is what is needed in order to sail fearlessly into a bright future with a ready-made plan to eliminate problems and risks (well, or go on a trial run with the words: “have you all gone crazy here or something?!”).

*** – a small project where RP can perform the role of an analyst – up to 10-15 people. It can be one project for 15 people. or three by 5, but almost certainly no more.

Good luck to everyone on new projects!

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