TORN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS

Project managers the world over, at some point, end up in conflict with the line managers of team members working on a project. This can be especially true when the resources working on that project are operationally focused.

A project resource could be scheduled to attend a critical workshop when suddenly, there is a production based problem and that person is called away to deal with it. The workshop is suddenly pointless and the project manager is aggravated!

When it comes to a “battle” between a project manager and a line manager, the latter will generally “win” when it comes to identifying where the resource ends up unless he or she is over-ruled from on high – which takes time and energy. The other issue for operational people is that, if they are called on for an operational reason, the chances are something is going wrong and customers are being effected so it will generally take priority anyway.

So how can a project manager plan for this?

To me, the issue needs to be resolved at a higher level than a project manager. The company needs to have a policy defined around the expectation regarding the amount of time operational staff are expected to be assigned to project or program work.

If it becomes part of a teams or particular resources performance plan that they are expected to work on projects for a percentage of their time, then the line manager of that team or resource is obliged to ensure their availability. The team or resource themselves also will start to manage their own work time more effectively and push their line manager to ensure that they are available for the work.

The issue then becomes one of resource planning. The project manager should have communicated the requirement for the resource in advance and the line manager then needs to ensure that there is sufficient coverage in place through other resources to cover while their team or team member are engaged in the particular project activity.

Operational resources should always be engaged in any project that is likely to effect them once it is implemented. By placing them on the project, they will understand both the driver for that project and the requirements that will be expected of them after implementation.

They can help shape the project to ensure that the cost of operations are reduced by sharing their understandings of how things work in the “real world” and to bring lessons learned from operations back to the project design team. They are a vital part of any project.

So rather than having the team split between two masters, plan your business so that the teams engagement level in projects is defined and then put the correct processes in place to ensure that they have that time to prevent contention.

What works for your business when it comes to project vs operations?

Photo: Helico