Handling the Project Sponsor from Hell; Focus on Benefits

I've been posting recently about the fact that many projects fail because of the project manager's inability to defend the right plan to the executive sponsor. Here's a great article from 4PM about how the fictional (I hope) Chris Pimbock faces an executive sponsor who rattles off a bunch of demands and absolutely insists on an arbitrary deadline of October 30th. It's like something out of Dilbert.

Not wanting to head into a project death trap, Chris goes on to steer the conversation toward finding the ultimate problem being addressed, as well as what business benefits can be measured. He suggests a phased approach, solving the most critical problems first, and developing a sensible plan for getting there.

This is really the ideal way to address situations like this, and has been proven to be most effective. The other key is to recognize the difference between a desired target date and a hard deadline. Speed is important, but so is planning. Otherwise, we don't have speed---we have haste. As General George S. Patton said "Haste is speed without planning."

For an entertaining and informative read, check out the 4PM article. Please note: It's in PDF format ...

http://www.4pm.com/articles/pmtalk4-15-99.pdf

For more on how to deal with mission impossible situations, read Ed Yourdon's Death March.