By Curt Finch

Have you ever noticed that IT professionals are grumpy? I think that part of the reason is because they never get calls like this: "Hey IT professional, just calling to say that everything is working okay today and you're great!"

The calls are typically more like this: "Hey IT professional, why is it that the only messages our spam filter prevents from getting through are our sales leads? Luckily, however, it does let all the Viagra ads through, which is good because it gives us something to read while we're not selling anything. Did they have classes in spam filtering at the college you supposedly went to?"

Working in IT is somewhat like being a fireman. You can never respond to the fire fast enough, regardless of what you do. If I were starting a project management company today, I wouldn't even buy a server. Rather, I would do everything with Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS (which means it is hosted online on someone else’s server).  I would use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce, a contact management tool like Sugar, and an accounting application like Quickbooks Online Edition.  I would also outsource my email and document storage.

 

 

About the Author:   Curt Finch Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx (http://pr.journyx.com), a provider of Web-based software located in Austin, Texas, that tracks time and project accounting solutions to guide customers to per-person, per-project profitability. Journyx has thousands of customers worldwide and is the first and only company to establish Per Person/Per Project Profitability (P5), a proprietary process that enables customers to gather and analyze information to discover profit opportunities. In 1997, Curt created the world’s first Internet-based timesheet application - the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt is an avid speaker and author, and recently published “All Your Money Won’t Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource”.

 

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By Tim Bergmann, PMP, ABCP

This is the third article in a series about the Seven Deadly Project Sins.

In this narrative, I will continue to focus on some of the “soft-elements” of the project, some temptations that the project manager needs to be on the lookout for in order to foster success on the project.

The Seven Deadly Project Sins as I have defined them are:

• Elitism

• Project Envy

• Resource Gluttony

• Project Lust

• Personalization

• Over-allocation of Resources

• Best Practice Sloth

The third Deadly Project Sin – Resource Gluttony can affect you and your ability to accomplish projects as a project manager.

On the Internet at www.wikipedia.com you can view this definition of gluttony:

“gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste.”

Project Gluttony involves obtaining resources and hoarding them on your project to the detriment of other enterprise projects; over-consuming resources to the point of waste.

How does Project Gluttony happen?

The project manager becomes selfish, inconsiderate and unconcerned about other projects in the enterprise.  The project manager obtains resources and gives them work assignments in order to tie these resources to the project to keep them working on the project.  When asked about resource utilization and availability, the project manager responds in a deceptive or elusive manner, stating that the resources are being used and are not available – even though the resources might have some level of availability.

I am sure that no one reading this narrative has ever personally done this.  But I bet you know someone in your organization that you think has hidden resources and hoarded resources – and has prevented you (or someone else) from obtaining adequate resources for a project.

 

 

 

About the Author:   Tim Bergmann Mr. Timothy S. Bergmann, PMP, ABCP is a highly qualified project manager with three decades of experience managing a wide variety of information technology projects. Mr. Bergmann's experience includes project management, operations management, infrastructure planning and implementation, business continuity planning, customer service and business development.  In 2006 he co-authored the best selling “CISA Study Guide” marketed by Sybex. Mr. Bergmann currently manages training development and delivery as Director of Education for True Solutions, Inc. in Dallas, Texas.  He can be contacted at tim.bergmann@true-solution.com.