The story of a development failure
Without a project manager that aligns the team with stakeholders and customers
It’s a common day in a common company, the new project manager has arrived and a new project can start.
Client explanation
“I want something that permits me to swing, eco-friendly, that will last three times more than normal swings. It doesn’t need any electrical energy, uses only recycled material, and be easy to implement. Eventually, it has to be 70% reusable”.
Stakeholders’ needs
“We desire that the product will be the best on the market, it has to satisfy all the needs and expectations of the customers. Of course, it has to be cheap, we can only provide you with a low budget, but don’t worry, we are sure it will be enough”
Project Manager
“I’ve understood what our customers want and I can finally make a plan for the project. I’m sure that my plan will be surely the best and will align stakeholders and my team. Thanks to such a well-done plan there will be no problem regarding schedule and cost.”
Marketing Advertising
“We have a strong idea to represent the product in the advertisements. During the marketing campaign, we are going to show what the final product looks like, basing our idea on what the project manager has shown to us”
Designers
“We have done a lot of research on how to satisfy customers’ pains and the design we are going to make is really intentional. The whole research and study about needs and expectations helped us to the best UI/UX design”
Developers
“We are going to complete the tasks that our great project manager has assigned to each one. Thanks to the great explanation of the project, and the amazing design, we will provide the best developed product ever”
Testers
“We have found some little bug and warning. These aren’t so serious and can be easily resolved. In the next build, we are sure everything will be fixed.”
Documentation
“The documentation is an important part of the development process. Thanks to a great done documentation the team and the stakeholders can easily understand the whole process and milestones.”
New team
“The original team needs new resources, some tasks require more resources than planned and other tasks require resources to replace the ones that have left. The new team is looking forward to starting.”
The delivery
“The project has ended and the product is finally delivered. The customers seem satisfied. The project manager has done really a great job with his team and the stakeholders. Strangely, all the other products failed as soon as released. This time it will be different !!!”
Conclusion
This simple story aims to show the importance of having a good project manager. The main goals of the project manager’s role are the alignment of the final deliverable with the goals and expectations of the client, this needs also a clear purpose for what the team works on and an effective negotiation about deadlines and deliverables with clients. Thanks to a great project manager, eventually it will be easier to satisfy the client with a shared vision about the project between them and the team.
Thanks for reading! If you want to talk or take a coffee, contact me at vincenz.pascarella@gmail.com or connect via LinkedIn.
