This is for questions where corporate or company politics are involved that generally relate to the culture of the organization, client, or other aspects that may influence or challenge a project's ability to be successful.
Questions tagged [politics]
21 questions
17
votes
5 answers
Deliver results when finished significantly prior to the agreed deadline?
In the seldom cases where your project (or milestone) completion estimation was too pessimistic, do you deliver results right away? If not, which tasks do you assign your team members in the meantime?
From my point of view, there are two…
bonifaz
- 1,136
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15
votes
4 answers
Should I work with another manager or take on his responsibilities?
A manager of equal level in the org chart is in charge of a team that is responsible for a critical delivery piece in one of my projects.
He generally assigns his team deadlines that have no room for error. This creates anxiety in my team and for…
Mark Phillips
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14
votes
6 answers
No trust between Project Manager and Sponsor
What should a PM do if he has sound reasons not to trust his sponsor? And if the sponsor openly acknowledges that he doesn't trust the PM?
This is a challenge found all too often (and migrated from another site).
Mark Phillips
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13
votes
7 answers
How to deal with chaotic stakeholder who is high in pecking order?
Consider you run a project where a key stakeholder is one of VPs. She is a typical hit-and-run type of person: she comes to a project team with half-baked idea, either refuses to discuss details because they're confidential or just throws some…
Pawel Brodzinski
- 19,756
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10
votes
2 answers
What is the Procedure for Handling a Team Where Two Members Might be Dating?
Some companies have policies where people may date but that the two individuals can't be working in the same department or be in a supervisor/subordinate relationship.
But with projects, you often see situations where cross-functional and/or…
jmort253
- 9,499
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10
votes
6 answers
How to protect a team member from management?
A member of my team has had a terrible experience with other senior managers on one project. He used to work for them. While he worked for them he was misled on delivery dates, requirements and generally pushed around.
I am now managing him…
Mark Phillips
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8
votes
5 answers
Members of the Broader Team Find the PMO Burdensome and Valueless
The scenario here is a new IT Services Program that is about six months on a five-year firm fixed price contract, providing IT infrastructure and application O&M services for an organization that is world wide. All the teams, including the PMO, are…
David Espina
- 36,332
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7
votes
3 answers
The right way to correct a new employee who accidently stepped on your toes
I'm managing an upgrade project and I asked my assistant to do some preliminary research and come to me with some ideas on how to approach the project.
This particular project affects a large number of people and has one significant stakeholder…
Chase Florell
- 173
- 5
7
votes
3 answers
How should I get work from someone who "Talks a good game" but won't deliver?
Background: I worked for an organisation that delivered services to a number of public sector clients, geographically dispersed. A series of security-related changes were required to allow one such client to comply with centrally-mandated security…
Iain9688
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6
votes
1 answer
Can't build reality tree of undesirable effects as objections are absurd
I'm attempting to build a future and current reality tree regarding changing policy and procedure to data access, but we're being given undesirable effects that are entirely divorced from reality.
For instance, we're asking for a list of locations…
Incognito
- 514
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- 10
5
votes
3 answers
How to Deal with a Request for Asynchronous Communication?
A colleague of mine asks to be cc'd on my communications to our boss. However, he does not cc me on his communications to our boss.
We are on the same level in the org chart. He has seniority and was originally my manager.
Our boss has asked me to…
Mark Phillips
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5
votes
4 answers
How can a PMO help the adoption of a project management culture in an organization?
I've worked with organizations that have started project management offices (PMO) in order to become more project oriented in their work processes.
Sometimes it works, and the PMO becomes a source of project management knowledge that it teaches…
Mark Phillips
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5
votes
3 answers
How to Get a Peer to Take Charge of His Own Project?
One of my projects depends heavily on another project at a different location. The leader of the other project does not take charge of it but relies on me to make many decisions for his project.
How can I get my peer to take up responsibility for…
Andy
- 111
- 3
5
votes
6 answers
What criteria should be considered when deciding to do work which goes beyond project scope?
Answering my recently asked question whether to "deliver results when finished significantly prior to the agreed deadline", Smandoli suggested to fill the slack with "Look for places to exceed expectations, exceed the spec."
I understand that…
bonifaz
- 1,136
- 6
- 15
5
votes
5 answers
Dealing with a culture of fixed, scheduled project board meetings
An earlier question, Managing Without Meetings, was mainly focused on the number and frequency of internal team meetings. This question is about project board meetings that are scheduled to take place on a regular monthly basis, and therefore don't…
Iain9688
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