Literally dealing with that right now. The project manager is on site, and I thought that I’d finally have some backup on putting together this monster project. He’s so far been asking a lot of questions legitimately trying to wrap his head around what he’s seeing.
I’m the most (only) experienced person on the project and I don’t like it.
I’d recommend telling the project manager exactly that. Ask him to schedule working sessions with you to start getting the project plan started. That way you can answer any questions they have during the meeting, and if not you two can note that as an action item for one of you to figure out. That first plan doesn’t have to be perfect just a draft that’s good enough to start seeing general resources needs and timeframes for those resources.
Your project manager is your friend as long as you are honest and upfront about what you require to accomplish your job.
Source: project manager since 2007, PMO leadership for the past 4 years.
Oh you see, this is a project that’s been going on for years, and I started into it six months ago to get it done by 2025. It’s not just a computer thing, but a robot with a lot of both hardware and software work. Naturally last month suddenly a lot of overhauls were made to the design, and since I’ve single handedly installed all of them, no one person except for me is familiar with exactly how everything fits together. The project plan and timeline is “get it done fasterer.” At this point they will throw whatever material resources are needed to me, but we just don’t have the personnel aside from me.
The project management is also not from the same continent as me, so meetings are a painful thing to schedule. The manager has finally come to the US to oversee the last round of acceptance work.
Right now the mechanicals are 99.9% done and I’m interacting remotely with software people to be their onsite hands.
The project manager is flittering around the room.
I totally understand. I have been in similar situations as well. That is good that they are willing to give you whatever resources you need to get the job done. Unfortunately it also seems like you are the what we call the “single point of failure” as well, which means all the project knowledge is in your head. So with out you the project is pretty much just dead. That is a good spot to be in for job security but a terrible place to be for work/life balance.
My suggestion would be to escalate the project delivery date as a risk every single meeting and in every communication that you send on the subject. Also escalate that you are the single point of failure and that situation needs to be remedy ASAP. That way you are covering your rear end if the dates slip and the deliverables are not ready or not as expected.
I’m getting us over a needed benchmark this week, doing a handoff meeting to somebody, and then coming back in December to jointly work on it with them. At that point all the work should be done and it should be more of giving them a tour of the thing. Everyone knows this is a terrible situation. A lot of things went wrong to get us here.
Edit: Having a coffee right now after fixing an automation thing from another company which attaches to our robot. The guy that company sent was “I dunno what’s wrong with it.” I just want to sit next to my cat, paint minis, and watch Stargate.
Literally dealing with that right now. The project manager is on site, and I thought that I’d finally have some backup on putting together this monster project. He’s so far been asking a lot of questions legitimately trying to wrap his head around what he’s seeing.
I’m the most (only) experienced person on the project and I don’t like it.
That’s the “One minute manager” bullshit. It’s literally just popping in randomly to course correct.
It’s distracting as fuck as a engineer.
I’d recommend telling the project manager exactly that. Ask him to schedule working sessions with you to start getting the project plan started. That way you can answer any questions they have during the meeting, and if not you two can note that as an action item for one of you to figure out. That first plan doesn’t have to be perfect just a draft that’s good enough to start seeing general resources needs and timeframes for those resources.
Your project manager is your friend as long as you are honest and upfront about what you require to accomplish your job.
Source: project manager since 2007, PMO leadership for the past 4 years.
Oh you see, this is a project that’s been going on for years, and I started into it six months ago to get it done by 2025. It’s not just a computer thing, but a robot with a lot of both hardware and software work. Naturally last month suddenly a lot of overhauls were made to the design, and since I’ve single handedly installed all of them, no one person except for me is familiar with exactly how everything fits together. The project plan and timeline is “get it done fasterer.” At this point they will throw whatever material resources are needed to me, but we just don’t have the personnel aside from me.
The project management is also not from the same continent as me, so meetings are a painful thing to schedule. The manager has finally come to the US to oversee the last round of acceptance work.
Right now the mechanicals are 99.9% done and I’m interacting remotely with software people to be their onsite hands.
The project manager is flittering around the room.
I totally understand. I have been in similar situations as well. That is good that they are willing to give you whatever resources you need to get the job done. Unfortunately it also seems like you are the what we call the “single point of failure” as well, which means all the project knowledge is in your head. So with out you the project is pretty much just dead. That is a good spot to be in for job security but a terrible place to be for work/life balance.
My suggestion would be to escalate the project delivery date as a risk every single meeting and in every communication that you send on the subject. Also escalate that you are the single point of failure and that situation needs to be remedy ASAP. That way you are covering your rear end if the dates slip and the deliverables are not ready or not as expected.
I’m getting us over a needed benchmark this week, doing a handoff meeting to somebody, and then coming back in December to jointly work on it with them. At that point all the work should be done and it should be more of giving them a tour of the thing. Everyone knows this is a terrible situation. A lot of things went wrong to get us here.
Edit: Having a coffee right now after fixing an automation thing from another company which attaches to our robot. The guy that company sent was “I dunno what’s wrong with it.” I just want to sit next to my cat, paint minis, and watch Stargate.
Hell yeah, that sounds like an excellent way to spend the day!