Lessons Learned from the Three-Week Project Turn Around Essay

In the world of computers, Information Technology and Software Development raft speak a different language. They might as well be talking ancient Latin and no one leave behind care for when they enjoyment C++, VisualBasic and Java the rest of the population would sometimes feel out of this world. The concourse leaders and vomit up managers who are leading this group of people must learn a different focus of solving group conflicts and a boniface of business problems related to the digital world. One has to remember that though this finical group is in some sort of manufacturing a product, they are by no means dealing with raw materials like wood, minerals, metals, and chemicals. They use something else and that is human resources called programmers. Charlie Poole had the hazard to work in this world and he found out soon that he must quickly adapt to the situation. His problem with a certain software training project was non unique to the software development company he is working for. He is feeling the pressure of seemingly insurmountable problems parking area to this business. In fact Poole and his team is already experiencing or about to experience a number of patterns or cycles a software development group commonly encounters as described by Kent Beck in his book, Extreme Programming Explained and a few examples are listed belowSchedule slips the day for delivery comes, and you have to signalise the customer that the software wont be ready for another six months. understand canceled after numerous slips, the project is canceled without ever going into production. desolate rate the software is put into production, but it doesnt solve the business problem that was originally posed.False feature rich the software has a host of potentially interesting features, all of which were fun to program, but none of which makes the customer much money.Staff turnover after two years, all the good programmers on the project begin to hate the program a nd leave. Again, based on his journal/project report there is reason to believe that the dreaded scenarios mentioned by Beck is looming in the horizon of Poole and his team as evidenced by his writings In July 2001 I spent three weeks trying to turn a project around. The project had troubles big requirements that said nothing, schedule slippages tat had already ex guideed it to twice its original estimate, no integrated version of the app we were developing This was far beyond my original commitment and I was planning to leave. At the same time, the project manager was leaving, and a new one was not available for three weeks. (Poole) The background is set and before Poole could have reached the last level as desribed by Beck leaving the company in frustration the turnaround master Mr. Poole turned to the groundwork tenets of Extreme Programming (XP) for help. The principles of XP can be found in an article written by Pradyumn Sharma, CEO of Pragati Software and he listed it asContinuous integrationSmall ReleasesOnsite CustomerPlanning GameMetaphorSimple DesignTestingRefactoringPair ProgrammingCollective OwnershipNo overtime secret writing Standards Charlie Poole asserts that he only used four of the twelve XP principles namely, 1) Continuous integration 2) Small Releases 3)Onsite Customer and 4) Planning Game. This does not really mater because the success of the team can be attributed not only in the use of XP methods but in the leadership skills of Poole. Consider the future(a) steps he took, becoming a sort of a maverick in that company who like the others have certain traditions and a way of doing things. In order for the project to be sinless in such a short time and with the odds not in their favor, the team and the leadership must follow an ancient truth which is the development of a vision. Before anything this vision must be first in place in the hearts and the minds of the all the members of the team including of course the leadership. A v ision or a mental image of what must happen after a given time must be endured by the leader. accord to Russ Finney this leader is called the professional system builder and he must in turn become a system visionary which according to Finney has the unenviable position of doing the following tasks His or her willingness to share insight and understanding of a situation, and the necessary steps he or she envisions to arrive at a desired outcome, tend to be dependent on tow factors the level of confidence he or she has in the ideas, and his or her tolerance for scrutiny and criticism With each mountain pass phase of the project, he or she must constantly develop and communicate his or her vision of both the system functionality and the project approach. (1999) Charlie Poole did not only provide vision and comprehended to his team mates but he alike he team but he designed an ingenious way for building it and presenting it to them. Poole did not sit in one corner of th office and wrote his vision but instead proposed the use of stories. Again, he demonstrated his ability to be a maverick when the situation calls for it. This use of a story works wonders for the group because of the following reasonsSimplifying the abstract world of computer programming.A creative way of allowing the Customers who may not be technically proficient to join and contribute to the painting of a mental picture of what the project ought to be.It created a source of information from which the group can draw inspiration and also a tool to on seeing a birds eye view of the project that will aid in the latter stages of integration. Poole also did more than provide a vision, he also created an environment that minimized the emergence of conflicts between teams and team members. He probably got the idea from Ohlendorfs work when he began to meet his team every Monday for breakfast. And instead of castigating his team for infractions he was willing to listen to what they have to s ay. The following statements explain why Poole was successful in this area. Amy Ohlendorf in her work entitled Conflict Resolution in Project Management asserts that learning how to actively listen will do wonders for an organization experiencing difficulty and she said Listening allows the conflict to take its natural course by giving individuals the opportunity to disagree, express untouchable opinions, and show passion for ideas. A respect for individual difference is demonstrated and an environment of understanding is fostered. Listening is helpful in achieving a winning resoluteness by enabling an employee to identify the criteria that is considered an acceptable outcome. As a result trust and a relationship bond will form preparing individuals to listen also to the needs of the manager. (2000) The only snag to the three week saga was when the companys management step in to override what Poole was successfully been doing since he assumed the denounce providing close proximity leadership. This way he was able to know how to make the thing work and all of a sudden management began dictating unrealistic deadlines that near keeled the ship over. Lesson learned from that fiasco in times of crisis lead, dont manage. Conclusion Based on his journal or project report, Charlie Poole did not elaborate if he went to a leadership school or if he had had previous training in a management institute. If he did not accordingly it can be said that he demonstrated an uncanny ability to provide high-caliber leadership for a group in crisis mode where everything that is happening points to an fateful collapse. Almost everything went according to his wishes at least those that he can control which are a testament to his leadership skills and the courage to do practice methodologies and techniques neer done before. In other words he dared to do something different, for the simple reason that he was tasked to complete a job and there is no way it can be done u sing the normal route the normal way of doing things around here sort of thing. And he was handsomely rewarded for his no gritrock no glory approach with a little help from sound leadership principles that he threw in to his bag of tricks.ReferencesOhlendorf, Amy. (2000). Conflict Resolution in Project Management. University of Missouri St. Louis, Available http//www.umsl.edu/sauter /analysis/488_f01_papers/Ohlendorf.htm30 May 2006.Finney, Russ. (1999). Winning Project Teams. ItmWEB Media Corporation, Available http//www.itmweb.com/essay003.htm 30 May 2006.Beck, Kent. (2000). Extreme Programming Explained Embrace Change. Boston, MA Addison- Wesley.Poole, Charlie (2006, March 4) Three hebdomad Project Turnaround. Cunningham & Cunnigham, Inc. Available http//c2.com/cgi/wiki?ThreeWeekProjectTurnaround 30 May 2006.