PM'S BEHAVIOR -PROJECT MANAGEMENT HINT

First, abandon the fast food order taking. Agreeing to everything does not work. Instead, ask questions until you unearth the acceptance criteria the executives will use to judge the project when it is done. The project team can not start work without it.

Asking these questions can irritate executives who don't know what they want. But the irritation is far less than what you will see after the project fails.

A savvy project manager responds to the anger at the scope questions with a reasonable statement like "How can I deliver the business result you want if I don't know precisely what it is?" Executives may not like this push back. But it is worth a bit of early executive dissatisfaction if it gives PM the opportunity to define a measured business result.

Executives think they know the project finish date. Don't start the project with executives finish date before knowing the availability of resources, estimated hours of work, how many people are needed. Then PM can give executives a planned completion date.