Project Management Methodologies - Agile or Waterfall?

When it comes to project methodologies, the answer is not as simple as just doing Agile or Waterfall. It often really depends on the project, the type of work, the stakeholder, and the types of people in the team.

There is one word which really gets under my skin and that is “Wa-gile”. There are companies who say that they are Wa-gile. It seems that this means that they have adopted some of the terminology, but have not bothered to read or understand the agile manifesto. So they use the terminology but not the practices.

Waterfall - What is it good for?

The type of work and the stakeholder may necessitate doing things in a Waterfall fashion. 

If you are working with design jobs (no development) they go from scoping to concept, to versions, to final sign-off. These types of projects are very much Waterfall by nature. You can however make them more efficient by reducing documentation in favour of "versions". In design projects you will typically go back and forth with multiple versions anyway. So there's little value trying to document every design element before you even do a mockup.

Government projects also tend to be very prescriptive, and front-loaded with specifications. Therefore Waterfall is quite common even with technology builds. This is a scenario where the stakeholder basically forces the start of the project to run in a certain way. 

Sneaking In Agile

In software development, running an entire project in Waterfall often leads to disaster. The projects over run, and the tail end of the project and drag on longer than the original project. Fear not though...

It's totally ok to have a front-loaded Waterfall project, because you can still run a Waterfall project in an Agile way. Some clever stakeholder hand-holding may allow you sneak in some agile principles to help the project run smoother.

Ways to sneak in some Agile

• Reduce the word length of any documentation in exchange for diagrams, and external links to definitions & other documentation
• Do sprints during the build
• Define a tangible sprint goal
• Each sprint must deliver a "done" increment of the product
• Demo to the client as often as possible
• Ask for frequent check-in points
• You can even call these status meetings
• Tell the client: Even though things are heavily scoped, there are always some stakeholders who wont like something at the 11th hour, so we want to try to be proactive so the project doesn't over run

If you can’t get the stakeholders time, then ask for someone to be in their place. If there is total resistance from anyone on the stakeholders side to be engaged in the project then I would suggest that you nominate a person in your organisation to be a surrogate stakeholder. This person would try to understand the stakeholder’s motivations. 

Hopefully you can see that even though a Waterfall project is very front-loaded, internally you can actually have a few rituals in place to run it in an Agile way.

Final Thoughts

I hope I have shown you that it's not always as simple as Waterfall vs Agile. Waterfall is ok for some types of work, and sometimes the stakeholder (eg. Government departments) forces this on the project team. In software development this can be a disaster, so in my opinion it is really important to add Agile principles into the project. You can still have a Waterfall project, while using Agile principles.

COVID-19 Social Distancing Is Bringing People Closer

This sounds strange, but I think at some level you probably already get what I mean.

Working From Home

It has only been 2 weeks since the UK was told to work form home. Up until 2 weeks ago, many companies were afraid of letting people work remotely. They thought that people would be less connected and less productive. From what I have seen and heard, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is that everyone knows this is is a tough economic time. People know that their jobs are on the line if the company fails, so I have seen a focus and determination to succeed and be productive.

Why were people distant before?

In my own personal experience, it's super awkward when 2 people are at the coffee machine and not they don't even say a word to each other. We may work on the same floor but I can't remember your name or even if I've met you. We're both probably thinking: I'm not being rude. I just don't want to embarrass myself by asking your name again. There may have previously been an awkward encounter which was nobody's fault, but it's just easier to just say nothing and then get out of there really quickly. I'm sure everyone has had this situation before.

If you are in a big company, there are people who's names you don't know, and people you have never talked to. There may even be a person who you actively avoid because of a disagreement in a meeting one time. Before social distancing, we were already distant.

How are we closer?

Humans need social contact. We crave it so much that we develop unconscious habits (some healthy, some unhealthy) to get some sort of interaction.

My personal observations...
It has only been a couple weeks, but it seems that the world has embraced online communication tools such as Slack, Zoom, and others.

Slack channels are noisy with chatter and banter. Zoom calls somehow feel more engaging and productive than previous real life meetings. Does anyone else have that feeling? I guess it is a combination of the 40min time limit (don't fluff... just get to the point), and also video conferencing etiquette. No one is in the drivers seat on a Zoom call. We're all driving.

In general, conversations seem to be more meaningful and deeper now. People seem to be more calm, open and personal. This is partially because people feel more relaxed in their homes, but also hugely because we all crave human interaction. The social distancing seems to be resulting in people being nicer to each other online. Has anyone noticed this?

I find myself Slacking and Zooming to colleagues who I have never met before.  There is a sense of solidarity within my department, and the company as a whole. For the first time in my lifetime, the world is united against a common foe, and this is bringing people together. Many of you will even notice where there was once some "professional friction", there is now the start of camaraderie.

Final Thoughts

Humans are meant to be social. We crave interaction, and develop habits (healthy & unhealthy) to facilitate interactions. Social distancing is a strange situation, and means that people are forming new habits of communication to stay connected. That social "in person" awkwardness at the coffee machine seems like it is dissolving. People are forming bonds which they would not have formed before. There is some real camaraderie forming because as humans we crave it.

It is a cliche, but distance does make the heart grow fonder.

COVID-19 Remote Working Communication Tools

I've been using Slack and Zoom for years, and I'm glad to see people embracing these tools.

As many companies have been moving their staff to work from home, there is some confusion about what people should use Slack and Zoom for. They can feel like "yet another tool" to use. So I thought it would be helpful to outline how I have been using Slack and Zoom to keep remote workers & teams productive.

There are no hard rules when it comes to communication. Keep your ear to the ground, and do what is best for your organisation. Not all of this will be applicable for everyone. It's just some food for thought.

Slack

Hopefully if you are reading this article you know what Slack is.

Department Channels

We have channels for disciplines, and also cross-interest channels for social events and learning.

We prefix our department/discipline channels with "team" so that it is obvious which channels are for teams. Non-department channels don't need a prefix, as they are open.

Here is an example of some of our Digital Experience (DX) channels: 

• team_pm
• Project Managers
• team_development
• Developers
• team_dx 
• Entire department
• team_digital_design
• UI & UX Designers
• team_dx_social
• Only for social events etc
• tech_links
• Learning and sharing knowledge

Note: As a company we have chosen to use underscores for our channel names. It doesn't matter if you use underscores or hyphens. What ever your organisation is comfortable with is the thing that matters.

Project Channels

We have channels for each client. If a client is Slack-savvy, then we invite them to communicate with us on a dedicated client channel. The build/development team have a lot of chatter about implementation and day-to-day issues, so we have another channel so we do not clutter any other channel.

One of our clients is ArcelorMittal, so I'll use them as an example:

• arcelormittal
• All internal project chatter
• arcelormittal_client
• Shared with the client
• Reduces email chatter
• arcelormittal_dev
• Build team chatter
• The Scrum Master is also part of this channel, but doesnt have to be

Private Channels

Generally I think that private channels should be avoided, except for a few scenarios:

• Management
• Sensitive conversations regarding the organisation should sometimes be private
• Human Resources
• Internal HR discussions about staff should be confidential
• A super secret surprise 
• eg. Organising a birthday present

People should be encouraged to be allowed to drop into public channels, then drop out. Think of it like walking into an open office to ask a question to the room.

Direct Messages

Direct messages are a great way to reduce channel clutter. We often broadcast a message in a channel, then decide to move a conversation to direct messages or a call.

Direct messages with multiple people is also possible, however I prefer to avoid this scenario. If you do need to have a direct message with multiple people, then keep it to 2 or 3 people. Otherwise it might be better to create a channel temporarily. Ideally just have a call with them!

Calls On Slack

This is one of Slack's best features! I personally use the call feature when I need to get someone's attention. It is like calling a person's mobile. If they are at their computer then they cannot ignore it :)

Slack calls are great for quick face to face discussions. Use Slack calls so you don't have to type as much. It is far easier to talk than to type. Another fantastic thing about Slack Calls is that you can add other people during the call.

We often screenshare Word docs and Powerpoint slides while on Slack calls. Think of it like being in a room with a big screen.


Channel calls are also possible, however if you are going to have more than 3 people, then we opt for Zoom.

Zoom

Zoom is by far the best video conferencing tool I have ever used. It is intuitive, and just works. Best of all, there is no one in the driver's seat. Everyone is the driver, and it feels so collaborative. Zoom allows you to have up to 100 participants on the free plan, for 40min calls. That's insanely good!

Zoom's enterprise plan allows you to have 1000 participants!

Client Calls

We try to get clients to use Zoom so we can have a real video call with them.

Zoom invitations also include standard phone number. This is fantastic for people people who do not have access to a computer or are unable to do video calls. They can just dial in, while everyone else can still use video on the call.

It should go without saying that Zoom's screen sharing is industry leading. We try to screenshare with our clients so we can go through Word docs, do demos, get feedback on designs, and anything else that you can think of.

The other great thing about Zoom is the recording feature.

Internal Calls / Meetings

Zoom is fantastic for internal meetings that require more than 3 people.

If you are using the free version, then you are limited to a 40 minute. If your company typically has 1hr meetings (or longer), then this will force you to be more productive. Of course, you can always just rejoin the call if you reach your 40min limit. However, most people will want to start wrapping up the call when they see the 10min reminder.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, we use Slack and Zoom for different scenarios.

Slack is a great collaboration tool, and it's call feature is fantastic for quick conversations. Think of Slack as a day to day collaboration tool to increase face to face interaction. When it comes to client calls or regular internal meetings, we use Zoom. Think of Zoom as a meeting/conferencing tool.

Remember, that not everything here will be applicable to everyone. How you use these tools will be defined by what is best for your organisation.

I hope this article has been helpful.

COVID-19 Remote Working Check List

In my previous article I hopefully convinced you that COVID-19 corona virus is an opportunity for businesses to modernise and improve processes. In this article I would like to give you some suggestions for how you can help remote working be more efficient and effective.

People Before Process

While this can be a time for rapid change for many companies, you cant just throw shit against the wall to see what sticks. You need to do things intelligently, and most of all, listen to your employees. Don't just tell them what your policies and processes will be! You would be very surprised how different people work (and interact) with each other when they are remote.

Working from home isn't for most people. A feeling of isolation and even depression may quickly settle in. If you are in a leadership position, then you must be ever diligent to contact your remote staff members to give them human support they need to cope work remotely.

My Suggested Routines For Remote Working

When I was Head of Development at The Cogworks I establish processes to work effectively when we had people in 5 locations over 3 countries, with 2 satellite offices. Many of the processes I introduced were to tackle issues of isolation.

Here are some quick wins which I hope will help your staff adapt to working from home.

1. Ensure everyone has a working (decent quality) webcam and microphone for video calls
2. Hold a Monday morning video call to kick start the week for the entire team (or even department)
3. Hold a weekday morning "standup" video call every day for the entire team (or even department)
4. Hold a weekly retrospective meeting every week (eg. Friday 10am) to discuss:
• What works well for them while working from home
• What they want to improve to help them work from home
5. Encourage people to video call each other
• Don't just write emails or Slack messages
• Seeing a person's face is very important. Ensure people have webcams for video!!!
6. Have everyone send a group message to let others know when they:
• Start work
• Go for lunch
• Get back from lunch
• Finish work
7. Consider a permanent zoom or slack video call for your team so everyone can real see faces all day
8. Encourage people to ask colleagues for feedback on their work
• Very easy if you have creative workers
9. Hold a show & tell session with screen sharing & video
• At Cogworks we initially called this "Code and Tell"
10. Encourage staff to proactively check in each other via video calls
11. Encourage people to have virtual video lunch together

Tools For Remote Productivity

In terms of tools, here is my goto list for remote productivity. Not all of these are suitable for every company, but I hope they give you an idea of the possibilities of online tools to make your job easier.


Day to Day Communication

• Slack
• Zoom

Resourcing & Scheduling

• Google Sheets 
• Shared OneDrive Excel Sheet
• Float
• Resource Guru

Project Scoping & Documentation

• Basecamp
• Stories On Board
• Google Docs 
• Shared OneDrive Word Doc

Day To Day Task Management

• Trello
• Asana
• Kanbanize
• Jira
• Monday

Final Thoughts

Remote working is definitely not for everyone. During this time of remote working en mass, you will need to be very diligent when it comes to your staff wellbeing. Hopefully this article has given you some ideas.

The routines listed in this article do actually work. I hope you really do give at least some of them a try. 

COVID-19 Corona Virus Is An Opportunity For Businesses

In the last couple weeks, I have been privy to various conversations at my company regarding the realities of the COVID-19 Corona Virus on the business. All scenarios have been put forward, and the preparedness of the company has been centre to all discussions. The possibility (now a reality) of people working form home en mass means that the 200 person company is facing one of its biggest challenges in its 30 year history.


See my next article for tips on helping remote working be more effective.

Why I'm Not Worried

When I was Head of Development at The Cogworks I helped establish processes to work effectively when we had people in 5 locations over 3 countries, with 2 satellite offices. At times it truly felt like a remote-first agency, and I really wanted to see that at Radley Yeldar in a larger scale.

In the past 8-10 months the Digital Department at Radley Yeldar has been organically (with a few nudges) ramping up it's remote working processes. People have been working from home far more often. This has been helped largly by great Slack habits, which has resulted in the Digital Department introducing Slack processes for the entire company.

Another great communication tool has been Zoom, and it has overtaken all other forms of conferencing choices with our clients. In fact, one of our clients was already using Zoom internally, and they were only using traditional conference calls and Skype for Business because they thought they had to.

In terms of projects and planning, Stories on Board integration with Jira has been a true success story with our Scrum practices, we are using Trello more often, and we even started using OneDrive for shared documents.

So in the last couple weeks, while the rest of the company was trying to ensure that working from home was going to be productive, I have to be honest and say that I have been mostly blasé about the "work from home" situation.

Why Is COVID-19 An Opportunity For Businesses?

In my time, I have worked with many companies. I have seen bleeding edge adoption of new technologies and processes, dinosaur companies where they were too afraid to change anything, and everything in between.

As today, the UK Government has recommended that everyone who can work from home should do so. While this is an enormous challenge for most companies, it is a fantastic opportunity to modernise with conviction. For those of you in companies which have been slow to adopt working from home policies, tools, and processes, this is an opportunity for you to help your company modernise.

Adapt or perish! What might have taken years of unbearably slow incremental changes is now literally happening within a matter of weeks. This is an exciting time for innovation and ideas. Companies now have the motivation to try new things, get real input from their employees, and create meaningful actions to help people work from home more effectively.

After the dust settles, my hope is that most businesses will hold on to the new processes, and allow people to work from home more often. This could be a catalyst for remote working becoming mainstream.

Remember The People

While this is a great opportunity to modernise, you need to be aware that you have real human people working for you. Working from home is definitely not right for most people, so you need to be aware that isolation and depression can settle in very quickly. You need to actively encourage communication with all of your team, and have routines which facilitate this.

I outline some tips in my next article.

Final Thoughts

I hope that I have given a positive spin on this ordeal. This doesn't need to be a burden. Businesses truly have a great opportunity to modernise and become more efficient. With this challenge, please remember that the happiness of your staff is the most important thing. You need to help them adapt to these rapid changes.

In my next article, I outline some suggestions to help remote working more efficient.

Transferwise Borderless Account Review

Transferwise Borderless Account Review

I've been using Transferwise for several years. Recently they created a new product called "Borderless Account", which allows you to hold money in various currencies. You can essentially use Transferwise as a bank, and have many "Balances", each one accepting a different major currency. You are given a real bank account number with real sort/routing code etc.

It has an optional debit card which can be used overseas without the usual big bank charges.

I often send money back to Australia, so I thought that I would give it a try.

What Is It For?

If you are a person who has ties to more than one country, then you probably have bank account in those countries. This can be a pain. If you need to accept money in another currency, then up until now, one of the only easy ways was via Paypal. However Paypal transfers are quite expensive, and are not "real" bank transfers. The other party also needs a Paypal account. This is where Transferwise saw an opportunity.

The use case is for accepting money in another currency, using real bank accounts via a single portal. The crazy thing is that any person can open up a real bank account, with real local sort/routing banking codes for that country. I was tempted to open an account in other currencies just because!

Opening a Balance

If you are already a Transferwise customer, then opening a "Balance" is as easy as selecting a currency, then a couple confirmation clicks. They really nailed the user experience here. It was frighteningly easy to open a Balance in GBP.

One important thing to note is that they only give you your account number and sort/routing number AFTER to send some money to it yourself.  I sent £20 to the standard Transferwise account, with my user number in the description. My account and sort code were instantly available. So this meant I could send myself some GBP.

I went ahead and sent £10 to my new bank account via it's sort code and account number. It arrived within seconds!

The entire process was:
1. Open the account - Select a currency, and click a couple confirmations
2. Get my sort code & account number - Send £20 to the standard Transferwise account (with my customer reference ID in the description)
3. Test my new account - Send any amount to the new account

It took only a few minutes in total.

Sending Money

Sending money from a Balance requires the normal Transferwise flow, until you get to the end.

I decided to send 10 AUD, and it was super simple. But there is a catch...

Take a look at the fees (see image below).



The fee incurred when sending from the Balance is higher than ALL the other types of ways to complete the transaction. It's even more expensive than using a credit card. This seems crazy, considering all the other services require 3rd party companies. I wonder how these fees add up when transferring larger amounts.

Features I Want To See

I like to automate my life where possible, so I would love to see the following:
1. Automatic scheduled exchange between Balances
2. Automatic scheduled exchange between Balances when the exchange rate reaches a desired threshold
3. Automatic transfer from a Balance to a 3rd party account, when the Balance reaches a threshold

I did take a look at the Transferwise API, and all of this is actually possible, with the possible exception of exchange rate notification. I might see about writing an Azure Function App to do all of this for me :)

Final Thoughts

Opening a "Balance" is frighteningly easy, and I was tempted to open up Balances in countries which I have never even been to. The addition of a debit card seems very useful as you don't get charged massive fees when overseas, however if you already have an account with Revolut, Monzo, Curve etc. then you might not care.

There is a slight temptation to close all of my bank accounts, and just use Transferwise. However,  realistically, this seems reckless. No one knows what will happen to banks, Transferwise, and governments in the future, so I would rather spread my risk.

There are a couple features which I'm sure Transferwise have considered. Everything I can personally think of doing is available in their API So I look forward to seeing this product evolve.

I hope you found this review helpful.

Good Managers Don't Hide Behind Timesheets

It's no secret that I have a hatred of timesheets. In many organisations/teams they simply do not give you the information that you think they do. This is exceptionally apparent when dealing with software/tech teams. See my previous post here: https://anthonydotnet.blogspot.com/2019/09/stop-using-timesheets.html

In this article I will give a view regarding timesheets in organisations from a management perspective. I hope this doesn't ruffle too many feathers ;)

Note: I am writing from the perspective of software/web development.

Managers Don't Read Timesheets

This might come as a shock to some people, but staff timesheets will almost never be viewed by their manager. There is a common belief that timesheets can tell you what your staff are actually spending their time on. If you subscribe to this belief, I hope this article will give you some food for thought:
https://anthonydotnet.blogspot.com/2019/09/stop-using-timesheets.html

Perhaps there are some managers who decide to look at timesheets in the hope that they will try to understand a person's day, and how they spend their time. I'm going to be very blunt and say that if a manager needs to do this, then they are not doing their job properly. Sorry, not sorry.

A good manager will already know what their staff does, what they are working on, and how they feel. A good manager will periodically say hello, so that they can ask questions about the day/week/project. They make an effort to have some personal one-to-one time, and even ask other people about other staff members (directly or indirectly).

Managers Don't Know How To Approve Timesheets

As a manager, I have been asked to approve people's timesheets. I will be totally honest and tell you that I often didn't even know what I was looking at. So in reality I just approve them all. Yes that's the truth. 

Why? But what if they did their timesheet wrong? 

Simply put... I trust the people I work with - The people whom I am there to support. I'm not a micromanager. Realistically, how the hell am I meant to know if my developers did their timesheet correctly? In fact, in my previous company we ended up eliminating them entirely.

You may be thinking "But how do we know if they were on billable work?"

See my previous post here: https://anthonydotnet.blogspot.com/2019/09/stop-using-timesheets.html

Managers Don't Use Timesheets To Track Effort

In my experience in leading teams, it is always obvious to me when developers work overtime. It comes out in conversations about their work. This is generally because they want to solve a problem or fix something that they broke. I also know that most developers typically do not track this time in any meaningful way. So, I also routinely ask developers if they have worked any overtime hours, then insist that they take some time off.

From my perspective, there is one of the only positive uses of timesheets, which I have leveraged in the past. Some organisations need "proof" to justify why someone deserves more vacation time or higher pay. This is one way to give HR/higher manager that proof. In short, timesheets can be used as leverage to put forward a case for more time off, or more pay.

Final Thoughts

I hope this has been a little bit insightful for those of you who wonder what your managers are doing with your timesheets. For the managers out there, I hope that you agree with what I'm saying. We don't need timesheets to help our staff. We only need interactions.

Are Your Policies Hindering Profit?

Many companies believe that working staff as hard as possible will get them the best result (profit). Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, the wrong policies can result in habits and processes which are detrimental to people and the organisation.

In this article I will discuss how your policies (or lack there of) might be hindering the profit of your organisation.

Productivity vs Utility

As a manager, my main objective is to maximise the productivity of my staff. Many managers confuse productivity with utility. Let me explain...

Many managers and organisations believe that working staff as hard as possible will get them the best result. This is the idea that utilisation of people's time, at maximum load (& stress levels) will ensure that their output is at peak velocity. This is a fallacy, and actually results in quicker burnout, and reduced productivity over time.

We are all familiar with the idiom "The straw that broke the camel's back". You burned out the camel very early, so it could no longer work. A better approach would have been to only half load the camel so that it can work indefinitely.

Simple process changes can result in reduction of load, while also increasing the team's overall output. So, my advice to all managers is to seek to reduce load (utilisation) of your staff, while maintaining/increasing output.

One easy way to start is to ask your staff: "What can I do to help make your job easier?"

Overworking Hinders Profit

Overworking your staff actually hinders profit in the medium to long term.

When staff are overworked:

• More mistakes occur
• Quality of work reduces
• Velocity (productivity) is reduced
• More sick days are incurred
• Morale can be affected (hence wider spread reduced productivity)

These are known facts. Falling quality & productivity result in reduction in your overall profit. Moreover, the more you overwork your staff, the higher the likelihood that they will leave the company.

Logically, it is important to have HR policies which ensure that staff members are not overworked. One way to measure this is by a quick survey where staff rate the work-life balance (eg. 1-5). If your organisation rates lower than 4/5, then it is highly likely that your staff are overworked, and your profit is suffering.

Staff Churn Reduces Quality

It is very difficult to maintain quality when good staff leave. The cost of good staff leaving can be very hard to measure. I will attempt to explain...

When a good staff member leaves a company, they take with them a lot of knowledge and good habits. The remaining staff will often not operate as efficiently without that good example in house. They will often even develop suboptimal habits and processes because they do not have the experience or knowledge. Your quality and productivity are likely to fall. The greater the churn of good staff, the more pronounced this effect will be come.

Often good people leave due to frustrations with processes, being overworked, or even because they don't like their manager. The best thing you can do is look at why these people are leaving, and address the root causes. 

Training New Staff

When staff leave a company, the existing staff need to train the newcomers. This reduces the productivity of the existing staff.

Imagine the following scenario:
Alice is an existing staff member
Bob is a new staff member

Since Alice needs to train & mentor Bob, her productivity will be reduced for at least 3-6 months (depending on many factors). In my experience, assuming Alice is a good mentor, her overall productivity would be reduced by at least 20%.

Since Bob is new, his productivity will initially not be as high as Alice. In my experience you cannot expect more than 50% productivity from Bob for at least 3-6 months.

Staff churn reduces productivity for existing staff for several months, while they help ramp up productivity of the newcomer. This is basically unavoidable. There are ways which you can help make the process smoother, however it is much better to address the root cause of why people are leaving in the first place.

In IT it is common for people to change companies every 2.5 years. If you can modify our processes and policies so that staff are retained for 3.5 years, then the cost of training can be drastically reduced.

Management Concepts

As a manager, your job can be summarised in 2 simple questions:

1. What can you do to maximise productivity of your department in the medium to long term (without burning them out)?
2. What can you do to retain staff as long as possible (hence reducing churn & saving money in the long run)?

For me, the answer to these questions is another question...
What can I do to increase happiness in my department?

Increasing happiness is not as simple as free breakfast, and vodka shots on a Friday. I will elaborate further in a future post.

Mental Health In The Workplace

Mental health is an issue which needs much more attention. Managers need to be increasingly aware and diligent in addressing problems. When people are under too much pressure, then all types of behavioural problems can manifest - both at the individual and at the team level. Productivity and quality can suffer.

I recently stumbled across a company called Unmind. This is a startup which seeks to improve mental health in the workplace. I think this is a great initiative, and one of the cofounders is a clinical psychologist. They rate 4.9 on Glassdoor. I hope to hear more about their success stories.

Final Thoughts

I hope I have given you some food for thought when it comes to your organisation's policies. To maximise productivity of teams, Managers really need to take a step back from the ideas of utilisation. The camel can only take so much!

I hope I have convinced you that overworking people really does reduce your company profits, due to reduced quality & productivity, and also the cost of churn.

If you are serious about improving your organisation, please consider staff happiness first. Unmind is a company that can help you do this. Happy staff leads to better outcomes, and hence more profit!

Are Your Project Budgets Hindering Success?

I have worked in various companies over the years. Small to large, integrated, and pure development houses.

I have seen the transition from print to digital in various organisations, and all the practices which kind of make sense for print, but are disastrous in a digital setting.

In this article I'm going to discuss project budgets, and one undesirable behaviour which can manifest in your organisation.

Project Budgets

It should go without saying that projects should be profitable. That's business!

In a traditional agency, chunks of money are ring-fenced to pay for people, and materials. The revenue needs to be higher than the cost (obviously).

The Budget Statement: 
ALL projects must be profitable

As part of this, common thinking is that the combined wages of workers on the project should be low enough so that the project remains profitable. This might mean using mid-weight or junior workers rather than seniors or contractors. That makes sense right?

In the following examples, I will be talking about contractors as they cost a lot more than internal staff, so the effects on decision making are more pronounced. However, the concepts also apply to internal staff due to wage differences of skill levels.

Project Contractors

It is extremely common to hire contractors for the duration of a project. These may be copywriters, designers, project managers etc. Basically whatever the project needs.

There are cases where the project budget is relatively small, which means contractors are not affordable within the project budget. Therefore internal staff are assigned as they are cheaper. This principal applies also when choosing a mid-weight or a junior over a senior, as the senior has a higher wage. This makes total sense right?

So some projects simply do not have budget for contractors. Refer back to the Budget Statement, that ALL projects must be profitable.

On a side note: There are various problems regarding reliability, quality, and consistency of contractors, but that is a topic for another time.

Budget Thinking That Hinders Success 

Imagine 2 available designers:

1. Agnes - An in house senior designer, who is top notch
2. Barry - A contract designer with far less experience than Agnes, who costs the team/organisation more than Agnes because he is a contractor

The team/organisation has 2 projects which will run in parallel:

1. Project A
• High profile
• Requires a top notch senior designer
• Has a high budget (can afford a contractor). 
2. Project B 
• Low profile
• Can have acceptable results with a someone less experienced
• Has a low budget (cannot afford a contractor).

In a traditional agency, the organisation will just run the numbers:

1. Project A 
• Can afford Barry, even though he is not as good as Agnes
• Reluctantly assign to Barry
2. Project B 
• Unable afford Barry
• We must assign it to Agnes to stay within budget

Obvious Risk

In the previous example, I hope you have noticed that putting Barry (with less experience) on the high profile Project A is highly risky. You could end up delivering something below par which can result in losing the client entirely.

But you were forced to stay within budget! The budget forced you to deliver low quality for your client. This is very sad and disappointing.

This is an interchangeable resource fallacy. People are not interchangeable due to various reasons. This may be skills, experience, knowledge, velocity. I can't count the times where the wrong people have been put onto projects.

Note: I'm not talking about errors such as wrong event dates. I'm talking about quality of work.

Can you think of any projects/clients who have suffered due to this type of budgeting?

The Optimal Solution Breaks The Rules

In the example (above), we saw that putting the wrong person on a project can lead to poor results for the client. The client may even decide to leave you.

Breaking The Project Budget

If you only consider the success of both projects, then you are probably thinking that the solution is obvious:

1. Project A
• Assigned to Agnes
• Will be a success 
• Will be profitable
2. Project B
• Assigned to Barry 
• Will be a success
• Will not be profitable

This solution breaks the rule that "ALL projects must be profitable", however the solution ensures that both projects are a success. If both projects are successful then the net result to the team/organisation is the same!

The Cheeky Solution

It is worth mentioning that there is a solution which gets around the budget constraint. Basically all you need to do is cook the books.

On paper:

1. Project A
• Assigned to Barry - However Agnes is REALLY doing the work
• Will be a success 
• Will be profitable
2. Project B
• Assigned to Agnes - However Barry is REALLY doing the work 
• Will be a success
• Will be profitable

Ideally you shouldn't need to do this, but it is a workaround which I'm sure many teams/organisations will do. However this essentially means that you are lying.

Another Solution

If you take a more holistic view of the team/organisation finances, you will see that the cost and revenue (in the above solutions) is exactly the same. Therefore the net profit across both projects is the same.

Consider your staff (mix of fulltime and contracts) as a single pool. Now you have an average wage cost, and you can budget accordingly. Sound simple? That's because it is!

By taking a more holistic view of your organisation (not just projects in isolation), there is higher chance that the you will be more successful and profitable in the long term. This in turn improves profitability.

Project Problems In A Digital World

As we saw above, a poor resourcing decision can lead to poor results, and even loss of clients. When you translate this to digital projects, these problems are amplified, made more frequent, and even more reputation damaging.

Let me explain...

Some print projects can get away with being below par. Often an ugly design can still arguably be used - Yes this is an over simplification, but I hope you get what I'm saying.

A crashing website is of absolutely no value, no matter how many lines of code were used to build it. When a website is made badly, it can be unstable, crash, and even loose money. 

Does anyone remember the TSB crisis of 2018? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/06/timeline-of-trouble-how-the-tsb-it-meltdown-unfolded

Final Thoughts

I hope I have convinced you that project budgets do not work in the way you hope they do. When constrained by the edict that "ALL projects must be profitable", then the organisation will likely develop habits of making sub-optimal choices, which can be devastating.

Often, it is not just as simple as resourcing according to budget. The right person may cost more. However, if the alternative is the risk of a failed project, then shuffling people around is the only option. This of course can break the rule that "ALL projects must be profitable". You may decide to cook the books to say that a contractor is on the project that can afford it. You won't be the first to actually do this.

You may even decide that it is acceptable "on paper" that some of your projects will be unprofitable, so that all the projects can succeed. Another solution is to consider your staff (a mix of fulltime and contractors) as a pool. This means you have an average cost per head, and you can now budget accordingly.

I hope I have given you food for thought. Take a step back, and start looking at project success across your team/organisation, not just projects in isolation. Take a more wholistic view of profit across the team/organisation, not just individual project profit.

Happiness and Management

Prelude

In the distant past, I remember having a conversation with one of the people I managed. They were unhappy about various aspects of their job, the company, etc.

I told them that if they were truly unhappy, then they should leave.

Let me explain...

Why Are You Unhappy?

There are various reasons why a person is unhappy in the workplace. Workload, frustrating processes, unenjoyable types of work, and conflict are all common complaints. But those things are relatively easy to fix, so what else is there? It can be very hard for people to open up, and getting to the root of the problem is sometimes not possible.

During the conversation we discussed that there is no perfect job or workplace. All companies have inefficient aspects to varying degrees, and there is always some boring mundane work to do. Everyone has different likes and dislikes, and for many people there are some deal breakers.

Perhaps other people like the company, but it's just not right for you. That's fine. You don't have to like everything that other people like. What you bring to the table is individuality, and ideas. You are allowed to be unhappy even when other people are laughing.

Happiness Is More Important Than Work

Happiness is more important than any job, and I don't want people who work for me to be unhappy. The happiness of my staff is more important to me than the work they do for the company.

I told them:
If you are truly unhappy in your current position, then you should leave. However, before you make that decision, I want you to try to think of ways that we can make things better. If after trying to make things better, you still feel the same, then I support your decision.

Final Thoughts

As a manager, the happiness of your staff outweighs all other priorities.

Stepping into a management role sometimes means that you need to shove your business goals and smart objectives to the side, and just be an unbiased friend.