Lessons Learned #6 – Shizzle Happens

One of the problems with being a Project Manager is that I’m supposed to know how to organize tasks so that they get done. That includes a healthy dose of “”what happens if”. Known formally as Risk Management. Known informally as, “How am I going to get myself out of it when the effluvium hits the rotary air handling device?”

Of course, for a client I would never dream of doing even the smallest project without at least a minimal bit of project management.

For myself it’s another story entirely.

Which is what went wrong with this project.

Now, I admit that this project was struck by a somewhat excessive number of shizzle floods (movements ???? Or is that too obvious?).  My partner became unavailable just when I needed him. I got sick. My entire family got sick. We ended up taking care of a friend who was recovering (poorly) from an operation. A large number of the templates ended up not working (including this one btw). Conversion was a problem. Things happened without warning and out of order.

As a result this took much longer than I would have expected. Even given that it was a learning experience and with all the problems encountered.

Mind you I might be just expecting too much…..

(BTW … risk is often misunderstood to be a negative. It isn’t. That’s a threat or a potential loss. A risk is the potential for an unexpected situation to occur. The situation could be negative BUT it could also be positive. So finding the perfect solution right off the bat was also a risk. In fact, I discovered the perfect themes right away … except that it wouldn’t work for what we were trying to do.  If I could have used them I wouldn’t be writing this series at all! Now I need to figure out how to use them later…)

Lesson Learned #5:

Be Prepared … aka Shizzle happens!

No matter how small the project, it is important to spend some time doing risk management. What could go wrong? How will it impact the project? What can be done to overcome or avoid it? How likely is it to occur?

There are four risk events that appeared in this project:

1. What if key people aren’t available, have their time severly restricted or aren’t functioning at peak?
2. What happens if secondary people aren’t available, have their time severly restricted or aren’t functioning at peak?
3. What happens if software doesn’t work as expected?
4. What happens if things occur out of order or sooner than expected?

Learn & Earn!

Glen