-
Spotting a Failing Project: 9 Warning Signs
May 23, 2012
-
Values of Effective Project Managers
May 23, 2012
-
Calm in the Eye of the Storm
May 23, 2012
-
Management by Heroics
May 22, 2012
-
Project Planning for Project Sponsors: Why You Need To Be Involved
May 22, 2012
-
Lost in Projects - Integrated Project Management
May 22, 2012
-
10 Warning Signs that Your SharePoint Implementation May Be Heading for Difficulty
May 21, 2012
-
Smaller is Better and More Effective
May 21, 2012
-
Finding the Roots of Organizational Incompetence
May 21, 2012
-
Project Management Office Basics: Six Secrets For Efficient Shared Services
May 20, 2012
Project Management and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
June 26, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings
Project Management and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
By Andrew Meyer
Have you ever been on a project or program where all the PMs knew that their project was in trouble, but they were waiting for someone else to admit their problems first? It happens often enough, as soon as one PM admits that they have a problem, everyone else discovers problems too.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
From the PM’s position, it’s a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies (defects) for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full twenty-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only one-year in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation.
How should the prisoners act?
The Project Manager’s Dilemma
So you’re managing a project, doing your best, but you made a mistake and need more time with a critical resource. The problem is, there is another project that need this same person.
You are putting together your status report. You know the economy’s bad and the rumors are all over. The company’s going to have cuts and people are going to get laid off.
- If you confess your need for the resource and the other PM doesn’t confess, your project will get the resource and safely go on.
- If you confess your need and other PM also confesses their need, there’s going to be an evaluation and both projects will lose people and be put at risk.
- If you don’t confess and the other PM does, he will get the resource and succeed and you and your team will be fired.
- If neither of you confess and wrangles on quietly for the resource, both projects will probably be late, but they will succeed. There might be some people cut, but both PMs will keep their job.
What are you going to do?
Andrew Meyer studied systems and industrial engineering before spending fifteen years implementing global IT and Business Process Re-Engineering projects. Frustrated with seeing communication issues hurt projects again and again, he returned to get his MBA from the University of Southern California and focused on project communications and risk management. To apply this to real-world problems, Andrew founded the Capability Alignment Professionals (http://www.CompanyAlign.com), which is dedicated to aligning incentives and encouraging communications. He discusses these issues in his blog Inquiries Into Alignment (http://alignmentinquiries.blogspot.com/)
feel free to leave a comment
Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
All fields marked with " * " are required.
- Agile Project Management
- Ask the Hut
- Certification
- Change Management
- Communications Management
- Computer Based Information Systems
- Concepts
- Corporate Transformation
- Cost Management
- Critical Chain Project Management
- Delegation
- History
- HR Management
- Implementing Project Management
- Integration Management
- Lessons Learned
- Management
- Miscellaneous
- People Issues
- PMBOK
- PRINCE2
- Procurement Management
- Program Management
- Project Lifecycle Phases
- Project Management Advantages
- Project Management Advantages
- Project Management as a Career
- Project Management Best Practices
- Project Management Charts
- Project Management Definitions
- Project Management Ethics
- Project Management for Beginners
- Project Management Guides
- Project Management Musings
- Project Management Office
- Project Management Proposals
- Project Management Templates
- Project Portfolio Management
- Project Workforce Management
- Quality Management
- Requirements Management
- Risk Management
- Scheduling
- Scope Management
- SCRUM
- Soft Management
- Time Management
- Training
- Uncategorized
3 people have left comments
Looks like the only way to minimize the damage is to confess (since the other PM will most likely confess as well).
I would rather look at this situation differently.
Ethically, what is the PM’s responsibility? What was he hired to do and what is he supposed to do?
So, the first and foremost responsibility is to focus on project success in the best possible way. No missing deadlines, no cost overruns etc.
If the PM plays by the book, he will raise the requirement for the missing resources. If you want to call it confessing, so be it.
I would say, it’s more about doing the right thing.
Regards,
Vineet Guliani
Two things - first, Vineet is absolutely right. You need to be honest. Waiting to do it only makes the problem worse - you look less trustworthy and you made a bad situation worse. You could have been up-front earlier; now you’ve risked extra time that might have helped both projects!
The second point is hard to implement because it will not always work. It’s all about proper resource management. (See http://www.steelray.com/blog/?p=125 for greater detail). In this scenario, you are saying there is only one person and both PMs need that resource. I know that happens in real life all the time. But what if there was cross-training involved? What if the PM rolled up his/her sleeves and went to work on that as well? These two options are NOT always possible, but when they are, they can be used fairly effectively, especially in an emergency situation like this one.