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The Seven Deadly Project Sins: Part 3 - Project Gluttony

April 2, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: HR Management, People Issues

The Seven Deadly Project Sins: Part 3 - Project Gluttony (#3 in the series The Seven Deadly Project Sins)
By Tim Bergmann

In this narrative, I will continue to focus on some of the “soft-elements” of the project, some temptations that the project manager needs to be on the lookout for in order to foster success on the project.

The Seven Deadly Project Sins as I have defined them are:

  • Elitism
  • Project Envy
  • Resource Gluttony
  • Project Lust
  • Personalization
  • Over-allocation of Resources
  • Best Practice Sloth

The third Deadly Project Sin – Resource Gluttony can affect you and your ability to accomplish projects as a project manager.

On the Internet at www.wikipedia.com you can view this definition of gluttony:

“gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or intoxicants to the point of waste.”

Project Gluttony involves obtaining resources and hoarding them on your project to the detriment of other enterprise projects; over-consuming resources to the point of waste.

How does Project Gluttony happen?

The project manager becomes selfish, inconsiderate and unconcerned about other projects in the enterprise. The project manager obtains resources and gives them work assignments in order to tie these resources to the project to keep them working on the project. When asked about resource utilization and availability, the project manager responds in a deceptive or elusive manner, stating that the resources are being used and are not available – even though the resources might have some level of availability.

I am sure that no one reading this narrative has ever personally done this. But I bet you know someone in your organization that you think has hidden resources and hoarded resources – and has prevented you (or someone else) from obtaining adequate resources for a project.

The project manager who practices Resource Gluttony often believes that they are in the right. They believe that their project is more important to the enterprise than other projects and that they have an implied “right” to protect their project from outside influences by hoarding and protecting their assigned resources.

If the enterprise has no form of resource management or portfolio management it makes it easy for the project manager to fall victim to and practice Resource Gluttony. If the enterprise has resource and portfolio management tools, it often identifies the gluttons and is able to re-assign human resources to perform more effectively on multiple projects.

We probably realize that every resource assigned to the project is precious. As project managers we also know that it is difficult to share resources across multiple projects. But project managers also know that resource sharing, resource allocation and resource management is the correct thing to do. Resource sharing is a key element for successful project management.

Not only are resources precious, they are assets of the organization. One can make the assertion that Resource Gluttony is the fraudulent use of real corporate monies. Misappropriating or misusing the assets of the organization certainly costs the organization real dollars.

How do we diffuse the problem of Resource Gluttony?

Although common sense should dictate that the project manager is intended to manage the human resources efficiently on the project, this is not always understood or practiced. How then, can project managers ensure efficient use of human resources? Through the establishment of specific roles and responsibilities and through the specific assignment of specific work activities project managers can begin to control resources and not fall into the trap of being Project Gluttons.

Project Portfolio Management and Resource Management techniques are emerging practices that will help minimize resource allocation issues. Using portfolio management and resource management together, the organization should be able to identify clearly the resources that are allocated and to what extent the allocation of resources exists. Using or creating a comprehensive system to track resources will be the most effective means to minimize the resource gluttons in any organization.

In addition to management of resources and allocation of resources by project managers in the organization, it is incumbent upon the project managers to work closely with the functional managers to identify resource allocation and availability. All of these elements must work closely together to ensure that value is provided to the organization in terms of resource utilization.

Later in this series I will comment on another of the resource related project sins: Resource Over-Allocation. Over-allocation can often occur in conjunction with Resource Gluttony. In fact, Resource Gluttony can contribute to Resource Over-Allocation by hiding available resources and forcing the ones who appear to be most available to have to work more to accomplish the project work.

No matter what method you choose to manage the project resources, here’s hoping that you avoid the pitfalls associated with Resource Gluttony.

This article was first published as a series of articles from August 2007 through February 2008 entitled “The Seven Deadly Sins of Project Management”. This series of articles were published as “Project Management Tips” on PM World Today and is reprinted here with permission from the author.

The author, Tim Bergmann, is Chief Learning Officer for True Solutions Inc. in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Bergmann is a highly qualified project manager with three decades of experience managing a wide variety of information technology projects. Mr. Bergmann’s experience includes project management, operations management, infrastructure planning and implementation, business continuity planning, customer service and business development.

In 2006 he co-authored the best selling “CISA Study Guide” marketed by Sybex. Mr. Bergmann’s credentials include Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional (PMP) and Disaster Recovery Institute’s Associate Business Continuity Professional (ABCP).

Mr. Bergmann has seen a progressive management career with several Dallas-based companies such as Compass Computer Service, Zale Corporation, Chief Auto Parts and B. R. Blackmarr/BrightStar Technology Group. His most recent engagement prior to joining TSI was as Director of Education for another D-FW based training company where he developed multiple course content and delivered project management and business continuity training.
As a consultant, he has worked with several Fortune 100 companies in a project management role. Mr. Bergmann has performed premier projects for the world’s largest auto manufacturer, a leading global insurance and investment provider, a regional power generation company, the world’s largest specialty jewelry retailer and a Dallas based transaction network and financial services provider.

He can be reached at tim.bergmann@truesolutions.com

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 and is filed under HR Management, People Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

I do this all the time. The author is ignoring the fact that the Project Manager has also to protect his interests, that may or may not coincide with the Company’s interests. The trick is to always find/create work for resources when you don’t really have work for them.

By applying “Resource Gluttony”, as the author calls it, I’m never short on resources, and, it’s very easy for me to ask for more resources when the need occurs (instead of fighting for scarce resources).

Rob wrote on April 2, 2008 - 11:43 am | Visit Link

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