Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Separately track these two life cycles — project and product — and
two scopes — project and product — at all times. A lot of frustration is
caused by not recognizing that there are two threads in action, not one.
Sometimes, project managers will start “interfering” in product issues that
are not project issues, thereby angering the engineering teams. Product
leads may not recognize the project management processes that repeat
with each phase and get frustrated with the project management “over-
head” that keeps cropping up every time they start a new phase. It helps
to lay out the separate life cycles and scopes — the multiple process
architecture, so to speak — to the leads and the team at the start of the
project.
Critical versus Important
Something is considered
critical
if its absence (or presence) causes the
things are significant — things
whose absence (or presence) will impede the system but not prevent it
from functioning. Air and water are critical for human survival — vitamins
are important. We all recognize the importance of identifying the critical
components. It is the mistake of treating merely important items as critical
that causes problems.
Customers treat most of their requirements as critical; vendors may
not. One will have to use one's expertise, and analysis skills, to distinguish
the critical from the important. Sometimes the difference in opinion is
due to differing viewpoints and granularities. The customer is perhaps
taking the (understandable) stand that everything has to be delivered
according to the contract, and thus is critical. The project manager, on
the other hand, is looking at the classification of critical versus important
to help better allocate some of the scarce resources, to help identify the
requirements that need careful monitoring. While all requirements are
important, the planning is guided and driven primarily by the critical ones.
Whenever the term “critical” is used, one must ask what critical stands
for. “Critical path” is a frequently misused term. It stands for a specific
meaning. The term “critical activity” is used in PERT (Program Evaluation
and Review Technique) to mean that the activity is on the critical path.
These are activities that have no “slack” — that is, if they slip, the entire
project will run late. Some of these activities may be “trivial” compared
to the more “important” tasks within the project. Deciding on a name for
a new server is obviously less important than creating the test plan, for
example. The naming could be a critical activity because it has no slack
— any delay will affect the entire project, whereas a few days' delay in
the creation of the test plan may not because it has what is called a “float.”
system to cease functioning.
Important
