The details of the specific incident aside, though, I do want to make it very clear that I stand by the point of my original post in general: consultancy is not about covering your ass, but about earning the trust your customer has placed in you.

A different aspect of consultancy comes into play here, politics and the hidden agenda. I think it is an ideal to be free of either, but the reality is, we have to deal with both. People will do everything to protect their interests, be it a certain place in the hierarchy, a certain degree of wealth or the favour of a particular stakeholder. And people will protect their positions if they are threatened. In this case the threat is the SME taking a decision which was not his to make according to the consultant. If that protection requires a move counter-productive to the client, so be it.

On a positive note, I firmly believe there are ways of dealing with this kind of destructive behaviour, while still doing consultancy in a positive, constructive way. In my experience it does require a little mud wrestling, and you’d have to be prepared to get dirty. Plus, the risk exists that you fall into temptation and commit the same errors of judgment you were supposed to resist. The prevent this, your mindset must be slightly rebellious, but definitely committed and disciplined.

If a project manager-consultant is lucky enough, he might find himself in an ideal project situation: having strong, pro-active, intelligent professionals on board, who work well as a team and as individuals, who can be trusted with all that is required to achieve a common goal, without the need of detailed instruction. If he’s really, really lucky, he gets to grow such a group from the ground up. The situation Ben described concerns failing to recognize the luck one has to be in the former, and going about the wrong way in doing the latter. All because one’s position and standing needs to be protected.

Thanks for your comment.

If you read my 2 replies above I don’t see any conflicts with how you feel about what a “good” project manager should do and my 2 reactions on Ben’s Blog article. In other words, I agree with you(not with the “pessimistic” part though, I see it as “realistic”).

Also, I think your third point(of how a PM should act) is what happened to Ben except the gently part I am afraid..

“Fact remains that managing a group of individuals who decide form themselves what jobs they do will make a project managers job a hell. No (good) project manager will accept and allow that to happen (at least I wouldn’t).”

“In case of the last you will be corrected by any project manager(good, bad or ugly) to stick to the planning instead of deviating from it.”

seem to assume that individuals will always decide to deviate from the plan, which I find very pessimistic.

I’ve always felt that a good project manager tries to give as much responsibility to the developers as possible, whilst: 1) always knowing exactly what stage they are at; 2) what they are working towards and 3) roughly how long it will take to get there. It should be clear to the PM if something is going wrong and they need to (hopefully gently) readjust the direction of the developers.

How are you mate?

I won’t disagree with any of your points there. However, some PMs, good, bad or ugly, do like deviation from plans. I don’t mind it, focusing purely on value. My clients seem to love it…

Watch out for the master: http://jamiedobson.co.uk/?q=node/70

That has been a long time.

“As a project manager you should be aware of the tremendous motivation that autonomous behaviour brings.”

In my opinion this is heavily dependant on the developer your are facing and from experience I know that developers and consultants can be frightend by the fact they are not guided or coached in what to do and when to do it.

Secondly, I think this is greatly dependant on the client your are working for. If it is a big account with countless (big)projects I guess the space to move freely is bigger then a new client with 1 big “high exposure” project.

In case of the last you will be corrected by any project manager(good, bad or ugly) to stick to the planning instead of deviating from it.

Nice to talk to you again(via this blog).

Regards, Rick

PS – great consultants always break the rules… don’t they?

If not that, then looking for a rule to break.

Rick: “But! I also understand the opinion of your project manager. Fact remains that managing a group of individuals who decide form themselves what jobs they do will make a project managers job a hell. No (good) project manager will accept and allow that to happen (at least I wouldn’t).”

I am a good project manager (track record, conferences, more work than I can do, etc) and not only do I allow people to decide for themselves, I actively encourage it (which maybe Ben can testify to). I do this via trust, practices that create breathing space, and by holding account individuals when they get it wrong. As a project manager you should be aware of the tremendous motivation that autonomous behaviour brings. In fact, I would challenge your statement that no good project manager would allow that to happen and say actually, only a bad project manager would allow that not to happen. Software professionals are some of the smartest people you will ever meet – don’t treat them like children. Use their desire and creativity to create value but couple that with discipline.

What one man considers a hell (the illusion of control) another man considers a heaven (chaorder). I think we all need to have a real think about what software project management really is. From a deep understanding of people and systems come opportunities to add real value. Ben has learnt this lesson very well. He’s a beacon that other engineers should be guided by.

Very good Ben. J

PS – great consultants always break the rules… don’t they?
Deep understanding: http://jamiedobson.co.uk/?q=node/68
http://jamiedobson.co.uk/?q=node/69

No, not yet. Since the colleague described did not agree, the investigation and estimation were not done for a while. And the business still has not received the results.