Why do Train Wrecks Happen? Causes and Cures!

By David Perkins, dave.perkins@pobox.com

The NTSB investigates aviation, highway, marine, pipeline, and railroad incidents. They have issued nearly 12,000 safety recommendations over a span of 35 years. Train wrecks have been caused by lack of maintenance, failure to follow procedures, weather, improper scheduling, equipment failure, and crew mistakes. Often it is the accumulation of multiple minor miscues which result in the accident.

The taxonomy of failure can be broken down into three basic categories:

• Flawed conceptual idea – otherwise known as “It seemed like a good idea!”
• Incorrect translation from concept to concrete – “You missed my vision!”
• Improper execution of tasks– “If it can go wrong then it already has!”

A conceptual idea has many diverse opportunities to fail. An idea can fail in the marketplace because of features, quality, and value deficiencies. An idea can fail in manufacturing because of cost and yield. An idea may just be ahead or behind its time. The conceptual idea may even just be a bad idea. We use the term “stakeholder buy-in” to encapsulate the thought that an idea has been sufficiently reviewed and accepted by all the key players.

The translation from concept to concrete builds the bridge between business vision and technical execution. This is the arena where the Project Manager lives. The key (and often overlooked) activity is to discern the relative value and conflicting goals of the business requirements and to negotiate a viable plan that is acceptable to the stakeholders. Once the value and interaction of the various business requirements are understood (they will change!) an abstract plan of resources can be made to maximize the successful achievement of the greatest value. The plan is abstract in that it addresses high level business requirements and high level activities. The purpose is to capture how much money and time is appropriate to achieve those business objectives (your plan is wrong and will change!).

Often a PM gets diverted into the role of analyst, trying to translate business activity into models for the implementers. This is not doing project management! Another common diversion is to try scheduling task assignments to individual people. Resources are money, time, and equipment not people. The degree of imprecision in task scope and productivity makes detailed planning beyond the abstract level an exercise in fooling ourselves so don’t even try!

Everyone loves to focus upon optimizing the implementation process. Project train wrecks happen when project managers focus upon the control of the implementation activity instead of reconciling an incomplete or conflicting vision. The fatal micro task management consumes the project manager instead of the needed macro resource allocation planning and facilitation. The best value a project manager can bring to implementation is as a sounding board for the technical team not as a task master.

The project manager is a bridge between business decisions and technical decisions. Being a good bridge does not eliminate business or technical wrecks but it does mean the train can pass from business idea to technical implantation and then back across the bridge as a business product.

Some key points to being a bridge and not a barrier are:

1. Make sure the idea is a GOOD idea that has sufficient value and substantial support.

2. Plan your allocation of resources to provide maximum value not optimized utilization.

3. Confirm your project values with others both up and down the hierarchy.

4. Let the technical team plan and execute their activities.

Project management should make sure that business decisions are made by business people and should let the technical decisions be made by technical people.