Collective Wisdom from the Experts 191
• Ask and ask until you understand the scope of the project so you can work
within it.
• Locate probable team members and other stakeholders. Whenever pos-
sible, include them in brainstorming, planning, and project execution.
• Allow the people who are doing the work to fully participate in project
updates and decisions, at least until they finish their activities on this project.
• Always be an honest software project manager. Never gloss over or sim-
plify problems to avoid conflict or uncomfortable discussions.
• Provide the environment within your project team that you’d like to see
mirrored by the whole organization.Project managers must be objective about the project. They occupy the unenvi-
able role of owing their first allegiance to the organization that pays them,
while at the same time needing to build a trust situation with the developers.
If the project outlook looks bleak, an astute and principled project manager
should make a recommendation that it be cancelled until peripheral problems
can be addressed.
We all want to work in an organization with a cohesive strategy to support new
software project development. But sadly, that capability level may vary enor-
mously even among departments within a single organization. Since moving
toward a more supportive environment benefits all, it should become a part
of the software project manager’s role to alert upper management to cultural
conflicts between project priorities and performance rewards.