Collective Wisdom from the Experts 91
stakeholders by involving them in prioritizing what features or functionalities
are the most important/valuable/revenue-producing, given the amount of
resources (time, money, and people) at Tom’s disposal. Then each group gets
feedback regarding how much work it can expect that week, given the needs of
other parts of the online division. Communication is the most effective com-
ponent in planning out the work for Tom’s team, especially when the priorities
of multiple projects must be established.
Perhaps Tom and his team have had an unfortunate experience with one of
the stakeholder groups on a past project. With this approach, the “blacklisted”
team can continue to get its work completed until time, or a more proactive
intervention, helps heal the wounds from the previous interaction.
In the end, software project management is about managing people and man-
aging the processes in which they are involved. Interpersonal conflicts within
a team and between vying organizational groups are very common. Diversity
in ideas, goals, values, beliefs, and needs are the primary strength of teams, not
weaknesses. However, they inevitably lead to personal conflicts and conflicts
over the prioritization of the workflow through the team.
Most conflicts are a threat to productivity and efficiency; resolving them sat-
isfactorily can actually strengthen relationships, foster creative change, and
improve results. All conflict resolution tactics depend on proactive commu-
nication, active listening, compassionate understanding, and some effective
negotiation and/or arbitration. Skilled software project managers are needed—
because you can’t solve people issues with spreadsheets.