A project management story
The five realms of resources
There are many books written about resources management and there will be many more after this story is told, nevertheless what lead me to write this was just the need to share with others my experiences related to this subject and my way of making sense in this struggle.
Understanding that resources are limited and convincing sponsors to allocate them to the project was just the beginning of this story. The effort to define, identify and to negotiate for resources took a lot of energy and the knowledge to keep some energy for what comes next, was for the wiser ones.
The five realms of resources
Once upon a time, on a project, all the resources were allocated as requested and the project manager was very pleased to see that his effort was not in vain.
Having this done, he defined and documented all the processes related to the governance and organization of the project. He discussed all of that with stakeholders and, from the way of working up to the deliverables expected from everyone, all agreed.
There was a time of great hope, still little did he know about the shift of resources when talk is over and work and contribution is to be delivered. The very same resources carefully identified by him started to have a strange and an unexpected way of contributing to the project goal and objectives.
Great battles were fought until everyone took it’s rightful place and the five realms were defined. About this battles we will hear in another time because today our story is about the realms and the habitant.
There are five realms and in the first one leave the ones called “the invisibles” and, as the name tells the resources taken from this land are present on the paper but never in person, never in meetings, not to be found on phone nor by e-mail. There is great skill needed to make them appear and many lost their way trying to take a contribution from them. When not skilled enough it is advisable that one must erase their names from the book of project and send them to oblivion.
The second realm is inhabited by the marionettes. Those appear in plain sight and do not hide, they like to be in meetings and are to be found behind the laptop or the smartphone doing all the time something else. Approach carefully because they get angry and confused if asked any question or requested any contribution from them. The true marionette will always say yes to any demand and forget immediately the commitment. It is said that the mind of the marionette is always protected because it is somewhere else from the body.
The moody’s are living in the third land and are somehow of good use for the project manager. They are aware on the needs of the project and make their contribution as long as they are in a good mood and somebody else is responsible in case of failure. When asked to take a decision they will always find a way to disappear into the shadow leaving others to perform this great task, do not worry they will appear right after the decision is taken.
The legend says that a moody will never sign with his true name because this will turn him into stone.
The forth land belongs to the evolved. Those are great and powerful contributors to the project. They will help you in all the battles and stand by your side. The weakness of the evolved ones is time, they cannot stay very long in our land and after the agreed daily schedule is done they must go back to their world. Do not try to stop them in order to prolong their stay for the project, the evolved will never come back after.
The committed are the inhabitant of the fifth and last land. They are as rare as the unicorns and one must be very lucky if he finds a committed. They are fully autonomous and can sacrifice almost anything to achieve the goal of the project. It is very uncommon for a committed to question the objective and their main weakness is their faith, they will follow the objective blindly to the end.
It is said that all turns to dust if one project manager would try to place one resource in a world that where it does not belong to.
Thus being said, a wise project manager will take note on each feature of the resources and will place everyone accordingly.