From executivebrief.com comes a pithy interview with experienced Project Manager, Robert Bone: Managing Large Projects with Ease: 9 Pressure Reducers That Work!

The most interesting point, to me, was Bone’s first pressure reducer, Data Load Early in Migrations. Bone’s main thought here is that data load should not be saved to the end, but done either early in the project, or else in small batches throughout the project. Otherwise, several months have passed before a fatal flaw is discovered either in the database design or the legacy data.

I will agree that migration done early in the project can help meet deadlines and reduce or eliminate cost overruns, but how early? Surely the early load would be preceded by test data in order to find security holes. If data is compromised, let it be fake SSNs or CC#s.

While it can be helpful to break up data into smaller batches, I would try to get all data in one silo (e.g. all AP invoices, all admission applications) migrated over one weekend. Don’t let your users come in Monday morning to find that invoices 0001-2999 are in the new system, but 3000 – 30000 are in the old system. The fewer incremental changes your end users have to deal with, the less they will hate you later on.

Bone adds other pressure reducers that are solid common sense recommendations, boiling down to only working on what is required, and standing firm against unauthorized changes to what is required. I can hear the sighs from PMs of “In a perfect world…” and “If only…” but it’s true.

Bone also points out the team-oriented pressure reducers: Avoid resource bleeding, where you lose a developer’s time to anothe project, and reign in team members, or even whole teams, that isolate themselves from the larger group.  I have seen it many times, concurrent departments working on a similar solution, from an equipment checkout system to a course registration system.

In short, Bone goes over familiar territory for project managers in all disciplines, but I was left wanting a little more How To Do It to go with his What (Not) To Do.

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