New software project manager (6)-do not make minor improvements

Improvement is a headache for every project manager.

1. Little story

James is a little worried. Zhang Sanxing rushed to work for a project and was filled with ambition. He must make some achievements this time. Before joining the company, the leader talked to James. There are many problems in the project and they need to be improved. After a period of research, Michael Jacob came up with a complete set of improvement solutions. Zhang San submitted the entire solution to the leaders. The leaders looked at it and said it was good. I need to study it again. After a few days, the leadership has not completed the research. Michael Jacob went to the lead and the lead began to delay. He had a good idea, but he still needed to observe and study whether he was suitable for our company. Finally, James was disappointed when the so-called improvement failed.

2. conventional ideas

It is strange that such a good improvement method will lead to delays. Zhang San still thinks that he should discuss with the lead. The leaders praised Michael Jacob's plan and desire for improvement. This is a meaningful question. Later, James gradually understood that the improvement plan overturned some previous measures of the leader and did not comply with some of the company's actual potential rules.

The risk of major improvement is so high that it is easy to conflict with an invisible rule and cause a sensitive response. What about small improvements?

Do not make minor improvements. Leaders cannot do things they cannot see. This is a Chinese way of doing things. Some people will remind you that you will be unhappy when you do this. Who is this person? Some people will reject this. This is our way of doing things and cannot be changed. So in the end, the Project Manager can only be regarded as none of my business and be alone.

3. Continue Thinking

Is small improvement really ineffective? It can be effective. Taking a 6-month project as an example, if every two weeks (one iteration) can improve by 2%, it is really difficult to see the difference. However, after six months, the difference reached 27%, which is an extremely obvious difference. Therefore, small improvements are very effective, but they are hard to persevere. There is no small improvement, but there is no fat man at all. In addition, small improvements are easy to find and there are no such major obstacles.

In addition, if James insists on small improvements, and Wang Lei, the other project manager, does not make any improvement, he will only summarize it after the conclusion (if Wang Lei has such a good habit ). After the six-month project is over, the situation and accumulated experience of James will far exceed that of Wang Lei. What is the difference in 3-5 years.

4. Reference Cases

4.1Reference case 1

This is a comparative case.

Project A and Project B are based on the same platform and have very similar projects in different market segments. Compare two projects in parallel. In the first six months, there were no significant differences between the two projects. There were many bugs and sometimes they could not be delivered on schedule. However, six months later, the difference between the two projects began to be significant. Project B's quality control was significantly effective, responding to changes quickly, and continuously delivered results. Project A's code quality is worrying and it is difficult to add new features. After one year, the difference has increased. The two teams have completely different ways to deal with changes. Team A is always lamenting and changing, while Team B is discussing what changes should be made this time.

Analysis: If project a breaks down at a rate of 2% every two weeks and Project B improves at a rate of 2% every two weeks, Project B will outperform Project A by 62% after the end of six months. (Note: This computation is only an example of theoretical analysis .)

4.2Case 2

This is a five-year project.

The project has never been running smoothly, but it has been greatly improved several times. Once, the company decided to introduce CMM. The company established the SEPG group. The SEPG team leader was very tough and forced to regulate various behaviors in the project, which caused a great rebound. Under resistance from all parties, the improvement of CMM failed.

Now this project has become a restricted area for improvement. People are talking about improving and changing colors. People in the project also had to pass, when a monk, hit a day for a minute.