New software project manager (9)-Who are your enemies?

Who is your enemy? This is a problem. Are they enemies with you, or are you enemies with them? There is a saying that the world is invincible.

1. Little story

John is the project manager of Project E, and Project E is a project jointly developed by the United States and China. At the early stage of the project, the Chinese team had no right to speak because the U.S. employees were relatively senior. John sets the target to be an opponent of the United States and to catch up with the Americans. As a result, the Chinese team members worked hard and finally surpassed the Americans in some indicators. However, although Mr. Zhang has a good relationship with the U.S. team, the Chinese team has also become an opponent of the U.S. team. The teams complained and accused each other, and the U.S. team has increased its supervision over the Chinese team. The code library cannot be shared. Any major code changes must be approved and your own code will be forcibly rolled back. Can we make good software in this situation of mutual hostility? James is very tired. He often fixes bugs and coordinates relationships. At the same time, James is helpless.

2. conventional ideas

John's situation should be common in outsourcing companies. The hostility between foreign teams and Chinese teams leads to a large amount of internal consumption. As a project manager, it is often a coordinator, and it is also depressing.

Of course, there are more enemies. Developers and architects, testers and developers, hateful customers, product owners and project teams, as well as HR, leaders, and colleagues. There are still many candidates.

3. Continue Thinking

Hostility brings high cost to the project and greatly increases the difficulty of communication and collaboration, which is not in the interests of the Project Manager. So how did the enemy come about?

3.1The enemy exists naturally?

Some people think that hostility exists naturally, and the project manager is powerless. For example, the customer always wants to pay less, while the project team wants to pay more for less work. The tester is looking for a bug, and the developer always finds that the tester is in trouble. Indeed, there are various contradictions in the project.

3.2Are the enemies made?

Sometimes, hostility is made, maybe unintentional, or intentional. As shown in the preceding example, the relationship between the Chinese team and the U.S. team was not so hostile at the beginning, but in the later stage, the relationship became obvious. We can find many reasons, such as the insecurity that the Chinese team brings to the US team or the bad style of American micro-management. However, hostility sometimes does not require a reason, and there is a conflict in the work. As soon as the mood comes up, it is sometimes hard to get rid.

4. Reference Cases

4.1Reference case 1

The organizational structure of Project C is very similar to that of Project E. In reference case 2 above, we can see that Project C has successfully met the deadline. In fact, the C Project Team's preliminary work is not smooth.

In the early stages of the project, the Chinese team pointed out that the development efficiency of the U.S. team development director was low, leading to the resignation of the US development director. The development of the US team started a Cold War with the Chinese team and repeatedly overturned the design scheme of the Chinese team. The Chinese Team does not have to fight, but is not a real-world solution. It has strengthened communication and cooperation with the U.S. team, especially the product owners and test owners of the U.S. team. The way the Chinese team continues to focus on project results and constantly improve itself has been recognized by most of the US Team. The development of the U.S. team was completed by the elevation, Development Supervisor, architect and Development Manager in the year because of the continuous success of the C Project. Now he is the best person in the Chinese team.

4.2Case 2

Besides, in the r project, the R project is also a cross-country project, and in the third place, it is the project manager. John's goal is to protect himself in this complex environment. He protects the Chinese team at ordinary times, so the American team does not like him. When something went wrong, he pushed the project members to the top tank, and the project members did not like him either. So he successfully became a public enemy.

4.3Case 3

T project customers can be difficult, T project is a SCM supply chain project. One day after the project was launched, the customer boss suddenly announced that the application would stop due to unstable software. This is a key project of the company's product promotion, and most of the money has not been received, and it cannot be lost. As a result, Project Manager Zhang Sanhe and the company's boss went to the customer's boss's office to discuss with the customer's boss how to rectify the problem. In view of Party B's sincere attitude and effective rectification, Party A finally continued to use the service (which was later heard by the customer's boss ). In the later stages, due to several problems (the software of Party B is indeed not perfect), Party A has repeatedly used the suspension of use as a threat means, and Party B has made a one-by-one attitude. The project has been used by the customer for more than four years. It is easy to become an enemy with such a customer. It is really difficult to become a friend.