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Having worked in the IT outsourcing for more than 7 years I studied this industry very well and built a strong vision of it. Thus, I believe, that IT outsourcing has too many grave weaknesses, no one, usually, is trying to rectify. Moreover, these weaknesses do not seem to be known or recognized by any party – neither by vendors nor by customers. Therefore, in my (forthcoming) blog I aim to pay a special attention to them.

In this article we’ll discuss a blog post of a small outsourcing firm – not one of the best, but, most likely, one of the worst representatives of the IT outsourcing industry. But that’s even better as more serious companies are trying to detect and conceal their weaknesses, while companies like this one do not pay much attention to self-examination. Yet still, I believe, the problems revealed are common for all IT outsourcing companies!

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Ones should be very careful, when sharing their thoughts in public. As these thoughts may reveal own problems. Therefore, this is especially important for companies.

That’s why I was surprised to see these comments on the much-talked-of article written by Jennifer Lonoff Schiff for the CIO magazine. In her article Jennifer reviews 7 top wishes of IT project managers. Of course, Genie and 7 wishes to him are just a literary technique to show top 7 issues experienced by IT project managers. And Softjourn, a small IT outsourcing firm, that comments the article, claims, that these are not issues at all! In fact, they “prove”, that these issues are easy to fix and that they indicate bad project management… It’s especially curious as those 7 wishes were made by well-known and experienced project managers, who work for leading IT companies.

So, is Softjourn such a good IT firm with the best project managers over there or… maybe they just get it wrong?

As I have already mentioned above, public comments may accidentally reveal own problems of the author. This happens here as well. Trying to show successful project management in the company Softjourn, actually, shows lack of understanding of the issues and demonstrates their narrow outlook in the area. To their excuse this is not only due to their incompetence, but also due to the involvement in the IT outsourcing industry…

So, let’s see what do I mean:

For reader convenience I will quote the comments from the discussed Softjourn article, the original full text of which can be found here.

Wish No. 1: To be involved from project inception.

Softjourn comments:

I wouldn’t waste my wish on it, as I think it’s a given. In force majeure cases where the PM has to hand the project over to another PM, there should always be a knowledge transfer stage, during which the new PM gets up to speed on the project. In my opinion, if a PM is involved in the project on a daily basis, then taking over a project the second stage of development shouldn’t be a problem.

Softjourn did not get the point here – taking over the project and continuing its development is not the problem! Moreover, I cannot find an issue like this in words of Chet Anderson, who explains the 1st wish in the CIO’s article (maybe, wrong article?)… The problem is the need to maintain wrong decisions made since the project inception, what, in my opinion, is clearly stated in the commented article.

Good project managers have their own view of the project. This view can be to some extent incompatible with some already made decisions, what, certainly, does not allow them to complete the project in a right way…

However, this does not apply to outsourcing, where project managers do not need to have such view (usually, it is given by the customer)! When in the real IT a project must be completed in a right way, in outsourcing it should just work! So, it’s usually not good for outsourcing PMs to advance their views. From this point it really does not matter, if you are involved from the project inception, or not…

Chet Anderson is a program manager in Trissential – the company, that helps managers (including project managers) improve corporate processes. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP)!

Wish No. 2: The ability to put – and keep – together the perfect team for each project.

Softjourn comments:

Of course this makes sense, but only to some extent. When given a choice, PMs would pick the most experienced and skilled resources to work on a given project. But this won’t make a perfect team. People aren’t machines and there is no ideal pool of resources to create the perfect team for each project. “Perfect” is a verb, not an adjective – a process in IT project management.

To understand the Softjourn’s point you first should be aware of what is a good team member in IT outsourcing: There, where developers are paid per work hours and where the low cost of the development is one of the main things (that’s IT outsourcing, babe!), a perfect developer is one, who writes the code very quickly and this code just works fine. No one usually cares about correct approaches, extendability, good design and so on there. In the real IT world such a developer is far from being a prefect one! To some extent they understand this in IT outsourcing too, so looking for a perfect team seems to be redundant there.

In IT outsourcing most inplementation details are given by customers – project managers and developers can’t usually change much. If the details are not given, this means, that customers, actually, do not care, so project managers and developers do not care much too.

In the real IT world it’s different – the final implementation is mostly the end developer’s responsibility! Each task can be too specific and should not require project managers to know/learn much. Therefore, implementation mistakes usually raise when it’s relatively too late. For this reason giving the task to a right and experienced person is very important. That’s why PMs wish for the perfectly arranged team and that’s why IT companies pay much for finding good candidates! On the contrary, in the IT outsourcing world even the team of just trained students fits fine for any task. Certainly, such teams need to be “perfected” (using the word “perfect” as a verb) and, certainly, it’s a long running and, actually, never-ending process (as experienced employees, usually, leave or become managers)…

Jeff Jackson is a Vice President of Development in Compuware, the company, products of which are aimed at the IT departments of large businesses. Mary Beth Rath is a project manager at SWC Technology Partners, the provider of IT solutions to midsize organizations.

Wish No. 3: To have powerful yet simple-to-use project management tools.

Softjourn comments:

I know a mid-sized product company where the manager has used the shared spreadsheet to update employee work status, set up burndowns and other reports. This manager is successful: it takes employees only a couple of minutes a day to update their progress. And it doesn’t take him long to compile the data on the spreadsheet.

There are a lot of online and offline project management tools and there will be user success stories for each of them. The spreadsheet manager story is about a person with no development skills who made basic Excel work perfectly for his needs. Of course, PMs with a software development background can go further and create their own tools or simple plug-ins for existing PM software that will meet their specific needs. This is what I did recently for better project management at Softjourn. We used Redmine as is for a while, but felt that it wasn’t giving us what we wanted in terms of resource planning and allocation, project budgeting, and so on. So I wrote a Redmine plug-in and it has worked well for our needs. I should also say that the process of improving our PM processes and tools is never-ending. For instance, recently we added a burndown chart that the PM does on a weekly basis to track whether the project is going according to schedule, if there are any issues, etc.

Here, Softjourn repeats what was said in the CIO article – that spreadsheets are helpful and that own tools are developed. The only difference is that Softjourn does not see any issues with it… But, hey, CIO is talking about a different scale! Softjourn with their small short-term projects, on one side, and more serious IT companies with life-long projects, on the other side, just don’t compare!

Jeff Jackson is a Vice President for a division, that works on the ChangePoint product, at Compuware – the company with 4,500+ employees. Dan Kushner is a project manager at MBX Systems – the manufacturer, that occupies about 20,000 square feet (i.e., 6,000 square meters). Bryan Nielson is a work management expert and strategist at AtTask – the company, that develops a SaaS project management tool serving customers of different sizes including ones with 10,000+ employees. Compare this to Softjourn – a small outsourcing firm, that occupies less than 500 square meters, with 50-100 employees working on many small projects…

Wish No. 4: To have clearly defined project objectives and requirements.

Softjourn comments:

I think it is a prehistoric era wish, from the times when people would create big up-front designs and detailed specs that would anyway end up with many modifications and changes before the development is complete. Of course, we think that’s ok. We like changes! We understand that once the client gets to “touch” the product, especially its functionality, changes will come. I think it’s better for PMs to plan and design incrementally, learn how to take the exactly right steps, and then they can go anywhere the customer needs them to go, anytime during the project.

As I have said above, good managers have their own view of the project and this view is built considering the project’s objectives. Everything, especially the UI, should be optimized for these objectives! That’s why PMs wish to know more about objectives (or to be able to predict the final ones)…

But this does not apply to outsourcing! In IT outsourcing no project is started without knowing its requirements – otherwise outsourcing companies won’t be able to estimate and evaluate it. Of course, requirements are not always strict and objectives, usually, are not clear, but they should not be such in IT outsourcing either! Outsourcing project managers should just do, what they were told to – no more. Objectives are not needed for this…

As it was stated before, IT outsourcing companies are not trying to complete the project in the best way – they aim just to make it work! Their clients do not want the best approaches too – otherwise they would not outsource and would not look for cheap development! So, Softjourn just could not understand the point here.

Edward R. Jones is a director at Diligent eSecurity – the company, that secures the US government.

Wish No. 5: To get buy-in from stakeholders and end-users.

Softjourn comments:

It’s quite the challenge to be able to solve the issues and satisfy everyone involved: the team, stakeholders and end-users. Communication is crucial here. I guess that would be my wish, too.

I’m glad, that there is a wish Softjourn agrees with. No other comments for this one…

Wish No. 6: To be treated with respect.

Softjourn comments:

I have been in the software development business for more than 15 years, working with up to a hundred clients, both on site at their offices in the US, and remotely managing the teams in Ukraine, and I can say that no customer ever treated me with disrespect. There have been personal communication issues and misunderstandings, but they were all resolved after a conversation with the customer.

Project managers rarely speak to customers! No, really! Usually it’s an area of the customer support and/or customer relations teams. The Softjourn’s point becomes understandable, when we recall, that it’s an outsourcing firm! But, actually, the CIO’s article did not mean the respect by customers… So, once again – Softjourn did not get the point at all.

It should also be stated, that there should always be respect between business parties (which are project managers and customers in IT outsourcing)! At least, their communication is covered by the business etiquette and contracts. In other words, normally no one experiences problems addressed by Softjourn here, not only them.

Chet Anderson is managing projects for about 25 years. Currently, on behalf of Trissential he is helping other project managers.

Wish No. 7: To be allowed to adjust projects as needed (without being second-guessed).

Softjourn comments:

Here, I can suggest a very good book by Kent Beck “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change.” There is a corollary practice called negotiated scope contract. Once again, the communication skills of the manager and the ability to explain why projects need to be adjusted that make the difference. Be open, work transparently and you won’t be second-guessed.

The issues described in the CIO’s article are caused mostly by different project views of PMs and their management. And I never heard that such issues could be resolved by scope contracts!

Of course, Softjourn speaks about changes, that are needed to be made, on the PM’s opinion, to the project, which is requested by the customer! It should also be stated, that, if such issues raise in IT outsourcing, this is due to a mistake made during the project estimation process. Because after that stage project managers in IT outsourcing usually have all they need and do not need to adjust anything. Moreover, it is not good for them to adjust anything without first discussing and approving these changes with customers! It’s a known issue and, if you work in outsourcing, you should have got used to it. Certainly, Softjourn did got used…

But for the real IT Softjourn’s recommendations on the wish are absolutely useless, as the real IT world is different! Real project managers usually do not have strict requirements and do not need to discuss everything with the customer. Their main task is to understand the point of the management and implement it in the right way. This, certainly, involves making own decisions without checking each with the superior managers. Therefore, sometimes they get second-guessed.

Chet Anderson, who explains the wish, works to help project managers do their job better. Cory Crosland, founder and president at Croscon – another IT outsourcing company – does not, actually, comment the wish but rather its prerequisites.

Conclusion

Softjourn concludes:

Let’s imagine that all 7 wishes above came true. Why do we need a project manager in this ideal situation? I believe we don’t, so it’s good that this is not possible. That’s why project managers like me have a job. It is our job to work towards those 7 wishes, and I like what I do!

Really, let’s imagine that all these wishes come true! That is: 1) project managers get involved from project inception, 2) they have perfectly arranged teams, 3) powerful yet simple-to-use tools, 4) project objectives and requirements, 5) they get buy-in, 6) are treated with respect and 7) are allowed to adjust projects as needed. In that case, I believe, they would be able to concentrate on their main task – on getting projects done in the best way! As, in fact, none of these wishes deal with the direct responsibilities of project managers. In other words, this would just make their work easier.

But why Softjourn believes, that in that case project managers would not be needed?.. I think, it’s because in IT outsourcing projects need to be just done, they should just work, nothing more is required. Thus, there were many cases, when outsourcing teams worked with customers without any project managers (actually, the role of the project manager was played by customers themselves in these cases). So, the IT outsourcing can really work without project managers (for small teams and projects mostly, of course).

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In accordance with Terms of Use of the Softjourn’s site I should also add, that the quoted comments were written…

By Softjourn, Inc. Please visit the Softjourn web site at http://www.softjourn.com for more information on how you can move your company forward with competitive use of offshore outsourcing and about outsourcing to Ukraine.