Is there even such a thing? The pure old definition of a project consists of reaching an objective between the start and the end. Planned activities in between with a selected team and measurable results in terms of time, costs, and quality/scope. It’s finite. A project like that can be tracked, managed, and assessed by a steering group to whom you report as a project manager. What about the open-source projects with no clear team and no clear end objective or date? Some would argue that it’s still a project but using an agile method. Others would call it an initiative instead.
Why it matters
Does it matter? Yes. Purely due to leveling expectations. Imagine your surprise if you arrived at McDonald’s and were greeted by a head waiter who seated you at the table and asked “how you would like your meat”. You would be just as surprised if you reserved a table at a star-guided Michelin restaurant for their renowned burger and was appointed to a screen, chose a meal, and asked three times if you want to add something more. Apart from your confusion, imagine then the confusion among the staff delivering the burgers in these cases. But it’s still a restaurant and it’s still a burger meal. So yes, it does matter to clear out the levels of expectation.
“Emma – sometimes organizations hide line organization work in “projects” just to push the people a little extra. You’ll never be able to finish this so-called project of yours.” A former colleague said to me.
-Why would they do that, it’s still the same amount of resources who then needs to do this on top of their regular work.
“Because (1) some managers are in the thinking that they can squeeze out a little extra of their personnel when it’s being disguised as something like a project with a deadline. (2) It’s a legit corporate way to resources from other departments. And (3) it looks good upwards to have assigned a project manager to things.”
-But we have a very clear objective, I know when I can close this!
-“Maybe you know when it’s done but is achievable within a plan or someone’s vision? Do you even have an active team working on this? Are there clear deliverables? Because if it’s not something reachable, you don’t have a team on it and there are no clear deliverables – then it’s not a project. It’s line organization hidden as a project.”
It’s for sure debatable and one of those subjects where google doesn’t help out with an answer.
Top three pointers
An infinite project can be identified by several pointers. A shortcut is to reverse the things you know from a finite project.
- You are spending more time on readjusting timelines than actually reaching agreed milestones or launches. The reason can differ from everything to scope changes, resources being shifted or pulled or new directions, or the agreed deadline wasn’t that high of a priority to everyone as said in the beginning. But with finite projects, the timeline is from the start assessed to be achievable with the given resources. You wouldn’t see a theater pushing its premiere over and over and over, would you?
- There’s no clear core project team but different resources across the company doing tasks upon demand. You’re unsure who to invite to a kickoff and it’s a grey area on who needs to attend meetings. On one hand, it’s everyone but on another, it’s no one because their contribution is so limited that they don’t need to be tied up in meetings. Or they might be expected to contribute further down the line but since timelines are moving all the time, it’s hard to know exactly when and therefore when to start integrating them into meetings.
- The dependencies on other projects, milestones, or activities, all of which is out of your control, are very high. You’ll find yourself continuously on hold for other projects to deliver or asking questions that need an answer to get your project moving. Making planning, directing resources, or taking crucial decisions impossible and therefore creating a loop of readjusting timelines.
What to do
If you’ve got an infinite project – congratulations on being a lower-middle manager hidden as a project manager. Still stuck in the middle of stakeholders with different expectations but with no own resources and not the salary. But also without the HR responsibilities thank goodness. For some, this is a dream since it will guarantee you being busy for the overseeable future. For others, it’s pure frustration of not getting the satisfaction of moving things forward or being able of finishing things. Here’s what to do:
Happy with the situation:
- Put a lot of focus on communicating the journey and the vision. You’ll have multiple changes of resources during the way in all areas and it’ll be important to enforce the vision/objective you’re all working against regularly. Think corporate level”why” – it’s going to be that important.
- Make sure you document all twists, turns, decisions, and achievements. You’re going to need them all along the road and be grateful that you put down the work early on. If you’re not a big fan of documenting, get yourself a project administrator on board.
- Keep regular contact with the resource owners to ensure that you have their attention and priority for their resources.
- Keep the people in your project and outside happy. This needs to be on a whole new level because many times they will have more pressing things to do or new shiny projects to get involved in. You want them as engaged and in love with your project just as they would in a relationship. Not all the time can be spent on it, but they want to come back and they want to develop things. Bring that extra after work to the table, the handwritten note of appreciation, the ear that they can use to ventilate, or take every chance of lifting their name in relation to progress to get their boss’s attention to how precious they are.
- Create smaller project milestone achievements and also personal achievements that are not related to the outcome but the process. Funniest comment in meetings leaderboard, biggest U-turn taker, leader boards of members entering/exiting the project. Just go creative.
Frustrated with the situation:
- Change the prerequisites to make this finite. It’s about limiting the scope down to a grade where you can control the outcome just as you would have with a finite project. Can you put the project into stages and just micro-planning the first stage? Can you out scope any parts that have to heavy dependencies? Can you rearrange activities to borrow dedicated resources for x days or weeks just to finish these off?
- If you can’t change the prerequisites, change the narrative of your contribution. It might not be to get this to the finish line, it might be to create an environment for the people that is safe and clear enough to do the work when they can. It might not be what you signed up for but it’s still valuable work.
- If nothing of the above works to your satisfaction. Leave when suitable. You’ll don’t do good work when you’re continuously frustrated. It’ll leak out in meetings, to coworkers and drain the whole project slowly. It’s just a fact that maybe someone else will find this fun and there are other projects you’ll find more fun.
