Bas de Baar discusses Project Leadership in a global and virtual world through his popular blog and video podcast “The Project Shrink”. With over a decade spent in the trenches as Software Project Manager within the publishing, financial and public sector, running multi-national teams, he has a lot to talk about.
Bas holds a masters degree in Business Informatics and lives with his wife in The Netherlands. He is author of the book “Surprise! Now You’re a Software Project Manager” and is a member of The PMI New Media Council. This council brings together industry bloggers, webcasters and podcasters to help PMI advance the profession, to promote the exchange of ideas and knowledge and to make the best use of new social media channels.
Josh: Thank you so much for sharing your background and experience with the pmStudent community Bas! How did you get your start in Project Management?
Bas: I studied Business Informatics at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. As a final practice I had the opportunity to do research at a Project Management department at a large financial institution. The projects they performed suffered from what can be called “interventions”, which were changes triggered by the project environment. Being educated as a plan-driven-pro, I set out my checklist and searched for forgotten process components, only to find out after a couple of months that everything was neatly in place. From standard documents to procedures, they had it all. And still the project went from left to right.
Being the eager beaver that I was, I just kept on looking and looking for the missing ingredient but could not find a single clue to locating the feature or process that would help to solve the pressing problem. At one given moment, I had an “aha”-Erlebniss (a whack on the head), which turned out to be a life altering moment professionally. At the coffee corner, I overheard fellow project team members have a conversation about a procedure that they were not going to follow. My jaw dropped. Not following the official procedure? Not complying with company policies? If they didn’t follow procedure then all the changes implemented were going to be completed without the project manager’s knowledge? The penny dropped. It seems so simple now, but it really rocked my world at the time. They forgot to deal with the people.
This got me hooked on project management. And soon after getting my degree I started doing PM at newspapers in The Netherlands and Germany.
Josh: Who do you look up to and have learned a lot from in relation to project management?
a) Make everyone a winner (Theory W)
Everyone effected by the project, direct or indirect, has something to say, again direct or indirect, and will do so. Everyone wants to get the best from this project for him personally, or for his (part of the) organization. It’s the job of the software project manager to see that everyone gets what he wants, in one way or another. He has to “make everyone a winner” In this respect, the role of the project manager becomes that of a negotiator.
b) Balancing your approach
In “Balancing Agility And Discipline” he provides insights in when to apply agile methods and when to apply plan-driven methods. Barry argues that for every type there is a kind of project that is suited for one of the approaches. Or a kind of combination.
Josh: How do you manage internal conflicts between members of the your team?
Josh: What are your thoughts on leadership versus management?
Leadership is about independence. You can do everything yourself as a leader, you only need your personality and your own social skills. It is about motivating people, painting a great project vision, making sure every body is informed and heard.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Bas! I loved the part about discovering non-compliance to process. It reminds me of a story I once heard.
She acted as if announcing a change or updating documents actually does something by itself. I’m glad you had your “aha” moment about this a long time ago Bas….unfortunately some people never have!
Thanks Bas! I loved the part about discovering non-compliance to process. It reminds me of a story I once heard.
She acted as if announcing a change or updating documents actually does something by itself. I’m glad you had your “aha” moment about this a long time ago Bas….unfortunately some people never have!
Great meeting of the minds! I am turned on to Barry Boehm’s idea about choosing an approach and need to read more about that. I look at it from a culture context approach, asking ‘what is the right type of methodology for this particular culture?’. In any event, I’ll read the book and thanks again Josh! Your work is so important in keeping us all abreast of great thinking out there!
Great meeting of the minds! I am turned on to Barry Boehm’s idea about choosing an approach and need to read more about that. I look at it from a culture context approach, asking ‘what is the right type of methodology for this particular culture?’. In any event, I’ll read the book and thanks again Josh! Your work is so important in keeping us all abreast of great thinking out there!
Bas,
In the domain we work, leadership is about the mission and vision of the program – as you mention. But it’s also about guiding the project people along the right path to success.
One small example is…
There are many ways to build a program master plan, starting with the WBS and moving to the schedule. Leadership provides the guidance to move all the participants down a path that results in a “compliant” baseline, but also a baseline that is “credible” and one that is more than just the mechanics.
It’s a “program architecture.” Like real architecture (buildings), the Leader must be able to elicit the best from contributors beyond just managing them.
I always enjoy your point of view, even when I’m not able to put it into practice, it stimulates conversations.
Bas,
In the domain we work, leadership is about the mission and vision of the program – as you mention. But it’s also about guiding the project people along the right path to success.
One small example is…
There are many ways to build a program master plan, starting with the WBS and moving to the schedule. Leadership provides the guidance to move all the participants down a path that results in a “compliant” baseline, but also a baseline that is “credible” and one that is more than just the mechanics.
It’s a “program architecture.” Like real architecture (buildings), the Leader must be able to elicit the best from contributors beyond just managing them.
I always enjoy your point of view, even when I’m not able to put it into practice, it stimulates conversations.
@Josh: I love your example. Having the aha-Erlebniss is great, but it’s like the matrix: once you start looking at things that way, you cannot go back.
@Michiko: I think culture context is the dominant factor, so I definitely agree with you on that. The book is not perfect, but the authors really try to answer the question most method authors avoid: how to choose when to apply. Sure you’ll like it.
@Glen: that’s exactly what I mean. I like the examples you use from space/defense, an area I am not familiar with. It helps to sharpen my own views and opinion and learn from other domains. And thanks for the kind remarks. Much appreciated.
@Josh: I love your example. Having the aha-Erlebniss is great, but it’s like the matrix: once you start looking at things that way, you cannot go back.
@Michiko: I think culture context is the dominant factor, so I definitely agree with you on that. The book is not perfect, but the authors really try to answer the question most method authors avoid: how to choose when to apply. Sure you’ll like it.
@Glen: that’s exactly what I mean. I like the examples you use from space/defense, an area I am not familiar with. It helps to sharpen my own views and opinion and learn from other domains. And thanks for the kind remarks. Much appreciated.