Detect behaviors inherent in project management

Last article in our series on the use of visual management according to our FLOW Project Management methodology.

If you first want to (re) read the previous articles, click the following links:

• Analytical gain of the Fever Chart: Introduction
• Distribute tasks between resources & projects
• Remake of the project’s history
• Detect continuous improvement actions

We describe typical behaviors that we have had the opportunity to observe in project environments during the discovery day.

While it's fun to describe these behaviors, the fact remains that they can be value judgments!

Let's see if the fever chart can help us detect some of these behaviors. Consider the following two graphs:

On the graph on the left, we could see that the project is going quite well.

What is true. But our informed eye may be starting to spot a suspicious phenomenon.

Indeed, the project never seems to drift:

• As soon as I pass in the red, I come back in the yellow
• I am very often right in the yellow zone
• I systematically flower between yellow & red

Surprising, no?

This practice refers to Parkinson's Law. It is the fact of always keeping the initially estimated duration.

This symptom could be due to different behaviors

• A person can go faster to complete their tasks; they do not say so and manage to refine the task and meet the time ... in this case we will ask to go faster next time 
• Either the person says it, but the following resource is not available, so the time saved at the individual level is not necessarily time saved for the project.

So in the left graph, you have the illustration of a team which adapts its speed according to the buffer's consumption.

On the right side, the situation is a little different.

First of all, we can be happy with what happened. Indeed, the project ended without consuming any buffer.

It indicates that the project has gone faster than expected and that there may still be room in the tasks.

However, there is another suspicious phenomenon in this graph. Indeed, initially, the project stagnated enormously. Then, the project moves forward to come out of the dark. Then it stagnates again, advances rapidly, etc.

In fact, this phenomenon is an illustration of the Student Syndrome, or how to wait until the last moment to get started.

In this specific case, we can see these stop & go up to 45/50% progress. Then, the project team definitely speeds up to complete their project much faster.

 And you, what types of behaviors do you face in project management?

Thank you for following this series of articles, we hope they will help you understand our project management methodology and give you the interest to meet our team!

For any questions or discussion on project management, do not hesitate to contact me: anthony.fouque@agilea-group.com and do not forget to follow AGILEA on LinkedIn in order to see the latest articles, news, training, missions ... etc.