DRAFT Problem#5: Overlapping project starts Starting more work does not equate to finishing more work. Figure 1: Putting more work into play will NOT accelerate progress
It seems like common sense: the more work is dumped in the hopper, the more work gets done. But when the number of resources remains static, increasing volume of WIP merely increases confusion, increases conflict – and decrases real productivity. While everyone looks busy, the true picture often remains obscure until deadlines approach, when the failure to complete projects becomes all too visible.
Failure to establish an effective mechanism to limit WUP remains a major cause of delays and even failures for many projects. Most project managers assume that an early finish requires an early start (or to finish on time, start as soon as possible). As a result, project teams get pushed to start work as soon as they receive the green light, regardless of resource availability and timeline. In practice, however, this assumption never works out. Starting early results in overloading resources, confusion about work priorities, and hence an inefficient work environment. This constant overload results in frustration. In the long run, overloading will result in increased staff turnover as personnel “burn out” in the struggle to stay on top of complex and ever-changing workloads. This overloading of the system is the primary driver of the most inefficient practice in project management: the project review meetings. What are those meetings, but little more that “resorting” of the work in the system?
Projects get started before the organization is ready
In an effort to take advantage of valuable new opportunities, multi-project organizations, more often than not, tend to launch projects as soon as they are understood, concurrently with existing projects, simultaneously with other new efforts,