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not necessarily need your project to be successful. To be successful, you will need to
understand this person’s motivation and persuade him to come around to your point of
view. That’s politics, and it may be necessary in order for your project to be successful.
Many project managers—especially ones who have a technical background—tend to
ignore the fact that their organizations are made up of people who need to be convinced
of the importance of a change before they will adopt it. Some of these people will have an
emotional or even irrational response to any attempt at change; it could take a sea change
in the organization before they agree to it.
Irrational attitudes about software development usually boil down to two basic beliefs.
First, people believe that most or all software projects are delivered late and delivered with
many bugs, and that this is just a fact of life. Second, they believe that their organization is
unique, and that the problems they are experiencing are particular to their organization
and have never been seen before in any other organization.
(This second belief may seem odd, considering the many thousands of software organiza-
tions around the world that have all used similar tools and techniques to fix very similar
problems and make real, lasting improvements. It’s possible that the belief in uniqueness
comes from the fact that the software being built truly is unique, in that it has never been
built before; it’s not a leap to assume—incorrectly—that the software project and all of its
problems are therefore also unique to that particular organization.)

Many times, resistance is not irrational at all. Anyone who has been through a change
previously—possibly a passing management fad—that didn’t fix the problem (or failed
outright) may be resistant to another change. It may seem unfair, but if people in your
organization have previously gone through poorly planned changes, it will be harder for
you to make changes of your own.
When you are introducing new tools, techniques, or practices in your organization, you
may encounter resistance for a number of reasons. By exploring the feelings, fears, and
justifications for resisting change that project managers commonly encounter, these reac-
tions can be unraveled and understood.

Change Is Uncomfortable
Most people in your organization are trying to do a good job. They want their peers and
supervisors to see that they are good at performing the tasks assigned to them. When some-
one has developed a level of comfort and familiarity with his job, the last thing he wants is
to have someone come along and make him adopt an entirely new way of doing things.

People can also be afraid of change. Most people prefer to feel like they know what they
are doing. They want their jobs to be stable and the tasks assigned to them to remain
within their capabilities, and, most of all, they want everyone around them to recognize
that they are competent and doing a good job. A new tool or technique may seem like a
good idea to you. But if someone in your organization who is affected by your change
doesn’t understand how it would benefit her, then she will only see and respond to the

UNDERSTANDING CHANGE 205