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into the big picture, and reassures them that they are doing the right tasks. Process doc-
uments also give them the ability to compare the team’s performance from project to
project, to determine whether the organization is improving over time. The scripts used
throughout this book are examples of process documents.
• Use performance plans to set expectations for individual team members. Each person in
the organization should have her performance measured against a written standard,
and she should be given an active role in helping to define that standard. This helps her
gauge how she is performing and provides a positive environment for her manager to
help fix performance problems and reward good work.

Manage the Organization

An important part of the project manager’s job is managing upward in the organization.
The way that you interact with your organization’s senior management can make or break
your projects. When you make changes for the better, you are changing their organiza-
tion, and, whether or not you are successful, your boss will want to be involved.

Senior Managers See Software Projects as a Cost Burden
Many project managers face an uphill battle when interacting with their organizations’
senior management. They find that senior managers have an increasingly antagonistic
view of their software projects. The senior managers only see the cost of the development,
and often fail to see how the software projects help the organization. These problems are
compounded when projects come in late, or do not fill the needs of the stakeholders.

In the mid 1990s, Mary Lacity and Rudy Hirscheim published a study of 14 Fortune 500
companies in which they interviewed over 60 senior managers about their attitudes
toward IT projects. They found that the overwhelming majority of them thought of their
IT departments as a “cost burden” that steadily increases their costs without adding to the
profitability of the company. This attitude is pervasive not just in large companies, but in
organizations of all types and sizes.
Unfortunately, most project managers cannot just sit down with their organization’s
senior managers and explain the value of their projects. They must show over time that
there is a real reason that each
project is developed, and that each project’s benefits justify
the cost of development.
Many of the project management practices in Part I are aimed at communicating this. The
vision and scope document is the project manager’s first opportunity to ensure that each
project is developed based on real and specific needs, and that the features of the software
are aimed at fulfilling those needs. The vision and scope document and the project plan
communicate the real costs and benefits of development to senior managers in terms that
they understand. And a change control process ensures that the managers are kept
apprised of all changes to the project, and that those changes are worth their costs.

238 CHAPTER TEN