I’m editing the project portfolio book. Yes, I’m trying to get ready for beta. No, I have no idea when I will be ready. I’ll have more information before Wednesday, if you want to know.
I realized that when managers don’t make ranking decisions about the project portfolio, when they don’t fully commit to a project, when they don’t collaborate across the organization to make sure everyone is working for the good of the organization, the managers incur management debt. And, these actions all create technical debt.
I suspect that these managers don’t know they are supposed to do these things–they’ve never seen good management before.
You can see management debt in these ways:
- Managers revisit decisions again and again and again and again…
- People stay blocked on problems because they need management input
- No one removes obstacles for the team
- Many emergency projects
- Everyone feels as if they are slogging through the day, even though managers are rushing around like crazy, using their smart phones and pagers and email.
What do you think? Do you like the term management debt? Did I miss any other symptoms of management debt (I’m sure I did!)?
