Impediment List – Montreal Class

Here are the top impediments identified by the recent Montreal class.  There may be some similarities, (a different person might be trying to say essentially the same thing, but for his team).  Maybe your Team will recognize some good things to work on:

1. Team too small
2. Under-staffed
3. Loss of communication (with) customer, stakeholders
4. Not dedicated teams
5. Tech Debt / Bug creep
6. Scope too big
7. Too many discussions without action
8. Short deadline
9. No scope / (no) clear requirements
10. Bad estimates
11. Lack of time
12. (Lack of) product definition
13. No internet connection
14. Communication issues (Team)
15. Time zones
16. Priorities / specifications [I’m not quite not sure – ??]
17. Interference (Other tasks / projects)
18. Lost ownership
19. Constant team changes
20. Lack of support from Execs
21. Unrealistic schedule
22. Bad risk management
23. Bad change management
24. Scope is changing
25. Scope creep
26. Needs evolved (team not aware)
27. Changing scope
28. Constantly changing requirements
29. Unrealistic amount of time
30. No team communication
31. No teamwork
32. Lack of knowledge / skills
33. No communication with client
34. No feedback
35. Short deadlines
36. Imposed deadlines
37. Micro-managing
38. Lack of interests
39. Limited budget
40. Budget too small
41. Unrealistic schedule
42. Lack of tools
43. Lack of communication
44. Didn’t stick to method
45. No methodology
46. Scope too big
47. Scope change

There are a couple of things I noticed.

First, I asked them to identify the key root causes that lead to project failure from their experiences.

Second, I asked “What are the biggest 1 or 2 impediments for your team now?”  Sometimes that identified new things with the first question.

This can happen for many reasons.  But one thing this tells me — if you ask the question a different way, you get different answers.

They hear it differently each of these ways:

• what are the possible root causes for our failure (if we were to fail in this project)?
• what are our biggest impediments now?
• what do we need to change to double our velocity (without working any harder, nor more hours)?

You may mean the same thing, but they hear it differently. And respond differently.

Fix the most useful thing first.  Usually small incremental steps to improvement.

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