To think my colleague needed to ask for help?

[chatenoire]

I've never really Project Managed, I've more or less Product Managed but although similar there are big differences.

So I've been given this big account to PM. We're currently on the "building" stage and only one colleague is the one that does it all. So I just keep track of what he's doing (to an extent) and escalate with our managers when their advice is needed given the commercial value of the account.

Yesterday it came clear (via the client) that the project was beyond my colleague's skillset. He's finally asked for help, but I now have the hunch he knew he couldn't do a lot of this stuff and just blamed it on the client.

My manager has also now told me that his standards slip when overworked.

As a newbie PM, was I supposed to be aware of this? Shall I have been micro-managing more?

I also don't know the ins and outs of how to build stuff, and that would have been super helpful, so definitely take that on board.

Yes, it sounds like it is beyond your skillset too and as PM you should have been aware of what was happening long before now.
It ins't about micromanaging, but if it has been obvious to the client that the coworker isn't performing on the project it should have been obvious to you too.

unfortunately as PM the buck stops with you. There are lots of resources online, all free, about how to be a good Project Manager, perhaps you could have a look.

minimum though? regular update meetings, clear goals and roadmap and the expectation that if necessary daily goals are reached and discussed.

Sounds like neither of you have the experience to run the project frankly. There's a bit more to being a PM than keeping track of what people are doing. Don't you have a direct relationship with your client? Regular catch ups/progress reports as well. Your colleague's issues/client concerns should have been picked up before they became a problem.

How closely were you keeping track?

As a manager, the extent that you can feel delegate responsibility depends on the person's competence in the that task, and their integrity in doing what they've been asked, giving honest updates rather than blame-shifting, escalating when needed.

You need to manage people more closely (regular check-ins, reviewing all their work, getting them to run decisions by you) until you're confident in their competence and integrity, then you can manage more loosely.

I was keeping daily checks with him (all via slack).

The client DID delay things and we communicated that with them.

So then they tried us to rush things.

However, my colleague did not always copy me in, in the deliverables .

When asked about if he'd meet the deadline he'd say "they'll have to wait"

When he finally got the piece of work from the client he needed to replicate, I'm almost certain he knew he couldn't do it, and instead kept quiet. That was about 7-10 days ago

When asked about if he'd meet the deadline he'd say "they'll have to wait"

Did you not challenge this?

Sounds like the blame is more on you.

As PM, one of your responsibilities is knowing the capabilities of your staff.

However, if you don't actually have any experience managing projects, then what are you doing in the role in the first place without significant support? Sounds like you've both been thrown under a bus.

This. And if you're the company who have massively cocked up our work this week as your clients, we're extremely pissed off (especially at how much of our time we've had to spend finding all the issues that you apparently would have rolled out the project with) and we think none of you know how to run a piss up in a brewery. Seems unlikely you're the same company but the issues here are identical.

Exactly. As a PM you should have been all over this. If you knew the client was late and had unreasonable expectations, your colleague was being set up to fail regardless of his own capabilities. As a PM, a key part of your role is anticipating potential problems and dealing with them before they become an issue.

As others have said, sounds like you were both out of your depth.

I was keeping daily checks with him (all via slack).
Sounds great on paper but this actually tells us nothing. There's a world of difference between, you: "how's it going" him: "great!" you: "[heart button]" vs you: "give me a rundown of your progress on every single thing you're working on" him: (massive rundown in detail of exactly where he is with every task and what he needs to do next) accompanied by appropriate follow up questions.

If you've been doing the second one, I don't see how you could have done more (aside from a skills audit at the outset but not everyone does those). If it was the first one, or something close to it, this is on you.

Do you have a programme with deliverables identified? Do you have weekly meetings with all the team to discuss progress and get commitments? Where there are delays are these recorded including analysis as to root cause of the delays? As PM the buck does stop with you but the blame game is a waste of time - looking to get project back on track should be where time should be spent. Communication, clarity and transparency really is key.

I did tell my boss (repeatedly) for weeks now. With no reply

how did you tell your boss?

I find that as a PM if i discover a problem and i say "hey boss, problem" he says "sort it".

If i say "hey boss, we won't deliver on time if a b and c don't happen. You are the only one who can authorise it" my boss says "on it" (and i push until it's done)

it's a tough job, everyone seems to think it's about watching things happen, but it is so much more than that.

So do you see yourself as just a ‘go between’ then? I don’t think you’re fully aware of what you should be doing as a project manager.. YOUR manager would be wanting YOU to deal with the issues you’re going to him with, not just passing the buck, you knew because of the above email that they weren’t going to deliver so what were YOU planning to do about it? Did you make the client aware at any point?

in fairness I don’t see how you can be an effective project manager if you don’t know the inner workings of what your team are supposed to be doing? They could tell you anything and you’d just have to accept it? You don’t sound experienced enough, I’m surprised you’ve been out in charge of it if it’s such an important project.

The problem is that we're all colleagues and "equals" but I didn't want to throw my colleague under the bus.

I feel like again because of the size of the deal didn't feel like I could just make executive decisions.

I also have a very fragile relationship with one of my colleagues (who manages the one that wouldn't be able to perform).

We've just had a debrief, and it did come clean (saying that he thought he could do it).

Yes, I'm inexperienced and have never dealt with this sort of thing.

Yes, I'm inexperienced and have never dealt with this sort of thing

But the point is you're complaining about his inexperience and inability to carry out the role when this is the same for you.

Are you on ‘the apprentice’?

That’s not what I asked. You are the PM. You should have a handle on where the project is at any given time.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just colleagues - you are in charge of the project running to schedule so should be getting detailed information and timelines from everyone involved and be aware of any issues.

No, I'm not complaining about his inability to do it. I'm wondering if he should have actively told me or not.

Or if I needed to escalate with his boss, someone else, etc.

I was aware that he was being slow, and wouldn't give me the best of updates.

It was also a new role within the org, so everybody acknowledged it was a work in progress.

We did have dedicated PMs but they got made redundant

If he’s the only person who does this work and he’s admitted he can’t really do it, where are you going from there?

if management are putting people in place who can’t do the work and have no experience at all, and now people are playing the blame game rather than concentrating on getting this work done then you work at an EXTREMELY crap workplace.

what a shit show, I bet the client is fuming.

But to answer your AIBU question..
WHO was he supposed to ask to help him if he’s the only one who can do the work?

Then there is a simple and catastrophic understanding, between all of you, what a Project Manager actually does and what the role entails.

It is not throwing people under a bus to report that the project is not running smoothly or properly. There are roles in a project and it doesn't matter what the heirarchy is (please tell me your company doesn't bang on about Agile) there are roles that need to be done properly.

I would suggest that you ask your company to get you training on project management - or if not you grasp the initiative and investigate it yourself. If your company claims to be agile, use scrum methods or waterfall methods or anything else it is slightly easier because you only need to investigate those.

the start of the Project should always include how it is being run (agile, waterfall...) what the objectives are, what the milestones are, the budget etc etc. And there must be constant monitoring by the PM

Oh yeah that's a given! And no, we don't claim any of those methods.