Re. Setting priorities

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Chris Hester asked how to set priorities amidst a
     sea of requests for documentation. Chris, the
     simple answer is that _you_ can't set the
     priorities unless you have management authority.
     You're responsible for completing any tasks you
     accept within an agreed-upon time, but you can't
     know which requests are critical to the success of
     your company and which are just mundane business.

     My suggestion? What worked for me in a similar
     environment was to ask the program managers to
     form a triage committee. When a new project was
     dumped on me, it came with a priority assigned by
     consensus among managers. (The consensus part is
     important: one manager's projects were always more
     important than anyone else's projects, at least
     until he tried to justify this to the other two.)

     This won't always work because managers may not
     want to meet and assess projects formally. In that
     case, another approach often works: ask the
     requesters directly (this works better if you
     develop a friendly relationship in advance) and
     find out what the _real_ deadline is for the
     project. If there isn't any deadline, lower the
     priority; if there's an urgent deadline, raise the
     priority. Incidentally, I was criticized some time
     back for posting similar advice (re. establishing
     a friendly relationship with SMEs), but in my
     defence I'd note that if you lack the time to do
     this, you're probably overworked and need more
     staff resources. I'd also note that five minutes
     of face-to-face can often replace ten minutes of
     telephone calls or memo writing.

     On top of this, you'll have to shuffle resources
     as needed (e.g., if your SMEs retire in a week,
     interview them before they go). That's project
     management, the subject of another thread.

     --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one
     of our reports, it don't represent FERIC's
     opinion.