New position and new challenge
chmod
Member Posts: 360 ■■■□□□□□□□
Hi guys, i recently started working for a company as the tech leader and project manager.
This company main focus is marketing they have a great/incredible/amazing marketing department and the sales department is also amazing they really know how to make money and how to provide outstanding customer service. In most of the departments they are very professional and organized.
The Technology department is not bad but is not organized it is actually a mess. I mean things get done but they have a big mess.
The structure is the following(brief introduction):
Development dpmt, they have a few programmers and graphic designers for their web stuff and inhouse applications everything is customized based on what marketing deparment requires/request they focus on pleasing sales and marketing which is what brings money to the company. They have a manager.
Regarding tech support, systems and networking(help desk, servers, network) they have an outsourcing company and a few guys that try to do their best to fix everything and make sure to serve/help the users.
So mainly they try to please the users and keep the department up and running.
Let me make a pause here.
My background is: i have worked as help desk, web developer, linux server admin, network administrator, network, CTO for a telecom vendor, jr project manager, contractor in most of the cases for very big companies, some of the positions i listed here were within the same company(promotions) so i have learned the value of been organized and stick to plans, set goals and analyze what I can offer and do etc etc. I have learned from the best guys, i have worked with very good guys since i was 18.
Also I have worked implementing mobile networks for an entire country and that requires a lot of organization and management skill to make sure the project is a success(deliver the project on time, stick to the budget, avoid risks, negotiation with customer and partners etc etc).
In theory, this "inhouse" tech department sounds pretty easy because of the type/size of the projects .
But here comes my challenge:
The techies are not used to provide dates, they are not used to make/create action plans for the issues, they are not used to organize their own time and the department itself is not used to stick to the budget(if they need something they convince the owners/managers that they have to buy it so they have a bunch of stuff there that they are not even using or not taking advantage of).
I have a bigh bunch of issues with tickets but without action plans so no one knows when will be fixed or how.
No documentation, projects on queue for months and nobody have an idea when it will be finish or at least updated.
No backups, no extended warranty for some of the important boxes etc etc etc
When they are very busy they pay to a third party company for support so they are using/paying for around 300 hours of outsourcing monthly for software developers and help desk resources(they have a contract with an MSP).
If all this were up to me i'll do it by myself but this time i require help from each team member. As i have been in their shoes i don't want them to work more hours, or make them follow a bunch of processes or have them fill in a lot of reports weekly i just want to make the department functional and lower some costs and make sure we accomplish our tasks on time so we can move on to new projects.
I have never implemented project management in a company, i have organized a team but not an entire deparment(several teams).
Processes and procedures
I don’t think you can successfully introduce good project management discipline without implementing a set of processes that everyone can see and understand. This starts off with the planning processes. With a project your size, I think it should be understood that you need, for example, a Project Definition and a work plan.
You also need to have processes for managing issues, scope, risk, and communication. These don’t have to be long, tedious procedures, but they have to be at a level where people understand what is expected of them and how the project management processes work.
Any experience organizing a department and/or implementing project management within a company?. I don't want to fail or have issues with the engineers(because they don't like or don't get used to meet deadlines or organize their weekly tasks to finish them on time etc).
This company main focus is marketing they have a great/incredible/amazing marketing department and the sales department is also amazing they really know how to make money and how to provide outstanding customer service. In most of the departments they are very professional and organized.
The Technology department is not bad but is not organized it is actually a mess. I mean things get done but they have a big mess.
The structure is the following(brief introduction):
Development dpmt, they have a few programmers and graphic designers for their web stuff and inhouse applications everything is customized based on what marketing deparment requires/request they focus on pleasing sales and marketing which is what brings money to the company. They have a manager.
Regarding tech support, systems and networking(help desk, servers, network) they have an outsourcing company and a few guys that try to do their best to fix everything and make sure to serve/help the users.
So mainly they try to please the users and keep the department up and running.
Let me make a pause here.
My background is: i have worked as help desk, web developer, linux server admin, network administrator, network, CTO for a telecom vendor, jr project manager, contractor in most of the cases for very big companies, some of the positions i listed here were within the same company(promotions) so i have learned the value of been organized and stick to plans, set goals and analyze what I can offer and do etc etc. I have learned from the best guys, i have worked with very good guys since i was 18.
Also I have worked implementing mobile networks for an entire country and that requires a lot of organization and management skill to make sure the project is a success(deliver the project on time, stick to the budget, avoid risks, negotiation with customer and partners etc etc).
In theory, this "inhouse" tech department sounds pretty easy because of the type/size of the projects .
But here comes my challenge:
The techies are not used to provide dates, they are not used to make/create action plans for the issues, they are not used to organize their own time and the department itself is not used to stick to the budget(if they need something they convince the owners/managers that they have to buy it so they have a bunch of stuff there that they are not even using or not taking advantage of).
I have a bigh bunch of issues with tickets but without action plans so no one knows when will be fixed or how.
No documentation, projects on queue for months and nobody have an idea when it will be finish or at least updated.
No backups, no extended warranty for some of the important boxes etc etc etc
When they are very busy they pay to a third party company for support so they are using/paying for around 300 hours of outsourcing monthly for software developers and help desk resources(they have a contract with an MSP).
If all this were up to me i'll do it by myself but this time i require help from each team member. As i have been in their shoes i don't want them to work more hours, or make them follow a bunch of processes or have them fill in a lot of reports weekly i just want to make the department functional and lower some costs and make sure we accomplish our tasks on time so we can move on to new projects.
I have never implemented project management in a company, i have organized a team but not an entire deparment(several teams).
Processes and procedures
I don’t think you can successfully introduce good project management discipline without implementing a set of processes that everyone can see and understand. This starts off with the planning processes. With a project your size, I think it should be understood that you need, for example, a Project Definition and a work plan.
You also need to have processes for managing issues, scope, risk, and communication. These don’t have to be long, tedious procedures, but they have to be at a level where people understand what is expected of them and how the project management processes work.
Any experience organizing a department and/or implementing project management within a company?. I don't want to fail or have issues with the engineers(because they don't like or don't get used to meet deadlines or organize their weekly tasks to finish them on time etc).