Leadership concepts and applications

Project manager scenario: How to 'fix' the project

It has come to our attention that a number of our employees have resigned from a recent project and have created their own company with the funding of a competitor. The first consideration we must discuss is a legal one, namely that company secrets might be used in their new effort. "A non-disclosure agreement is a written legal contract between an employer and employee. The non-disclosure agreement lays out binding terms and conditions that prohibit the employee from disclosing company confidential and proprietary information… [including but not limited to] proprietary knowledge, trade secrets, client or product information, strategic plans, and other information that is confidential and proprietary to the company with competitors" (Heathfield 2013). There are serious concerns that the employees may have violated their agreement, and the legal staff should be consulted to protect the interests of the firm.

In addition to the legal issues, as project manager, there are troubling concerns regarding how employee relations have been managed over the course of this project's development. Although we may deplore their apparent reasons for leaving, the project of which the above-mentioned employees were a part of was poorly handled and likely contributed to their discontent. First and foremost is the problem of low team morale, an inevitable issue when a team is composed of both full-time and part-time employees. A lack of cohesion in a team can lead to factionalism and resentment.

In the future, constant, clear, and consistent communication must be maintained amongst all team members via regular emails and frequent face-to-face meetings. With a very large team (60 people) this can be logistically difficult, but the team can be broken down into smaller components for intimate gatherings. Occasional, larger-scale meetings might be necessary to reinforce the overall project vision and timetable. One of the dangers with a large, unwieldy team is that the team's loyalty may be misplaced and diverted to personal agendas and pet projects and the 'big picture' is lost. The team must be cognizant of how their actions are intended to realize the ultimate goal of the project so they have a sense of urgency about their tasks and enthusiasm and zeal about working towards their deliverables and objectives.

The lack of a communicated vision led to the next problem with the project team, namely the issue of 'scope creep' or the project going over-time and thus over-budget. This is a frequent problem with poorly-coordinated teams, given that a problem with one component can lead to delays with other aspects of the project. Project managers must clearly understand the extent to which specific aspects of the project are dependent upon one another, so time-critical areas can be flagged and expedited to ensure that other contingent components are not delayed in their completion. Using software to keep track of deliverable's timetables and the schedules of personnel involved in different projects is essential to avoid repeating old mistakes. "Break the approved deliverables into actual work requirements. The requirements should be as detailed as necessary and can be completed using a simple spreadsheet. The larger your project, the more detail you should include. If your project spans more than a month or two, don't forget to include time for software upgrades during development and always include time for ample documentation" (Managing scope creep in project management, 2013, Villanova University).