[webproducers] Re: persuading a project manager that formal testing is important???

  • From: Richard Whitney <rwhitney@xxxxxxx>
  • To: webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, webproducers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 10:31:25 -0400

It all boils down to different agendas...

The VP's want to show revenue, sometimes regardless of whether the project 
actually made money.
AM's want to manage a client relationship, and are pressured by VPs to say 
"yes" so they can sell more business down the road.
PMs want to keep the project on schedule and budget to keep things running 
smooth in production and show measurable results.
Creative Directors are worried about the image of the product and 
preserving the integrity of the company (and personal !) portfolios.

It goes on and on.  Like AKF said, short of a total paradigm shift in the 
industry, it is an exercise in futility.  Too many projects, too many 
personalities, too many agendas, too many egos, too much money involved.

Rick




At 07:12 AM 6/28/2002 -0700, AKF wrote:


>It's an excercise in futility! The only way for an organization
>to change its culture and mentality in this regard is to rebuild
>it completely from scratch at the highest levels and not just at
>the PM or Exec Producer level.
>
>In fact, I know of an Exec Producer now who fights constant
>battles with Account over issues I and others have described.
>
>Unfortunately, PMs withing non-IT centric organizations are and
>will probably always be 2nd class citizens.
>
>Short of offing Account people (which won't change anything but
>will make one feel slightly better), you need to get one or more
>folks at the Director or VP level who will champion us and our
>role.
>
>Project fuck ups due to the disconnect between Account and PM
>rarely go through post-mortems. And, when they do, no one is
>blamed or the appropriate action(s) aren't taken anyway.
>
>Until upper management fully understands the evils of having
>Account completely run the show or the importance of PMs within
>the org, these issues will continue to plague the industry..or
>what's  left of it.
>
>Sorry to sound so negative but I've been doing this stuff for
>nearly 7 years and little has changed since 1995 despite my
>constant railings against the machine.
>
>
>
>
>--- m o r r y <morry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Ok so we all recognize that this is a huge problem in working
> > in agency's.
> > Now the big questions is if there's something we can do about
> > it.  One
> > person working for one company going against the whole AE
> > establishment is
> > hardly the answer. But is there anything we as a group could
> > do to change
> > the mindset? Perhaps one thing we as the Web Producers/Project
> > Mangers
> > Organization could do is to establish "best practices" or some
> > industy
> > standards.  When WPO was started it was primarily for this
> > very reason.
> > Right now there are lots of orgs for designers, for
> > programmers, for IA's
> > but there was nothing to speak of for web /digital pm's.
> >
> > Thought's anyone?
> >
> > Morry
> >
> >
>
>=====
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>
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