As an IT project manager, you usually receive the direction from your
steering committee that your project is very important and that you
need to drive active participation by the business team. You explain
that they have limited time available because they already have so much
on their plate. However the steering committee responds with the fact
that they should make the time available.
The problem here is that those steering committee members (and/or sponsor) are usually the (direct) manager of those business team members. And you should not be surprised that when they speak 1:1 with those team members they give them a whole series of other high priority tasks which results in your project moving to a lower position on their priority list. There is clearly a misalignment between the various communications on priorities.
It
is important for a project manager to find out if this is the case and
bring this to the attention of the steering committee because otherwise
you will only be criticised by not being able to deliver your work on
time and you basically have no hope in hell to control your schedule.
When you are aware of this, it is valuable information for other team
members because this can avoid friction. For example a Business Analyst
who is not able to get enough time of the business stakeholders to
complete his work, could otherwise get agitated and come in conflict
with those stakeholders.
If you explain the competing priorities as given to the team members to your steering committee and if they are taking the project serious, this can result in a radical change in behaviour from the respective business team members and suddenly your project flies.
The conflicting priorities could be addressed with effective portfolio and resource management but this is not always in place. That is a story by itself.
The problem here is that those steering committee members (and/or sponsor) are usually the (direct) manager of those business team members. And you should not be surprised that when they speak 1:1 with those team members they give them a whole series of other high priority tasks which results in your project moving to a lower position on their priority list. There is clearly a misalignment between the various communications on priorities.
If you explain the competing priorities as given to the team members to your steering committee and if they are taking the project serious, this can result in a radical change in behaviour from the respective business team members and suddenly your project flies.
The conflicting priorities could be addressed with effective portfolio and resource management but this is not always in place. That is a story by itself.
