Posted by arlene

Being a successful data warehouse project manager means that you have to do more — much more — than simply create project plans and ask team members to turn in weekly status reports.

Tell It Like It Is

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working with users, executive sponsors, consultants, vendors, team members, or anyone else. The most important thing you can do to set the groundwork for successfully managing a data warehousing project is to speak your mind in a completely honest manner.

You don’t have to be abrupt or rude or have the attitude of “It’s my way or no way.” You should follow these guidelines, however:

When problems occur, don’t bury them or pretend that they don’t exist. Other people know about the problems, so deal with them aggressively.

Don’t be afraid to tell an executive sponsor that your project will be adversely affected by those out-of-the-blue budget cuts or the absence of those three team members who have been reassigned for “just a little while.”

Don’t hesitate to tell a vendor when a product isn’t performing as promised and to demand that something be done about it.

The key: Communicate quickly and openly and with integrity. You won’t be sorry.

Put the Right People in the Right Rotes

The right person in the right role is an important key to project success.

You have to recognize that the best database designer may be somewhat challenged when it comes to working with front-end OLAP or data mining tools. The person who can do whiz-bang tasks with a particular OLAP tool may be a lousy facilitator and should, during the scope phase of a project, either sit silently in the back of the room or just not even be there.

Be a Tough but Fair Negotiator

Budget cuts, pressures to compress the development schedule, vendor support, working with the corporate infrastructure group to line up installation and rollout support — all these issues, and many more, usually are the responsibility of the project manager. The manager must ensure that these tasks, which all involve negotiation, take place.

Deal Carefully with Product Vendors

Recognize that vendors want to sell you products, not solve your business problems. Although it’s great when they can do both, your priorities are not the vendors‘ priorities.

It’s your project. Don’t be pushed into making product decisions that aren’t in your best interest.

Watch the Project Plan

Although I firmly believe that being a good project manager means more than just tracking how the project schedule is going, you can’t ignore the project plan.

If you’re not interested in gathering team members‘ regular submissions to help keep your project plan up to date, add to your team a project-control staff member who has the specific task of managing the project plan. Work with a local college or university to get a work-study or cooperative education (co-op) student; it’s a cost-effective way to handle this important task.

Don’t Micromanage

Everyone has a particular management style. Some people focus on delegating tasks, and others are more hands-on. If you’re the type who likes to handle most things yourself, the advice in this section is for you.

Don’t micromanage, or insist on knowing every little detail about every task that everyone is doing. (That panicky, out-of-control feeling will go away.) Even on smaller projects, trust your developers and analysts to know their jobs. Check in on them to see how they’re doing, and make sure that they’re progressing on schedule. Let them do their jobs, though, especially on larger projects. You have enough to worry about as a project manager; don’t take on additional worries that team members usually can resolve for you.

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