PoddarCo

A bad system will beat a good person more often than not…

Recently, I came across this statement in a book, and started to think more and more about it, wondering about the statement’s validity, application and logic. Thinking out loud, many instances come to mind where this is indeed the case:

1. Corruption anywhere, for example in certain departments in India. Even a good person falls prey to the system.
2. Our building’s condo association and management team – people have the best of intentions when they join, but the established processes and rules hamper their ability to make improvements.
3. A spiraling downwards quality control process or lack of the right procedures in a software development environment – the lack of code checks, test cases, documentation, etc. can quickly affect a motivated newcomer’s good intentions.

Just sharing the thought – a bad system does beat a good person more often than not.

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Not all projects end well, especially in this economy. So once you realize your project is doomed, it is better to bite the bullet, evaluate the project thoroughly and consider calling it off. But doing so is definitely easier said than done!

Reasons to terminate a project prior to scheduled completion include macro-level shifts (changes in business strategy, change in priorities, loss of funding, lack of or shift of resources) or micro-level concerns (schedule delays, cost overruns, extensive resource consumption, unavailable technical capabilities – hardware, skills or software). Irrespective of the reason, it is important to suppress any blame-game once the decision to cancel a project is made. If a project is terminated properly, it can in fact have a positive impact on team morale, budgets, resources, possibly other projects or dependencies and any related future endeavors.

Thus, how you go about canceling a project is essential to seeing any positive impact from it. Some steps to aid cancellation efforts are as follows –

1. Conduct a thorough review documenting the reasons to continue vs. the reasons to cancel
2. Perform a gap analysis to better understand and document what is needed to close the project successfully from this point forward
3. Ensure you review the impact of canceling a project on other projects that depend on it.
   Example:  I once had an application development project that was dependent on a server farm being up and running.  Senior management had approved the project keeping the server farm dependency in mind as the server farm would reduce the effort and investment for this project. However, the server farm project was postponed indefinitely because of budget cuts. But the stakeholders for my project demanded their project’s needs be fulfilled even though the dependent server farm project was dropped. The dependency was lost and forgotten. This resulted in schedule delays, cost overruns, shift in requirements and an operational inconvenience as a smaller one-off instance of the proposed server farm had to be created and maintained for this one project. Had the stakeholders given this project a critical eye or had the team canceling the server farm project clearly communicated the consequences for other projects, planning would have been better and aligning expectations easier.
4. If there are numerous benefits to continuing a project, but limited funds or resources lead to termination, explore alternatives such as negotiating additional funds/resources/time, re-allocating capital, escalating challenges to the executive-level, and socializing the project’s benefits across other departments to garner more support and credibility.
5. It is absolutely critical to involve all key stakeholders in the go – no go decision making process
6. It is equally important to communicate across the organization so any unanticipated consequences can be highlighted quickly
7. Once the decision is made to terminate the project early, perform proper project closure steps. This entails -
   1. Document the lessons learned clearly
   2. Specify why the project was terminated early
   3. Outline what options/alternatives were explored
   4. Document the latest project status and results achieved
   5. Complete any financial or contractual obligations
   6. Re-allocate resources as necessary
   7. Archive all project material in the company’s knowledge base in case the same or a related project gets resumed in the future

In conclusion, the thought sums it all up, “Canceling a project isn’t a failure, but failing to cancel (properly) is”.

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It’s tough to imagine where to start with this one. In case some of you have been wondering why I haven’t written regularly in the last month or so, it’s primarily because of this project.

Let me start by stating this project was not one of my typical software/IT projects; this was re-modeling our condo. At a high level, this involved –

1. Demolition: Break a wall between the kitchen and living room, and remove countertop (Independent Contractor, let’s use the name C)
2. Electrical: Re-route wiring as need be (Co: Absolute)
3. Re-build: Place new granite countertop extended into living room as an island (Co: All Granite), replace kitchen appliances (Co: Lowes), fix any gaping holes and clean edges (C)
4. Flooring: Remove carpeting, install bamboo flooring (Co: Lumber Liquidators, Co: Majesty Oak)

Instead of going with just one contractor who could do it all, we decided to use agencies specializing in particular areas. The one contractor approach would have been too dependent on one entity and also worked out 50% more expensive. One of the immediate challenges: scheduling and aligning all these people to do their respective tasks per specific timelines, costs and quality standards.

…Murphy’s Law started to takes its grip…
blowing out my home theater system!

Once the demo work started, we were extremely excited as the instant change was gratifying. The electricians also started re-wiring. They should have done so after filing a permit, but contrary to the information provided to us they started without a permit. That’s when Murphy’s Law started to take its grip. The electricians hooked up the wrong pair of wires that led to blowing out my home theater system and an iron. C (the independent contractor) had patched part of the demolished wall enough so that the granite countertop could be installed. However, a part of the patched-up dry wall had to be re-cut as C had spackled it excessively after the granite folks had made their template.

In the process of breaking the dry wall, C threw a lot of the debris into the garbage disposal; this obviously conked off. After much research we decided to buy our appliances from Lowes. On the morning of the delivery Lowes called to say the fridge was damaged and they’d have to reschedule. We had decided to donate our appliances, and time it on the same day as the delivery. Sure enough, by the time of the call we had already given away the appliances. Realizing that we’d be without a fridge for a few days, we gave away a lot of the food too. By the way, when we tried disconnecting the fridge, as we shut off the valve for the water line to the ice maker, it wouldn’t shut off but just continue to leak. Since our building doesn’t have condo specific shut off valves, we had to call a plumber and pay him an unbelievable sum to replace the valve (it required pipe freezing).

…an electrical appliance
without a cord…!?!

When the appliances were finally delivered (extremely late even per the rescheduled time) the delivery guy asks me, “Do you have a cord for the range?” I was speechless as I couldn’t fathom an electrical appliance without a cord! I was informed the store clerk should have asked us which plug we need, and sent it with the range (pre-attached). We had learned not to expect any better from Lowes, and ended up getting the cord later from Home Depot and connecting it ourselves. Finally the last leg of the race started (or so we thought) – the flooring. Compared to the rest of the work, this process went smoothly over a period of 2 business days. But, miraculously, as soon as the new floors were installed, our bedroom air conditioner decided it had run its course – the compressor died. We paid a pot load to get a new air conditioner (installation happening this week). Needless to say, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the new floor doesn’t get scratched in the process.

City Inspector: “I don’t think I have been here before;
this is my first visit here, right?”

Also in the past two weeks, after a few exchanges with the VP at the electric company, the permit was filed and picked up (at least a month after the work started). The inspection was scheduled for earlier this week. As the inspector walked in, his first statement was, “I don’t think I have been here before; this is my first visit here, right?” Right off the bat, we got the sense that there would surely be another visit i.e. the inspection wouldn’t pass. That’s exactly what happened; the reasons – one of the outlets had sheet rock screws instead of metal ones, and the junction box and cables were not properly supported. So, now the electricians will be back later this week to do the needful. While all this has been going on for well over a month, at least 5 huge holes are still visible in the ceiling and side walls because the inspection has to pass first.

As we are finally getting closer to imagining that the walls will get patched up and edges cleaned, we learned that C got fired from the company he was representing and is no longer eligible to work in our building. I had already paid him 90% of the amount agreed to, since I “trusted” him. In this case, he didn’t exactly run away with the money, but another lesson learned – don’t pay in advance no matter what and who. Fortunately, we have a back-up contractor, who will finish up the work as soon as the inspection passes (again hoping this wraps up by Sat 8/21).

In summary, we now have an almost re-modeled condo that we are happy with after: the lack of proper processes being followed by the electric company, the cowboy contractor, an extremely disappointing Lowes experience, one unfriendly un-cooperative neighbor, multiple things being broken that shouldn’t have been broken (valves, garbage disposal, home theater system, iron, air-conditioner and a door) and a lot of hours spent working on do-it-yourself projects. But what a nightmare it was to live through. So I decided to share the experience as a Wayward Weekend story that others can learn from, or at the very least – find some humor in.

In spite of everything, this was a very interesting glimpse into re-modeling projects. I learned a lot about the work, the entities and the costs associated with such endeavors. Are the challenges typical in similar larger scale projects? I was always keen to pursue opportunities to flip old construction condos, plans for which have been put on hold given the economic conditions off late. But this experience and the lessons learned here will remain forever, and hopefully lead to a streamlined operation in the future. Just sharing a part of my personal life experience with a broader audience. Like a friend and co-worker said, “Here’s to living vicariously through me”  :)

Cheers
-V

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