Continuing the “I have a feeling….” situations, there is one more I wanted to talk about which often occurs when working remotely, that is the, I have a feeling something is wrong, but I am not sure what?” This is a harder to dissect, because it could be anything. I have a feeling they are not telling me the truth, I have a feeling that they are not telling me something, I have a feeling they are keeping something from me, and the list goes on and on.
Certainly these feels are exacerbated if you, as the project manager, are located remotely and the rest of the team is located somewhere else. Or a large part of the team is co-located with smaller groups of people in other locations.
The only way you are going to “resolve” this feeling is by asking questions. Many managers have issues with asking questions, especially it seems Americans. They often take it as micromanaging. But if you are working at a distance, with people from other cultures, how are you supposed to feel comfortable with what is taking place “over there”, if you do not ask questions. Beyond asking, “How’s it going?”. I think we expect to get a lot of information out of such a question, but sometimes you have to ask more pointed questions, like, “Did that design that we talked about work out for the function you are working on?” Or something like, “Did you find a work around for that issue with iTunes?” These types of questions are not micromanaging, they are questions to eliminate the “feeling that something is wrong”, and make you feel confident that everyone is on the same page. There is always the good question that I mentioned in one of the previous blogs on how to handle “I have a bad feeling” situation, “Show me where we are, what is done, what remains to be done, roadblocks?”, “Let’s walk through the last/current delivery so I understand where we are.”
In another example, if you have this feeling that, “they are not telling me the truth”. Without getting too touchy feely, think about when you have this feeling? Is it when they tell you that the project is going well, and you do not have to worry? I don’t know about you, but someone telling me not to worry, it makes me worry. I prefer the, “show me so I do not have to worry!” With most application development projects, developed using an agile development methodology, it should be fairly quick that you can actually “see” something, and know if the team is going in the right direction or not. If not an actual running app, but can you see something from the area in question, a written design, database design, or whatever may be relevant.
In summary for project managers, when you have these “feelings that something is wrong”: Do not be afraid to ask questions, beyond, “how’s it going today?”, until those feelings dissipate. It does not have to take all day, or even take that much time, and it will save a lot of time in the long run worrying about something that may or may not be a problem.
In summary for team members: Realize that managers and other stakeholders, who may be located remotely from you, and even at your location, need to understand exactly where the project is at, and they need you to be proactive and alert them to potential areas for issues. Asking questions, and offering suggestions about the app being developed also lets the manager know you are thinking about the project, how to create the best app possible, and it confirms your level of understanding of the project and gives your manager more confidence in your skills.