The previous analogy of a small time fishing vessel or open boat pirate crew is about the same as a "Change request" in IT project scale. A "Definition of Done" is required, there needs to be a reason for doing the job, and the people doing it need adequate tools and resources, but beyond that the work is done in professional and seamanship like way without further guidance or structure. A change and an small sea trip are pretty analogous, and from the project manager point of view that is not of exceptional interest.
Unless, if the change is being done as an operation to help your larger project to proceed. In nautical setting this would mean that a small boat is sent out to survey an unclear passage, and the ship's launch is expected to come back - just like the change your requested in the Data Center is supposed to finish.
If the boat does not return, the Captain of the ship either sends another boat (perhaps the first team is in trouble and need help), or abandons them. The latter is not that popular as it tends to send a fairly negative message about being expendable to the rest of the crew.
If the change does not finish, the IT project manager can ask again, can escalate, wait for longer, or try to identify a workaround. Most of the time the workaround is fine, unless the change and the issue is viewed as dear as a crewmate. This can happen when an essential piece of technology needs to be set up and it is not, and the cause can be as trivial as wrongly ordered optical transciever.
From IT project point of view it is more interestingto look at longer voyages. It is sometimes frustrating to try to define the outcome of larger sw development or even an infrastructure deployment project. But let's compare with a 19th century whaling voyage.
So you have a little exerience in the business and you own a ship, a regular New Bedford made whaler. You know a great captain and a reasonably good first mate who want to spend the next 18-36 months somewhere in the far corners of the earth. How do you get the ship out to sea and what can you expect in return.
Whaling sounds straightforward - sail out, kill whales, create other environmental mayhem, return to port, find a pub, get obnoxiously drunk. Yep - let's start at the beginning. Sail out - with who? Where do you get the crew? If they are worth their salt, they'll want to know if the trip will pay or not. That depends on your plan, on your ship, on your captain and on the luck of the day. Your crew to be hired (except the occasional shanghaid case) needs to hear what you have in mind.
So off you go to the tavern and tell your story - Captain Ahab, who will always find the Great Fish, is looking for Good Seamen and brave Whalers to join him on a trip to the South Sea (that's the refreshing bit of water just around Antarctica, btw). He'll be preparing my stout ship the Matchstick for a three-year voyage to hunt for spermiceti whale.
And there you are - you have a plan and a Goal and the goal is NOT to fill the boat, it is to hunt whales. You, Cpn Ahab and the entire crew want to come back alive and rich, but that you can't plan.
Compare with the IT project. We think we will reach cost reduction, flexibility, increased operational and business effectivity but in reality we set up our projects to go ahead and do useful stuff and hope for the results. Sure, it is good to list the expectations, but the mire tightly you set the goals the fwer degrees of freedom there is for the captain and the crew to make smart decisions.
Now we have the ship and crew, and provisions. Right after the lines are cast the voyage is very different from an IT project since now they are on their own, self-sufficient and there is no way you can help them - or get status reports, discuss strategy, impact of new data etc. You can run the IT project much more closely, be agile, change your plans and goals -- and yet the IT projects try to articulate the end result.
The whaler has now left and there are but a few goals. Return to port. Keep your crew alive. Find right whales, kill and proces them and fill your ship. Oh, and about the first goal - yep, return, but do not return empty handed if you ever want to command a ship again.
All this you must think about before you start looking for the crew. To where (any ocean!), for how long,what if they don't come back (your only ship? Better sail along, mate!) -i.e you have goals, expectations and raw plans and that sets the direction of the whole thing, from resourcing, schedules, risks, rewards, management structures and so on. Do a low risk short tripo North Atlantic and you'll have the ship back in a few months and a neat little profit. Want something bigger? Send them to Bering Sea, and if the come back, you'll have a windfall.
Set up an IT project with relatively modest goals and in a known environment, and you'll get people that enjoy that and produce. If you want the jackpot, the project needs to be ready to sail over the edge of the world, and your crew will match that degree of ambition, desparation, raw energy, and drive.
Be careful what you wish for - it has a great impact on what happens next.
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