In case you have any doubts, yes it's true: this blog here is the official Supai Systems employee manual, handbook, body of knowledge, standard operating procedure, and guideline for conduct. Today's topic is project management.
Project Management in Pictures
The final word on project management may be found in the attached cartoon by Gary Larson, who is at least in the top five best business writers I know. (Seven if you include fictional characters. You know who I'm talking about.) (Do or do not...there is no try.) But in another sense, we try to live by the following seven principles.
The 7 Principles
1. Ensure we work every single hour that we said we would, and record every one of those hours correctly in our time keeping system. We use Cashboard.
2. Keep every project on track at all times. This means that we have a plan and are following it. If you are off track, work harder or modify the plan, but whatever you do: get back on track.
3. Deliverables and deadlines are sacrosanct. They must be on time, every time. This reminds me of Admiral Nelson's advice to a midshipman in 1793 aboard the Agamemnon. You can replace "orders" with "deadlines"; "Frenchman" with "missed deadlines"; and "king" with "CEO" of course. Firstly you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own regarding their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil.
4. Clients should always know what's going on. That means you have to tell them. You cannot count on them paying attention to Cashboard, reading your status reports, or listening to your voice mail. (By the way, have you noticed that nobody uses voice mail any more?) Refer to the below embedded video for additional insight.
5. Management should always know what's going on. What each Supai person is working on, and what is on his or her plate, should always be obvious at a glance.
6. Keep your team focused. Each Supai person should have enough work allocated to him or her at any point of time.
7. Communicate until it hurts or a little more. It is almost never a bad idea to communicate with every client about the status of ongoing projects and new ones that are about to start.
