When the Backstop Becomes the Plan

From Doldrums to Hope

The days carry varying degrees of emotional toll, from the palpable to the expectant; the feeling that you may not be pulling your weight gives way to the exhilaration of success, because what was once intractable became resolvable.

We have moved from a week that seemed to present diminishing returns to one that appears to offer appreciating results. While we are not totally out of the doldrums, there is hope on the horizon, and things have been better than expected.

Governance Left Behind

Yet we get embroiled in administrative issues that should have had governance born from contractual obligation, including the clear requirement specifications that would apply to an architectural design, with guidelines for solutions to be crafted on agreed policy.

A backstop activity, meant only to tide us over until automation could take hold, has evolved into the core solution. This is because resources will not be committed first and, evidently, the architectural element is missing altogether.

Shortcuts Over Policy

The project manager, under pressure to deliver, has short-circuited the process, favouring the concept of ease over the policy guidelines that should govern it. The ideas are lifted off a contract statement and put into play, leaving the implementation resting on broad assumptions.

What we hear is that it must be done because the contract demands it; what we do not have is any documentation describing what is actually to be done. The best element of guidance to materialise today came in an email. However, can governance be run from an email, you wonder?

That is why this is being escalated. I am not convinced a proper resolution will be forthcoming before the pressure to act overwhelms the tendency to err on the side of caution; not out of any impossibility to perform, but because of the absence of governance that informs the processes required.

A Google NotebookLM AI Podcast on this blog

Let's not stigmatise personal fundraising like GoFundMe

Let’s unstigmatise GoFundMe

There is an undercurrent of concern and stigma accompanying the use of GoFundMe to attract funding for whatever cause or issue you might have. It is probably that concern and fear of stigma that meant I did not resort to this model of making people aware of a situation I need some help with.

I can appreciate that GoFundMe seems like a mendicant shaking a begging bowl on the sidewalk (properly a pavement in English), but that is to misconstrue the value of social networking and seeking the friendship, the support, and the generosity of other people towards something you have limited resources to finance.

Utilising my social media network

It need not be that way, as I have benefitted immensely from the use of my social media networks to first inform and then gain support. My blog has been prominent in that regard where a doctoral student in Canada sponsored my blog for a year, soon after I ran out of funds when I had cancer.

Then, I had a World Bank executive contact me on reading a pertinent blog I wrote in 2012; after a conversation, they wired $5,000 to me, no strings attached, just something to support my endeavours. Obviously, I have not monetised my blog, that is not the purpose of my blog. Rather, I write stories; stories about me, what I see, how I am affected, or just to proffer an opinion.

On LinkedIn, I have had jobs offered without having to interview, again, it is not that all these things happen always, but to ignore a social media following on the many platforms that you engage when things are going well but go quiet in adverse conditions is to forget the amazing usefulness of networking for all sorts of life situations.

GoFundMe is open for all causes

One look at the GoFundMe Fundraiser start page, there are many categories of fundraising, all to varying degrees of criticality and importance, but we should be careful that we do not determine to rate one need more than another as if it is a competition to suckle on the milk of human kindness better than the other person.

Yes, Funeral and Medical needs could speak to life and death issues, but people can also fundraise for others or themselves, for causes or interests in as varied areas as Emergency, Charity, Financial Emergency, Animals, Environment, Business, Community, Competition, Creative, Event, Faith, Family, Sports, Travel, Volunteer, or Wishes.

Crowdfunding is not criminal

GoFundMe is simply another crowdfunding platform, primarily a donation-based crowdfunding with charitable to a wide range of funding requirements for which there is neither financial nor material return to the donor apart from the satisfaction of helping someone else in some need of help or support.

I published a GoFundMe page to address a simple issue, I need to take some time to study and gain some new vendor certifications to give me better job opportunities for which I have extensive background experience, but have recently been quite lacking in confidence. I seek to do this in a comfortable supportive environment, and that is preferably Cape Town. I need to reboot things, I believe that is a purposeful and well-considered activity that would yield results.

We should embrace fundraising

In closing, no one should be ashamed when they have determined what they want to and have to do, to resort to raising funds for their projects. Whilst on the GoFundMe platform, many might think fundraising is just for desperate life-threatening situations, the fact is every endeavour involves a form of fundraising from personal projects and concerns, through startups seeking capital from venture capital firms to big businesses raising finance from banks, on the stock markets, or through the trade of equity.

GoFundMe simply brings the facility to raise funding for personal and community causes. To stigmatise it is to fail to understand the democratisation of fundraising brought to the lowest common denominator. I am persuaded that my GoFundMe drive is going to be extremely beneficial to changing my circumstances, no one need be concerned or ashamed by the use of it. Thank you.

 

Unanimous points scoring for my TOGAF® 9 Combined bout

Catching up with the times

It would be easy to write a motivational post, but that is not really my way of doing things, rather, I will just tell my story.

As I related in my previous blog on passing my PRINCE2 Practitioner certification last Thursday morning, I was suddenly furloughed a month ago and rather than sit at home twiddling my thumbs, I considered going on a PRINCE2 course and when I was booking the course, I was offered a bundled deal to do both PRINCE2 and TOGAF certification which just happened for fall on consecutive weeks.

Like project management, I was first introduced to TOGAF just a few months after recovered from cancer by an ex-colleague. I went as far as buying the study guides and registering on The Open Group website, that was just 9 years ago, but nothing really came of it. I even explored doing the course in South Africa then, I eventually went to India instead to attend courses for Microsoft and Cisco certifications.

Keeping the faith

I suppose what made TOGAF a bit of a chore was the volume of theoretical processes that I thought only a classroom training environment could help ameliorate. The Knowledge Academy for all its poor customer service record does appear to have some really good trainers. Mustafa Ahmed took our TOGAF course and from the first day, I began to have confidence, it could be done.

This was my second week of courses and something seemed to have triggered an immune response in me that by the third day of the course, I was coughing, spluttering and running a fever that I had to return home early without acquiring anything. The trainer sent me an update of what was covered for the day and I was able to return for the fourth and last day of the course.

His advice was to take the test within two weeks of the course, or we’ll begin to forget what we had learnt. I first had to get PRINCE2 done from before I could begin to think of scheduling the TOGAF test.

Brought to the edge

It was an exasperating ordeal to get the Exam Bookings department of The Knowledge Academy to forward me the test voucher, it took 3 emails and 4 phone calls over 8 days to get that resolved. The service is an atrocity that makes an appalling review appear too generous for words.

You’re tested to the point of losing your cool and in my view, the staff care not a jot about the frustrations of their customers. It is a test of patience that one has to pass.

When the voucher arrived, I found I could not get a test window at any of the Prometric Vue test centres up north in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham. Only one test centre London had availability and so I chose to travel to London to take the test today. The test centre could do with bigger monitor screens.

Tested to the limit

I was caught in a quandary of my preparedness, having acquired the official study guides, the full standard documentation and a pocket guide. Something seemed to be missing until I found a YouTube video TOGAF® Level 2 Exam Questions – Tackling Those Effectively! This in addition to the tips I got on the course meant I could be boxing clever to win this match.

The TOGAF® 9 Combined Part 1 and Part 2 Exam is 40 questions for Part 1 in 60 minutes, immediately followed without results for 8 scenario questions for Part 2 in 90 minutes. I raced through Part 1 reviewing a few thorny questions and was done in just under 33 minutes. Part 2 was harder, the recommended approach is 10 minutes per question, I spent 18 on the first and had squandered 30 minutes without a satisfactory answer for the second. Open book tests don’t mean easy results. You will in some instances be told where to go in the TOGAF standard document, it doesn’t make it any easier.

I tried some and skipped some that I returned to for review, by the end, I had just 3 minutes to spare and passed both Parts. Part 1 presents a bit more difficulty as it relies upon memory and specifics from the TOGAF documentation, Part 2 is about the application of the TOGA methodology and I did much better on that by far.

They helped me do it

On reflection, I marvel at the determination and daring that saw me decide to take two highly process-driven courses with much documentation, standard and theory, just 4 weeks ago and in that time clear both tests that give me certifications in project management and enterprise architecture.

Yet, without the amazing support of Brian my partner and my friends Funmilola and Kola, I probably would not have had either the courage or determination to see this through. They are my cheerleaders, constantly telling me I can do it and do it well. It gave me such great pleasure to share my successes with them.

Now to new challenges and rewarding prospects. There is the minor issue of a holiday in South Africa to plan now. Phew! It’s done.

On becoming a certified PRINCE2® Practitioner

The tough thing

This morning at 7:40 AM, I clicked the ‘End Test’ button of my PRINCE2 Practitioner 2017 test, responded to a survey about my experience and waited for a few seconds for the test result to show.

It was a somewhat tough test, but I did not think I needed anymore study after all the work I had put in towards passing this test. However, I believe by process and application, I should be able to put my knowledge to good use and by that become an effective project manager.

My projected life

My working life has generally been impacted to various extents by project managers, ones who follow process and procedure and some that care nothing for the orthodoxy, they blag their way with offering the customer the impossible, harass their technical personnel to produce gold from dross and their ultimate goal is rarely to deliver a product or service but to tick boxes.

To say I have little time for such project managers would be an understatement. Whilst, I have not come to blows with any, I have found the unspeakable to say straight to their faces. I know the quality of work I want to deliver, and it would not be shoddy no matter who the project manager is. If you cannot first understand what it takes to deliver before you promise what can be delivered, then you will have to take up the consequences for why tolerances have been stretched and exceeded.

Schooled in hard knocks

My first encounter with formal project management processes was during my postgraduate course some 15 years ago, I took it as my second module, and it was an exercise in stress management and control towards delivery.

We were a team of 5 who had to take up the slack for one of us who was never present, never engaging and never delivering. Yet, he had the effrontery to demand that we make all allowances which could have left us all failing the module. The lecturer decided not to mediate but watch how we handled the tough issues.

We delivered our goals despite the issues, but the biggest lesson I took away from that experience was that I did not want to be a project manager. Our project management module was based on the Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).

Not wasting time

Then, just 3 weeks ago, I was notified that I would be furloughed, on knowing this, I decided I would spend the time attending some courses. There is probably a lot I can do on the technical side, but I also need to leverage elements of 30 years of expertise in the coordination of projects, programmes and portfolios.

After taking some advice from a colleague project manager, I looked around for PRINCE2 classroom course and ended up with one provided by The Knowledge Academy. My enquiry led to being offered a deal that allowed the back-to-back courses for PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner combined in the first week and the TOGAF 9.2 Part 1 & Part II in the following week.

Getting ready for love

Apart from the preparation for the course, I had access through my PluralSight subscription to the retired PRINCE2 2017 course which I could run and learn from, then I also found the Projex Academy Prince2 Masterclass at cost, which had a rather innovative approach to covering the PRINCE2 syllabus.

The Projex Academy YouTube video PRINCE2 2018 MASTERCLASS Foundation Exam Tips and Hints, gave me the confidence to decide I had done enough to go for the test.

I had passed the paper test for PRINCE2 Foundation at the end of the second day of the course and then had to wait for the exam voucher from my course provider to schedule the PRINCE2 Practitioner test.

What a bother

This was fraught with a few difficulties as it is proctored online giving you the opportunity to run the test from home. However, to have a sterile enough environment to sit for a test for 150 minutes without being disturbed whilst keeping the setting clean enough not to contaminate the examination setting with material that could compromise the integrity of the test looked like an insurmountable problem.

I also could not find test centres to fulfil that need apart from opting for a paper-based test. I needed to find a hot desk office or boardroom. However, to schedule an online proctored test, one needs to find a slot that makes a proctor available for that slot. My solution after much uncertainty was to schedule the slot first, which I got for 5:20 AM, then I booked myself into a hotel. I ensured the room had a table and chair, an executive room or apartment hotel would do the job.

Testing hotel

This meant I would have no distractions and I did not have to do a spring clean of the room to have the setting that meets the requirements for online proctoring. Next, I downloaded the Exam simulator and ensured the setup with fully compatible, my laptop required .NET 3.5 and a Visual C++ distributable for the exam simulation to install. Then a number of tests for the audio, web camera and Internet connection were run. A wired connection is preferred but not compulsory.

Once that was done, I was ready for the test and I went to be bed early, my dreams overrun with PRINCE2 project scenarios. I did no additional revision, but I did tab my official manual, the Principles, Themes, Processes, Appendix A and C along with a few other pages. As the PRINCE2 Practitioner test is an open book exam, but that is as deceptive as it comes. You could easily run out of time rifling through pages looking for the piece of information that helps you answer the question.

The die is cast

When all was set with the capture of my identity document, the online proctor communicated with me by audio, he did not once show his face, but he could see me throughout the duration of the test. I turned my laptop around 360 degrees to show the room, then the table I was working on. Flipped through the official manual showed the blank sheets I would be working on and after typing in my middle name in the chatbox, I put my phone out of reach and started the test.

I wasted a lot of time on the first 10 questions out of 46 but eventually got a good pace, skipping one question until I had finished. By the time I was done, I had about 13 minutes to spare. I did not believe there was much else to review. I ended the test and my result came back as a pass.

Phew!

When I was scheduling my test, I was offered the option to resit the test for 25% of the normal cost for a resit, the offer was valid until 15 minutes before the test. It is not refundable but serves as an insurance policy. I took it, but I will not cry over the loss of it rather than getting to use it to pass if I had failed. It would have knocked my confidence a great deal if I had failed the test, but I was not going to beat myself up for it. I have failed many times before and returned to take the prize.

However, for all the activity that presaged this situation, I am happy that my PRINCE2 Practitioner certification is in the bag. Now on to new things. The support of my partner Brian and best friends Funmi and Kola have been so invaluable, I am blessed to have these wonderful people cheering me on, through the good and the bad. Thank you. Meanwhile, I lament the inglorious step down from queen to prince.

The accordion principle of project management

The bellow of the bellows

I have always been fascinated by the music of the accordion, the player playing the treble piano side and the pressing the bass buttons to something that sounds more like folk music than anything else.

More so, the player moves the concertina bellows, something rhythmically whilst playing keys and buttons all learnt by practice because they do not have sight of keys or buttons as they play.

Yet, I have found use for the accordion not so much to play music but in expressing the fear of being squeezed in the concertina folds of a project because other elements of time, resource and cost have not been properly managed and I am pressured to deliver to atrociously contrived ends.

The project squeeze

The project manager decides what music they want to play, the rhythm, the tempo and that is how listeners might get entertained or even dare to dance.

Some projects managers however do play such dastardly music that not only would people cover their ears, they might instead pick up stones to pelt the accordionist.

We the project resources who fall between the bass and treble ends of the accordion are squeezed until our pips squeak if we do not react, respond, advice and escalate when we need to, to ensure we are not completely crushed and carrying the blame for a badly run project.

Play that funky music

I love good music and what document as much as I can is evidence of where I have striven not be part of the bellows to help in deciding how the music is played, to whose hearing and for what purpose.

In the end, as much as the project manager, I want to be involved into making good music too, that is how the discussion went earlier today, whether good music would result is anyone’s guess, but in the cacophony that ensued, maybe some silence is what we need to retune the accordion and try a different tune.

That is the accordion principle of project management.

Requirements of requirements

Finding the requirements

Any situation requires that we appreciate what the requirements are and so we asked for the requirements. As we discussed what the requirements might be, we ended up with someone else creating requirements that did not look like the requirements we thought the requirements should be.

The requirements are simple. We simply require the requirements that are required. Without such requirements it becomes almost impossible to determine those that are required without initial exposure to such requirements. I require the requirements that are required in order to fully appreciate the requirements.

[Paragraph from comment by Gareth Terry on Facebook.]

However, because no requirements were forthcoming, we defaulted to a set of requirements that were the requirements of a different list of requirements detailed in the requirements of another entity.

There we were, completely exasperated, how hard could knowing your requirements be?

Using any requirements

That became the requirements from where hopefully after testing they would eventually see if their requirements are met or they can be forced to clearly state what their requirements are and by so doing, we would have the requirements we should have had in the first place.

As we progressed, we began to see unforeseen requirements, the requirements that extended the narrow scope of requirements they assumed were fulfilled, but now glaringly were never considered requirements that anyone would immediately appreciate are the fundamental requirements of any set of requirements.

Maybe these requirements

Requirements are an active and determined set of requirements because requirements cannot be divined as chances or the preponderance of luck, though we would be lucky if at the end of the day, any of the requirements where we cannot see the clear usage that demands those requirements would result in requirements that meet the requirements that are the best requirements for the requirements of the situation.

Nonetheless, the requirements would be organic and through trial, testing, iteration and review, we would have some requirements and they might well be good enough.

New requirements just released. We are to first produce a time machine, talk about changing the goal posts.

[Paragraph from comment by Gareth Terry on Facebook.]

Thought Picnic: Push Right Back

Review, reassess

To a head they have come, the issues which should give you sleepless nights and having you losing your head along with others, but calm must reign.

The desire for order in the maelstrom of chaotic trickle-down requirements with no form or structure can be as distracting as it is confusing that you can easily lose the plot.

Order is possible when you can arrest the agenda and make your own. We have been pawns for too long in a political game of pressures that others have taken on and desire so earnestly to offload on us.

Push right back

We have to push back with reality and realism, adjusting what can be realised with the real truths of the situation. Honest and frank and let the chips fall where they may, but what should be known would be known.

There is no point enduring pressures of fantasies that the reality cannot accomplish. It is the precursor for stress and worse. We have become the dogs keeping the thieves away from the gates when we should have had dogs doing that for us whilst we slept soundly indoors.

What needs to be done will get done, it would only take a little while longer, and when it is done, we can be sure it would do what it supposed to do. Projects just need to get a sweet long dose of stark reality – Pretty Damn Quick.

Maison Tropicale - Grand Projects

The context of grand projects

The most recent grand project in Africa was the 2010 FIFA World Cup and that had its detractors. Many who thought the billions spent on hosting the jamboree could have been better spent on development and poverty alleviation projects.

In some ways, there is feeling that grand projects should be sited anywhere else but Africa until it develops to a certain standard of living before it gratifies itself with something big.

Apart from a major art commission in Senegal, the issue of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro [1] in Cote d’Ivoire was discussed, this was at one time in the Guinness World Records the world’s largest church.

In context, the Catholics of Cote d’Ivoire are quite proud of this church as theirs in Africa and it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990.

For the masses and for excellence

As we discussed this, it reminded me of Oprah Winfrey Lady’s Academy for Girls [2] (OWLAG) in South Africa where the American media mogul had sunk $40 million of her own money to create an institution of educational excellence.

Many thought it would have been better for her to create 40 $1m schools instead but I offered the argument that it the job of governments to build schools for the populace and if Ms Winfrey were to spread resources thin in this manner, she would who have to rely on already failing governments to manage and run those schools.

OWLAG as a beacon of educational excellence can serve as a standard of what is achievable just as grand projects that foster pockets of development and create aspirations to raising the standards of living and quality all around Africa.

The springboard of grand projects

Whilst sadly the Maison Tropicale prototypes did not get rolled out to the 10,000 units originally planned they could have provided an upward review of traditional architectural practices and the ease of dismantling the structures could have made for easier provision of housing.

Unfortunately, those were lessons we failed to learn but 33 years after the event in the Nigeria, the villages built [3] for the 2^nd Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ‘77) represent one of the largest housing projects ever embarked upon in Africa.

Sources

[1] Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Festac Town - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

La Maison Tropicale Series

Maison Tropicale film in Amsterdam

Deconstructing Maison Tropicale - Introduction

Maison Tropicale - Ownership

Maison Tropicale - Heritage

Maison Tropicale - Corrupt enterprise

Maison Tropicale - Grand Projects

Sent off in a pasta wrap

Working for my supper

Yesterday was a day back at my former place of work to conduct a handover with my successor who I had only really spoken to before on the phone in an interview I conducted from Lisbon and to have an evening out for my leaving dinner.

I had more cerebral excitation than I expected with my old colleagues than with the guy who succeeded me, I should suppose he was all clued in on what he needed to do, which proves that age-old fact that no one is indispensable.

When the evening came we left for Veri Sapori [1] an Italian restaurant that clearly states on the entrance – we don’t do pizzas – and thank God for that.

Veri Sapori is a well known lunch haunt, not open on Mondays; we sometimes went there for lunch but have never been able to sample the deep Azzurri delights because of time constraints, we only had pasta and that was about to becloud my view of that restaurant as the choice for my leaving dinner.

I resisted the impulsive urge to fire off an email to the arranger to accuse him of lacking imagination and that was one urge I successfully restrained – that restaurant is a different place when you are not pressed for time.

An appetizer for an aperitif

Not all the invited guests could make it to the dinner for all sorts of reasons that were expressed to the arranger rather than I considering I was asked who I wanted to be at the dinner – anyway, we cannot have everyone we want and we are deeply honoured to have the ones that came.

As the eight of us settled down for a sumptuous night, manager asked for an appetizer when he meant an aperitif and that was before we had downed any alcohol, but we all started with a Prosecco.

One of the directors could not stay the whole evening so we decided to dispense with the speeches and gifts before the entrees were served.

What use are scissors for cutting ribbons?

Sometimes, you have no idea of what you have done until when someone does the reckoning at the end of your tenure, the words were gracious, full of praise, admiration and gratitude, I was truly touched.

My first gift was to be something that would keep me in remembrance of where I had worked before – from KaDeWe in Berlin[2], a kilogram of Darjeeling Earl Grey tea – I can imagine with the amount of Earl Grey tea I drink, I probably have an Earl-ish demeanour and I am nigh on looking gray.

It looked like an easy task, I took the wrapping paper off, the ribbon had a bow that was an easy pull, but like all projects, it then had a Gordian knot I could not undo.

We called for a scissors, it was blunter than using a hammer to cut the tape – the right tool in ideal circumstances but too overused to meet the current task. After struggling with the scissors as people looked on expecting the scissors to do its job, I handed it to someone else who proved that the scissors was literally useless, vindicating my experience. A typical project management scenario.

At which point a knife was suggested; like projects, we have the right tool but end up improvising with something else that appears to do the job even though it is suited for something entirely different – basically, take a knife to cut every problem down.

In the end, what should have happened in a snip happened in a long gnawing by the blunt scissors, then I needed a knife to cut the sealing tabs to reveal the bags of sealed Earl Grey tea – definitely, a good supply for a year.

Highly fed and lowly taught

My two colleagues went for the supposed humorous side of my clowning abilities and I was given a mug in which to take my tea – a bit wider in circumference than typical mugs decorated with Shakespearean insults. I could not desire that we be better strangers but I was about to be the anointed sovereign of sighs and groans.

The third present was acquired in Namibia where my manager having ridden altitudes in Ecuador last year was riding the sands of the desert earlier this year. I now have a staff of sovereign authority that allowed me to do a mock rain-dance at the end of the evening.

Then the senior men also presented me with a bottle of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial champagne in a cask – quite a handful of presents to cart away.

The Berlin connection

Lest I forget, Ich bin ein Berliner [3] – or something to the effect of being a doughnut of sorts like a JFK malapropism, my love of Berlin, known to many was crowned with a book of photographs of Berlin landmarks by Wolfgang Scholvien [4] – it had German, English, Italian and Japanese footnotes – it was quite apt having a German director, we communicating in English in an Italian restaurant sending me off from a Japanese company.

I gave a speech which included the offer to seek therapy for being a sometimes difficult person to deal with, but the words spoken by the people who honoured me could not be bettered.

When our menu selections arrived, there was not a pasta dish in sight but genuine Italian cuisine at its best, washed down – such crudeness – with some of the best of Italian wine.

I did not see the bill but it was wads of crisp cash, [Veri Sapori does not have electronic payment systems] a wonderful night was had by all and at the end, I could only give thanks, express gratitude and be quite moved with the affection shown by people I really did enjoy working with that went back two years and one day – we’ll meet again.

Sources

[1] Italian restaurant Veri Sapori in Amstelveen – Iens.nl

[2] Kaufhaus des Westens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Ich bin ein Berliner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Wolfgang Scholvien : Photographie : Berlin

Aping a fantasy

Take control immediately

Just this afternoon, the long-running concern for my professional reputation was assuaged as the project came to an end.

Having decided to continue with the project, a number of things had to be clearly stated and agreed upon.

I was hired as a resource, I also happened to be an expert in the area of expertise I was resourcing and hence an authority.

Work already done by the supposed solutions architect was below par of a charlatan, it was necessary to completely eliminate interference in matters where the person evidently had no professional skill apart from bullshit - it frustrates projects.

This involved getting project manager to clearly state that I had the ascendant and pre-eminent technical expertise and all other ideas or suggestions should defer to mine.

Next, the relationship between organisation and their client was such that they reviewed all suggestions; first technically, then politically, failing which it just got emotional on the basis of gut feelings.

That untenable situation had to be arrested as it meant straight and reasonable technical activities received undue scrutiny that consequently delayed the progress of the project without commensurate accountability.

Punish ignorance with enlightenment

It meant every brick wall had to be mowed down with technical facts and reasoning one had to be apt at debunking of strange fallacies.

One usually asks why a particular action or solution was offered and then we debated the options towards persuading the actors to a different objective.

In this case, the simple answer was plain ignorance and lack of knowledge, things were done and suggested that had no technical or best practice basis in fact or reality.

Having cleared that away, work continued apace to setting in place my ideas, solution and implementation which was simplified through automation created by my colleague who had genius scripting skills.

Aping a fantasy

When the implementation was fully in place, we visited the client to conduct a battery of tests and to explain the thinking that went into our adaptation for their environment.

As one who usually challenges our every suggestion then said I had implemented the solution just as he would have done it.

I suppose, that is a complement if I ever got one; the idea that I had just implemented what they knew all along; pure and utter fantasy – I was just imitating the same.

The last day included a few finishing touches, handshakes, smiles and commiserations.

Next time, I will have a few more questions to ask before taking on a project. As for payday, that is still a long way off.

How did I ever get mixed up in this stuff?

Professional reputations in a rotten job

False facts force fiddles

Angst is never an emotion or state of mind one finds oneself grappling with. In professional life, it rarely ever features, since I project myself as an expert and authority in the field where the knowledge goods find a market.

This really became a dilemma when I took on a short term contract to help sort out some problems which were affecting the technical relationship between my employer and their client.

It so transpires that over the last year, they had been discussing the execution of this project such that many questions were asked, some answers were given and we can agree that some of those answers would make a jury take a negative view of evidence before them.

Business lies

Basically, there were misrepresentations which lead to certain conclusions that formed the basis of executing the project.

Businesses embark on projects hopefully as a business improvement or enhancement exercise knowing that every eventual benefit might incur an initial cost in resources, time and money.

In this case, the client already had a ceiling of costs for a project which under nominal circumstances would have had an implementation floor well above the projected and agreed costs.

GF≠C is ideal

For some, that would be a bargain, but we all know that even if your service terms were Good, Fast and Cheap, juxtaposing them would provide different results.

+        Fast and Cheap is usually not Good (Bad)

+        Good and Fast is usually not Cheap (Ideal)

+        Good and Cheap is usually not Fast (Acceptable)

In this case, the project manager having presented the ideal plan had the Sales People pare it down to the acceptable and they all ended up with a bad agreement, I now have to square that up to the ideal.

With the wealth of knowledge and expertise I bring in as well as being a resource to execute the project, a lot can be done, but none of which does well to approach the fundamental implementation floor worthy of any recognition.

My role however was one of either trying to resolve the prevailing problems or a complete re-design of the project, the former had mileage, and the latter was long dead in water.

In resolving the problems, some radical action had to be taken which for posterity would have my name attached till when some sensible assessment of what went wrong initially and that is corrected.

Speak for me - forever

I could speak for myself whilst on the project and in the company, but once I leave, having done what the customer required though that requirement falls way below my professional judgment, it makes one wonder who would speak up for me when another expert reviews the project further down the line.

My concerns for that lead me to consider walking away from the project.

I sought succour from mentors and friends which simply confirmed the notion that it would always be my call.

Weighing the consequences of protecting my professional integrity or probably pride by walking away, or trying to make the best of a bad situation by making myself available as a resource to implement what the customer wants with the best expertise I could offer.

Just not on

In choosing the latter, I had already remonstrated about the issues that were raised in negotiating the terms of the project

+        from the false assertion that they had experts of my calibre who had executed the project not only badly but wrongly;

+        the apparent lack of candour where claim and counter-claim pervaded the atmosphere till the real truth emerged in a forum of all parties;

+        the quest to cover-up the mess by subterfuge rather than owning up to the mistakes made

Those amongst many other little but significant issues have been addressed and would need to be reviewed again as this project hopefully comes to a close.

Egg-spurt needs egg on face

The only annoying bit remains that the in-house expert who has expertly made a hash of this project has not accepted the folly of his actions enough to leave this to the hired expert to first resolve and then handover with the opportunity to learn.

For me, it is a humbling experience which in other circumstances would have seen my walk out, the risk of humiliation looms but is distant from the fact that they all well know that I kicked up a right old fuss.

Once again, I thank my mentors and friends for their advice, soothing words and useful guidance, they are friends, indeed.

This time has been instructive, the people quite challenging and the project, well definitely interesting. Go figure!