10 Charity

Charity is usually defined as benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity, generosity and helpfulness toward the needy or suffering, or aid given to those in need. It can also mean lenient judgment of others. In project management, charity can take the form of doing favors.

The Sin

We all have been in the situation where a customer or team member asks to add a feature or upgrade the quality of a certain item. We often agree to do these favors because we find ourselves unable to say “no”—driven by our desire to please or a preconceived notion that we do not have that option. Doing favors on projects can carry a high price if the project is delayed or its costs increase.

Charity manifests itself on projects in different ways. On the positive side, it can give team members more life balance by allowing them to refuse overtime or reward the team for project successes by distributing gift vouchers for a job well done. This type of charity pays for itself in a more motivated team, resulting in higher productivity. On the negative side, charity can manifest itself in symptoms like scope creep, unrealistic expectations, and keeping unqualified or non-performing team members.

Charity on projects happens because many of us like to help other people. Doing so makes us feel good. Saying no or making tough decisions can make us uncomfortable. The problem with doing favors is that it can have a domino effect or even start the project on a downward spiral. One favor begets another and before you know it, you have lost control over the project scope, budget, or timeline.

A Case of Charity

I worked on a project to customize and implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. By the time I got involved, the standard off-the-shelf product had been modified through 14,000 hours of customization work, the majority of which was spent meeting requests for “favors.” The result of so much customization being done as favors was “spaghetti” code.

My concern about the performance of the software after go-live led me to ask a third party to conduct a project audit. This outside party advised me to stop the project and re-evaluate the work done, since there was a high likelihood that the software would fail after a few months of use. I took this advice to the project sponsor, who disregarded it for fear of losing face. I escalated the issue to my VP, who assured me that everything was fine (after providing charity—that is, allowing scope creep—during a game of golf with the project sponsor). The software went live as planned but became unusable after six months. The rework required and the end users’ loss of productivity ran into the millions of dollars.

Danger Signs

Charity happens in every organization and on every level. The key is to distinguish good charity from bad and to make the latter visible before resources are committed. Sometimes that is all you can do, as in the ERP case. However, you may be able to slowly change the organization to one with an open communication culture where charity is fully understood and accepted when it makes sense within the project boundaries. In this way, charity will no longer be a “sin.”

Solutions

The construction industry has made controlling charity an art. Anyone who has ever built a house or done some remodeling knows that contractors do not do charity. Any requested change is discussed, the work estimated, a cost assigned, and a new timeline approved.

Project managers in other industries would do well to take a lesson from the construction industry. Rather than simply saying no when someone requests charity, make the price tag visible so that the right decisions and tradeoffs, if required, can be made. Skillful project management is not about trying to please one person at a time; rather, it is about satisfying the majority of the project stakeholders involved. This requires balancing all expectations.

Tips for Conquering Charity

Manage the expectations of your stakeholders. Communicate to your team, your client, the end-users, and other stakeholders the potential costs of changes and additions, and explain that charity will not be extended on your project.

Understand that change is a given on projects and people will always ask for favors. The goal is not to stop changes, but to make the impact of requests visible so an informed decision can be made.

Do not strive to be liked by everyone. It is human nature for most of us to want to please. Your job as a project manager is to manage the agreed-upon scope, budget, and timeline, and of course, your stakeholders’ expectations. Project management is not a popularity contest.

Make tough decisions. If you have team members who are not performing or are not the right people for the job, work with them and their managers to have them moved to another project (or fire them if they are contractors). It is not in the best interests of the project to keep them on the project team just because you like them or feel sorry for them.