Favorite guidelines for a Mission, Vision, etc 2

[thedaver]

I'm wondering if any of you have favorite websites, articles, authors, or organizations that you reference when working on the development of project, program, or corporate missions, visions, strategic statements, etc.

I find that the trend toward presenting missions and visions leaves a blurred line sometimes.

I would appreciate clarity on why you'd choose to write certain pieces, for whom they are written, language use tips, and selection of topics.

If I've asked a poor question, please say so....

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[jollyreaper]

All of these mission and vision statements are just management makework, something for a bunch of suits to congratulate themselves on as they sit in the board room wasting oxygen.

Any business can be divided into precisely two parts, money-makers and support. In your most classic business model, money-makers are sales and production. Without the sales people, you can't sell your product. Without production, you don't have a product to sell. This is what brings home the bacon. Any other department either helps or hinders this process.

IT can provide the hardware and software to make sales and production more productive, thus increasing revenues. IT can just as easily provide non-functional pieces of crap that leave those departments worse off than if they were still using paper.

Accounting and Finance can make sure the company's resources are efficiently allocated and utillized but they can just as easily demand so much documentation and pointless paperwork that the company would actually be saving money if they junked both departments and just put a bag of cash in the lunch room with a sign saying "take what you need."

Management is the biggest sinner of all. Management should be about serving the money-makers to keep the business healthy but they are under the mistaken impression that they themselves are the money-makers and it's the rest of the company holding them back. This sort of pig-headed, egocentric thinking is endemic in American industry. These are the same jackholes who think that they can outsource all production and still have a viable company. These are the same jackholes who think their 40 hour week is worth a compensation 500x greater than the 40 hour week of the line worker.

If you want to find out what's wrong with a business, start with the smug, self-important gits in the neckties.

As for your mission statement, this one works for all circumstances: "Know who signs the check, know what they want you do to, do it well, and always look for ways to imrpove the process." Fill in the blanks for your particular business. Anything else is just wanking about.

 

[thedaver]

Dude, seek help. You need some anger management. You may have made some points along the way, but I'm fairly certain that you're not a successful PM.

D.E.R. Management - IT Project Management Consulting

http://www.dermanagement.com/

 

[fmasin]

thedaver,

Thanks for starting this thread and for all the people that made contributions to it. I found the previous guy's reply, whom you advised to seek help on anger management, quite an interesting read. He/She makes some very good, and indeed, valid points.

When you have been around large corporate organisations, I strongly agree with some of the statements he/she makes above. What I don't agree with is when he/she nullifies organisational management. Perhaps in his/her view, management is being taken in some other context which is not transparent to the readers.

What I feel has not been answered adequately on the thread are some references/websites etc... I would wish this thread to continue and invite more replies..

Thanks and regards,

Francis

 

[yearntolearn]

You must have asked a poor question because you did not get an answer to it. I too do not have favorite websites, articles, authors, or organizations that I reference when working on the development of project, program, or corporate missions, visions, strategic statements, etc. because I have to much work to do to waste time creating inconsequential documentation. It only counts if you complete the project successfully and that's where you need to put your focus.

 

[LNBruno]

As a programmer, I would happily exchange every Project Plan with all their revisions of:


1.0 GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Purpose, Scope, and Objectives
1.2 System Overview
1.3 Contacts
1.4 Project References
1.5 Relationship to Other Projects
1.6 Organizational Interfaces
1.7 Acronyms and Abbreviations
2.0 PLANNED ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, AND DELIVERABLES
2.1 Initiate Project Phase
2.2 Define System Phase
2.3 Design System Phase
2.4 Build System Phase
2.5 Evalutate System Phase
2.6 Operate System Phase
3.0 RESOURCES
3.1 Roles and Responsibilities
3.2 Labor Categories
3.3 Budget Estimates and Total Costs
3.3.1 Estimates and Costs for Labor Categories
3.3.2 Estimates and Costs for Capital Investments
3.3.3 Estimates and Costs for Equipment
3.3.4 Estimates and Costs for Operating Costs
3.3.5 Estimates and Costs for Other Services
4.0 TECHNICAL APPROACH
4.1 Methods and Techniques
4.2 Environment
APPENDIX A: PROJECT SCHEDULE
APPENDIX B: LESSONS (not) LEARNED FROM EVERY OTHER PROJECT WE'VE EVER DONE


for a good specification requirement document and a firm change management program.

That said, the EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) Software Lifecycle Document Template would be my preferred poison, IF, like any other plan, it were followed and enforced.

< M!ke >

 

[Maximizer]

LNBruno

Thanks for the information! I gave you a star.

James Keep, PMP
Crystal Reports(tm) Certified Consultant 8.5 (CRCC)
Authorized Crystal Engineer (ACE)
CMRC
Crystal Decisions Business Partner
Montreal, Qc, Canada

http://www.cmrc.qc.ca