Meaningful Work – Busy Work

busy work – ugh!

Meaningful Work versus Busy Work was the central theme of a presentation and discussion I shared with the PMI Heartland Professional Development Day on September 17, 2012.   The title was “Undercover Agile”.  The premise was sorting through what’s meaningful and busy work in daily project management practice.  Once sorted, high performance organizations and project managers focus on the meaningful work – see also value added work in Lean Six Sigma.

The intriguing take away was the result from several break out groups (16 groups of 4-6 team members) on what constitutes meaningful and busy work.

Let’s start with what was perceived as “busy work”.

Half of the busy work responses can be considered essential project manager tasks (12 of 23).

1. Updating Clarity or Project
2. Answering drive by project questions
3. Preparing for meetings and budget reviews
4. Emails
5. Meeting minutes
6. Lengthy presentations
7. Meaningless reports
8. Constantly switching paths
9. Multiple approvals
10. Parking lot
11. Layers of approval
12. Time keeping and management

Of the remaining eleven, four are essential tasks (meaningful work) if done well.  The project manager should have the locust of control to shape this.

1. Multiple iterations of the same status update
2. Unproductive meetings and endless meetings.
3. Endless status report
4. Meaningless reports

Now to understand this more!  The following table are the verbatim responses (column 1 and 2).  I assigned the essential PM tasks from the busy work column.  What’s your opinion?

Meaningful Work	Busy Work	Essential PM Tasks
Executing your plan   Issue and risk management   Roles and responsibilities   Making customers happy   Development of associations   Make company successful   Planning   Strategic connections   Achieve positive results or solutions Goal   oriented Innovative   way of doing things Saves   time and money Add   value People   working effectively Measurable Makes   a difference Prioritizing Team   Buy In Providing   Communication that’s useful to someone Getting   people to agree on scope Getting   something into production Presentation   of a project for the first time Budget   review Remove   road blocks Personal   collaboration and interaction Quantifiable   iterative process Good   toys during SCRUM meetings	Repetitive   Distractions from fads of the month   Repetitive   Endless meetings to solve problems   Multiple iterations of the same status update   Updating Clarity or Project   Answering drive by project questions   Preparing for meetings and budget reviews   Unproductive meetings and endless   meetings. Endless   status reports Antiquated   process Emails Meeting   minutes Off   requirements Duplication   of work Lengthy   presentations Meaningless   reports Constantly   switching paths Multiple   approvals Parking   lot Layers   of approval Time   keeping and management Reversed   decisions unannounced	Updating Clarity or Project   Answering drive by project questions   Preparing for meetings and budget reviews   Emails   Meeting minutes   Lengthy presentations   Meaningless reports   Constantly switching paths   Multiple approvals Parking   lot Layers   of approval Time   keeping and management Essential Tasks if done properly Multiple   iterations of the same status update Unproductive   meetings and endless meetings. Endless   status report Meaningless   reports

Tagged: Agile, Agile software development, Business Analysis, Decision Making, Develop Project Team, Stakeholders

Posted in: Project Management