Susan joined Stacy and Bob at the Project Management Café. “I am so frustrated with this project. My staff keeps getting reassigned to other priorities and I can’t count on having the resources I need from one week to the next. My schedule is going to ‘heck in a handbasket’ as my Mom would say.”

Bob passed her a croissant, “Tell me about the company.”

“It’s a small company with a limited staff. I understand that management needs to focus on all of the tasks and priorities, not just mine. And, they need to deal with the occasional client crisis when it comes up. But, I’m responsible for this project’s schedule, and can’t always count on having the people I need.”

Stacy answered, “Sounds like a Matrix Organization, a small one, but definitely matrix oriented.”

Susan asked, “Matrix, what do you mean?”

Bob replied, “Think of a spreadsheet, with the tasks and projects as the rows, and the different departments as the columns. So, your project is a row, ongoing maintenance tasks is another, a client crisis becomes another. The columns depend on the company, but they could be development, financial, marketing, etc.”

Stacy joined in, “The staff answers to the managers responsible for the rows, but also to their department. So, when another row becomes a priority, they might be re-assigned to deal with that, leaving your project for that time.”

Susan replied, “That sounds like a good description, but how can I plan any kind of realistic schedule with the shifting priorities?”

Bob, “In a larger organization, there is usually enough staff to be able to dedicate a team for the duration of a project. In a smaller organization, you’ve got to negotiate and share resources. Have you thought about using sprints?”

Susan asked, “Sprints? That’s an Agile, Scrum, methodology, this is a small, conservative group, they won’t consider that. This is a Waterfall project, all the way.”

Stacy said, “Don’t get hung up on terms. Organize your project tasks into one to two week segments. When planning the next task to focus on, negotiate with the other managers to dedicate the staff you need for that one to two weeks. After that task is completed, re-negotiate and plan the next one.”

“You’ll want to have more than one possible ‘next-task’, that way you can select the task based on the resources available for that sprint period.”

Bob added, “Have a Before Sprint Planning, and outline exactly what requirements will be met during the sprint. Add an After Sprint Lessons Learned, and you can better plan for the next ones.”

Susan replied, “I’ve already used a Work Breakdown Structure to define the tasks and resources. Organizing dedicated sprints would not be difficult. And, the management team will understand the need to have focused resources for each sprint, as long as they can protect the other priorities as well.”

Susan added, “Still, it sounds like I’d be sneaking a little Agile into their organization.”

Grabbing her camera bag and getting ready to leave, Stacy said, “Don’t get hung up on the terms, think of the tools in the toolbox, and using the ones you need to protect the project and your client’s investment in it. That’s the most important thing.”