Rug pulled by Engineering team
I am a PM for a large enterprise system consisting of multiple components owned by different engineering teams in our org. As part of releasing a feature, we PMs define the scope of the work, identify each component involved for the end to end change, and meet with the teams to get their scheduling on when they can work on it. I am releasing a large feature consisting of 7 teams. Working with my TPM, we met with all the teams and got their signoff and a start and end date for their work. Based on this, i planned the beta release for July and lined up customers for trying out the feature. Sent out communications about the feature availability. Today i got a shock when one of the engg team did a rug pull in a syncup meeting that they never signed up for the work. Even when we showed the update log showing the schedule was locked in a month back, they claimed that the TPM put those dates without confirming with them. They gaslighted me too when i said i was in the meeting where the commitment was given. They kept saying no commitment was given and dropped off the call. Now i am in a screwed up state where i have customers waiting for the feature but the release in jeapordy due to 1 team. Every other team is on schedule. I feel like escalating on them, but in the big picture i still need that team to finish the feature. Seasoned PMs out there, how do i deal with this situation?
Just mark the project at risk and escalate and say you need that piece resourced. Don’t take it personally or confront the engineering team. That team probably is dealing with competing priorities. Find alternatives (either descoping that feature or having an alternative) and pitch them as options for leadership to weigh in.
This is not the first time it will happen for you. These are the questions to ask yourself: 1. Why the eng team is saying that they did not commit the dates?TPM will not make up dates for sure. Did you sign an agreement. 2. What wrong you did when you took commitments? lesson learning step. 3. Are we still on track given the road block? 4. Do we need to cut scope? 5. Do we have a plan? 6. Did you talk to the eng manager and asked why he/she is saying this? Escalate then. Remember you are not responsible for the eng team's competing priorities. Most time the eng manager has no way to prioritize bcoz of resource constraints and it is not his/her fault. Be human and ack. Be passive aggressive. PM greatest asset is removing road blocks. PM who says we have a road block with no solution is not a great asset.
Really good comment, appreciate it. When the org is following a feature planning process, everyone needs to honor and follow it else the process fails. That is whats happened here. We have the Gannt schedule approved and locked for this feature. Approval happens after all participating engg teams give their nod. And obviously the TPM wont make up dates for sure. The PMs dont have bandwidth to individually ping each team and review the scheduling and get their approval in writing. There are meetings scheduled with all participating engg teams to discuss and record these decisions. This engg team is playing on the fact that their silence during the final approval meeting didnt mean they have committed to the dates. Which is completely unprofessional. Yes i am liable to remove roadblocks for the project but this seems like an unnecessary one, hence venting out here.
Escalate. Mark the project at risk. Let upper management deal with it. Tell them you had signoffs and now team is backing out
Yup exactly my first reaction. But i just got off a call with a peer PM and got an advice not to burn bridges with the team as i still need them to do the work to finish the feature. They asked me to cool off and followup on Monday what their new timeline is, and see if its that far off from the initial end date, and throw it to upper management to deal with it.
First complete your due diligence and impact analysis, any workaround etc. Speak to that team manger again. If things didn’t workout, document everything and escalate to higher-up’s as a critical risk. Remember you are the PM and it’s your job to run the show smoothly if there is a road blocker highlight and escalate