One thing I’ve noticed in large, established organisations, particularly in finance, is that their internal processes for provisioning resources (be it cloud services, personnel, or any shared resource) are always in a state of change or apparent “improvement.”
New cost cutting exercises, updates due to regulation or industry standards, and attempts to “improve” how things get done are constantly in play. These initiatives are rooted in good intentions, reacting to external factors or seeking efficiency, but they inevitably bump into active projects.
When Projects Become “Guinea Pigs”
Picture this: as a project manager, you estimate three weeks for a task, only to have it balloon into eight because your project is chosen to pilot a new process. This happens all the time. Large organisations often see an ongoing project and decide it’s the perfect candidate to test that next “Major Upgrade” to the infrastructure.
Suddenly, timelines slip, and no one could’ve predicted it. Voices get raised, people start blaming each other, and you find yourself wondering if you can just do things the old way to stay on schedule. Meanwhile, the process-improvement folks push back because they don’t want to delay their innovation.
How to avoid grumping at each other
If it looks like your project might be the next guinea pig, try to get out in front of it. As soon as you get a hint that someone wants to apply a new process to your work:
Ask why: Make sure you understand the rationale, so you can feed it back to the busness in case of delay.
Negotiate timing: See if you can stick with the old way for development and switch over in user acceptance testing (UAT). This gives you some breathing room and doesn’t derail the entire project.
That way, you avoid appearing hostile to the team driving process improvements while still guarding your delivery timeline. Yes, it’s messy, and yes, it might slow things down. But with a proactive approach, you can at least minimise the chaos and keep relationships cordial.