Overtime and Poor Planning

Mark Moloney got me thinking on project managers and planning when he puts forward a postulate on his blog “Mark wants a Porsche“

“Any project manager who regularly works overtime must be a poor planner.“

Working overtime is very intrinsic to IT professionals, specially managers since they have to deal internally with teams and externally with the stakeholders. Balancing between these two and still meeting deadlines/expectations is a difficult and time consuming job.

Working overtime to manage a difficult situation is exceptional and acceptable, assuming that difficult situations also arise exceptionally. But if crisis and overtime are a regular feature for all projects managed by a particular project manager, we can very well conclude that he is a poor planner.