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New Project Fears.

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paulca:
So just after the social distancing and working from home started I ran to the end of a contract in work.

I'm already signed up to the next project with another US investment bank.  I have been onboarded, staring at a blank remote desktop, but I have no information.  I have a blank project tracker and a blank documentation portal.

I hate this phase.  Sends my anxiety up the wall.  I consider myself to be a competent and experienced software engineer, but I have in my 15 year career had a few projects I never got to grips with an under performed as a result.  Each project is usually different, different company, different ethos, different tech, didn't country.

Normally, I would not expect someone new to a project to be of any great use for several weeks.  Months before they are fully bedded in, especially if they are operating within a new (to them) company.

But the project manager on our company side invited us to a "Kick off" with the client.   He says, "Come on guys, be prepared for this have questions ready!"

I have pinged him multiple times for documentation, project requirements or ANYTHING that tells me what I will be doing and I have nothing other than, "Moving a Java app to the cloud.".  I don't know what that app does, don't have it's documentation, nothing.

So I need a strategy to keep my anxiety in check as unchecked I am likely to be short, grumpy and acidic on calls because I won't be able to perform as I would like.

Do I just go in silent and passive and let others, particularly from the client side, drive things until I feel comfortable?  Set expectations low by doing so and then as I ramp up and find my feet I can appear to excel?

Help!

chickenHeadKnob:
You are asking us two different but interconnected questions. The first one is unanswerable because it depends on your personal psychology. I don't know how to assuage your anxiety. I mostly don't get anxious so anything I might suggest in terms of coping mechanisms probably won't work.

The second question concerns managers/clients that are on the extreme end of non co-operation. This I have experience with. These guys are lazy and expect the software development process to be one that mimics a consumer purchase. They do the absolute minimum to  come up with a vague requirements document that is often self contradicting and expect to click the buy button. There I'm done!. After they hand it over to you they want to go on cruse control and lounge in their office incommunicado until the completion date. This kind you have to ride hard and be undiplomatic with. Ply them with  refined and detailed requirements  document that they need to sign off on, or just quit. They will balk at signing but so what, tough noogies

I prefer to give ultimatums and risk early termination rather than have the thing drag on and end in failure anyway. You know that stupid reality show Survivor? There was an episode I watched where the first guy to be voted off the island came up with this statement in the postmortem exit interview: "I'm glad to be the first voted off, after winning it is next best outcome" or something to that effect.

He is correct, who needs to be trapped in some stupid game for weeks just to lose anyway.

nctnico:
@Paulca: do you still get paid? If yes, then where is the problem? The project will start when it starts.

You know it is about moving a 'Java app to the cloud' so you could look for experience from other people who went through a similar development cycle to learn about potential pitfalls.

DrG:
That is an interesting situation. Not coming from that background, I might have a different take…

IF you are absolutely sure that 1) you asked for documentation; and 2) were not given any – and your end (i.e., your project manager agrees that you were not given any). I would be inclined to lower anxiety by first sincerely contributing to pleasant conversation on whatever topic the client appears to be willing and interested in talking about.

I would not be silent as that can be interpreted in the negative. I also would not say anything like, "why haven’t you sent us anything? We thought we would have seen the app by now and seen all the docs – what’s up with that dood?"

Open up politely. If the conversation seems to be going ok, you will find an opportunity to add…”I am really looking forward to hitting the ground running…and can’t wait to get all the specs and get going….blah blah blah. You will know that opportunity comes up when the air is hanging with “what the heck is the job?”.

Don’t worry about questions you can’t answer…like, “So what will your role be on the project?” Answer, wherever I can be the most useful …embellished a bit with particular strengths and not – how the %$#@ would I know since I don’t even know what the freaking project is?

If you really don’t know what the project details are, you really can’t be prepared to ask questions about the details, other than "what are they?"

If I were a client and actually liked people, I might want to have a get acquainted conference call where everybody met and showed the right degree of friendliness backed up by competent suitability. Of course, I am neither  :), so you may want to listen to someone else.

Still, if the client leaves the conference call thinking – these folks seem like good people who are happy and have their act together, it will have gone well.

It reminds me that of all the conference calls/briefings that I have participated in, there was almost always an agenda ahead of time. The exceptions meant that I was there to listen and to listen to people that were much higher "ranking" than me.

Please do let us know how it goes.

Dubbie:

--- Quote from: DrG on April 28, 2020, 01:09:48 am ---If I were a client and actually liked people, I might want to have a get acquainted conference call where everybody met and showed the right degree of friendliness backed up by competent suitability. Of course, I am neither  :), so you may want to listen to someone else.

Still, if the client leaves the conference call thinking – these folks seem like good people who are happy and have their act together, it will have gone well.

--- End quote ---

For someone who doesn't like people, I think you hit the nail on the head.

Paulca, Just be polite, friendly, and enthusiastic. If you haven't received any info yet, that's all they can expect.
From what you've told us, I think you are worrying too much about this situation. The time to worry is when you have specific technical problems to worry about!

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