You might not have heard the term, but if you work in a large organisation chances are you have heard of a project that is a self licking lolly. This article explains the problem and provides some sweet food for thought.
A self licking lolly is one that can justify its own existence without the need of someone to hold, consume and enjoy it. In project terms this is a project that keeps on rolling without a need for what it delivers, or indeed delivering anything. It sounds mad that such a thing might exist in the highly disciplined world of Projects with well bounded scope; clear deliverables and an intelligent customer, how would it ever survive?
Before answering that question, think for a moment about the wider world around you, how many self licking lolly's can you think of... Perhaps a government quango generating work for itself to undertake, or the latest new gadget you bought because it was cool but don't have a proper use for. Perhaps you have a task at work that seems of little value but you do it because you have always done it and thats how things are done. Or perhaps you have an old car that forever needs fixing because you never quite get round to solving the underlying problem, or can't afford to get a more reliable vehicle.
All these examples have analogies in the world of projects:
- That new gadget you don't have a use for, that might be the project which has a company director as a sponsor, who has a clear idea of what the project should be without checking if its what the business still needs.
- Project overtaken by events, but not canceled? Its going to become a self licking lolly.
- That old car? Maybe there is a project which doesn't have the resources to do something properly, or fix it once and for all so instead stumbles on and on delivering what it can. Whilst you might imagine a self licking lolly to be a well resourced but seemingly pointless endeavour, it can equally be the worthy but underfunded project whose constant overruns end up eating more resources than if it had been properly resourced in the first place.
- There are also projects which continue for 'political' reasons, constantly being redefined to remain in existence, or carrying on because there is a wider imperative for keeping it going (for example keeping key staff and expertise employed in the company during a lull in business).
We are all familiar with projects that succeed and what that looks like, and projects that fail and the reasons why. There are well established techniques for running a project which are there to prevent failure and foster success. But does this distract us from the zombie projects, or resource wasting quangos that exist between success and failure.
Next time you are reviewing your project portfolio, or come into contact with a project, work package or activity take a moment to ask yourself if it has the taste of lolly licking. You can use your skills as a project manager to fix this, although you might not have the authority to implement the necessary actions you can take your case to someone who does.
