Bclass
“I sympathise with your frustration working within the organisation, but (much-maligned) suppliers equally feel it too. We go through months of contract negotiations where the customer emphasis is to slash the price (to the detriment of functionality), only for the DLO to suddenly discover a substantial underspend later on”.
I couldn’t agree more. The administrative hoops that technical project managers have to jump through in MoD are mind-numbing. And most hate industry being told to do the same, usually unnecessarily. I must say though, that my experience of industry is mostly positive, with one or two major exceptions.
The most humbling experience I have ever had was to witness a young soldier returning to his unit half-recovered from injuries received on active duty, and nearly in tears because his CO had to tell him to go back home, he wasn’t fit yet. CO turned back to me to finish discussing when he was getting desperately needed kit – the trials had been successful and deployment was imminent. I was trying to explain the delay was down to the “approvals” process whereby about a third of the IPT had to “approve” my Business Case. (Not that any had the slightest clue about the subject, and few had even written a BC). All but one of them had finally signed, but I had to wait until this last chap returned from extended leave. His only comment? “You put a double full-stop at the end of that sentence”. Six week f****** delay. Frustrated? Incandescent with rage more like. Like I said, sack them.