Project Management/2011 Q4/Meetings/Project Management Survey-2011-11-07

Overview

A survey was launched on 2011-11-07 to capture how Mozilla employees are managing their projects and tasks. This survey was created and launched quickly due to feedback from employees that the problem is growing worse and they want to give their feedback. The survey asked a few questions that would require the person to type in their response, but for the most part, the questions were multiple choice. The results of the survey will help answer the question about where we are at now and how people think we are doing. A survey like this could be repeated in the future to determine if we are heading in the right direction. Another survey should be created to ask similar questions to our external contributors.

Survey Results

The following results were captured between 2011-11-10 and 2011-11-16 and included 196 respondents.

Summary

The following are generalized statements for all of the respondents:

• Bugzilla, Etherpad, wiki.mozilla.org, and Google docs were the primary tools employees use to manage their projects and tasks.
• Data on projects and tasks should be accessible to the external world for most groups.
• Half the the respondents don't feel they have enough information to determine what needs to be done and to set priorities.
• Half of the respondents feel their team is being asked to do more then what is possible with their given resources.
• Respondents say that project scope changes often.
• One third of the respondents feel the organization is lacking in their ability to plan upcoming projects.
• Over one quarter of the respondents feel their group is poor at accurately estimating the amount of effort to complete a project.
• Over eighty percent of respondents feel they know what needs to happen to grow the organization.
• There are multiple similar project management initiatives going on across the organization specific to their group.
• If a company-wide tool is selected, it should be simple, easy to use, and meet web accessibility standards.

Complete reports with charts and graphs (PDF):

• Summary of all responses
• Developer summary
• Management summary
• Project/Program Manager summary
• Product Owner summary
• System Administrator summary

Conclusions

• Even though eighty percent of the respondents feel they know what they need to do to grow the organization, half say they don't have enough information to determine what are priorities. This disconnect could lead to groups working on projects they feel will help the organization, but may not coincide with priorities.
• Scope creep and accurately estimating effort to complete a project is a problem for many groups in the organization and this could be a contributing factor in groups not achieving their goals.
• Groups are being asked to complete more projects and tasks then what is possible with their available resources and those groups will have have a difficult time knowing what projects they decide to work on without knowing which ones are priorities to the organization.
• Since most projects in the organization require multiple groups to complete any given project, and many groups are over utilized without clear priorities, the probability of dependent tasks being blocked is highly likely.

What next?

• Short term proposal for a project funnel

Question Details

Does your project or task information need to be accessed by non-employees?

• Yes - 72.4%
• No - 27.6%

Do you feel you have enough information on what needs to be complete, priorities, who is working on what, for all of your tasks?

• Yes - 51.5%
• No - 48.9%

Are any of your team's quarterly goals at-risk due over-utilization of your team's resources? (are you being asked to do more than what is possible?)

• No - 51.5%
• Yes - 48.5%

How often do requested projects change significant scope or get cancelled?

• Often - 47.4%
• Rarely - 43.9%
• Always - 6.1%
• Never - 2.6%

Please rate the organization's ability to plan upcoming projects effectively.

• Good enough - 36.2%
• Lacking - 35.7%
• Pretty good - 19.4%
• FAIL - 6.6%
• Splendid! - 2%

Please rate how effective you or your dept is in estimating the amount of effort required to complete a requested project.

• Good enough - 62.5%
• Poor - 28.6%
• Never give estimates - 6.6%
• Perfect - 2%

Do you feel you know what you need to do to help Mozilla grow positively?

• Yes - 82.7%
• No - 17.3%

Survey Questions

1. Your Name
2. Which of the following best describes your functional role? *This question is required
   1. Developer/Engineer
   2. Project/Program Manager
   3. Management
   4. Designer
   5. Product Owner
   6. Administrative Services
   7. Systems Administrator
   8. Analyst
   9. Evangelist
   10. Other
3. What Mozilla group(s) are you in? *This question is required
   1. Labs
   2. Web Development
   3. Engagement
   4. Firefox Engineering
   5. Release Engineering
   6. Finance
   7. People
   8. Metrics
   9. Infrastructure Security
   10. Information Technology
   11. Special Projects
   12. QA
   13. Firefox UX
   14. Mobile
   15. Apps
   16. Firefox Home
   17. Services Engineering
   18. MDN
   19. Products
   20. Pancake
   21. Research
   22. Legal
   23. Communications
   24. Public Relations
   25. Product Marketing
   26. AMO
   27. SUMO
   28. QMO
   29. Recruiting
   30. Services Operations
   31. Platform Engineering
   32. Other
4. Which teams do you regularly work with in order to complete your projects? *This question is required
   1. Web development
   2. Information Technology
   3. Security
   4. QA
   5. Legal
   6. PR
   7. Engagement
   8. Metrics
   9. Outside Vendor
   10. Other
5. How do you currently manage tasks and communicate with everyone involved on a given project (across all teams)? *This question is required
6. Do you use any of the following tools to track tasks and projects? *This question is required
   1. Bugzilla
   2. MediaWiki (wiki.mozilla.org)
   3. Confluence wiki (mana.mozilla.org)
   4. Google Docs
   5. Spreadsheet (local)
   6. Etherpad
   7. PivotalTracker
   8. Jira
   9. Trello
   10. Other
7. Does your project or task information need to be accessed by non-employees? *This question is required
   1. Yes
   2. No
8. Do you feel you have enough information on what needs to be complete, priorities, who is working on what, for all of your tasks? *This question is required
   1. Yes
   2. No
9. Are any of your team's quarterly goals at-risk due over-utilization of your team's resources? (are you being asked to do more than what is possible?) *This question is required
   1. Yes
   2. No
10. How often do requested projects change significant scope or get cancelled? *This question is required
    1. Always
    2. Often
    3. Rarely
    4. Never
11. Please rate the organization's ability to plan upcoming projects effectively. *This question is required
    1. Splendid!
    2. Pretty good
    3. Good enough
    4. Lacking
    5. FAIL
12. Please rate how effective you or your dept is in estimating the amount of effort required to complete a requested project. *This question is required
    1. Perfect
    2. Good enough
    3. Poor
    4. Never give estimates
13. Do you feel you know what you need to do to help Mozilla grow positively? *This question is required
    1. No
    2. Yes
14. Do you have any more feedback about project management or anything else we should be aware of?