Up Sh*t Creek: Pro Tips for Managing the Unmanageable Project

In this 2017 GDC session, ClutchPlay Games' Amy Dallas explores a mindset for producers that can help one be successful when faced with managing a seemingly impossible project and shares some survival tips to keep you focused when everything seems to be going sideways.
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[@Discipol]

Competent speaker, interesting subject, good pacing, quality presentation!

[@marcthornton2900]

"You can't put 9 women in a room and expect them to have a baby in 1 month"

[@moocowp4970]

As a project manager I really think you should be cutting scope rather than crunching, particularly if you have enough time to give the dev team a month worth of advanced notice. Rather than saying "in a month we are going to have to crunch for 1-2 months" why don't you instead say "okay, we aren't meeting the timelines, we can either work later/harder to get what we want out, or we cut scope and it had *this* negative consequence, what one shall we choose?". Cutting scope with that much notice is fairly easy for software projects often. Not gonna make deadlines? Well, now we have 15 missions instead of 20; or we have 10 units you can build instead of 12; or in an extreme case, now we can only have Terran and Zerg, no Protoss anymore. Don't chase sunk costs. If you've sunk 100 hours into making Protoss but realise you need to crunch big time to get them in the game in time then maybe it's time to get rid of that 100 hours of work (of course, maybe your team loves Protoss and the idea of just having a Terran+Zerg is too sad, then maybe they'll voluntarily work overtime for the love of the work/product). Obviously this isn't possible with all projects, infrastructure projects can't have scope cut as easily as software projects can.

[@zionen01]

A one month notice before a crunch if a crunch will be absolutely required should be a must, I find most frustration when the amount of work goes against expectations but if a lot of work is expected and planned for it’s immensely more digestible

[@reggierob3422]

this talk is what i needed, thank you Amy!

[@endofthelinejoel]

40 hours is more than enough per week. It is perverse that "crunch" is an acceptable concept (even in an occasional sense) by upper management. Good talk, otherwise.

[@hamuArt]

Crunch time = bad plan / bad management / over confidence / bad time-asset management Constant crunch time = burn out -> (long term health problem) / good skilled people leaving the game industry

[@brandonleonchannel7629]

I don't see it as constant crunch time. Basically she weeds out people who are wasting time. And she did so in a way that's like you choose it you want to crunch or not.

[@Lunareon]

Great talk! This advice is solid for any kind of project management, not just the unmanageable ones.

[@gozinta82]

Great talk! Worked on a good number of projects like that in mobile and PC quality assurance. I found the companies that listened to their testing teams got much further in the long run. I also like the 'you need to stick it to your boss' segment. 100% agreed. Most of the newer companies in silicon valley had documents that had assignments and tasks and who they were assigned to. All members of the team, including the producer, manager, etc. The accountability goes a long way.

[@destroyerdev6650]

This was so helpful.

[@heyjohanaa]

This felt like really good general life advice at times, ha

[@Ion3353]

She was amazing. Absolutely impressive

[@crankyunicorn4423]

great talk how can someone get this job. not that I could do it because you got to be really good reading people

[@nand3kudasai]

Really loved this talk. I also don't believe in crunch , but i think i understand what she was trying to say. I think that's part of saying no, but it could conflict with the idea that 'every project can be done', is like you set up yourself to do 'anything'. Anyway great talk. I've been on those situations a few times myself (and here i am learning from her). Shows that she really knows her stuff. I really would love to get mentored by her

[@SebastienDelfino]

Miss Dallas : thank you, so, so much.

[@GetDaved]

Two minutes in and you can tell she knows her stuff. She's just got one of those steadying personality types that helps even out the turbulence.

[@bb_Boofus]

Excellent content 10/10

[@sid2tiger6]

Nice talk, funny and interesting!

[@JETWTF]

36:36 No, crunch is just bad management. As the speaker said a manager needs to be able to say NO. Crunch is a direct result of not saying NO to project creep and new features being added, All project creep and new features should be relegated to "if we have time" and only added after the initial project is completed. Get the initial project done then add features that can be done in the time remaining. If you are a manager and you rely on crunch to get a job done, you are a bad manager. No if's and's or but's about it If you are the manager and need crunch to get the basic game out before project creep... you should quit the industry because you are more harm than good.

[@s.t.5993]

“Crunch time is a bit bad, but we will use it surgically” 😂 , just admit it you cannot finish high pressure projects without crunch time. Just pay people good overtime and move on, otherwise it’s just slavery

[@smonkk8556]

@@kidmosey absolutely fucking not. crunch time is not "doing your best", its doing beyond what is expected of yourself in terms of reasonable hours or effort per week, hence the amount of frustration, burnout, injury, etc. disney's snow white involved a ton of crunching and infamously almost every animator prematurely booked themselves into hospital beforehand. would you say the animators who more or less singlehandedly created a huge portion of the western animation industry weren't good at their jobs outside of crunch time? no, that would be an absolutely ridiculous thing to say you're right in that it is absolutely a management issue (mismanagement of hours, budget, scope, general team direction), but to imply it's anywhere near the fault of the team members themselves is just straight up lying to yourself

[@moocowp4970]

@@kidmosey as the other comment pointed out, your definition is incorrect. Crunch time is overtime i.e. when your team were operating at 100% and now they're operating at 110-120% (only way to go above 100% is to have them working more hours). You're suggesting they were working at 60% before, which is a different problem and not what crunch time is referring to. Although I understand your confusion because she also miscommunicated it in the talk; suggesting that the same people were doing weekend work (she insinuated they were the lazy ones... Which is unfair/incorrect, they might be the ones who can afford to work on a weekend or don't need to be back home by a certain time looking after a kid etc.)

[@mechanicaltimi123]

Everything about being part of game development is usually cringe or fun af. The fun outweighs the cringe.

[@daSenfgurke]

She answered the questions really poorly I think.. :/ She just deleted tasks?

[@mechanicaltimi123]

I wish this is processed by AI to remove breath noise. I really have a jarring moment when I hear breath.

[@JETWTF]

There's no such thing as an unmanageable project, just bad managers. That's not a game development thing but an everything thing. If it is a project that needs a manager to manage to complete then it is not unmanageable.

[@RichoRosai]

Arm flab is distracting. Hypnotizing.