Take the Risk out of Hiring: Hire the Right People

by Johanna Rothman

In Ken Orr's fine 15 September Business-IT Strategies E-Mail Advisor, " Managing Very Large Projects: The Wrong People," Ken provided some wonderful questions to use to determine whether a person has previously performed any work like that found on this project. Those questions are great and work well -- as long as you can find someone who's already worked on a project like this. But what if you're in a position similar to most of my clients, in which you either can't afford the person with the experience or you can't afford the time it takes to find the person with the experience? Or, something that's just as likely: you can't find someone with experience in this domain -- all of the people you interview have experience in other kinds of projects. In that case, you need to ask different questions.