Halloween Bonus:
What Do These 3 Tales Have in Common?
PM Horror Stories 5, 6, and 7
Posted by:
Doug Bedinger at 30 Oct 2008 under Conflict & issue management
[2] Comments
Horror Story No. 4
This collection of project horror stories would not be complete without a tale concerning… MICROSOFT PROJECT
Listen now to the saga of The Project Toolkit Gone Awry
We were expanding, and expanding FAST. Not five, not ten, but 200 stores were to be built-out, and it was my job to create a project plan for each store, and then roll them all up together into an overall Master Project Plan. (more…)
Posted by:
Doug Bedinger at 29 Oct 2008 under Implementing project management, Lessons Learned
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Horror Story No. 3:
Buried Alive in a Project Graveyard
What to do when the answer is 6 ft under…
After two years of problem solving with nothing to show for it, my Manager finally handed me a new project. “What I need is a breakthrough, and it’s your job to make it happen.”
The Horror: As I observed the team, it appeared like rigor mortis had settled in long ago. It was like a group of Zombies had arrived on the scene of our first meeting. Frankly, I was scared.
Posted by:
Doug Bedinger at 28 Oct 2008 under Conflict & issue management, Communications
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Horror Story No. 2: Project Doldrums
It’s budget time. The team is listless - no enthusiasm for the project as no one believes that the product will work. Yet here we drift toward starting a new clinical trial.
The intrepid PM declares a willingness to present a ‘no go’ budget to management - inquiring: “What new data do we have that would allow management to step back from this decision that they made to proceed less than a year before?” (more…)
Posted by:
Doug Bedinger at 27 Oct 2008 under Conflict & issue management
1 Comment
This week, in anticipation of Halloween, I asked several of my project management friends to give me their PM Horror Stories. Of course the names and faces have been masked to protect the innocent. But hold on to your Trick-or-Treat bags as there are some truly scary lessons to be learned as we move into…
The Project Management Twilight Zone
Posted by:
Doug Bedinger at 26 Oct 2008 under Uncategorized
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My parents live in Louisiana and unfortunately got hit hard by Hurricane Gustav a few weeks ago. Their home was damaged by a very old very impressive tree, and a long-time family lake house was so badly rain-damaged that gutting of the entire place was required. The three weeks after the storm reminded me strongly of what teams at the beginning of a particularly difficult project often face – and tools I’ve used on my projects to counter the issues.What could a hurricane-recovery project and our difficult corporate projects share in common? Picture a team facing and huge tangle of mess, feeling rather helpless as they look at the pile and wonder where to start and what will become of them as they wrestle with that mess. (more…)
Posted by:
Cinda Voegtli at 24 Oct 2008 under Uncategorized
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Properly managed project documentation is critical for all types and sizes of projects. After all, the project documentation is the only real output from most projects. It is not the prototype that matters. It is the production documentation that includes things such as material lists, part drawings, assembly instructions, diagnostics, and source code that defines our products and services. I’m sure this is nothing profound to any of you. However, what you may not realize is that making it easy for everyone to find the latest version of a given document is especially important for virtual teams. Virtual teams often consist of people from different time zones or who work different schedules (i.e., a four-day week). As such, these teams rely more heavily on online sources of documentation throughout their work week. If they struggle to find the latest documentation on some aspect of the project that affects them, they’ll waste time sending e-mails, calling around or worse still, end up using an outdated version by mistake.
(more…)
Posted by:
Loyal at 23 Oct 2008 under Communications, productivity, Methodology
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