Project Management Tales

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Hi to All: I'm thinking of writing an article on Project Management Tales for the Toronto Users Group magazine. I'd like it to be an article that outlines some real life examples - there will no mention of specific company names, of course, or anything that might identify clients or even project managers. So, do any of you have project management stories to share? The story can be about a project disaster and what could have been done differently to correct the problem before it got so bad. Or maybe where unforeseen events occurred and changes had to be made - so how was the project changed and how should it have been done? Or, any other interesting stories you have. The point of the article I write will be to give some guidance to readers on how to deal with some of the types of issues that arise. For example: Situation where unforeseen circumstances have occurred. A client was in the middle of the second phase of the implementation of their new accounting software package when the client's owner decided to put the company up for sale. So, the project implementation team was suddenly unavailable for three or four weeks because they were working on reports and answering questions for the potential buyers. In addition, the users were wondering whether the project was cancelled and if they could stop gathering data for the new system. The project manager had not imagined that there was any possiblity of a sale of the company (how could she?), so there was no provision in the plan for such an event. So, when the event occurred and the extent of the damage was known (e.g. three to four weeks behind schedule), what is to be done? The team evaluated the available alternatives - (a) change scope (b) add resources (c) move the deadline. Since adding resources was not possible, the alternatives were reduced to changing the scope and/or deadline. The team felt strongly about keeping the deadline as planned, so several items in the project scope were removed and deferred to after the "go-live" date. The revision to the plan was presented to the project sponsor for approval. The project sponsor sent out a memo to users to assure them that the project was still ongoing. So, what examples do you have? You can email me directly, but it would probably be better to post here so everyone can enjoy the story. I suspect all of this to be interesting reading! Thanks in advance for your help. Debbie Gallagher

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On Tuesday, January 12, 1999, 06:58 AM, Tom Conover wrote: Unless it's REXX/400 where: It doesn't compile and it does work. <hr> Also BASIC was made to run under interpretor for use of scientist. I saw years ago an article where FORTRAN and BASIC were compared. The conclusion was: FORTRAN is better because it is faster. The writer did not know the clever idea of Basic: All could use it because it worked without compiling and linking. (I had a BASIC compiler for Spectrum computer) <TABLE BORDER=5 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 > bgcolor="#C3A44A"> <TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> Matti Kujala * <A > HREF="http://www.ahlstrom.com/"> Ahlstrom Kauttua ltd.</A> * <A > HREF="http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/findeng.html">Finland </TD> </TR> </TABLE></a>

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I was once working in a project team, where teamleader wanted to make all designing and programming!! I got some 'not important' work, because I could read his code and tell that 'User error' was in fact a bug in code. All users got information (I heard this later) that I had so much to do that all troubles must be reported to another person (not able to read code!). This teamleader had another unpleasent way to act. If I made a proposal, it was absolutely wrong. After two weeks he got a brilliant idea which was exactly my proposal. <TABLE BORDER=5 CELLSPACING=0 > CELLPADDING=5 bgcolor="#C3A44A"> <TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> Matti Kujala * Ahlstrom Kauttua ltd. (http://www.ahlstrom.com/) * <A > HREF="http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/findeng.html">Finland </TD> </TR> </TABLE></a>

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Where to begin. . .So many tales, so little time. Actually most of the horror stories, adventures, etc. I have experienced are apparantly not unique. I have relived most of them by reading <u>Dilbert</u>. Some of the successes have also appeared in the ubiquitous comic strip. David Abramowitz

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On Friday, January 15, 1999, 03:20 AM, David Abramowitz wrote: I have relived most of them by reading <u>Dilbert</u>. <hr> In Finland we can read cartoons about officeworker Virtanen. When he had got a big project ready, his boss said: 'Now Virtanen is time for thanks' and Virtanen had to say: 'Thank you, that I was allowed to do this big project!' <TABLE BORDER=5 CELLSPACING=0 > CELLPADDING=5 bgcolor="#C3A44A"> <TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> Matti Kujala * Ahlstrom Kauttua ltd. (http://www.ahlstrom.com/) * <A > HREF="http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/findeng.html">Finland </TD> </TR> </TABLE></a>

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On Friday, January 15, 1999, 08:39 AM, Matti Kujala wrote: On Friday, January 15, 1999, 03:20 AM, David Abramowitz wrote: I have relived most of them by reading <u>Dilbert</u>. <hr> In Finland we can read cartoons about officeworker Virtanen. When he had got a big project ready, his boss said: 'Now Virtanen is time for thanks' and Virtanen had to say: 'Thank you, that I was allowed to do this big project!' <TABLE BORDER=5 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 bgcolor="#C3A44A"> <TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> Matti Kujala * <A > HREF="http://www.ahlstrom.com/"> Ahlstrom Kauttua ltd.</A> * <A > HREF="http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/findeng.html">Finland </TD> </TR> </TABLE> <HR>Send more Virtanen; Is he a Contractor???...... <pre> <H4>Bob Hamilton TEXAS BUSINESS SYSTEMS 736 Pinehurst Richardson, Texas 75080 <h4> </pre></h4></h4></a>

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On Friday, January 15, 1999, 08:39 AM, Matti Kujala wrote: In Finland we can read cartoons about officeworker Virtanen. When he had got a big project ready, his boss said: 'Now Virtanen is time for thanks' and Virtanen had to say: 'Thank you, that I was allowed to do this big project!' <hr>Matti You will have to start posting these now............ Just trying to keep up....