To Be or Not to Be a Project Manager

Case$1$ prepared by Amber Gul RASHID$2$

Michael Sedgeway, a line manager at Geston, was reviewing his notes on the debriefing session for the Tee$-$Lee project. It was obvious that a lot had gone wrong with the project, but he wasnt sure how to communicate what had been learned so past mistakes would not be repeated. He knew this wasnt about playing the blame game but that it was sometimes difficult not to point fingers.

Tee$-$Lee

Tee$-$Lee was an application used to calibrate lab instruments. A new version of this app had become available, and Geston had decided to upgrade to this latest version. Tee$-$Lee was a third$-$ party$-$vendor software application that had been used by Geston for years.

Michael believed in empowering employees so they could discover their own potential, strengths, and weaknesses. In fact, he did not believe in weaknesses, but in areas for development and in life$-$long learning. Instead of hiring a certified project manager to lead the project, Michael had decided to entrust it to a member of his own team as a learning opportunity.

Michael Sedgeway

Michael had risen through the ranks to become head of one of Gestons key IT teams. His hard work had paid off, and he was a much$-$loved and respected leader. His team had recently merged with another team, resulting in a number of new additions to his direct reports, employees who reported directly to him. Shireen Wilson, a member of the graduate trainee program, was one such addition.

Shireen was not sure whether she wanted her future to be in line management or project management, and Michael thought Tee$-$Lee would give her a good opportunity to get hands$-$on project management experience. Joseph Samuel, Shireens former team manager, had already earmarked the Tee$-$Lee project for Shireen. Michael agreed that she would be a good choice.

Shireen Wilson

Michael had great faith in Shireen. She was the only high$-$potential employee on his team. He was sure she would go far and was happy to give her the opportunity to try her hand at project management.

Shireen felt torn: she thought working with people as line manager would be interesting, but she also thought she would enjoy project management and the challenges and pressures of working to tight deadlines with a team.

Shireen had heard about Tee$-$Lee and was sure it would be a piece of cake. How difficult could it be$?$ Its just a matter of good organization! As Tee$-$Lee is a vendor$-$supported app, she invited both James Dowen, the vendors tech rep, and Dean Johnson, Gestons in$-$house application specialist, to the kick$-$off meeting. She relied on them to tell her what needed to be done, so she could then go ahead and organize everything. After all, they were the techies!

Managing the Project

Shireen and Dean worked together, but James needed a pass to enter their building, so Shireen looked after getting that for him. The meeting went well Shireen asked both men a number of questions, which they answered. She then drew up a project plan based on their input.

After drafting a neat little plan, Shireen felt that everything was under control. As long as we stick to this, we should be fine. It includes two weeks of slack time, so even if things go slowly, we should be ok$.$

While the application was upgraded, the server would have to be taken offline, so Shireen had to agree with users on a suitable time. She toyed with the idea of doing the upgrade on a weekend, but the vendors weekend charges were too high. She and the users therefore chose a Friday six weeks in the future and agreed that the application would be unavailable all day long, not just in the afternoon just in case. She didnt want to take any chances, so decided to start early in the morning, allowing plenty of slack time. The upgrade itself was to take two hours, but she wanted to test the app thoroughly before letting the new version go live.

Shireen then lined up a few users to be available for testing on the day itself. All in all, she felt confident. James and Dean had already begun testing the test and acceptance servers, but, of course, the real test would be of the production server.

When the big day arrived, Shireen came into work early, and James and Dean arrived soon afterward. She was sitting at her computer, drafting an email to let everyone know that the upgrade had been successful, when she looked up to see the worried faces of James and Dean.

Whats up$?$ she said.

Do you have the dongle? asked James.

Her heart sinking, Shireen asked, Whats a dongle?

You know a dongle. We need to attach a dongle to the production server.

Shireen replied, Well, I dont have a dongle. It says nothing about a dongle in the plan.

She then looked at Dean, the in$-$house application specialist: Youre the in$-$house expert. Did you know we needed a dongle?

He nodded sheepishly, Well, we might have needed one um not sure.

Shireen took a deep breath: OK$,$ Ill try to get a dongle from our hardware department today. Dont worry; we still have plenty of time.

Dean shifted his weight uncomfortably. Um well, actually Shireen, the actual physical server is not here. Its at another site. He named a location an hour away by car.

Shireen said, OK$,$ well use the company car to get the dongle there. Let me just give them a call.

After making a few calls, Shireen felt angry and defeated. She entered the room where James and Dean were working. Well, first, the vendor thats you, James needs to provide the dongle. Our hardware department cant provide it$.$ Second, the dongle must be mailed to the server location, and we need to make an appointment with those guys, so they can install the dongle on the server. So we need to postpone this upgrade to next week while all that happens. And now I have to go tell some angry users why they are not getting their upgrade and why they will probably have another downtime soon.

Shireen wanted to scream, but she needed James and Dean on her side. She was starting to question their competence, but did not want to alienate them.

James took this opportunity to say, Actually, the script is not ready either.

Shireen exclaimed, What do you mean? The script was supposed to be ready today; I requested it well ahead of time.

Scripting here specifically means the process of customizing software via automation for in$-$ house installation. Dean stood up$,$ Well, you know, the scripting team needs to give you the all$-$ clear before you can move the script to production.

Shireen was frustrated, But I requested that; they told me it would be ready in time! Dean said, Did you check with the scripting team?

No$,$ I just assumed it would be ready, admitted Shireen.

Dean shrugged. Well, take this as a lesson; dont assume anything!

Shireen left the room. After calling the scripting team and learning the script would not be ready for another two weeks, she called the key users to tell them the update had been postponed. She cited technical reasons, without giving any details, but she had a sinking feeling.

Not surprisingly, the users were not impressed. They didnt reply to her directly, but on Monday she learned there had been a lot of noise about the need for another downtime.

The next time around, Shireen took no chances. She scheduled a downtime four weeks later to make sure everything would be ready. Users were not happy, but had no choice but to agree.

Shireen spoke about this with Tony, a senior team member with many years experience. I dont know; I thought I planned everything! But things still went wrong it was a disaster!

Well, we did the last Tee$-$Hee upgrade a few years ago. Major problems. Really? So$,$ it wasnt my fault? Its a difficult application? Shireen asked. Well, its a tough one.

But why didnt anyone tell me about this? Is there any old documentation? I dont know. You should ask James and Dean.

Thanks, Tony. I was beginning to think I did a lousy job, but, hey, if the previous upgrade had issues too, then it cant be all my fault, right?

Four weeks later, the upgrade was done, this time with no problems. But Michael Sedgeway, her boss, wanted to know what had happened. Shireen said, Well, I just thought it would be straightforward, you know. James and Dean are both experienced, and I just assumed they would guide me$.$

Michael said, Shireen, Im not looking to blame anyone. Please just see this as a learning opportunity.

Shireen relaxed slightly. Well, I need to improve my technical knowledge. I assumed that as long as I was good at organizing things, I could leave the technical stuff to the techies.

Michael smiled. OK$,$ good. Im glad you see that. You may be a good manager or organizer, but you also need to understand what you are managing. You need to be able to challenge what people tell you. Before your next project, I think you need to get up to speed with the technologies used by our applications and how different areas of our organization function.

Shireen looked thoughtful. What exactly does project management entail?please answer the following questions.

List Shireens lessons learned from the project. $(6$ points$)$

What project management processes and$/$or documents could Shireen have used to help deliver the project on$-$time? $(14$ points$)$

Knowledge Areas:

Integration Management

Scope Management

Schedule Management

Cost Management

Quality Management

Resource Management

Communications Management

Risk Management

Procurement Management

Stakeholder Management