Biography of a Project Manager
In today’s session of Project management Introduction (PMI), I was wondering how a biography of a Project manager would read like. Will be a comedy, a tragedy or a success story?
If you ask me, I would like to read all such biographies, especially if they are anecdotal. Just three days in a simulated environment of managing the smallest of small projects and I am beginning to lose my senses. At times, I found myself engrossed in the spreadsheet - I didn’t even realize that my team is talking to me. At other times, I was biting my nails, trying to find out alternate scenarios when a specific activity on the critical path gets delayed or is completed ahead of time. Worker accommodation, consumables, cranes, stock holding cost, overdraft, bank loan…..oh gosh! I am drowning.
By evening, I was quite tense. I am managing the consumables for my team. So my role involves keeping a tab on the progress of each task and ensuring that the respective consumables required for each task are available in just the right quantity at the right time. Each consumable is to be ordered as per the minimum order quantity and takes 2 weeks to be replenished. If we go out of stock on them, the complete project comes to a standstill. If we stock them in excess, we pay a huge charge on stock holding every week. I was chewing my own words.
Our dry run in the evening gave away all the weak spots in our plan. The only consolation was that I was not alone. Similar dilemma, if not worse, is being faced by Dennis and Olivier. They are managing financials. In the dry run, they almost forgot to bill the client for a completed activity. Managing cash flows, revenues, expenses and funds availability through an expensive overdraft or a cheap but conditional bank loan is not an easy task. And our mental setup is reflected in the way our syndicate area looks like. I get a mixed feeling when I look at that area – it looks pretty cute; it looks quite chaotic too. Is that how the room of a Project Manager looks like? I wondered.
We retired from today’s activities with just a bit of “hope” – the hope that our conservative approach will help us; the hope that none of us will miss out any critical task or action (but something tells me - it will happen!). After all, it is some consolation to hear that even if a team manages to make £1 profit, it would be a great achievement, given the past results of similar simulations at Cranfield. PMI is a tough subject and being a Project manager is a tough job and I am sure out there quite a few heads will nod when they hear this.
If you know any biography of a Project Manager – let me know. Else, after tomorrow’s simulation, I will be at least in a position to write short stories - on what it is like to be the member of a project. Wish us luck and watch out for tomorrow’s posting.
If you ask me, I would like to read all such biographies, especially if they are anecdotal. Just three days in a simulated environment of managing the smallest of small projects and I am beginning to lose my senses. At times, I found myself engrossed in the spreadsheet - I didn’t even realize that my team is talking to me. At other times, I was biting my nails, trying to find out alternate scenarios when a specific activity on the critical path gets delayed or is completed ahead of time. Worker accommodation, consumables, cranes, stock holding cost, overdraft, bank loan…..oh gosh! I am drowning.
By evening, I was quite tense. I am managing the consumables for my team. So my role involves keeping a tab on the progress of each task and ensuring that the respective consumables required for each task are available in just the right quantity at the right time. Each consumable is to be ordered as per the minimum order quantity and takes 2 weeks to be replenished. If we go out of stock on them, the complete project comes to a standstill. If we stock them in excess, we pay a huge charge on stock holding every week. I was chewing my own words.
Our dry run in the evening gave away all the weak spots in our plan. The only consolation was that I was not alone. Similar dilemma, if not worse, is being faced by Dennis and Olivier. They are managing financials. In the dry run, they almost forgot to bill the client for a completed activity. Managing cash flows, revenues, expenses and funds availability through an expensive overdraft or a cheap but conditional bank loan is not an easy task. And our mental setup is reflected in the way our syndicate area looks like. I get a mixed feeling when I look at that area – it looks pretty cute; it looks quite chaotic too. Is that how the room of a Project Manager looks like? I wondered.
We retired from today’s activities with just a bit of “hope” – the hope that our conservative approach will help us; the hope that none of us will miss out any critical task or action (but something tells me - it will happen!). After all, it is some consolation to hear that even if a team manages to make £1 profit, it would be a great achievement, given the past results of similar simulations at Cranfield. PMI is a tough subject and being a Project manager is a tough job and I am sure out there quite a few heads will nod when they hear this.
If you know any biography of a Project Manager – let me know. Else, after tomorrow’s simulation, I will be at least in a position to write short stories - on what it is like to be the member of a project. Wish us luck and watch out for tomorrow’s posting.
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
8:17 pm
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