A Project Manager Issue

It all begun in a meeting. At the meeting, the scope and time of the project was specified. The budget however, was vague at best. "We will pay" the project sponsor assured.

The three project team member (each with other fulltime job) were expected to deliver three automated systems: accounting system, savings account management system and loan monitoring system. The three systems were to be integrated once the three systems are done. The systems then must be installed at the other three branches. The project team must administer a training, carry out testing and maintenance. The team have three months to do all these tasks.

The team members were all programmers. One of the team member was to prepare the progress reports, design the database and write the progress report. There were so many things to accomplish with so little time. Every week, the project team were to present the system to the project sponsor. This cycle started seven days after the meeting.

Of course, there was no system to show at the first and second week. There was a lost of confidence right at the beginning. Because of this, the stakeholders decided to set the meeting twice a week. The project sponsors did not pay the project members any amount at the start therefore they have to go to work while coding the system and preparing for progress reports twice each week.

The project was a total failure, a year later, it was abandoned. What went wrong? I guess you would say everything was a mistake, right from scope definitions, time estimation, staffing and control. What the project needed was a skilled project manager who would have supervised the entire project What the project needed was a proficient project manager who would have directed the whole project. Instead, the whole development team, three of them, was being directed by the project sponsors .

Projects as complex as this, a skillful project manager who have gone through training such as the project management training UAE, is considered necessary. PMP training UAE gives project management information. This is a much looked-for knowledge in dealing with complex stakeholders, unworkable timeframe, overloaded scope, no specified budget projects, among others. All these would have been avoided and the project would have pushed through if there was a accomplished project manager right from the start.