To Be a Project Manager

It is very important to have proper planning, monitoring, and control over the projects so that they are completed on time, on budget and most of all, yield very high results. It is very vital for any organization to have a clear set guideline with a plan that should be work on.

When considering the case of Rachael who is the project manager in an information system project, she is faced with a hard task in order to make the project a success. She is a very hardworking and ambitious project leader, who tries her level best to get to the bottom line of the root causes of the factors posing challenges to the project. She understands very well that she is expected to complete the project in a much faster, cheaper and more effective.

To try and keep up with her challenging situation, she starts her day very early so that she even gets to her workplace earlier that the rest of the supporting team. She was able to create a work plan that enabled her and the rest of the project officers to get systematic instructions that enabled them to construct the project. Her work is well organized but she does not know how to avoid getting interruptions during her work programmed because she gets so influenced by the workmates into engaging in some unconstructive conversations, that could otherwise be done some other time. Despite her early rise to go to work, she meets with her old friend Neil who has already succeeded with her personal project overseas, and they end up wasting ten minutes on gossip. This proves to be a medium risk that should be keenly accessed in order to mitigate it before it ends up destroying all the precious time set aside for other constructive work.

Once the project has commenced, it is important for a routine continual assessment, be carried out, to ensure that one is updated with the clients' demands as well as identify major risks that would need immediate correction before they deteriorate. Racheal seems to have partly failed to play her part well since her project requires frequent communication with her clients, she is supposed to stay logged into her email account, in case of an important message checks in. Her phone should also remain very much connected, to prove to the clients and the other team members that she is very much available in case somebody would need to consult her. Rachael had last checked her email the previous day and on her voice mail, messages had piled up and to top it all up, her desk had some notes that showed that she had remained inaccessible for quite a while and this was very unhealthy for any project to succeed.

Rachael seems to be one person who will rush to do important duties the last minute. This is very unhealthy because it can cause very many mistakes to occur and it can pose a very serious problem to the project's plans. When she was in the process of preparing for the weekly status meeting that was just coming up soon, she gets interrupted once again by her boss and they ended up taking u p some time in their discussion and gossip, which makes it difficult for Rachael to complete her duties as expected. This a major risk factor can eventually lead to the project's failure if not addressed. The boss did not also follow the correct protocol for addressing the issue of the team member to Rachael. This was a matter that could have been discussed in his office, after scheduling for it so as to avoid wasting time.

The company does not seem to, have taken the initiative of addressing the issue of time management to all its employees. This is very evident when the meeting that which was earlier scheduled to start at exactly 9.00 am starts at least fifteen minutes late. Some of the team members were late trying to handle issues with their clients. The other members decide to steal away this opportunity tom share the latest gossip, while others decided to take snacks. This only shows how unfocused these team members are. If these individuals had any sense of time consciousness and if they really appreciated how important it was to work together for the success of this project, then they would have all been there when the meeting was supposed to start. Again, even though , there were some members who did not show up when they were expected to, it would have been better for them to start the meeting by discussing the minor Agendas as they await them instead of doing other unnecessary activities to kill time.

Immediately after the meeting, Rachael heads to see her friend and partner in the sense that they shared responsibilities as project managers. They take up some more precious time discussing personal projects which could have otherwise been done during their personal free time. After their negotiations, Rachael realized that Victoria's project was ragging behind and she decided to offer a solution that meant to put it back on track. This was correctly referred to as the scope creep change management that would introduce some new procedures of handling the project and abandon the previous plan that had been laid out at the beginning of the project. Rachael was going against her project manager ethics by introducing a scope creep plan by striking a deal with Victoria. These small changes were not supposed to affect the project individually but when they accumulated, then the impact would cause great changes to the overall project. As a project manager, it was the role of Rachael, to guard against scope creep tactics, and encourage the team members to follow the correct procedures. This was always a major contributor to the failure of the projects.

When Rachael goes ahead to meet with her project team members, she was planning and address issues that she had noticed when she was going through the reports. After having a dialogue with the members, she was able to identify that other was a major problem that needed to b addressed before going very far and destroying all the plans that were underway for the success of the project. This particular risk front problem seemed to be inherent and the client's managers were the ones who were really advocating for the introduction of features that were not originally in the other draft. This is contrary to the agreement and it would lead to a totally different outcome if followed. Racheal is able to follow the correct procedure of promising her team members on getting back to them after doing the necessary consultations. Rachael is able to consult, John who is her counterpart and Mary who is a senior marketing manager, in the attempt to get a solution to the problem at hand.

Conclusion

For one to be a project manager, it would require a lot of hard work and ambition to ensure that all the plans are underway and following the correct procedure. Being alert all the time is also very important so as to be able to pick out the small details that the team members would be suggesting and in case there were any corrections that needed to be done, then it would require the project Manager to take the initiative. Just like Rachael, A project manager needs to keep updating his fellow members as well as the seniors concerning the progress of the project. This particular responsibility would require a real sober mind, to be able to make any project a success.

She returns to her office and makes several phone calls and returns several emails before walking downstairs to visit with members of her project team. Her intent is to follow up on an issue that had surfaced in the status report meeting. However, her simple, "Hi guys, how things are going?" elicits a stream of disgruntled responses from the "troops." After listening patiently for over 20 minutes, she realizes that among other things several of the client's managers are beginning to request features that were not in the original project scope statement. She tells her people that she will get on this right away showing that this particular risk front problem seemed to be inherent.