The Case of the Inexperienced Project Manager
Jerry Cutler was a programmer for a multi-national firm based in London. He was about 35 years old at the time of this episode. Jerry had been with his employer for four years, and although he had never completed his Project Management Professional certification, he was a well respected and well paid technical employee.
Jerry became interested in the medical applications of equipment his company produced when a friend was hospitalized. During that period, Jerry visited the hospital two or three times each week. What started as short and casual conversations between Jerry and assorted nurses and doctors eventually turned into serious and exciting explorations about important medical needs and emerging technology that might meet those needs at a fraction of the cost of current methods.
Because of these conversations, Jerry told both his boss and the company president that he would like to meet with them about an important matter. At that meeting, he reported recent events at the hospital and then presented rough specifications he had developed for a new piece of medical equipment. The device was essentially a clever modification of one of his company's existing products, a product which was not then used for medical purposes.
Jerry's bosses were impressed. They liked both the concept and Jerry's enthusiasm. As a result, about a week later they gave Jerry permission to allocate up to on-half of his time for the next two months to work with the appropriate people in Engineering, Marketing, and Manufacturing to develop a prototype of the product and a financial forecast of its economic viability.
Jerry began to work on his project with more enthusiasm than he had felt in years. And at first, all went exceptionally well. He was able to get a number of other people in the firm interested in the potential product. Furthermore, the initial market research suggested that a lucrative market might indeed exist, a market in which there was no comparable product.
After a good start, however, Jerry began running into problems. At first the problems were small, but nevertheless annoying and time consuming. For example, the Accounting Department returned his expense report, which asked that a neighborhood high school student be paid fifty dollars for spending a total of twelve hours helping Jerry do some metalworking in Jerry's basement shop. Jerry spent nearly half a day arguing with people in Accounting who maintained that "Company policy requires that such requests be approved in advance by someone in Sr. Management in the company." Eventually Jerry's boss, who was more than a little annoyed, had to tell Accounting to pay the expense.
The problems grew more serious starting a month after the project began. One of the managers within the Engineering Department called Jerry and told him that the engineer who was working on his project was spending "far too much time" on it. Jerry was told that the engineer had other priorities and deadlines. Another more junior engineer was assigned to help Jerry, but only for a maximum of five hours a week. Jerry complained that the loss of continuity, experience, and hours would really hurt the project. The engineering manager repeated that he was sorry and that he could do nothing about it.
Jerry complained immediately to his boss, who replied in a somewhat angry tone that Jerry was also spending too much time on the project. Jerry's other responsibilities were being neglected, he said. Jerry left the meeting predictably upset.
The situation worsened the next day. A telephone call informed Jerry that the person in Manufacturing who was supposed to be estimating product costs for the new product was in New York dealing with a small crisis in a plant. The caller was not sure when this person would return, nor how much progress he had made on Jerry's project. Jerry considered going to his boss for help, but then decided that was probably not a good plan.
The next and most damaging incident came three days later. Jerry's boss informed him that someone in Marketing had redone the market potential analysis based on new data from the Sales Department. The new forecast projected a market about one-fifth the size of the original forecast, so they would have to stop investing time in the project.
Jerry was furious. After investing so much time and energy in the project, he was intellectually convinced of its importance and was emotionally committed to it. Could the company be this stupid, he wondered? Do I really want to work for a company that cannot see the value in such ideas?
Later that week, Jerry resigned and went home. His boss called him two or three times the next day, but Jerry refused to take the calls. It took him a week to get over his rage. It took another six weeks to get a new job.
Shortly after Jerry started his new job, he received a call from an old friend still working for his previous employer. Jerry's friend related a story that was circulating among some of the people there. The story went like this: An executive in the Sales Department learned of Jerry's project about three weeks before the project was terminated. According to the story, he instantly disliked the idea, basically because selling the equipment would require knowledge of hospitals and medical purchasing practices that his sales force did not have. So, according to the story, he got one of his people to fabricate (make up) some false numbers that were very negative about the market potential of the product Jerry was proposing. He sent those numbers to a marketing executive, who was also a good friend, along with a note asking, "Why are we wasting research on this project?"
Questions
1. You have been hired by Jerry to review his project and help him learn what he did wrong.
2.Outline at least 3 major project management principles that Jerry neglected to address in his project. Use examples from the case to illustrate how neglecting these items caused Jerry's project to fail.
3.Describe for Jerry what he should have done at each major project management phase to reduce the risk of his project being terminated. Use specific examples to show Jerry how basic project management practices can be used to ensure his project is well endorsed, clearly understood and supported throughout the organization, adequately planned and monitored, and that risks and changes in the project environment are well managed