Case 1-1 (Static) A Day in the Life—2019 Management Essay

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Case 1-1 (Static) A Day in the Life—2019

Troi, the project manager of a large information systems project, arrives at her office early to get caught up with work before her co-workers and project team arrive. However, as she enters the office she meets Neil, one of her fellow project managers, who also wants to get an early start on the day. Neil has just completed a project overseas. They spend 10 minutes socializing and catching up on personal news.

Troi walks to her desk and opens her laptop. She was at her client’s site the day before until 7:30 p.m. and has not checked her e-mail or voice mail since 4:30 p.m. the previous day. She has 2 voicemails, 16 e-mails, and 10 posts on her team Slack channel.¹ She spends 15 minutes reviewing her schedule and “to do” lists for the day before responding to messages that require immediate attention.

Troi spends the next 25 minutes going over project reports and preparing for the weekly standup meeting. Her manager who just arrived at the office, interrupts her. They spend 20 minutes discussing the project. He shares a rumor about a potential acquisition he’s heard about. She tells him she hasn’t heard anything but will keep him posted if she does.

The 9:00 a.m. project status meeting starts 15 minutes late because two of the team members have to finish a job for a client. Several people go to the cafeteria to get coffee and doughnuts while others discuss last night’s baseball game. The team members arrive, and the remaining 45 minutes of the progress review meeting surface project issues that have to be addressed and assigned for action.

After the meeting Troi goes down the hallway to meet with Victoria, another IS project manager. They spend 30 minutes reviewing project assignments, since the two of them share personnel. Victoria’s project is behind schedule and in need of help. Troi offers to free up some of the team’s time to help her get back on track.

Troi returns to her office and makes several phone calls and returns several e-mails 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 are things going?” elicits a stream of disgruntled responses. 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.

Returning to her office, she tries to call her counterpart, John, at the client firm but is told that he is not expected back from lunch for another hour. At this time, Eddie drops by and says, “How about lunch?” Eddie works in the finance office and they spend the next half hour in the company cafeteria gossiping about internal politics. She is surprised to hear that Jonah Johnson, the director of systems projects, may join another firm. Jonah has always been a powerful ally.

She returns to her office, answers a few more e-mails, catches up on Slack, and finally gets through to John. They spend 30 minutes going over the problem. The conversation ends with John promising to do some investigating and to get back to her as soon as possible.

Troi goes outside to the company’s atrium, where she sits next to a creek, meditating for 30 minutes.

Troi then takes the elevator to the third floor and talks to the purchasing agent assigned to her project. They spend the next 30 minutes exploring ways of getting necessary equipment to the project site earlier than planned. She finally authorizes express delivery.

When she returns to her desk, her watch reminds her that she is scheduled to participate in a conference call at 2:30. It takes 15 minutes for everyone to get online due to problems with the technology. During this time, Troi catches up on some e-mail. She spends the next hour exchanging information about the technical requirements associated with a new version of a software package they are using on systems projects like hers.

Troi decides to stretch her legs and goes on a walk down the hallway, where she engages in brief conversations with various co-workers. She goes out of her way to thank Chandra for his thoughtful analysis at the status report meeting. She returns to find that John has left a message for her to call him back ASAP. She contacts John, who informs her that according to his people, her firm’s marketing rep had made certain promises about specific features her system would provide. He doesn’t know how this communication breakdown occurred, but his people are pretty upset over the situation. Troi thanks John for the information and immediately takes the stairs to where the marketing group resides.

She asks to see Mary, a senior marketing manager. She catches up on Slack updates on her phone while she waits for 10 minutes before being invited into her office. After a heated discussion, she leaves 40 minutes later with Mary agreeing to talk to her people about what was promised and what was not promised.

She goes downstairs to her people to give them an update on what is happening. They spend 30 minutes reviewing the impact the client’s requests could have on the project schedule. She also shares with them the schedule changes she and Victoria had agreed to. After she says good night to her team, she heads upstairs to her manager’s office and spends 20 minutes updating him on key events of the day. She returns to her office and spends 30 minutes reviewing e-mails, her team Slack channel, and project documents. She logs on to the MS Project schedule of her project and spends the next 30 minutes working with “what-if” scenarios. She reviews tomorrow’s schedule and writes some personal reminders before starting off on her 30-minute commute home.
¹Slack is a communications program designed to manage the flow of information on a project. See slack.com.

1. How effectively do you think Troi spent her day?

Troi spent her day effectively. She has managed to meet multiple stakeholders and took decisions on several issues. She attended a couple of meeting to provide her inputs and also to share her feedback. She has also done some firefighting related to the project. She effectively managed the stakeholders and had a discussion with them. The entire day seemed very busy for her as she managed multiple tasks and has to meet multiple stakeholders all through the day.

To some extent, she has successfully spent her day for managing the time. But in my view, she ignored the requests of many clients who were promised to serve by the marketing team members. Being a good manger to the project means take client or customer with the top priority as they were interested to invest their money and time for project deliverable. So, managing a project venture does not mean that moving to and fro randomly but patient need to be digested by the managers.

2. What does the case tell you about what it is like to be a project manager?

After reading through the case, it seems that the role of a project manager is really challenging and demanding. A project manager has to take care of multiple things at the same time and be on top of everything. Project managers have to attend many meetings in a day’s span and meet and satisfy multiple stakeholders so that the project is not get derailed. A lot of success of the project depends on the project manager and that is why it is an important and demanding role.

I came to know about the following major roles for the project manger profile,

1) A project manager will be responsible for every activity undergone to the project organization.

2) He or She should have a charming personality with having positive attitudes.

3) An effective management of communication with the stakeholders must be performed by the project manager.

4) Many project schedules might be managed simultaneously by the project manager.

5) Project managers will have to give sanctions on many managerial as well as financial issues related to the project task,

6) He/She should have to meet with the clients and make a rapport with the stakeholders.

7) They have to take reports from many subordinates at a time.

8) Their time is so valuable that other project managers should approach them when it will require most.