Rachel's Case Study

I bet we've all have worked with a 'Rachel' or can identify a 'Rachel' at your place of work.

First things first. Rachel was effective at contacting the right stakeholders on all the issues that came up during the day.

She definitely has a good sense of people/interpersonal skills. From her interactions, she related well with her boss, colleagues, team members, clients etc.

Keeping her boss updated on key events of the day is a plus.

Before heading out, she ran ‘what if’ scenarios, reviewed the next day’s schedule and wrote down personal reminders.

She could have been more effective by cutting down on the interactions (Rachel Syndrome). She is a people’s person and as a Project Manager it’s a must to be able to get along with others but if not managed well, it could determine how effective you were at the end of the day. Or lead to the failure of a project.

As a project manager you can be pulled in different directions. You can’t avoid the interruptions sometimes however your job is to prioritize and decide which issue is worth your immediate attention.

Helping Victoria’s project get back on track was a noble cause, only if it doesn’t have a negative impact on Rachel’s project. That said, if the issue was personnel, I’m inclined to believe they had insufficient resources and in this case, they didn't have enough personnel.

Further, if client managers were requesting features that were not in the original project scope statement (Project Charter) then there is evidence of Scope Creep. I expect John’s team to have reviewed the project scope before signing off. Communication breakdowns leads to unclear expectations. This could impact the project in a negative way and even lead to the failure of the