the trophy project
Overview:
As Reichart had been an assistant project manager and thereby involved in the trophy project from its conception, he was made project manager for the project once the project was accepted by the company. From the very beginning Reichart faced issues that would be fatal to the project. The management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and directing personnel and resources were poorly executed by both senior and project level management.
Trying to address the problem Reichart was told not to meddle in the functional manager’s allocation of resources and budget expenditures. After Six month into the project, a requested progress report to higher level management revealed that the project was in big trouble. In the report it could be deduced that the project was one year behind schedule and a whole 20% over budget. Moreover; the number of workers supplied to the project was not enough to get the project back on schedule.
When senior management finally got involved, they were threatening instead of being constructive and failed to seek a true understanding of the underlying problems that plagued the project. Lastly, the customer was allowed to interfere with internal business while trying to solve intrinsic problems within the project that were outside the scope of the project using the company’s resources. This caused high pressure and lost time due to focus on administrative tasks rather than project related tasks, and intake of inadequate input by the corporate representative.
Reichart was fired from PM position for the trophy project and after a total of three PM the project was completed on year behind schedule and 40 % budget overrun.
Findings:
- There did not appear to be a corporate champion for this project who could mentor and resolve conflicts that were beyond the authority of the project manager
- The Trophy Project was fundamentally mismanaged from the start
- Allocated recourses were being used on
As Reichart had been an assistant project manager and thereby involved in the trophy project from its conception, he was made project manager for the project once the project was accepted by the company. From the very beginning Reichart faced issues that would be fatal to the project. The management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and directing personnel and resources were poorly executed by both senior and project level management.
Trying to address the problem Reichart was told not to meddle in the functional manager’s allocation of resources and budget expenditures. After Six month into the project, a requested progress report to higher level management revealed that the project was in big trouble. In the report it could be deduced that the project was one year behind schedule and a whole 20% over budget. Moreover; the number of workers supplied to the project was not enough to get the project back on schedule.
When senior management finally got involved, they were threatening instead of being constructive and failed to seek a true understanding of the underlying problems that plagued the project. Lastly, the customer was allowed to interfere with internal business while trying to solve intrinsic problems within the project that were outside the scope of the project using the company’s resources. This caused high pressure and lost time due to focus on administrative tasks rather than project related tasks, and intake of inadequate input by the corporate representative.
Reichart was fired from PM position for the trophy project and after a total of three PM the project was completed on year behind schedule and 40 % budget overrun.
Findings:
- There did not appear to be a corporate champion for this project who could mentor and resolve conflicts that were beyond the authority of the project manager
- The Trophy Project was fundamentally mismanaged from the start
- Allocated recourses were being used on