A new systems development project is Pete’s first experience as a project manage

Question

A new systems development project is Pete’s first experience as a project manager, and he has led his team successfully to the programming phase of the project. The project has not always gone smoothly, and Pete has made a few mistakes, but he is generally pleased with the progress of his team and the quality of the system being developed. Now that programming has begun, Pete has been hoping for a little break in the hectic pace of his workday. Prior to beginning programming. Pete recognized that the time estimates made earlier in the project were too optimistic. However, he was firmly committed to meeting the project deadline because of his desire for his first project to be a success. In anticipation of this time-pressure problem, Pete arranged with the human resources department to bring in two new college graduates and two college interns to beef up the programming staff. Pete would have liked to find some staff with more experience, but the budget was too tight and he was committed to keeping the project budget under control. Pete made his programming assignments, and work on the programs began about two weeks ago. Now, Pete has started to hear some rumbles from the programming team leaders that may signal trouble. It seems that the programmers have reported several instances where they wrote programs, only to be unable to find them when they went to test them. Also, several programmers have opened programs that they had written, only to find that someone had changed portions of their programs without their knowledge.
a. Is the programming phase of a project a time for the project manager to relax? Why or why not?
b. What problems can you identify in this situation?
c. What advice do you have for the project manager?
d. How likely does it seem that Pete will achieve his desired goals of being on time and within budget if nothing is done?

Explanation / Answer

a. Is the programming phase of a project a time for the project manager to relax? Why or why not?

This is the worst time to relax. The project manager needs to keep on top of things or else the project will not stay on track. Timelines can potentially extend beyond the deadline you have set forth. Excess funds would be spent to rectify the situation, which would lead to going over budget. Worse, the project could never finish!

b. What problems can you identify in this situation?

In this situation, the project manager acknowledged that the timeline was too optimistic,but he did not raise suspicion. He could have lobbied for a longer timeline since he was new and maybe have some buffer zone. Another aspect that is a problem is that there was no documentation at all. Programmers were not using system documentation to keep tabs on all the aspects of production. It seems like there was not the semblance of testing either.

c and d. What advice do you have for the project manager? How likely does it seem that Pete will achieve his desired goals of being on time and within budget if nothing is done?

My advice for the project manager is to utilize your interns in a productive manner to document all the necessary steps.

The programmers should start coding over to recover the lost data. Once you recover the data, keep a tab on all aspects of the project while maintaining testing phases. It is very unlikely that Pete will achieve his desired goals of being on time and within budget because all the programmers are lost.

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