--Originally published at TI2011 – Roger's Rad Records
Tag: deadline2021
Chapters 20 & 21 Reflection
--Originally published at Project Evaluation and Management
Chapter 20: Standing on Ceremony
Mr. T piled with his new consultant into the back of the Institute’s ancient Buick and told the driver to head toward the old town of Varsjop, where there were some nice little coffee shops. He looked across the car at Mr. T but I have a hunch you’re going to tell me you don’t really have any problems. Oh, just some little minor annoyances maybe, but nothing significant.
Mr.Tompkins introduced Dr.Winnipeg to Melissa Alber, who led him away to take part in the weekly PMi11-A staff meeting. It was not until just before noon that his new consultant showed up again. Dr. Winnipeg looked at him sharply. It was as if he were puzzled that Mr. Tompkins hadn’t seen anything obvious. “Why don’t you bag the project Webster? PMill-B and -C seem to be in pretty good shape. The A project has just been through too much. Progress has come to a grinding halt; nobody has any idea of what to do next the design is a botch the implementation effort is, as you’d expect, totally misdirected.
As soon as the staff meeting was adjourned, Dr. Winnipeg and Osmun had repaired to his office. After a very shoa conversation, they came out, both looking pleased. They explained to the staff that Osmun was being transferred to a new responsibility. Then, Osmun went back into his office to pack. Dr. Winnipeg spent the rest of the morning wandering around the Aidrivoli complex.
One thing that he found was on the Air Traffic Control project. He happened upon a working meeting mid morning and sat in for an hour and a half, not saying much of anything. The meeting was in the largest conference room in Aidrivoli-3. The
Deadline review, part XX & XI
--Originally published at TI2011 – FABIAN'S GEEK STUFF
Follow up into the deadline review, on this entry many things that could change Mr. T life take effect and could mean anything to what happen next... This is another day on the "normal" life of Mr Tompkins, this could be as any classic episode where you discover something new and dark of your character.... Continue Reading →
Deadline, Chapters 20 and 21
--Originally published at TI2011 – Miguel’s Blog
Finally, some good news comes in chapter 20. Tompkins receives a letter from Lahksa telling that a consultant was going to visit him and that everything was going to be okay.
“And don’t worry about you, either. I’ll take care of everything as soon as I get back.”
It’s still a mystery what she means by this, but I can assume she has a plan in order for the projects to finish in time or for the deadline to be moved.
Tompkins meets with the consultant right away. The consultant is named Harry Winnipeg and he has written many books, so many that he has forgotten about many of them. Harry can tell right away that Tompkins has problems and that those problems are related to people. Harry decides to deal with the angry manager and ends up demoting him. Harry also mentions that PMill-A is already dead and there’s no reason to continue working on it. However, Tompkins needed to keep it alive because of politics. This is actually called a zombie project and Harry says that at least 10% projects fall in this category. I think it would be weird working on one of those, you basically have no chance of completing it.
Harry also says that meetings shouldn’t have too many people in them. Most likely than not, the whole meeting won’t be necessary for everyone to hear. He suggests dividing the meetings into smaller ones and creating an agenda with all the meetings and what they are about so you only go if you have to. He also mentioned the need for a ceremony with 5 steps. With the ceremony you choose someone and just make him leave, this someone has to be the person that will make the best use of that time.
