Insights: project stories
Real situations project managers and PMO heads have lived, the textbook name of what went wrong, and what prevents it.
The 90% Syndrome Why almost finished is not the same as complete Read the story -
The question answered in ten minutes Six months after go-live a new finance director asked who agreed to ship without the dashboards. The answer took ten minutes, because the approval lived on the deliverable. -
How a coordinator saved nine days with one question The vendor was ready on Monday and the approval was stuck with a travelling sponsor. A PMO coordinator asked whether he needed the portal at all. -
The finished work that never became an invoice A finance analyst chasing a late invoice found something worse: two finished tasks from August had never been invoiced at all. -
Two records of the same work that never met A vendor said milestone two was done; finance said the order had no budget left. A project manager put both sides on one screen and settled it in ten minutes. -
When a new rate rewrites last quarter's invoice A consultant's rate went up in March. In April the January invoice had changed too. A delivery lead showed the client the lines as they were recorded. -
A five-day task that was really thirteen The estimate was right and the date was wrong. A planner told the plan the truth about the person, and the client heard the real date in week one. -
Thirty-eight green projects and four in trouble A new PMO head asked which three projects were in trouble and nobody could say. He changed where the colour on the slide came from. -
The third project tool that was never bought An organisation was about to buy its third project tool in four years. An operations director asked for one hour first, and found where the time really leaked.