Project Post Mortem

Project Post Mortem-Project Management 6145

The idea of a project named “Post Mortem” is part of learning to accept and grow into an effective team leader or a team player using a past challenging project. Sometimes those projects require taking a risk. That’s exactly what I did by accepting a job with a team chosen to host an engagement party. I found it’s never too late to learn from a failed attempt. With this article “The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects!” I found answers to fixing a process that resulted in many confused stakeholders. Fortunately enough, the members where accepting of Murphy’s Law and close friends of the project manager. It helps to have a group that allows “newbies” to attempt new prospects. In the following post, I have changed names and left out specific details but the following course of events is very real indeed!

At one point in my life I was asked to help a roommate who contracted with an acquaintance to host an engagement party. Although I was not the project manager, I learned quite a bit about project management from the perspective of a dishwasher. Since Rena was an experienced banquet server, she had no experience with party planning. She had a very outgoing personality and took a step out in faith to accept a contract for a major event. This event did have a catering company but used Rena and friends as a service agent.

The agreed amount was about 800.00 per event- which was extremely modest for the nature of work. Rena spent many hours planning, shopping, and gathering resources for the start of her business. She bought napkins, glassware, and managed the drinks for the events. Everything was prepared for in bits and pieces, and on the day of the engagement party, she only had a few servers show up. They had never waited on banquet tables and a work and scope plan was not defined. Rena trained the server’s minutes before the event. Many more people were needed for preparation, seeing the expectations were for a fine dining event. Although the materials were carefully and tastefully selected in collaboration with the soon to be bride, and the facility was first rate as well as convenient, the task analysis was not planned. All the workers were dependent on Rena and one of her coworkers. It appears the resources were in place, but really, not ready for the event. An Armenian church provided most of the essential tableware and the kitchen tools but did not provide the staff. We were the staff and had to assume the operations of an unfamiliar kitchen. The kitchen was well equipped with a very efficient dish washing system, but there was no floor plan for the servers to place or remove plates. It appears the preparation of the facility was a positive factor. The place settings, the tablecloths, the flowers, the entertainment were all in place just as the couple had planned. The weakness of course was the undefined job expectations and job definitions. The staff looked good but required much direction beyond the first course of salad distribution.

As a result of not identifying tasks, the three roommates(including me) worked up to about 2:00am in the morning, which is several hours after the expected closing time of 11:00 pm. The project was not a complete failure but did fail to deliver a celebration meal in a timely, organized fashion and left a few of the workers with the brunt of the heavy labor. Assigning staff members to oversee and delegate routine work tasks could have relieved the end of the evening struggles. Hell’s kitchen became a reality for us and could have been prevented with stronger planning and identification of work roles. That day we had the concrete tools and resources but we lack the “Nuts and Bolts” of service performance. Starting first with the team is essential. If ever asked to coordinate a service team again I would use these following recommendations given by Michael Greer in “The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects!” (Laureate, 2010)

Step 1: Define the project concept, then get support and approval.
Step 2: Get your team together and start the project.
Step 3: Figure out exactly what the finished work products will be.
Step 4: Figure out what you need to do to complete the work products. (Identify tasks and phases.)
Step 5: Estimate time, effort, and resources.
Step 6: Build a schedule.
Step 7: Estimate the costs.
Step 8: Keep the project moving.
Step 9: Handle scope changes
Step 10: Close out phases, close out the project.

These suggestions along with the coaching tools and encouragement given by Michael Greer are especially helpful for anyone thinking about taking on a major project. The simple statement to “Celebrate the Chaos Within” (Laureate International, 2010) gives me a fresh perspective to the confusion that comes with challenges. Those challenges often make way to great success stories. Rather than becoming discouraged, I often look to this comment “turn scars into stars”. My attitude is: what will make a difference is embracing reality with one wise lesson in Project Management.

Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Specifically created for Laureate International Universities