Project Manager Fired
This article, about a project manager fired, is from a reader.
I once started a contract at a defence contractor to work on a large software project.
When I got there the project had been planned some time before and had been running for several months.
On my seventh day, as a newbie with this new employer, they gave me the software design specification to write. This was for presentation to the customer just a couple of weeks later.
I knew there was no way I could do it. However, the client insisted I had to do it according to that timescale.
I knew immediately that, as this was infeasible, I’d catch the blame for it when it got to the customer.
So, I could see it coming.
Design Specification
The design specification I wrote didn‘t impress the customer who had expected it to have been started long before. I got the blame for the ‘unimpressive‘ spec. They didn‘t extend me.
Looking at the project plan I realised that it wasn‘t the only thing that was infeasible.
Things didn‘t go well on the project. Nine months after I‘d left I heard that they offere the project manager the choice of doing another job or the sack.
They must have run out of contractors to blame.
It wasn‘t really the PM‘s fault though. I think they must have sold the software far too cheaply.
