Unit 1 Projects

listening and viewing

Text A

Problems a project manager can have

Four project managers are talking about the problems they have and how they deal with them.

Jack

It is a bit difficult to really know what my client wants. Sometimes he doesn’t make the next decision until we have completed a part of the project. This can be difficult for everybody and could mean problems. For example, at the beginning ofthe project he decided that the building should have four floors, but last week he changed his mind and said he wanted five floors. Yesterday, after we had just finished the fifth floor, he told me that the town said all buildings over four floors had to have underground parking. If I had known this in advance, then underground parking would not have been a problem, but not when the building is almost finished! This cost the client a lot of money and resources, a lot of unnecessary problems, which I, of course, had to solve.

Mandy

I hate it when I don’t get answers. I know that people are busy, but it’s not easy to work on a project if my questions are 20 not answered. Days and sometimes even important milestones pass before my client gives me an answer. If I receive no answer, I go ahead with the plans that the client has given me. I remember a project I had for a 24-floor skyscraper. There were only four lifts planned. When I asked my client if that was correct, I got no answer. I was sure that this was probably not enough, but because I got no answer, I installed four lifts. Unfortunately the client had made a big mistake. The building actually needed six lifts for the amount of people in the building. Now they have to wait a long time to get into a lift.

Bob

My worst nightmare is when a project doesn’t start or finish on time.

Take the new Berlin airpor t for example. It was started in 2006 and was supposed to be finished in October 2011. It was postponed until June 2012. The opening date arrived, but this wonderful new airport was not nearly ready. The completion date was postponed again until March 2013 and then again for 2017, and then 2018, and then again for 2020! There were many reasons for the delays: a change in safety standards, a major building company involved went bankrupt, the very cold winter stopped work etc. Another reason was that the architects had not thought about soundproofing the windows of the houses in the neighbouring suburbs. This was a very expensive mistake in the planning process. These kinds of delay make the life of a project manager very difficult.

Mike

It can be very frustrating working on a project that isn’t very important for the client. Last year I worked on a project: I had to link up all the schools in a particular area to give them direct telephone contact with each other. In the first phase, I had all the necessary telephone lines in place but could not get permission to change the connections. It seemed that the government official responsible for working with me was not interested in changing the current system. This project was obviously not very high on his priority list. I reminded the authorities that they had already invested a lot of money in the project so far. I could not keep waiting for one person’s go-ahead.

As soon as we had cleared that problem, the project went ahead smoothly.

项目经理的烦心事

四名项目经理在讨论他们遇到的问题以及自己是怎么处理的。

杰克

想要真正了解我的客户的想法有点困难。有时候他要在我们完成一个阶段的任务之后才对接下来的事情作决定。这让整个团队穷于应付，而且可能造成麻烦。比如说，项目初期他决定大楼盖四层，但是上周他又改了主意，说要盖五层。昨天，在我们刚刚修完第五层后，他又告诉我市政府要求凡是四层以上的建筑必须修建地下停车场。如果我事先知道这个，地下停车场根本不是个问题，但现在大楼都要盖好了啊！这个花了客户大量的财力物力，引出了一大堆不必要的问题，最后当然还得我来收拾。

曼蒂

我很讨厌得不到答复。我知道大家都忙，但是如果问题得不到回复，项目就很难进行下去。得到客户的回复往往要好几天，甚至会错过很多关键的时机。如果得不到答复，我就会按照客户之前给我的计划继续。记得曾经有一项24层大厦的工程，只规划了四部电梯。我当时询问客户电梯数目是否正确，却迟迟得不到答复。我敢肯定电梯数量不够，但是因为客户没有答复，我只好安装了四部电梯。不幸的是，客户犯了个大错，根据大厦里的人数，实际需要六部电梯。现在那里人们等电梯要花很长时间。

鲍勃

我最可怕的噩梦是工程没有按期开始或完工。

以新建的柏林机场为例。工程于2006年开始，预计在2011年10月完工。后来推迟到了2012年6月。启用日期到了，但是这座美丽的新机场却远远没有完成。竣工日期再次推迟到2013年3月，继而又推迟到2017年，然后是2018年，再之后又推迟到2020年！造成延迟的原因有很多：安全标准发生变化、主要施工公司破产、严冬导致停工等等。还有一个原因就是建筑设计师没有考虑到给附近郊区屋舍的窗户装隔音设施。这是规划过程中代价惨重的错误。这些延迟令项目经理举步维艰。

迈克

项目如果不是客户的工作重点会令人非常头痛。去年我有个项目：我需要把一个地区内所有的学校全部连接起来，让他们之间可以直接用电话联系。工程第一阶段，我铺设好了所有必需的电话线，却迟迟得不到改变连接的许可。似乎负责与我联系的政府官员对改变现有通信系统没有兴趣。这个项目在他的优先工作列表上显然排名不高。我提醒当局他们已经在这个项目上投入了巨资。我不可能一直就这样等一个人放行。

解决了这个问题后，工程就进展顺利了。

Text B

Don’t forget the bigger picture!

I was given the job as project manager for an internationalcorporation. They were planning a new multimillion-dollar product that looked as if it could be a best-seller.

At my first meeting with the product team, the team leader introduced the project. “The code name for this project is ‘Ice’ because we’re going to freeze out the competition when this product hits the market.” Okay, I was the project manager of Project Ice.

Then we got started.

Less than a week later, we received an email from the team leader. “We’ve changed the code name to ‘Project Snowstorm’ because we’re going to cover the market with this product, just like snow.” Great! Now I was the project manager for Project Snowstorm.

We continued with the work.

Then, at our weekly team meeting, the team leader opened it by saying, “I’ve forgotten to tell most of you, but we’ve changed the code name to ‘Avalanche’ because we think it describes howwe wanted to take our market by storm with this project.” So now I was the project manager for Project Avalanche.

Two days later, we got an email from the team leader: “The sponsors don’t like the name ‘avalanche,’ so now the code name is ‘Project Fire,’ because we’re going to burn up the market!” So now I was the project manager for Project Fire.

Then another email: “We’re changing the code name again. We’re going to call it ‘Project Laser.’ It gives the project more focus.” So now I was the project manager for Project Laser.

…and on it went. The code name of the project changed 14 times. I started to wonder if the code name was more important than the product itself.

Now you have to remember that I was employed to manage this project and it is very difficult, as an outsider, to go up to management and say, “Enough is enough!”

In the end, we only overran the project deadline a little and we were almost within budget. But the code names had created a number of problems. For example, the paperwork had to be constantly updated and people were never sure where to file or find information. All in all, documentation was a pure nightmare. In the end we went back to the original code name of “Ice” and it was used very successfully in the marketing campaign. The product did, for a short time, freeze out the competition when it hit the market.

This is a perfect example of how a corporation can forget the bigger picture — completing a project successfully, on time and within budget.

勿忘大局！

我曾受聘于一家跨国公司担任项目经理一职。他们当时正在筹划打造一个价值高达数百万美元的新产品，前景极好。

第一次与产品团队会晤，团队主管介绍了项目。“项目代号为‘冰’，因为产品一旦打入市场，竞争会被彻底封冻。”好吧，我成了“冰计划”的项目经理。

我们开工了。

不到一周，我们大家都收到了团队主管的邮件。“代号已改为‘暴风雪计划’，因为我们的产品将覆盖整个市场，就像雪一样。”太棒了！现在我是“暴风雪计划”的项目经理了。

项目照常进行。

然后，在周例会上，团队主管的开场白是：“我忘了告诉大家，项目代号已经被改为‘雪崩’，因为我们觉得这个代号能传递出我们要让项目席卷整个市场的决心。”于是，我成了“雪崩计划”的项目经理。

两天后，我们收到了团队主管的电邮：“赞助商不喜欢‘雪崩’这个名字，所以现在项目代号是‘火计划’，因为我们要点燃整个市场！”于是，我成了“火计划”的项目经理。

接着又一封电邮到了：“项目代号又改了，我们要叫它‘激光计划’，这样项目显得更有焦点。”于是，我成了“激光计划”的项目经理。

……这种情况一直持续。项目代号一共改了14次。我开始怀疑是否项目代号已经变得比产品本身更加重要了。

你得明白，我只是临时雇来负责这个项目的，作为一个外人，很难去和管理层说：“适可而止吧！”

最后，项目只比最后期限稍微超出一点，成本也几乎没有超出预算，但这些代号的确造成了诸多问题。例如，相关文书必须不断更新，大家都吃不准信息该归档到哪里，又该从哪里找到相关信息。总而言之，文档资料完全就是一场噩梦。最后我们又改回到最初的代号“冰”，而这个代号在营销宣传活动中非常成功。产品打入市场后确实在短时间内封冻了所有的竞争。

这是一个非常典型的公司忘记大局——即在期限和预算之内成功完成项目——的案例。