Any of the many times someone has handed me a Kobayashi Maru scenario and I have to educate them about unrealistic constraints!
Kiron Saving Changes...
Drake SettsuProject Manager / BloggerHi, United States
I was managing two projects at the same time and they were in different Data Centers. The timing could not be changed. They both had to happen on the same day.
First project involved a go-live.
Second project involved critical tasks to be completed to keep the project on schedule.
There was a happy ending. Everything worked out. Teamwork is priceless. Saving Changes...
Jaleel .PMP, Associate Director| MetricStreamBangalore, India
I handle software projects. Looking at the past 6-8 months the key challenge for me had been with resource management. Have been negotiating a lot for key resources or rather I can say, moving of resources between projects since the projects I am handling have time as well as scope constraints that cannot be changed. Other challenge has been decisions on technical feasibility and co-ordination across teams working for the project. Overall I'm confident that I as an individual and we as team will over come these and will successfully complete the projects. Saving Changes...
My biggest challenge usually is to find the right resources/crew to execute the project phase in a short period.
In 2015 I had a project in Algeria in the Sahara Desert (Oil and Gas). I reached the site five days before anybody else to work with the stakeholders in peace to finalise the working plan.
One day before our team members arrive in Algeria, I received a call that all crew (25 people pre-assigned and approved by the client) were not granted the entry visa and I had to manage locally. I did not know anyone in the country, and the project is Brown-field CPF upgrade of Telecom, Security and Instrumentation. By all means, the project was heading to a disaster, and it was my first time in that country, and I do not speak French or their local language. I heard that One of the International Oil company has a project about 1500 km from my site and they are laying off people.
I had no choice than travelling there and ask in a nearby town about recently laid off people, and after two days I met one great Syrian electrical supervisor, and we built the team within a week. This project was the most successful projects and one of the most complicated; I faced violent strikes, tribes issues, sever temperature and still, we manage it very well, and delivered on time. I think finding the right resources and managing them is the most challenging process in PM Saving Changes...
