Western Oceanography Institute Case

Western Oceanography Institute

Introduction

Astrid Young still in her first year as the Information Systems director at the Western Oceanography Institute associated through her alma mater, Western State University. Young is leading an NT conversion project that is currently experiencing many issues, such as being behind schedule and client complaints regarding missing files and work disruption. A fellow director, the project sponsor, has called Young to a status meeting. The director has called a special meeting to discuss the project status, including the recent complaints. Additionally, the client sponsor is curious why this is the first time that these issues have come to light.

Analysis

Originally, Young sold the NT conversion project to the sponsor with promises of a relatively painless conversion. Her previous technical experience with similar projects at another organization led Young to believe that this conversion would be similar and relatively easy to complete. The NT conversion has not been successful to date. The project has been plagued with numerous issues. Although the technical aspects of the conversion are being completed, the project has not been well managed.

Some of the issues Young faces is not communicating issues with the project sponsor. Any time that project deliverables are in jeopardy of not being met, the project manager should communicate with key stakeholders. This should occur well before the possibility is realized. Another issue that Young is facing is that she has not managed the people aspect of her project. She is extremely well versed with the technical aspect of her project, but has overlooked a very important piece of managing a project, developing a social network. Additional project management issues that the NT conversion is facing include unexpected resource issues, delays to schedule due to safety issues identified during building inspections, migration scheduling issues, additionally decisions to delete user files were made without input from the client. All of these issues came to a head on the day Young was asked to join the director in a staff meeting to discuss the status of the NT conversion project. Up to this point, the director/project sponsor was unaware of these project issues.

Solution

The first thing that Young must do is come clean at the meeting. She must take complete responsibility for all the issues that the project is having. As the project manager the health of the project is her responsibility. Additionally, she should have kept the project sponsor abreast of the issues. Issues and problems should never be a surprise to the sponsor or stakeholder; however, the damage has been done. As the project manager, she must regain the trust of her sponsor and the staff. This can only be done by admitting to the