A few stories about Project Management

1. Is the jar full?

 

In a project management class, the professor put a jar of water on the table, and then took out some "pebbles" from the table that could be put into the jar ". When the professor finishes the rock, the whole jar is full. The professor asked his students, "do you say the jar is full now ?" "Yes" all the students answered in unison. "Really ?" The professor asked with a smile. Then I took out a bag of broken stones from the bottom of the table, dumped the broken stones from the mouth of the can, shook them, and added some more. I asked the students again:"You said, Is this jar full now?"This time his students did not dare to answer too quickly. At last, a student in the class gave a sigh of relief:"It may not be full.""Good!"After the professor finished speaking, he took a bag of sand from the table and slowly poured it into the jar. Then, I asked the students in the class:"Now let me know, is this jar full? Still not full?""Not full!"The class learned this well and everyone answered with confidence."Great!"The professor once again praised the students who could teach. After the praise, the professor took out a large bottle of water from the bottom of the table and poured the water into the jar that seemed to have been filled with pebbles, gravel, and sand. After all these things were done, the professor asked the students in his class:"What do you get from these things?"

Revelation 1: for the activities of the forest manager in our project, we can determine the order of handling based on the combination of importance and urgency. So that the pebbles, gravel, sand, water can be put in the jar!

Revelation 2: project management is to find the optimal sorting of the work to be completed by the project in terms of time and space, so as to meet and exceed the needs and expectations of the stakeholders.

 

2. Why?

 

Someone once performed an experiment: three groups of people were organized to walk along three villages 10 kilometers away. The first group did not know the name of the village, nor how far the road was. They only told them to follow the wizard. When I first walked two or three kilometers, some people complained that they were almost angry when they were halfway through. They complained about why they had to go so far and when they could go. When there was less than half of the Distance left, some people even sat on the side of the road and did not want to leave. The closer they go, the lower their mood. The second group knows the village name and road section, but there are no milestones on the side of the road. They can only estimate the travel time and distance based on experience. In the first half, most people want to know how far they have gone. More experienced people say:"It takes about half the distance ." As a result, everyone is walking forward. When we reach 3/4, everyone is in a low mood and tired mood, and the journey seems to be long. When someone says, "coming soon, everyone cheered up to speed up the pace. The third group of people not only know the name and distance of the village, but also each kilometer on the road has a milestone. people walk while watching the milestone. Every one kilometer shorter, everyone has a little bit of happiness. During the trip, they used singing and laughter to eliminate fatigue, and their mood continued to soar, so they quickly arrived at their destination. Why are the results of these three groups completely different?

Revelation 1: In the Project Charter, it is very important to determine the milestone schedule to accomplish the project goal.

Revelation 2: it is very important to determine the project life cycle and carry out phased acceptance (Administrative termination.

Revelation 3: The determination and subdivision of project objectives Determine project performance or even success or failure.

 

3. Dwarf stories

 

In the ancient Greek period of Cyprus, a group of dwarf people were shut down in a castle. It is said that they were shut down to this isolated place because they were cursed by a terrible spell. They couldn't find anyone to ask for help, without food or water, and the seven dwarfs were increasingly disappointed. The dwarf did not think that this was a test by the gods. Among the dwarf, Archimedes was the first to receive the patron saint Athena todream. Athena told him that in this castle, in addition to the wet storage room they stayed in, among the other 25 rooms, one room had some honey and water, enough for a period of time, and the other 24 rooms contain stones, 240 of which are rose-red, which are collected and arranged in a circle, the terrible spells will be lifted, and they will be able to escape their bad fortune and return to their homes. The next day, Archimedes could not wait to tell the other six partners about this dream. Four of them did not want to believe it. Only Alice and Socrates were willing to work with him. In the first few days, Alice wanted to find some firewood for fire, which could warm the room and make some light. Socrates wanted to find the room for the food first, while Archimedes wanted

Find 240 pieces of lingshi, so you can release the spell quickly. The three people did not have the same opinion, so they decided to find different ones. However, after a few days, the three did not have any results, but they were exhausted and made fun of the other four. However, the three did not give up and failed to make them realize that they should unite. They decided to look for the fire and food, and finally look for Ling Shi together. This is a good method. Three people quickly found a lot of honey and water in the second room on the left. After a few days of hunger, they swallowed up the smoke, and brought a lot of information to Troy, Angela, Aristotle, and merissa. The hope of food and clothing has changed the minds of the other four. They regretted their stupidity at the beginning and asked them to work with Archimedes to find the lingshi and lift the hateful spell. In order to improve efficiency, Archimedes decided to divide the seven people into two ways: the original three people continued to look for them from the left, while the four people, such as Trojan, had no sense of direction at all. The castle was like a maze for them, they are almost just turning around. Archimedes made a decisive redistribution. Alice and Socrates each took one person and guided them slowly to familiarize themselves with Castle with their secrets and experiences. Of course, things were not as smooth as they were supposed to be. First, the Socrates and Troy groups, who always thought the other two groups were too slow. Later, Mei Lisa, who was a flower farmer, discovered that, most of the stones we found were not Rose Red. In the end, due to the poor terrain, we often found lingshi in the same room one day after another, and everyone's confidence began to gradually lose. Archimedes was very anxious. In the evening, he brought together seven people to discuss the case. However, at the beginning of the exchange, the meeting became a critical meeting of mutual criticism. Socrates was eager to open his mouth first: "What are you doing? Only two or three stone rooms can be found in one day ?" "There are so many rooms and no stone or stone is written on the door, so it will take a long time to find it !" Alice replied. "Didn't you notice that there were no locks in the upper holes, and there were stones in the cross-shaped locks ?" Socrates asked. After communication, we found out that some of them may find the room quickly, but the stones they may find in the room are all wrong; and those who find the room very accurately, the speed is too slow. So, at Alice's proposal, we decided to hold a meeting every day to exchange experiences and tips. Then, we copied all the useful things to the wall where the light could shine, reminding everyone, this saves you the trouble of looking for detours. The first experience on this wall is to share our valuable experience with more partners so that we can get out of the predicament as quickly as possible. With the cooperation of seven people, they finally found all 240 lingshi. But then Socrates stopped breathing. In addition to everyone's extreme shock and fear, the fire suddenly went out again. Without fire, there is no light and no light, and there is no way for everyone to make a circle of stones. I thought it was a simple task, and everyone came to help with the fire. You know, six people have spent a long time, it's still impossible to get angry-the previous fire was done by Socrates. The cold, darkness and fear once again came to the dwarf, and the gloomy emotions swept to everyone, archimedes regretted not learning from Socrates. Under the care of the gods, the fire was still born. The Dwarf men won. What are the inspirations of this story for our project manager to do a good job in Human Resource Management?

Revelation 1: Project Team members can complete the task only by reaching consensus on the goal and working in a division of labor.

Revelation 2: document summarization of lessons learned is very important, and the efficiency of template improvement is the highest.

Revelation 3: A good communication plan is very important to the success of the team.

Revelation 4: only one person can master the core technologies of the project team, which may bring unexpected risks.

 

4. Why did the three rats fail to steal oil?

 

The three mice stole oil and found a bottle. The three mice negotiated, one stepping on one shoulder and taking turns to drink oil. So the three mice began to fold Luo Han. When the last mouse had just climbed onto the shoulders of the other two, I did not know why. The oil bottle fell down and shocked people. The three mice ran away. Go back to the mouse nest and have a meeting to discuss why the meeting failed. The top mouse said, "I didn't drink oil, and I knocked down the oil bottle because the second mouse shook, so I knocked down the oil bottle. The second mouse said, I jitters a bit, but I felt that the third mouse was also twitching, and then I got jitters. The third mouse said, "Yes, yes, I shook my head as I heard the call of a cat outside the door." "Oh, that's it !" Many people in the enterprise also have a mouse mentality. Listen to a quarterly corporate meeting: A, manager of the marketing department, said: "We are responsible for poor sales recently. However, our primary responsibility is not that of us. Our competitors have launched new products, which is better than ours. Therefore, we are not doing well. The R & D department should make a serious conclusion ." Manager B of the R & D department said: "We have very few new products recently, but we also have some difficulties. Our budget is very small, that is, our budget is very low and it has been reduced by finance !" Financial Manager C said: "Yes, I cut your budget, but you must know that the company's cost is rising and we certainly don't have much money ." At this moment, the purchase manager D jumped up: "Our procurement costs have increased by 10%. Why, do you know? A mine in Russia producing chrome exploded, leading to a rise in the price of Stainless Steel ." A, B, and C: "Oh, that's it. In this case, we don't have much responsibility, Hahahaha !" HR manager F said, "In this case, I have to assess the Russian mine !"

Revelation 1: Scientific and rigorous project planning is the key to ensuring project success.

Revelation 2: To sum up the project experience and lessons, the key is not to investigate who is responsible, but to summarize the rules to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Revelation 3: a fair, fair, quantitative, and transparent performance appraisal system is the key to improving the project team's performance.

Revelation 4: Establish a good conflict resolution mechanism to avoid unnecessary conflicts.