Project Management 101

A project has been defined as something that has a starting and end date. A wedding for example is a project. It begins at a given date and ends on the wedding date. A bathroom or two to be remodeled are also a project. The project ends when remodeling of bathroom(s) comes to a completion.

What is required for successful completion of said projects? Definitely a project plan is needed for each. The main objective is set, interim goals to be reached, risks to the project, and last but not least the projected end date. Lessons learned as a vital part of the project which really must be done at increments with a final overall lessons learned session.

Every project is different, no matter how many similar the old and the new project seem to be. Having experienced one makes it easier to handle the next one, but there will be differences nevertheless.

I’m seating here, enjoying a scoop of ice cream reviewing in my mind the progress of two projects I have recently experienced.

My daughter’s wedding and yes a two bathroom remodeling projects. This all happening within close proximity of each other (actually concurrently)!

My daughter’s wedding project had its beginnings when Sani met Salem. The bathroom project began when the need to entertain guests for my daughter’s wedding became a reality.

Promises were made, gifts were exchanged and the race was on! May 10, 2008

I have been quite content with the plans to my daughter’s wedding. There have been a few glitches which I must relate. Without those glitches it would have been quite un-eventful.

Four months ago was the starting date for the bathroom remodeling. They were supposed to have been finished by February of 08. Giving us plenty of time until the wedding date of May 10^th, 2008!

Now the real story!

There was not project plan, at least not a written one. This means that everything lay hidden in the neuron connections deep inside the brains of my daughter (Yosani), Sani for short and my dear wife Rachel. My job was to be the sponsor (this means pay for everything).

May 10^th is very close to what? Hmm let’s see. MOTHER’S DAY! Ok so what! Well let me tell you what! Flowers during this particular weekend are three times as much as any other weekend. We almost had no flowers! It’s also PROM Night! Do you know how much limos cost around this time? And then there is the color of this or that not matching. Timing is everything.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the bathroom project is now delayed and it begins exactly one month and a half before the wedding. I tried as the sponsor to convince our bathroom project manager to postpone that until after the wedding. It was almost as if I was trying to postpone the wedding! Well I also tried that. As you may have figured out, neither project manager acquiesced.

Back to the wedding, a wedding shower for both Sani and Salem was scheduled. We rented a small place in La Mirada, CA and had friends and family get together, promises were made, and gifts were exchanged. Food was great we had a slide show of the kids growing up and I did shed a few tears.

Then there was that incident of the brown chairs. Let’s see, we rented chairs. I did not know that the rental facility had chairs (they all do, don’t they). It turns out that the facility chairs did not match the décor and theme of the wedding shower. That’s why my precious daughter had chairs rented. After the event, who ever was supposed to return the chairs to the OTHER rental place could not do the delivery due to an emergency. So who get’s stuck delivering one hundred brown chairs on a Monday morning. Yes, you guessed it. It was DAD, the sponsor. I lost half a day of work on this. I managed to put all one-hundred chairs neatly inside our highlander. I must admit that was a work of art.

Back at the ranch, the bathroom projects are now experiencing difficulties. Tiling did not go as quickly as expected. There was some issue with the floor boards. Actually they had to be changed; there was a previous undetected water leak that ruined the floor board on both bathrooms so replacements were made. A full length mirror was removed with the idea of putting a framed mirror. Behind the full length mirror, was what appeared to be an in-wall cabinet hole! Another little surprise that needed to be handled! Oh, and by the way, since we’re tiling the bathroom, let’s change the shower faucet covers. That turned somehow into the shower faucets breaking. My home is an older home, so finding the replacement faucets was a two day ordeal with intervals of no water at home.

Part of this particular project involved a new cabinet on one bathroom. That went well, until the sink was put in and the faucets and the original plumbing did not exactly line up. Now we have no sink, and one of my project managers decides to start the other bathroom.

The Sponsor turns into a dictator.

The guests are soon to arrive; both bathrooms are now out of commission. I fired my project manager and took over the projects. I had my wife back. Rachel was upset, but things are somewhat in order now. I fixed the sink problem. Put a stop to the second bathroom project and postponed any further craziness until after the wedding.

Our guests and dear friends arrive at my home tonight, I think I hear them knocking! We will laugh at all of this some day.

Oh, I almost forgot. The flowers!

Because the arrangement requires a flower tree, cement blocks had to be created to hold these flower trees. How do you get them to the wedding reception? U-Haul truck, that’s how.

I’m sure they’ll look beautiful! The father, daughter dance is going to be a smash and a surprise for everyone.

In the table arrangements I've asked for a single table to be setup with one chair for me, with a sign saying Father of the bride, you may kiss my ring!

Onward!