Case Study: A Day in The Life of A Project Manager

Case Study: A Day in the Life of a Project Manager
(Adopted from: Project Management: The Managerial Process, 4 th ed. 2008 by Gray
Larson)
Dholi Ong, the project manager of a large information system (IS) project arrives earlier than
most of her co-employees and project team. On the way to her cubicle she meets Orly, one
of her colleague. Orly has just completed a project abroad and wanted to start working early
too. They socialize and catch up on personal news for around 10 minutes.
As soon as Ms. Ong has settled in her office, she verifies her voice mail and turns her
computer for emails. Until 7:30pm she was at her client’s place and so she was not able to
check either her voice mails or emails. All in all she has 10 phone messages, 18 emails and 5
notes pasted on her desk. She makes a 15 minutes review of her schedules for the day and
then reply to important messages.
For the next 25 minutes she over some project reports and prepares for the weekly status
meeting. She was cut-short by her boss who just arrived in her office. They discuss the
project for around 20 minutes. Her boss shares a rumor that one of her member is using
“shabu”, a prohibited drug. She promises to observe him though at this point has not seen
anything suspicious.
The project status meeting started at 9:00AM. For about 45 minutes of the progress review
meeting, some issues has identifies, addressed and assigned for action. Two members of the
team arrived 10 minutes before the adjournment of the meeting because they have to finish
a job for a client.
Right after the meeting, she meets Rachel, another project leader in IS. Since both of them
share personnel, they review project assignment for 30 minutes. Rachel need help because
her project is behind schedule. So they both make a deal to help Rachel bring her project
back on track.
She returns to her office and before meeting her project team, she makes several phone
calls and replies on some emails. The intention of the meeting is to make a follow up on
issues that have surfaced from the status report meeting earlier. However, it turned out
that there are some clients’ managers requesting for features which are not part of the
original project scope statement. For more than 20 minutes she patiently listened to these
requests and promised her team that she will resolve this immediately.
Ms. Ong look her lunch before finally returning to her office. She puts “Do not Disturb” sign
in front of her door. She lies down on her office, puts her headphones and listens to her
favourite music.
After a short break, she takes the elevator up to the fifth floor and speaks to the purchasing
employee assigned to her project. They talk for 30 minutes on ways to get the necessary
materials and equipment to the project location on time. She makes a request for express
delivery.
Assignment No. 1: B.A 214 (Project Evaluation and Impact Assessment) and PA1 208 (Project Development and
Impact Assessment) 2nd AY 2021-2022 prepared by Gualberto D. Agris, DPA.
Back to her office she is reminded by her calendar of a webinar at 2:30 PM where she is a
participant. It takes around 20 minutes to have everyone online. So, she decided to catch up
with some of her emails. An hour is spent for exchanging information about the technical
requirements of a new version of a software package similar to her present project.
Ms. Ong settles on stretching her legs, so walks down the hallway and engaged on short
tete-a-tete with colleagues. She thanks Angie for his brilliant analysis as the status report
meeting.
She makes a request to see Pam. A senior marketing manager. She stays on a waiting area
for 10 minutes before being invited to Pam’s office. After some arguments with her she
leaves the room 40 minutes later with Pam agreeing to talk to her staff on issues discussed.
She again meets her project team and tells them some updates. Together for 30 minutes
they make some review and analysis of the impact of the client’s requests on the project
schedule. She shares with them some changes with the schedule that she and Rachel had
agreed to. She says goodnight to her team and heads upstairs to see her boss. She spends
20 minutes updating him for key events that day. She goes back to her office and spends 30
minutes assessing project documents and answering emails. She registers on the MS project
schedule of her project and spend another 30 minutes working on “what if” scenarios. She
makes a review of tomorrow’s schedule and jots down some personal reminders for an
extra 10 minutes before starting to head home.
Case Questions:
1. Do you think Ms. Dholi Ong is able to spend her day wisely as a project manager?
Defend your answer.
2. What are some of the skills that Ms. Ong Possesses as a good project manager based
from the case?
3. What are some of the problems that Ms. Ong as a project manager encounters
during the day? Name them.
4. How will you characterize the project team of Ms. Ong?
5. What does the case tell you about being a project manager?
Assignment No. 1: B.A 214 (Project Evaluation and Impact Assessment) and PA1 208 (Project Development and
Impact Assessment) 2nd AY 2021-2022 prepared by Gualberto D. Agris, DPA.

Case Study: A Day in The Life of A Project Manager

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study: A Day in The Life of A Project Manager

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study: A Day in The Life of A Project Manager

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study: A Day in the Life of a Project Manager

4. How will you characterize the project team of Ms. Ong?

You might also like