Project Management Operating Room

In Episode 5 of the Project Management Operating Room, we look at three interesting cases:

Misdiagnosed Authority - A new PM is struggling to mesh with the team on an urgent project and wants management to make the lead and senior developer the PM's direct reports

Agile Dysfunction - A PM struggles to adapt to a new environment where the team works informally across Slack without following any Agile framework

Phantom Artifact Pain - A PM is frustrated that they spent a lot of time making a beautiful Gantt chart, but the team wasn’t interested in reviewing or discussing it.

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In Episode 4 of the Project Management Operating Room, we look at three cases:

• Third Degree Burnout: A PM neglects their 50-person team to pursue a two-year personal tech plan, while justifying it by claiming soft skills are "stupid."
• The Double Bypass: Informal discussions between the client and developer yield new scope that isn't brought to the PM's attention, which leads to delays.
• Conflicting Treatment Plans: A debate between the PM and the team over horizontal vs. vertical spreadsheet layouts exposes a bigger question about which battles we should fight as PMs.

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In episode 3 of the Project Management Operating Room, we take a look at a case where a brand new project manager is struggling with being responsible without authority. Then, we look at a case where an Agile coach is concerned that the team is pushing back on their desired ceremonies. Finally, we look at a case where a PM is frustrated that their efforts to implement Notion were not well received by the team.

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In Episode 2 of the Project Management Operating Room, we look at 3 cases. First, we break down a case where a project manager has lost their privileges for scheduling meetings due to a series of mistakes that were made. Next, we look at a case where a project manager is potentially stepping over a boundary with the team when it comes to the use of AI. Lastly, we look at a case where a failure to document decisions is hurting the project.

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In this Project Management Operating Room Case Files episode, we do a deeper dive on a project where a project manager relied solely upon a verbal agreement to complete project work only for the team to come back 6 months later and say they never made that commitment. Project chaos ensues.

In Episode 1 of The PM Operating Room, we examine three real project management problems sourced from the project management community and diagnose what's actually going wrong and what to do about it.

Case 01: Template Amnesia The same types of projects are executed over and over, but the team starts from scratch every time. No templates, no shared repository, no reuse of previous work. We diagnose why a seemingly simple problem is not that simple and where responsibility lies.

Case 02: PM in Quarantine A veteran PM with 15 years of experience gets a new CIO who bars them from planning and estimation sessions. The tactical quarantine creates a context gap and leaves the PM questioning what the role even means going forward. We break down what's really driving this dynamic and what the PM should actually do about it.

Case 03: Self-Induced Coma A PM secures a verbal commitment from a team member to own critical testing work. Six months later that person claims they never committed to anything. The project is in chaos, deadlines are at risk, and everyone is pointing fingers. We diagnose how this really happened and how to start fixing it.

No textbook answers, no buzzword mumbo-jumbo. Just practical solutions from someone who has been there.

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