Chapter 3: The Project Endures
The project daze came to Bruce Warner in ways he had never expected and could not have prepared for. First there was this friendly guy Will who acted like his boss but at the same time seemed eager to escape from Fast Access. Then there was Valerie who was in fact his boss but never had a moment of time to spare for him. He felt like a little church mouse that had been set loose in hell. Every day brought a new adventure with negotiation on project requirements. Sure, there were tasks to track and people assigned, but every checkpoint meeting found someone challenging existent requirements or adding new ones. The rank and file folks of Giant Networks had immediately warmed to Bruce, finding his attitude refreshing. He was actually willing to listen to their concerns and attempted to bring their feedback to management meetings. Bruce had noted right away that DJ Fox and his group provided more than their share of these issues. He was constantly having to work back through delays in schedule arising from one or more tasks assigned to DJ’s group. Finally, he could stand no more. He realized that both his own success and the success of the project depended on his ability to reel in the EMEA Support team.
“Hi Valerie. My apologies for barging in but I feel it’s important that we have face time on this issue.” Valerie pulled together some papers she’d been working on and gave him an entirely pitiful look. “Ok then, Bruce lets go through your concerns. But shouldn’t we bring Will in on this?” Bruce wanted this job and realized there would always be certain hurdles to climb. Will had been saying lately that he should assert himself more, especially when dealing with managers. “Will said it was important that you have my perspective on this.” Valerie was thinking about it. “Ok Bruce. Why don’t you speak with Kim in the morning to get on my schedule? Tell her to red flag this and we need an hour. OK? I don’t want to short change you.“ Bruce agreed, after all, it was the first sign that she was going take him seriously. Now he allowed himself to think how they would offer him a permanent position at the end of the contract. “I’m back in the saddle.” He announced triumphantly that night to his friends in the bar. Later he went out to the parking lot for a smoke break and called his girlfriend. Sally Branscombe was observant enough to note that Bruce’s attitude about this job had waffled from week to week. Still it felt good to hear a touch of confidence in Bruce’s voice. She allowed herself to think that he might take charge of what happened in his life and maybe there was some possibility of a future with him.
Another week went by and Will was looking at the schedule update that Bruce had sent out. He’d only recently felt like it was safe to pull back from this project but what he saw today alarmed him. There were several tasks marked in bold red to indicate slip and as before, they were all associated with the European Support team. “I thought Bruce had this under control. He was supposed to have worked this through with Valerie.” Will picked up the phone and dialed. “Hello Bruce. Do you have some time this afternoon? I need to talk about the schedule.” Bruce agreed that they should meet. In fact, he’d been embarrassed about the lack of progress recently and dreading when he would break the news to Will. “I still haven’t had that meeting with Valerie. She keeps putting me off.” Will was stunned! It was exactly the kind of thing that could happen around here, but still he couldn’t help feeling that Bruce should have taken a more active stance to red flag the problem with Valerie. “Bruce, I don’t think we need to meet after all. It’s clear enough who I need to be talking to. I’m going over to see Valerie right away.” “Thanks Will. I knew you would understand but I didn’t want to bother you with this. I’ve sent email and tried to call her a couple of times. The only thing I’ve gotten back is a couple of meeting cancellation notices.” Will liked Bruce and there were many examples where he was doing a fine job but surely he must realize that Valerie wasn’t likely to be embracing him with open arms at the end of his contract. “What kind of an arrangement do we have here anyway?” Will thought to himself. “Bruce has not been setting up to succeed. Shouldn’t a manager be responsible for that?”
Will thought about going to Marco for help with the situation but then he realized that Marco would want him to handle it and besides, he wasn’t in the mood to hear a lecture. It took Will another couple of days to get an audience with Valerie and only a quick phone conversation at that. “Yes, I spoke to Bruce about the schedule. We agreed there were some things he can try.” Will was puzzled. He’d been trusting Bruce and of course he didn’t trust Valerie much. Yet if she were lying to him she seemed perfectly at ease with it. “When did you speak to Bruce?” he asked. “Oh, I just spoke to him a few minutes ago actually,” she replied. Before Will could respond she added, “I hope you can do me a favor. I’m going to be on a trip next week. Can you go to the Fast Access meeting while I’m out? This is a critical period and there are several milestones coming.” Will agreed to do this but told himself it was for Bruce’s sake and for Marco’s sake, but most of all for his own sake. The project was still winding through hell and he was still tangled up with it. He called up Marco and told him about Valerie’s request but Marco seemed to already know about her travel plans. “Just thought you’d like to know, ah, high level what’s going on.” Will told him. “Oh really! Well thank you.” Marco said in that overly exaggerated tone he used to denote “don’t bring the sucky world to me.” Will turned to go but Marco called him back. “I just wanted to let you know that you are doing a hell of job with Fast Access and other people have noticed that too.” Will found himself wondering what other gems Marco would bring out to polish. “And Bruce?” Will replied. “What do people think about Bruce?” Marco didn’t appreciate the questions, not after he’d been trying to play nice. “People are stepping over each other and getting all tangled up just because they want to come in here and say something nice about Bruce.” Marco teased. “Hey come on, you know what it’s like with new people. They have to prove themselves.” Will thought about that before replying. “Well, I think Bruce is doing a good job with this. Anyone would have trouble dealing with DJ, much less a new guy.” Marco removed his glasses and rubbed his eyelids. “Well there you go.” He finally replied. “Bruce is having trouble with DJ and you are going to step in to help. I think that’s all I need to know about Bruce right now.” Marco pulled a finger across his throat to indicate the subject was closed. Will could feel tension building and he knew whatever happened next week would be about his career at Giant Networks and probably have very little to do with Bruce. “If I were him, this would be the last place I’d want to be when the contract is up.” Will thought and made a note to advise Bruce to start looking and the company job board and figure out where the opportunities are. “Working for Valerie would go beyond desperate.”
The next morning Will came looking for Bruce but could not find him. He tried again a couple of hours later and still no success. He ran toward the stairway but just then there was Bruce emerging from the elevator. “Hi Will. Were you looking for me? I was taking a break.” he said and tugged at this shirt pocket to indicate the cigarette pack. Bruce looked very nervous. “Valerie said she talked to you?” Will half expected him to deny it but there was no response from Bruce. “Do you think you are getting anywhere on this DJ situation?” Bruce fidgeted. “Can we go back downstairs? I think I can use another smoke already.” He said. Will couldn’t stomach cigarette smoke but judging from Bruce’s expression, there probably weren’t going to be other choices available. “Can we take the stairs?” Will was so averse to the affect of second hand smoke that he could feel it immediately burning his eyelids if someone lit up over twenty yards away. Prolonged exposure meant a headache and finally nausea.
As they walked down the stairway, Will began digging for information. “I’m sorry to push but I need to know what’s going on with DJ. Right now, it would be incredibly relevant to give some positive news to Marco.” Bruce gave him a knowing look. “Valerie told me that my plan to break off EMEA into a separate call sounded fine! I showed her the way I had reorganized the schedule. It was different from the way you had it, showing dependencies on EMEA with subtasks. Provides more visibility for the pain points we’ve been having.” Bruce was smiling. He was feeling pleased to think he might have more information than Will for once. “So Valerie told you to go forward with that?” “Yeah, but then she turns and tells me IF IT’S NOT TOO LATE.” “Ok, you got me on the hook, now tell me what she meant by that.” “Sure Will. She told me she planned to have a Come To Jesus meeting next week with DJ.” Will cringed. “Ever notice it’s mostly women using that expression nowadays? It’s like how you hear that someone was beaten when they were child and more likely to hand down the same treatment to their children. Now we have people imitating the condescending and blasphemous expressions from their precious star VP’s. Anyway, I guess you realize it wouldn’t be normal for a manager to have a side bar with a key stakeholder about the schedule and leave the PM out of the discussion? Damn it Bruce, you can’t let her manage for you! There’s one major pressure point and one big road block on the project and we knew this from the start. We have to offer the solution here, not step aside.” Will glared at him.
Bruce was surprised by the outburst and now they had stopped on a landing and he could see he needed to say something to get things back in perspective. Will had been his ally here and even though he wanted to make his own mark, Will was still his life line at this company. Just the same, if Will wanted him to assert himself, he could do that right here. “Don’t worry about it man. I’ve got a deal with Valerie. After she speaks with DJ, we’re supposed to meet again and put the final touches on the schedule and we’ll finally have stability there. After that, it’s basic project management and you know I can handle that, right? Isn’t that why you brought me here?” Bruce started to walk down the next flight of stairs but Will did not follow. “OK Bruce. You’re right. I’m going to step out of this. Let’s get together next week after you have your meeting with Valerie. Like I said, I’m sorry to push this.” Bruce was pleased. “Hey, if I don’t see you, have a good weekend Will. I’m going over to Santa Cruz to visit Sally this weekend. Just lay around the house and walk over to beach. Sounds like you need a little bit of relaxation yourself.” Will couldn’t agree more. “Have a good one Bruce.” Bruce turned and walked hurriedly down the stairs, his hand fumbling for the pack with one hand and for the lighter with the other. He couldn’t wait to get into another smoke. Will walked back toward his office. “Its not the way I’d handle this but everybody has his own way to get things done. There are a lot of soft touches in program management and it would be hard to know exactly what had happened without being in the room with Bruce and Valerie. Maybe Bruce has a good read on it. Who knows?”
