This year’s tales of terror plunge you into project management madness. You’ll visit a hiring manager’s dungeon of woe, spy on a company executive as he spins his web of wickedness, learn just how desperate a new PM can get to succeed and uncover the tiny detail that nailed the coffin in one PMO director’s…

  A client wants a Microsoft Project Server system built, including a security configuration based on the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS). When the consultant arrives at the client site, the key stakeholder in charge of the deployment has abruptly left the company. When the consultant asks the remaining staff for a copy of the org…

An organization had asked us to undertake a Project Server deployment initiative. The user base was gigantic. The deployment timeframe was tight, and on the agreed-upon budget we could just scrape by. The initial kick-off meeting took place in an eerie room where there was a creepy pale white elephant — existing data and its…

  At one organization where I worked, the CIO had seen something on the value of earned value. They brought me in to teach a two-day Microsoft Project class to their engineers without mentioning that this was now part of their goals. Every engineer on that team within a few months of the class was…

    I had a project manager once who was also in charge of putting out the work schedules for the part-time employees. (I guess the company decided that since a PM could schedule work, he could also do the job of scheduling shift work.) Whenever they decided to lay off, fire or downsize somebody,…

  Early in my career, I was teaching an “Intro to Microsoft Project” class for a large corporate client in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had been there to teach classes for them a number of times previously. During my welcome and introduction, I intended to say, “It’s good to be back in the Twin Cities…

  Whether it’s a crazed client, scary supervisor, lunatic schedule or something else, these MPUG tales are guaranteed to get your skin crawling in time for Halloween. We invite you to share your own tale of terror in comments below — if you dare…       You’re Fired — Or, Um, Unscheduled! By Collin…