Volume X - Issue I - January 2008
Personal Stories
An Island Inside the Firestorm By Harvey Levine Editor’s note: Harvey Levine, PMI Fellow and Global Advisor for PMForum, has a home in San Diego, California, USA, which experienced devastating wild fires in October 2007. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, hundreds of homes were lost, and another serious natural disaster was attributed to climate change. Harvey and his wife were there at the time, narrowly surviving the fires. Harvey shares their experience in this personal story. It’s the nature of wildfires. They sneak up on you and then – they explode into an uncontrollable mass of flame, smoke, and destruction. I was looking forward to a quiet, restful Sunday. Debating whether to enjoy the pleasant San Diego outdoors and take a walk, or to do the couch-potato thing and watch the Giants football game on TV, I opted for the latter. Windows and patio doors open, I at least was getting a nice breeze through the TV room. After a while, it occurred to me that something didn’t seem right. The air, just a while ago fresh and pleasant, smelled like burnt toast. But I soon realized that it wasn’t toast and it wasn’t coming from inside the house. I stepped outside, and the view to the east was easily recognizable. It was a close replication of the sky on another Sunday, roughly four years ago. On that Sunday, October 26th, 2003, the Cedar fire (which started late the previous day) had blazed out of control on a many-forked path toward the ocean. Before the firefighters could mount an attack, the strong Santa Ana winds quickly pushed the flames through the dry brush and toward the populated areas. Over 50 thousand people were under mandatory evacuation and by the time the flames passed from the countryside into the city, over 2500 structures were lost.
Project Management in my Life By Azra Duric Chapter I – Mom’s Project I cannot believe this day has finally come. My project, “Raise a Boy” reached its biggest milestone yet- Go Live Weekend- and it was a brilliant success. Or so I thought. My company, called My Family, finally completed this project after 24 years of execution. The product, a-BOY-A, rolled into production last weekend, but the final phase, similar to the other phases, was not completed without many challenges. I remember how the project was delayed for few years during its Test Phase when BOY-A took a trip to Europe. I had concerns that one of its tests failed when additional money suddenly had to be sent to Europe to pay for unexpected expenses. My sponsor, called My Husband, finally had enough and warned me that by prolonging this one I was jeopardizing other projects in our organization. I still had a nagging feeling that there were many risks lurking, which could negatively impact BOY-A’s operation and that because of them, the operation could go astray. After many sleepless nights of deliberation, I had to admit that once the product was in production I would have to let it go. I would have to have complete trust in the production managers to do a good job. Let’s go back to last Sunday, when the final step of the project was completed. A-BOY-A moved into an apartment in Toronto, shared with other two operational products, themselves being the results of other global projects. I am not sure what their names were; I only know that they are a boy-kind of product. This fact is very important because my sponsor did not agree with an idea that our product solution would be joining operations with even one of a girl-type product.
|
PM World Today™ is a trademark of pmforum.org, Inc.
PMWT™ is a trademark of pmforum.org, Inc.
The information on this web site was checked for accuracy and authenticity when last updated. If there is any accidental infringement of copyright, the publisher of this site apologize for their actions, and would like to be notified. In addition, the publisher of this site cannot bear responsibility for the actions or the results of action of individuals or companies arising from use of information and advice contained within it.
PM World Today Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions.
© Copyright 2008 PM World Today