ALI'S ADVENTURES

Unraveling Problems With International Projects  -  PART 1

This is the first installment of a fictitious article, written by Migrators. The article was originally serialised in the June and July 2000 edition of the UK journal Project Manager Today. 

The article follows the adventures of Ali during a major international assignment. This includes encountering and resolving a variety of problems that can occur in any international project. The installment ends with Ali encountering a major problem. An opportunity is then provided for the reader to reflect on the issues surrounding the problem and consider potential solutions. A solution is provided in Part 2. 

During Part 2 Ali encounters more problems and resolves them. Finally, Part 2 will lead into a free to enter prize competition, run in conjunction with Project Manager Today. Readers will be able to provide their own solutions to a major problem encountered by Ali. Prizes of a bottle of Champaign, or Book Tokens, will be given to the best solutions.

Recently appointed as the project manager for the UK element of the InterComm project, Ali is responsible for all aspects of the project, including integration with partners systems. Ali is now getting up to speed with the details of the project and the new responsibilities, as well as preparing for the second progress meeting of the international partners, in Milan.

Whilst reading the project documents, Ali notices a few inconsistencies. Some of the formal agreements made by the partners are not clear, and could be interpreted in a number of ways. Very few formal procedures are being used, apart from the occasional international standard. Although the formal language of the project is English, some of the partners do no have a good grasp of the language. Indeed most of the technical documents are written in other languages, usually French or German. Work was often completed behind schedule, although the quality was usually very good. Whilst the early costs were only slightly higher than budget, the recent actual expenditure levels did not follow the budget projections.

Before making any further enquiries Ali, decides to talk with Pete, the financial manager. Pete tells Ali the history of the project. Some of the elements of the formal agreements needed to be flexible, so they could be adapted to the ways that the partners worked. Partners were encouraged to use their own working methods where possible, to provide continuity and reduce the problems of adapting to ways which may not be acceptable to some partners. All official documents and meetings used English, however both the French and Germans reserved the right to provide technical documents in their own languages. This also linked with the use of the partners own working procedures. For interfaces, all partners needed to agree the detailed aspects, therefore gaining the agreements took additional time, but the specifications were fully accepted. The approaches to accounting were different for each partner, this resulted in differences in recording expenditure. Initially the figures provided were inaccurate, following reconciliation the figures would become accurate.

Milan Meetings
Some aspects were still unresolved by the time Ali had to leave for the meeting. The flight to Milan was delayed by a few hours, not arriving until very late. The following day, Ali’s taxi arrived half an hour late, with the driver not understanding much English and not knowing where the site was. Ali gave him a copy of the directions provided, and emphasised that they were late. The taxi driver then drove very fast down some back streets before joining the main road and proceeded to weave in and out of the traffic at high speed, arriving at the site about 10 minutes after the scheduled start.

There were more delays when Ali reported to reception, however Ali was glad of the opportunity to recover from the unnerving taxi ride. Ali arrived at the meeting about 20 minutes after the scheduled start, to find that all the partners had not yet arrived. Ali introduced herself, exchanged pleasantries and shook hands with all those present, then did the same with the other latecomers who came after her.

The meeting started coming to order about 30 minutes after the scheduled start. Further delays ensued whilst the attendees formally introduced themselves. The domestic arrangements for the two days followed, including what appeared to be very long lunch beaks. The content of the formal agenda was agreed. However some partners insisted on adding items to the agenda, to the dismay of others. Just after the Minutes of the previous meeting had been laboriously agreed, the last group of attendees arrived. The new attendees immediately went around the table shaking everyone’s hand and exchanging greetings. Mario, the Italian Chairman, then briefly introduced the newcomers, repeated the domestic arrangements and summarised the meeting so far. By this time, the coffee had arrived and it was agreed that an early break should be taken, before getting down to the business of the day.

The progress briefings eventually began, nearly two hours after the scheduled start. Although, the early briefings did not appear to provide any new information, to Ali’s dismay. During the briefing just before lunch, one of the team leaders could only provide a short report, because members supplying data, had not provided it on time. After the briefing, Mario left the room, to return shortly. A few minutes later, another Italian entered, went around the table shaking everyone’s hand and exchanging greetings. Mario introduced her as Juliet, the Italian team representative. She told the meeting why she was not able to provide the required analysis, due to contractors not supplying data. Juliet then went around the table, shaking everybody’s hand and exchanging pleasantries, before leaving the meeting. Ali was surprised by the shortness of the report and the fact that the greeting and departure ceremonies took longer than the actual report. The other partners agreed to take formal Actions to find out what had happened, and report at the next meeting. Another months delay thought Ali.

The lunch that followed started late and lasted most of the afternoon, although the food and wine were good. Listening to the conversations around the lunch tables, it appeared that more detailed discussions were made during the meal to discuss progress than the meeting itself. A lot of the members were also using mobile telephones. All of which resulted in a multi language cacophony throughout lunch, most of which Ali could barely understand.

After lunch, the first of the video conferences took place, a briefing from Pete, on the financial status. Initially, there was difficulty making the connections, resulting in poor pictures and the sound drowned by static. Eventually, Pete was able to start the briefing, which was similar to one Ali had received from him. About half way through, the link disconnected again, this time it was impossible to reconnect. Ali offered to complete the briefing, based on an e-mail she had received. Shortly after she started, one of the German delegation stated that Ali was not a financial expert and she should stop the briefing. Confused, Ali objected, but Mario and the other members agreed with the German member, indicating that she should keep within her own areas of expertise.

A few more briefings followed. One of the briefings could not start, because the team leader had brought the wrong papers. It appeared to Ali that he was not fully aware of the work being undertaken by the team, possibly because the team was split amongst all the partners. Another scheduled report could not be discussed, because it had not been sent by the working team. During the afternoon break, there were additional discussions, here Ali learnt that the work had not been started because the team could not agree on the details of the required approach.

The meeting finished at the agreed time. Arrangements were made to meet for dinner at a restaurant in Milan, although the venue was too far away from Ali’s airport hotel to attend. Back at the hotel, Ali realised that the hotel was not convenient for the city and resolved to book a more appropriate hotel next time. She also hoped that this would reduce the problems with taxi drivers not knowing the location of the meeting.

The following day, Ali’s taxi again arrived 20 minutes after she ordered it. Although the taxi driver seemed to know where the meeting venue was, however he still managed to provide another nerve wrecking experience. Ali arrived at the meeting room to find that she was the first one there, apart from the Germans who had taken the best seats.

The meeting started 20 minutes late, with a recap on the previous days events. To Ali’s surprise, the recap included a summary of informal comments made during the dinner, relating to partners opinions of the project. Again, Ali regretted missing the dinner. The domestic arrangements for the day were similar to the previous day. Although the meeting would effectively finish mid afternoon, when the first of the partners departed to catch their flights. Ali calculated this would be shortly after they returned from lunch.

The first item of the day was a video conference, reporting progress from the team involved with the signal interface specifications, which was of particular importance to Ali. Several attempts were made to contact the team, with little success. The alternative of an internet video conference could not take place, due to poor reception. Eventually, the report was made verbally, over the speaker phone, with the individuals announcing themselves before talking. This was acceptable for a while, however discussion regarding interface diagrams could not take place, because the attendees could identify the diagrams.

Lunch and After
Lunch was another long affair, with many informal discussions and distracting telephone calls. Ali spent a while with Henri, the Belgian team leader, discussing the problems regarding some of the signal interface data. Henri was not able to provide any specific information, only a vague indication that they may be ready ‘in a few weeks’. Ali needed more information and pressed for it. However, Henri stated that he was only there to report progress, planning information could only be provided by the French systems manager, who was not present.

As Ali had anticipated, shortly after lunch, the first of the partners had to depart. It was agreed that the final elements of the meeting could be completed without them, including a review of the proposed Actions. Ali was surprised to find that some of the partners appeared not to remember Actions they had agreed the previous day. Sometimes they claimed that an Action was more appropriate for another partner. They also tried to change the Actions, often making them more flexible, or vaguer, always trying to increase the time for response. Ali now understood why the Actions were sometimes inconsistent with the Minutes and why responses sometimes diverged from stated Actions.

Agreeing the Actions took longer than expected, Ali was concerned that she, and some of the partners, would be late for their flights, if they did not leave soon. Fortunately, the Italians had laid on a coach to take the partners to the airport. Ali took the opportunity of the journey to discuss with Henri the interface data again, explaining the information she needed from the specifications, and what data could be provided by the different suppliers. Although the fast and difficult coach journey provided a few distractions, arriving shortly before Ali’s flight departed. As Ali ran for her plane, she remembered to ask Henri to ensure the supply of the system data was pronto.

A few days after the meeting, Ali received a bulky package from Henri. This contained detailed interface design specifications. However, they were for a part of the software operating system interface, not the signal interface she had been expecting. Ali wondered why she received this data so soon, as the signal types and volumes had only just been agreed. Before she contacted Henri, Ali decided to think about what had gone wrong.

.....To Be Continued

Click on the link to view Part 2 of Ali's Adventures.

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