Real Web Project Management: Case Studies and Best Practices from the Trenches

Case Study: The Exploding Meeting

This case study describes a project manager's experience as a meeting he is trying to facilitate devolves into a full-blown rumble.

Background

I had been dreading the meeting all day. I was working on a project to build a new, highly complex Web-based interface for the recently purchased list management system. The new system was state of the art and incredibly powerful; however, its interface was not very user friendly and was not conducive to the established workflow—hence the need for the development of a new “front end” for the system.

I called the meeting to review the first draft of the spec I had written based on Gail's (the stakeholder) requirements. The project was still in its early phases; and to be ...