Project Post-Mortem

For my project post-mortem I have chosen my home improvement project.  I purchased my first home about three months ago and had several home improvement plans that I wanted to do right away.  While I will not say that this project was completely unsuccessful, it did not end up meeting my desired outcomes.  The home had an in-law suite on the first floor which included an extra kitchen area.  This kitchen area had cabinets, stove and sink.  So my boyfriend and I grabbed the sledge hammer and got started removing the wall.  Doing all the demolition work was the easy part.  We were then left with pipes in the middle of the floor.  So I called my father who came over to help my boyfriend to remove the pipes from the floor.  Next we ended up with a big bulge in the wall.  So we decided to remove that portion of the wall thinking it had simply bowed out from pulling the cabinets off the wall.  However, it turns out that they apparently used a have an old wood stove in this room with a pipe that connected to the chimney which they have used concrete to close off the pipe and that was creating the bulge.

So as you can tell what sounded like it would be a straight forward project was not so straight forward.  In the end we were finally able to get our opening made between the two rooms.  We were able to frame it out.  And we also fixed the bulge from the pipe and painted the rooms on both sides of the opening.  But we ran out of extra money and extra time to put into the project.  So right now part of our room has carpet on the floor and the other part has vinyl flooring.  We also still have small holes in the floor where the pipes used to be and most of our supplies are still sitting in that corner.   Needless to say the project is left partially finished.  While I thought out the main components I had missed all the finishing touches such as need to redo the entire floor now that there was one continuous room.

I would say that the failure of the project can be contributed to a lack of planning and experience.  I did not create a proper timeline or budget for this project.  I let my eagerness to begin get in the way of proper planning.  The Project Management Minimalist gives the following steps for project success. 

The Nuts and Bolts: 10 Steps to Project Success

Step 1: Define the project concept, then get support and approval.

Step 2: Get your team together and start the project.

Step 3: Figure out exactly what the finished work product will be.

Step 4: Figure out what you need to do to complete the work products. (Identify

tasks and phases.)

Step 5: Estimate time, effort, and resources.

Step 6: Build a schedule.

Step 7: Estimate the costs.

Step 8: Keep the project moving.

Step 9: Handle scope changes.

Step 10: Close out phases, close out the project.

If I were going by the 10 step process from the The Project Management Minimalist,

 I would have to say that I only completed steps 1-3 and part of 4.  If I had completed the other 10 steps this project would have been a much bigger success.  If I had completed step 4 I would have known as best as possible, without the unforeseen, what I would have needed in order to complete the project.  Step 5 would have told me that it was probably not the right time to take on the project because we only had a few days off and not enough time to devote to completing the project on top of moving into the house and unpacking.  And most importantly step 7 would have told me that we did not have the funds to dedicate to the project at that time.  The good thing is we can still salvage this project because it is in our own home.  I have learned a valuable lesson on taking on a project and not being fully prepared. 

Reference:

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.