The Album that Broke the Band

Note: This was originally posted in a discussion as part of a Boston University Metropolitan College graduate-level course in Project Management with Professor Richard Maltzman.

Recording an album is a project. The recording of the album Let It Go (by my old band Muy Cansado) was a project with overruns in cost and schedule.

The cause was poor planning. I did not distinguish the difference between effort, or time to complete the activity, and duration, or time working on the activity plus time elapsed (Schwalbe, 2017). I planned based upon the hours needed to complete the effort, rather than the duration. This was especially pertinent, when we switched from recording instruments to vocals, a process requiring different equipment and preparation (i.e. longer duration).

As a result, we were unable to get the vocal takes we needed on schedule. This wasted time negatively impacted the project on three levels -

● We fell behind schedule

● We went over budget

● Since we had not planned for this risk, we now had to schedule far out, further impacting schedule

Balancing the three major constraints of scope, schedule and cost is challenging. In this project, cost was the driver, scope was the middle constraint, and schedule was the weak constraint.

For the additional constraints of resources, risk and quality (Schwalbe, 2017), risk was not managed appropriately, and the same resources were required throughout the project. When we were finally able to continue recording, there was less room for slack and the scope and quality had to be more flexible.

Ultimately, the project was completed over budget and past schedule. While the end product met our standards of quality, the process strained the relationships within the band, and this album ended up being our final recording together. In short, the project was a short-term success, but a long-term failure.

References

Schwalbe, K. (2017). An Introduction to Project Management, Sixth Edition. Minneapolis. Schwalbe Publishing.