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<Background>
I work for a company that has an IT support contract with big organisation. My role is to work with the Organisation projects office on internal IT projects. One of the types of projects that we get is moving large amounts of IT equipment around. This story involves one such move.
</background>
This project started off good and went rapidly downhill. It is to move one section (the clients) out of building A and into a newly built extension of building B. We discuss the details of the move with all involved. The person from the section coordinating the move is very helpful. It is agreed that my team will pack the IT equipment into large boxes supplied by the clients. My team will do the set up when everything has arrived. The clients have to get the boxes from building A to Building B and delivered to the right spot. The organisation uses the same team of removalists for all the moves. Both my team and the movers like everything to be labelled with the destination (ie desk 7) that matches a floor plan.
The project went down hill when it was continually delayed by the new building not being ready. It crashed when the client coordinator we had been dealing with left her job two days before the move. The replacement coordinator ditched all the plans and did it her way. Things that went wrong:
1. Not enough boxes
The client didn't have enough boxes for all the computers. They had known for 6 weeks that they need about 20 large boxes for the computers. Instead they packed other things into the large boxes.
2. "Labels are for losers"
Why go to all the effort of printing out neat clear labels for the boxes and furniture. Simply grab a marker and scribble a quick one or two word description of where the box is from. Don't even bother labelling all the furniture, just point at it an run away. The problem with this great plan to save on labels was that building A and building B don't have the same layout. There was no store room in B so all the boxes labelled "Storeroom" got put everywhere. It was difficult to find the IT equipment as it was amongst 20 boxes labelled "Bruce". The floor plan only has numbers so which desk does Bruce sit at? The clients have all disappeared and we have no ideas. Let's guess a number.
3. Pack everything including the rubbish
There were items in there storeroom that was past its used by date. Instead of throwing this out they packed it up and brought it with them. Why bring the rubbish? Because it might be important and no one spent the last 6 weeks preparing to move by throwing out old stuff.
4. Your company moves the computers
My team will move the computers inside a building using flat bed trolleys. Other in my company will move a computer using the delivery van. It is up to the organisation to move large numbers of computers. My project manager told the client coordinator this and of course the coordinator then tried to get my team to move them. It was not going to happen as I had a single flat bed trolley that fits two boxes, there was a construction site between buildings A and B, we would have had to drag the trolley up a flight of stairs and finally we would have had to drag the trolley along a public road. Look of there, it is a team of movers who are willing to take the computer boxes in their truck just like every other move.
5. "The IT equipment has priority, so load it first"
Yep, the client coordinator got the movers to put the computers in the truck first. Brilliant plan! I only found this out when I asked the movers where the computer boxes were. The movers don't argue with the clients, they just do as they are told, even if it is a stupid idea.
6. Seriously underestimate the load
The clients believed that it would take one truck, 4 guys and two hours to move everything from A to B. You know that it is not going well when you hear the head mover on the phone to the office trying to get more guys. In the end it was about 8 guys, two trucks and two days to move everything. We are dependant upon the equipment being move and the client's seem to believe that the movers have teleporters or a tardis.
My team was left sitting around waiting for desks and computers to appear. Client coordinator then wanted us to return to our office on the other side of and come back when they were ready for us. Seems reasonable until you factor in travel allowance which my company pays us but doesn't bill to organisation. We are charged out by the day so it is better for company if we stay were we are. About an hour later sent half the team back to the office to work on other projects and rescheduled to be in building B again the next day.
7. Not all desks are equal
The movers pulled the desks apart (three pieces per desk) in building A, moved them to building B and then noticed that the desks varied on mounting points. The guys putting the desk together started to play desk tetris with all the bits scattered in 4 different rooms. The desks were not all together until the second day.
8. No Overtime
When we plan a project the client is given an estimate of any overtime. No estimate then we don't work overtime. This project shouldn't have required it but it was looking like the coordinator was expecting us to work late. It would have been unpaid overtime and I told the coordinator's boss that we had to leave at knock off time. Thirty minutes before knock off the last of the computer boxes arrived and promptly disappeared along with my one remaining team member. The coordinator's computer was in one of the missing boxes and she start to get very narky at me. How did we lose the boxes? They didn't have proper labels and got lost in the chaos of boxes. Fifteen minutes before knock off I find my missing team member and we start sorting out the remaining computers. I also started to pass on a message to him that he wasn't required the next day when the coordinator misheard the message an accused us of not setting up her computer. It was at that point that I nearly lost my temper and told her that she was overhearing a private conversation. We had her computer in our hands as she was complaining. I went home thinking that she was going to lodge a complaint about me. The next day she apologised, we got everything finished and left the movers to sort out the mess. The guy that went missing had been sent to the other end of the building by the client boss to fix an issue.
Ok long rant. The short version is lack of planning and no labels will result in your move taking twice as long.
The move happened at the start of November. In December the client coordinator rang the project manager because they had locked themselves out of the comms cupboard. The project manager had great delight in telling them that it was not our problem as the project was completed.
I work for a company that has an IT support contract with big organisation. My role is to work with the Organisation projects office on internal IT projects. One of the types of projects that we get is moving large amounts of IT equipment around. This story involves one such move.
</background>
This project started off good and went rapidly downhill. It is to move one section (the clients) out of building A and into a newly built extension of building B. We discuss the details of the move with all involved. The person from the section coordinating the move is very helpful. It is agreed that my team will pack the IT equipment into large boxes supplied by the clients. My team will do the set up when everything has arrived. The clients have to get the boxes from building A to Building B and delivered to the right spot. The organisation uses the same team of removalists for all the moves. Both my team and the movers like everything to be labelled with the destination (ie desk 7) that matches a floor plan.
The project went down hill when it was continually delayed by the new building not being ready. It crashed when the client coordinator we had been dealing with left her job two days before the move. The replacement coordinator ditched all the plans and did it her way. Things that went wrong:
1. Not enough boxes
The client didn't have enough boxes for all the computers. They had known for 6 weeks that they need about 20 large boxes for the computers. Instead they packed other things into the large boxes.
2. "Labels are for losers"
Why go to all the effort of printing out neat clear labels for the boxes and furniture. Simply grab a marker and scribble a quick one or two word description of where the box is from. Don't even bother labelling all the furniture, just point at it an run away. The problem with this great plan to save on labels was that building A and building B don't have the same layout. There was no store room in B so all the boxes labelled "Storeroom" got put everywhere. It was difficult to find the IT equipment as it was amongst 20 boxes labelled "Bruce". The floor plan only has numbers so which desk does Bruce sit at? The clients have all disappeared and we have no ideas. Let's guess a number.
3. Pack everything including the rubbish
There were items in there storeroom that was past its used by date. Instead of throwing this out they packed it up and brought it with them. Why bring the rubbish? Because it might be important and no one spent the last 6 weeks preparing to move by throwing out old stuff.
4. Your company moves the computers
My team will move the computers inside a building using flat bed trolleys. Other in my company will move a computer using the delivery van. It is up to the organisation to move large numbers of computers. My project manager told the client coordinator this and of course the coordinator then tried to get my team to move them. It was not going to happen as I had a single flat bed trolley that fits two boxes, there was a construction site between buildings A and B, we would have had to drag the trolley up a flight of stairs and finally we would have had to drag the trolley along a public road. Look of there, it is a team of movers who are willing to take the computer boxes in their truck just like every other move.
5. "The IT equipment has priority, so load it first"
Yep, the client coordinator got the movers to put the computers in the truck first. Brilliant plan! I only found this out when I asked the movers where the computer boxes were. The movers don't argue with the clients, they just do as they are told, even if it is a stupid idea.
6. Seriously underestimate the load
The clients believed that it would take one truck, 4 guys and two hours to move everything from A to B. You know that it is not going well when you hear the head mover on the phone to the office trying to get more guys. In the end it was about 8 guys, two trucks and two days to move everything. We are dependant upon the equipment being move and the client's seem to believe that the movers have teleporters or a tardis.
My team was left sitting around waiting for desks and computers to appear. Client coordinator then wanted us to return to our office on the other side of and come back when they were ready for us. Seems reasonable until you factor in travel allowance which my company pays us but doesn't bill to organisation. We are charged out by the day so it is better for company if we stay were we are. About an hour later sent half the team back to the office to work on other projects and rescheduled to be in building B again the next day.
7. Not all desks are equal
The movers pulled the desks apart (three pieces per desk) in building A, moved them to building B and then noticed that the desks varied on mounting points. The guys putting the desk together started to play desk tetris with all the bits scattered in 4 different rooms. The desks were not all together until the second day.
8. No Overtime
When we plan a project the client is given an estimate of any overtime. No estimate then we don't work overtime. This project shouldn't have required it but it was looking like the coordinator was expecting us to work late. It would have been unpaid overtime and I told the coordinator's boss that we had to leave at knock off time. Thirty minutes before knock off the last of the computer boxes arrived and promptly disappeared along with my one remaining team member. The coordinator's computer was in one of the missing boxes and she start to get very narky at me. How did we lose the boxes? They didn't have proper labels and got lost in the chaos of boxes. Fifteen minutes before knock off I find my missing team member and we start sorting out the remaining computers. I also started to pass on a message to him that he wasn't required the next day when the coordinator misheard the message an accused us of not setting up her computer. It was at that point that I nearly lost my temper and told her that she was overhearing a private conversation. We had her computer in our hands as she was complaining. I went home thinking that she was going to lodge a complaint about me. The next day she apologised, we got everything finished and left the movers to sort out the mess. The guy that went missing had been sent to the other end of the building by the client boss to fix an issue.
Ok long rant. The short version is lack of planning and no labels will result in your move taking twice as long.
The move happened at the start of November. In December the client coordinator rang the project manager because they had locked themselves out of the comms cupboard. The project manager had great delight in telling them that it was not our problem as the project was completed.
I have also watched clients try to get the movers to shift full filing cabinets and cupboards. 
Results are either the destruction of the furniture or a the clients emptying it out.
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