This is the story of Jimmy McCrusty (see photo below) a Project Manager in a made up company in a make believe North American town. All of the characters appearing in this book are fictitious.  Although any of these people could have existed somewhere in the world, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

In our story, Jimmy has been in the project management game for a very long time and has pretty much had his enthusiasm for working for a living kicked out of him by a never-ending cascade of demanding customers, impossible deadlines, disinterested senior management, and less than enthusiastic project teams.  Nevertheless, driven by that ancient instinct to put food on the table, beer in the fridge, and get the kids through college and out of the house, Jimmy soldiers on.  Actually, that’s the only part of our story that is completely true.

The story itself is about the life-cycle of a manufacturing project starting with the first contact with the customer by the sales person and ending with delivery and acceptance.  During the course of project, Jimmy encounters all of roadblocks mentioned above and more.

And yet somehow Jimmy manages to stumble through to a more or less successful conclusion.  While the story itself is not true, it certainly could have been.