Audit Deadline

We did not finish the required tasks on Friday which was the target. However, the patron did well to rise above the occasion. He did most of the talking as if he did work on the evidence.  Nevertheless, I was glad he led the meeting as I was exhausted and burnt out from the ordeal, doing a last-minute effort to get the work done. The auditor seem to be assured despite the rush work as the bossman was leading it himself and I am no longer the punching bag, keeping quiet and contributing when needed.

Friday was tough as my major project was going live with the creation of the first purchase orders although it was a manual task, several systems had to be set up correctly for everything to work. The order for US shipments was created and the next step is for the support team in India to run a script to update the order number. The order for Mexico still has to be created so the team has to complete all these tasks on Monday. During this go live, I had to scramble and resolve issues as they came up, missing set-ups where I had to ping several people in different departments for the required data.

Completing the audit requirements as well as supporting the project activities on the same day was nerve-racking. Happily, both the meeting with the auditor and the order creation went ahead with good results though work is still needed for both in the coming days. I again felt sorry for myself for being in this situation where I had to create the document which was really the job of my boss. The support activity in the major project should actually be done by a functional analyst instead of the project manager. 

This is the dilemma that I find myself wherein I doubt if I am doing the right thing, doing the work instead of having someone work on these tasks. I have skills in both project management and functional analysis that I swerve from one role to the other, often at the expense of the other. It's a balancing act but this is the way I have been working successfully for several years. The other week, I got good feedback from my peers and my boss was glad that I achieved recognition for my work so I think I am doing things right.