Au urgent meeting was convened to discuss the ramifications of the 2 week delay on the “go live” for the project which was to impact 50,000 users in Australia.

Invited to the meeting were Arthur from the Australia (the account manager), Arturo from Mexico, Erez from Israel and Tim from Germany.

Tim came into the conference room 5 minutes early and asked for the (semi existent) agenda.

Erez called in to the meeting because he had to take his kids to a school play and one could hear his wife castigating him in the background: “why don’t you go and live at work”?

Arturo came in an hour late, asked everyone how things are going, and just as the meeting was coming to end, said, “I have a few important issues that are not on the agenda and impact the estimation of readiness for deployment”. Arturo then communicated really bad new. Arturo suggested that Arthur “bargain for an extension”.

Account manager Arthur maintained his cool until Arturo suggested bargaining for an extension with Australian client. “Listen mate, you can bargain in Mexico, but not in Australia!” Arturo fought back and Arthur got furious and lost his cool. Erez said: “This is the first time I see you care about the delay, Arthur; we can help you by working weekends!”

Tim mentioned that the plan would need to be adjusted to reflect reality. “We need to be transparent” stated Tim, who seemed irrelevant in the semi Levant.