Story Background: Get to know Mike, Deb and Doug before jumping into the action!

[team]

Michael (Mike) is between assignments at his company, a large energy company headquartered a few hours from Washington DC. Mike's prior experience as a lead software developer helped earn him the promotion to Technical Project Manager on a 3-year effort to implement a new company billing system.

This massive project had two other managers Debbie, the functional (or business) project manager; and Doug, the manager with overall project responsibility.

Both Debbie and Doug have already been assigned to new projects, and although Mike had expressed interest in several potential projects, he is still earning his pay with routine tasks and the occasional read of a business journal article.

Walking into the company auditorium for the quarterly employee meeting, Mike sees Debbie and Doug and decides to sit with them.