Course:
Project management
Topic:
Case Studies
Submitted to: Mam Asma Parveen
Submitted by: Bilal Ahmed Baig
12032720-031
Hadia Sundas
12032720-050
Khoushbuoo Sama
12032720-049
Sonia Haider
12032720-108
Case Study #1 Questions and Answer Q1.What are the implications of CIC’s approach to staffing project teams? Are they using them as training ground for talented fast trackers or dumping grounds for poor performance? There are following approaches which are used in CIC. Approach 1.
Company is organized along with strict functional lines. Rather than project manager, they are the departmental head who choose project team members for any project. IMPLICATION:
Delegation of Authority is lacking:
Department head are not ready to delegate all authority to project manager. It may be because of perception of department head.
Rigid and Slow work:
Work becomes rigid and slow because selection of team members is done only by department head strictly and giving no right to project manager.
Perception to selecting Team Member:
Department head feels that they are superior and their choice of selecting of project team members for a particular project will be best team. Approach 2:
Project team members were selected on a full time basis i.e. team members remained with project team for complete term of project. IMPLICATION:
Multitasking not allowed:
Project team members were not at all allowed to perform any other work related to their department to which they belonged until project is not completed for which they had been assigned.
De-motivation of team members:
Working of the team members was not flexible i.e. they had to remain with same project until it get completed, it was rigid kind of working there so they were becoming demotivated, resulting into lower output.
Poor result of project:
Once the team members had been assigned to the particular project by department head , they had to continue with project until completion of project, even if their performance or work output is not equal to required output. Thus, resulting into poor result of project.\
Approach 3.
Project manager had no authority to evaluate the performance of project team members. It is the department head who has authority to evaluate the performance of project team members. IMPLICATION:
Demoralized Project Manager:
As project manager had no authority for selecting and evaluating the performance of project team members and also the project team members don’t follow the instructions strictly of project manager so, here project manager is demoralized and work gets troubled.
Project Team decentralization:
There is no performance evaluation power in hands of project manager, so the team members of a project will not strictly follow the instructions of project manager resulting into unorganized team.
Problem of over budget and time:
Poor performance of team members, demoralized project manager, no rules and regulation followed, decentralized team, all these may be the reason for problem of over budget time. Q2.How would you advise the CEO to correct the problem? Where would you start? There should be a step by step approach in order to correct the problem:
Managing the relationship between the project manager and the departmental heads:
The foremost problem is that there is mismanagement between the project manager and the departmental heads of the organization. Whenever the project is to be started it is the department head who assigns the project members without any consultation with the project manager who plays a critical role in making the project successful. There should be a proper communication between the both and the project manager should inform:
What is the project
How many members will be required from each department to handle the project?
What competencies should the members have in order to make the project successful?
Analyze the key skills: To find out the members who can clarify the path of success through their skills, the project manager along with the departmental heads should conduct some workshops like Simulating Modeling: In which the employees are given a situation similar to that of the project and then finding out the best performers out of that.
Inputs from non- team members:
It’s not just that there should be a cooperation and a communication between
the people who are involved in the project but also those outside the project can also act as a motivating factor by giving suggestions and ideas as how better the project can be.
Performance Evaluation:
Departmental head who evaluates the performance of the team and there is no involvement of the project manager in it, rather both the departmental heads as he is aware of the overall performance of the employees and the project manager who knows the performance of the team in the current project should work together to evaluate the performance of employees.
Continuous feedback:
Once the project takes off there should be regular feedbacks within the team, from the project manager, the departmental heads and the top management, so that the drawback scan be pointed out at the initial stages and hence the corrective measures can be taken.
Job Rotation:
When the employees once deployed in a project are supposed to work for the entire project of 14 months, there should be rotation between the employees working in the department and those working on the project and this can train in them the spirit of diversifying their knowledge, skills, abilities not in the core field of their work but in other projects. Q3. Discuss how issues of organizational structure and power play a role in the manner in which project management has declined in effectiveness at CIC?
CIC is using a policy under which the full power lies in the hands of Departmental head and Project Manager is given no authority, due to which project management has declined ineffectiveness at CIC and due to this project manager cannot perform their project functions and projects got failed. Organizational Structure is
General Manager
Assisstance General Manager
Finance Manager
Marketing Manager
HR Manager
Production Manager
Case Study 2
1) Was the argument today between Neil and Susan the true conflict or a symptom? What evidence do you have to suggest it is merely a symptom of a larger problem? It’s a true conflict not a symptom because they are fighting in the meeting so its definite a true
conflict. And they are large number of symptom but in this case study larger problem is lack of appreciation and lack of cooperation. Both are not interested in the project because they are form different departments and the thinking level is different. 2
Develop a conflict management procedure for your meeting in 30 minutes. Create a simple script to help you anticipate the comments you are likely to hear from both parties.
Identify the source of the conflict
he more information you have about the cause of the conflict, the more easily you can help to resolve it. To get the information you need Look beyond the incident
The source of the conflict might be a minor problem that occurred months before, but the level of stress has grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other personally instead of addressing the real problem. We ask questions like this What do you think happened here?” or “When do you think the problem between you f irst arose?
Request solutions After getting each party’s viewpoint on the conflict, the next step is to get each to identify how
the situation could be changed. A gain, question the parties to solicit their ideas: “How can you make things better between you? Identify solutions both disputants can support.
You are listening for the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas, not only from each other’s perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the organization Agreement
The manager needs to get the two parties to shake hands and agree to one of the common agreement 3
Which conflict resolution style is warranted in this case? Why? How might some of the other resolution approaches be inadequate in this situation?
The conflict resolution style is not Collaborating. The member of project is not collaborating with each other. Both are blaming each other. Other approaches Avoidance
A person perceives that a conflict exists and withdraws from it, ignores it, or avoids the other party to the conflict. People with the avoidance style Accommodation One party sacrifices his own interests and allows the other party’s interests to take precedence
in the interest of preserving the relationship Competition
One party seeks to satisfy his own interests at the expense of, or without regard to, the interests of another
Compromise
Each party makes concessions and accepts a solution which only partially satisfies his own interests Collaboration
The parties cooperate and attempt to fully satisfy the concerns of each
Case Study 6.3: Johnson-Rogers Software Engineering, Inc.
This case shows one example of the types of problem that can be encountered with the use of new technologies, such as the internet, to help link participants on a distributed project team. In this case, a combination of geographically-dispersed project team members, faulty technologies, and other concerns are hampering progress on the project. Further, an additional phenomenon is the fact that distributed project teams do not allow for standard team development stages to occur because team members can only interact in formal channels. Without informal communication, it becomes more difficult to build trust and enthusiasm among members of the project team. Kate’s difficulties here are by no means abnormal, but a
managerial plan for handling these communications will go a long way toward helping her and the team get through the awkward “newness” of geographically-dispersed project teams.
Questions 1: How would you advise Kate to proceed? Analyze the conversation she had this morning. What went right? What went wrong?
Kate should recognize there is a problem here and she must be willing to make the tough decision to work to find a way that they can continue to communicate in a live setting. The easiest option would have been to agree with the team members and move to either one-onone conversations or simple e-mails. We study the case and analyze the conversation where
nobody connected with Kate at a time that is set for the meeting due to the time difference in different countries. On the other hand, she is still new at this technology and has been unaware of time differences among the team. In trying to please everybody on the team, she may end up not pleasing anybody, so at some point she will need to make some tough choices. Like it or not, some team members will need to meet at difficult times. On the other hand, if she does up-front planning prior to these meetings and ensures that everyone is prepared, it may be possible to limit the amount of time spent on the meeting itself. The key is advance preparation by Kate and everyone else on the team. She should set the time that is more suitable for everyone that’s why all came for the negotiation. Question 2: What should Kate’s next steps be?
Kate needs to decide whether she is committed to real-time link-ups with the team. If she really values this time, she must get the maximum benefit out of it by making sure these meetings are productive and that everyone is prepared in advance. Further, perhaps she could organize some sub-group meetings among sets of the participants and save the full-blown team meetings for occasional use. Kate should think creative and listening the problems of all members that they face. She should make a proper strategic plan for gathering them at a same time by using time management. Question 3: How can she use the technology of the internet and teleconferencing to enhance team development and performance?
Teleconferencing can start to create a team out of a group of faceless individuals but it must be used appropriately. Kate should build trust and establish the best mode of communication. She should when possible, find best ways to enlarge virtual communication with face to face opportunities to get the team together to exchange information, socialize and begin developing personal relationship. Or some other options she may use like
Don’t let team members disappear.
Establish a code of conduct among team members.
Keep all the team members in the communication loop.
Great a clear process for addressing conflicts, disagreements and group norms.
Daily five-minute phone calls or video calls with each team member.
Hold virtual office hours.
Create project challenges and competitions
Create a proactive professional relationship with each team member.
