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Project Management Case 1
Case Background (Deadline: November 24, 2014, 8am)
ABC Company is a medium size outsourcing company locate in Davao City, Philippines. The staff of sixty professionals (programmers, systems analyst, network specialists, IT consultants, Designers, and a receptionist/bookkeeper) provides a range of software solutions, networking, computer hardware, and other IT services different are of businesses. ABC company works with clients business need and provide a packaged solution that would address that need. As a medium size organization, ABC company always aims high in giving quality services and be one of the best solution provider in the country.
The Situation
XYZ consulting firm (a foreign client) called the office of ABC company to outsource a web development project that should be finished within 2 months duration. The receptionist then filled up a request form and then gave that request form to the president. The next day, the President of ABC company called the client to discuss the outline of the project. To summarize, the project goal was to convert the entire English site to French site (that includes all the downloadable files of the site) using a specified technology. After 2 days, the president made a call with a budget proposal ready to be shown to the client.
Upon seeing the budget proposal, the client then accepted the president’s proposal and gave the login credentials of the site, including the necessary tools needed for the development of the project. Approved and agreed, the president then form his team who would handle the project. The team composed of 3 members: project manager (which is the company president), system analyst, and a web developer. Without delays, the project manager arranged a 30 minutes meeting and then discussed in summary the goal of the project. He asked the system analyst to do the minutes of the meeting, as a form of documentation of that meeting. After 30 minutes, the system analyst kept the minutes and approached the web developer. They then started planning and analyzing on what strategies and approach they use to accomplish the project within the specified duration.
Several days later, another project came causing the project manager (president) of the 1stproject to be busy. On the other hand, the team members of the 1st project encountered several issues while on the process of analyzing the project. They then approached their project manager fro some questions/clarifications which includes issues relating to site being worked on. Unfortunately, the project manager was too busy because of the new project that came in. Time has been continuously consumed by the 1stproject, client keeps sending emails, calling, anxious and is very desperate to see progress of the project.
The next day, the president called the system analyst of the 1st project asking him to stand as the project manager and respond to all emails sent by their clients, because he is still busy with the second project. Without hesitation, the system analyst accepted the task given to him. Starting that day, the 1st project keeps on messing up .. it ended up a FAILURE.
Questions:
Assuming you have read the entire PMBOK, please answer the questions below in no less than 1000 words per question.
1. What issues should have been considered by the project manager before accepting the project.
2. What alternatives should have been prepared by the project manager?
3. Do you think the system analyst and web developer should also be blamed for the failure of the project? Why?
4. What does the project team lack causing the project to fail? What additional recommendations would you give to this team concerning project management?
5. What is your assessment on the performance of the company president?
1. What issues should have been considered by the project manager before accepting the project?
After reading the Project Management Book of Knowledge and understanding what Project Management is all about. Understanding the things needed to consider in order to end up with a successful project is a must. It is very important to raise issues needed to be considered by the project manager for a project before accepting it or starting the tasks needed to complete a particular project. A project is considered a failure when it has not delivered what was required, in line with expectations and the objectives of the project. Therefore, in order to make a project succeed, it must deliver to cost, to quality, and on time; and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case. In the life cycle of any project, there will always be unexpected problems and questions that crop up. When these issues arise, you have to be ready to deal with them or they can potentially affect the project's outcome. Since most issues are, by their nature, unexpected, how do you make sure you'll be able to deal with them quickly and effectively? Ideally, you need an issue resolution process in place before you start your project – to make sure that you stay on schedule, and meet your objectives. When gathering requirements for a project, a manager needs to go beyond specifying what is being developed and when it will be delivered. S/he also needs plan quality measures into each deliverable, which contributes towards the end product or service. One can think of quality management as answering the "how" part of problem solving. In the planning process, a project manager assesses product/service specifications and arrives at S.M.A.R.T (Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) quality criteria for each deliverable. These plans are executed throughout the project development lifecycle (via testing, inspections, walkthroughs etc.). As the project manager controls and monitors the project, s/he may modify and correct product/service specifications and plans to achieve better quality. Lastly, the project manager conducts an audit of product/service quality as the project reaches closure. A key concern of the project manager at this stage is to have stakeholders formally accept the final product/service through achieving a sign-off document. If quality planning and execution are done properly within a project, it makes the end-product more appealing to stakeholders. Based on the problems that arouse, at first, they were able to plan how will they develop the project and gather vital information’s from the client and divided the tasks pretty well. But what makes the project a failure is that it’s the process of how they utilize the time and communication. Both parties agreed that the project must be accomplished after two months prior to the date they agreed. On the first early days of development, it was working well but here comes an unexpected change in the events, another project came and the project manager accepted it right away without any hesitation considering they have already accepted the 1st project and already in the process of developing it. The project manager haven’t clearly considered the 1st project being agreed rather than accepting the new one. Because of this, they started failing to maximize the time allotted for them to accomplish the tasks for the 1st project but instead they are now troubled because of the new project accepted by the project manager as it brought conflicts of the members and to the tasks for the 1st project. What I’m trying to point out is that to achieve a successful project, you must meet time targets provided by your schedules of tasks. Risks are always accompanied when making a project, project manager must be able to manage the problems that the project may encounter. Project risk management includes the process concerned with identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risk. It includes maximizing the result of positive events and minimizing the consequences of adverse events.The project manager should have prepared the risk management plan. Risk management planning is the process of deciding how to approach and conduct the risk management activities for a project. Planning of risk management process is important to ensure that the level, type, and visibility of risk management are commensurate with both the risk and importance of the project to the organization, to provide sufficient resources and the time for risk management activities, and to establish an agreed-upon basis for evaluating risks. Project risk is an uncertain or condition that, if it occurs, it has a positive or negative effect on at least one project objective, such as time, cost, scope or quality. A risk may have one or more causes and, if it occurs, one or more impact to the project. for example, what just happen to the first project it fails due to the reason that the project manager gets busy to another project and fail to accomplish the first one that is been developed. And so the project member keeps on messing up. And so the project cost, schedule and performance gets affected. Risk conditions could include aspects of the projects or organizations environment that may contribute to project risk, such as poor project management practices, lack of integrated management systems, concurrent multiple projects, or dependency on external participants who cannot be controlled. In this case, the project manager accepted a new project which is somehow not aligned on their schedules which makes the previous project a total failure. Second, as time goes by during the development, several issues arise while on the process of analyzing the project and then here comes the second project. It is clear that they are in the analyzing stage of the first project when issues arise which makes them a failure because it is in the early stages of the development of the project, it was very clear that they failed to resolve issues on the early stages of the project thus compromising the whole project itself. How can they proceed to the next step of the project if there are issues needed to be resolved? This makes them a total failure. Third, during the development of the project, immediate shifting of roles is being implemented, which is really not a good move in doing a particular project. For me, the system analyst partially be blamed to the failure of the project, partially because the leader or the project manager who should be the one making the right decisions already made a lot of mistakes on the early stages of the project development process. These problems escalated due to this poor decisions made and poor analysis made by the team. Well in fact, to achieve a successful project; one must be assigned in the role which they are expert to begin with, skill set division and focus are very vital factors to accomplish a successful project. Thus, the actions they made along the development of the project really affected on how they assessed different issues because they didn’t make timely decisions. For a project to be successful, it's not enough simply to manage your project competently, and deliver a good quality product. To avoid failure, make sure you have identified the right business requirements, created an achievable business case, put strong project governance into place, managed a high-quality implementation, focused on benefits, and monitored your changing environment. Above all, be sure to manage the expectations of your stakeholders, so that they stay supportive. After all, these are the people who are your clients, will declare your project to be successful or otherwise.
2. What alternatives should have been prepared by the project manager?
Alternative options are needed in developing a project it is a vital part in project planning as well so that when problems arise in the middle of developing the project, these issues will not totally affect the project and give the development team a shock or panic attack. In this way unexpected changes and arise of problems could be resolved very quickly. The project manager should involve and consult the other members of the team while formulating the derivative plans. It is the work of the project manager to take initiative to implement the project plan. After the project plan is put into action, the project manager has to measure the progress of the plan and compare it with the standards, observe the deviations and if there is any, correct it. The project manager should ask suggestions/opinions from his/her team members as well. In this manner they can predict more issues to come and could formulate better solutions to possible issues that could help in their planning so that even if he is not around they can still manage to continue their project. He should also assign a substitute for him as the project manager to supervise what his team is doing so that he can still monitor the progress of their project. Someone who is reliable and knows how to manage a project and not just someone he will pick just because there is no enough time to look for another project manager. Because a leader should guide his team members all throughout the project and not leave them just because he is busy. He should have prepared a time table for the tasks assigned to each members so that they will have a schedule of their tasks to have a smooth flow of their activities and everything. Time management would help a lot in finishing their project because everything will fall into place if they will just follow what they have planned. It will just be a big waste of time if they will just depend on their project manager on what they will have to do, it will be easier if they have task schedules so that they can still work even without their supervision. A good work-flow can bring a project to a success. Another alternative is that they should maximize their manpower; their company is composed of 60 professionals. It would be better if their team would have a group of 3-6 so that work will be easier and be done in no time. If a project would not have any alternative or back up plans it will all turn out to be a failure if problems or issues would not be solved immediately. Alternative plans for the project may be or may be not a big help for the problems in the project but nothing will be lost if we the company would just try and have also prepared some alternatives for it ahead of time so that the project will not be messing up every single day just because they have not resolved the issue before it would end up to be a failure. There’s no guarantee that all plans will be executed. The point is the more plans the better, because you’ll have more options on what to do if there’s gonna be changes. Having a lot of plans removes the extra time needed on the process of project development if the team encounters issues. Instead of analyzing and formulating to unexpected issues, it is so much better to have lots of plans available before hand so that progress is not disturbed. Being a project manager is not an easy task or an easy role in a given project because you will be the one to plan everything for the success of the project and it requires great effort and critical thinking just to meet the client’s needs and satisfy them with the results. In planning, alternative solutions for the project if certain issues would arise is also a hard task for the project manager but consulting some opinions from his team or other colleagues in the company could lessen his work because if they will share their ideas or brainstorm for it they will come up with the best alternative solution for a particular problem. Possible problems should be also anticipated by the team so that it will not be harder for them to think of solutions because they could not think of any if they do not know the problems that are needed for solutions. If the project fails, it is not only the project manager’s fault but the whole team because it is a team effort and they share the success and failure of their project.
3. Do you think the system analyst and web developer should also be blamed for the failure of the project? Why?
The system analyst? yes, but the web developer, no. This is all because the project is still in the middle of development process of Development and the project manager left them. So all blame must go with the project manager because he should be the one to guide the project team and he left. Why the system analyst as well? All because he accepted the change of role without thorough analysis. Accepting the job without thinking stuffs first. Is it gonna benefit him or the team? Will there be changes in the pace of progress on the development because of this? Stuffs like that, the analyst clearly failed to analyze. When projects fail they fail for any number of reasons ranging from irrational, unclear or changing objectives to poor performance. Poor performance is the responsibility of individual performers, including project managers. But, responsibility doesn’t end there; it is shared. General management is responsible for making sure that the right resources (ones who have the capacity to perform their roles) are assigned to the project. General management and project management process owners are responsible for making sure that there is a continuously improving process, supported by effective tools and policies that enable performers to do their jobs. Remember, the best performers can be brought down by a poor process. Individual performance of team members are responsible for making the right level of effort and for making sure they have the skills that they need to perform. They cannot rely on their organizations to give them the competencies they need. It is a personal responsibility. Individual performers are also responsible for following the process and for speaking up when they realize the process is broken. They are responsible for acknowledging their errors, omissions, and weakness and doing what is needed. Project success is a shared responsibility among the project team which consists of all the performers, project managers, team leads, etc. from across internal organization units and partnering organizations. It is also the responsibility of sponsors, functional managers, clients, executives and senior managers, who are part of the “outer team” and who set objectives, provide resources and establish and maintain an environment that supports effective performance. Together these stakeholders perform individual projects, assess their performance, identify the causes of both success and failure and do the ongoing work of changing the conditions that address the causes. When the concept of team is limited to what might be called the core team of performers the probability of success goes way down because those who perceive themselves as outside the team are less likely to be motivated to put out the effort to succeed and those who perceive themselves to be on the team view the others as outsiders who mostly get in the way. Lack of change management- happens when there is no method to handle or recognize changes. Communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish. Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done. No one is in control, not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project. This is most problem encounters in matrix organization. Project lacks structure caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated. Inaccurate estimates. A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project. Poor risk management. The project initiation stage is not properly planned. Insufficient non-resources are not allocated to the project; for instance, it is not possible for a project to succeed if the right resources are made available for that project. Incompetent project management skill, Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client. The project management processes common to most projects most of the time are associated with each other by their performance for an integrated purpose. The purpose is to initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close a project. These processes interact with each other in complex ways that cannot be completely explained in a document or with graphics. If problems persist regarding the project, and knowing that their project manager could not give them advice or help, the system analyst and the web developer should have approached other staffs or workers that could help them with the project’s success. They should have done something and not only relying to the project manager who in return could not help them at all. It was primarily, of course, the project manager’s fault that the project was delayed and became a failure, however, the system analyst and the web developer were part of the team and thus the whole project messed up. If one of the members of the team failed to do his part in the project, the balance would be lost and the remaining others would somehow lose control over the matter, thus, it would imbalance the working progress of the project. That’s what happened with the 1st project—it became a failure. Nonetheless, though the system analyst and the web developer have both contributed to the failure, it was plausible that it was the project manager’s major fault because he failed to do his job first. If it was not for his negligence of duty of the project manager, the project would not mess up and they could have met the client’s expectations within the specified time of completion.
4. What does the project team lack causing the project to fail? What additional recommendations would you give to this team concerning project management?
The project team lacks team work and proper communication. That was the main reasons why the project failed. It was because of their unhealthy cooperation and respond that would suggest the idea that they were planning to fail the project. If they planned to accomplish the 1st project in a successful manner, then they would have created or planned a successful way of progressing things, so that everything would be in order. However, that was not the case with the project team. Their way of planning was a failure in the first place. Though they have discussed the project’s details and requirements, they failed to foresee the most impossible outcomes or errors, which was very vital in every project. And because of that their plan was obviously messed up. The team also lacks the orderliness. The strategic plan that they made was out of order and thus it had complicate things for them. They lack the sense of sensing what would happen next. They don’t know what to do if one of the team members would be out of the scene. The project was a failure because everything was not in order. So it became a shameful mess.They planned and provided the solution, yes, they did. But they missed to provide alternative solutions and ways of escape if unexpected outcomes or things might be met in the process. They failed to look further for future struggles and issues they could possibly meet during project development. They lack the sense of preparing alternatives. They also lack ingenuity. If problems arise, they could have thought of lots of possible ways to solve it despite the unavailability of their project manager. But they did not do that. They lack the idea of thinking new things, of new alternatives, of new solutions. They all rely to the project manager’s creativeness itself. Apart from that, they don’t have the confidence to trust one another’s talents and ability to solve the problems. The team could have made it to success if they trust one another’s ability to solve. They don’t have confidence with one another. When the project manager accepted a 2ndproject that made him become busy, the team members already started to feel intimated, hesitations ruled their minds. And because they could not ask their project manager’s help and advice, the team members felt like they could not somehow make it. Doubts, weariness, and pressures were tangled on their necks, and so everyone could not concentrate on their works, losing their own focus. This resulted to the delayed project. Eventually, everything became a mess when the project manager passed his job to someone else, resulting to a complete failure to the project. I would recommend that the team should have not overlooked the time management at the very beginning. Plus, I must emphasized it bigger that teamwork is very vital, not only to this project but to every future projects that are yet to come. They should have set their minds to succeed and not the other way round. They should have not the heart to surrender neither to give up. They should have prepared different alternatives that would relate to the first and original plan. I would also suggest that every team members should be passionate to their respective works. If they love their works and assigned tasks, they would not think of failing anything. They must love their works in a way that they would do their very best to keep it going until it is accomplished. They should not be satisfied with just completing it, but they should set it on their minds that they are also providing the best quality for their clients. Most of all, the team should have deliberately considered the most possible risks to come, whether it be small or big risk. This is what we call risk management wherein every project must really have. If the entire team, especially the project manager, has succeeded to provide the elaborated, detailed, and completed project management template, it would not become a failure. Considering the possible risks concerning the project is one of the most important things when it comes to projects. The team should have not overlooked this consideration too. I strongly suggest that the team should have provided the template for risk managing. If it was so, it would not be too hard to sustain the project. And lastly, as a project manager, he should have prepared the entire project and its scope. Knowing the scope means getting to know more of the project and its environment. What the project was like, what was the project all about, was going to be, and so on. The range covered by the project would help the team to understand more of the project’s nature. It would be much easier for them to determine the causes and effects of the projects’ delayed progress. They should know the entire scope of the project, and by doing so, they could get the complete overview of the possible results of the project, even to those unexpected errors they would have the possible and nearest solutions. They should always remember that if there’s a will, there’s a way. I would also recommend that the whole team should have set an appointment or schedule for them to meet together and create meetings from time to time. This would help the team members to brainstorm new ideas, imaginations, creativeness, logic, solutions, and positive alternatives regarding the project. By calling time to time meetings, the project manager could discuss the current issues or troubles that the project involved might be facing in the moment with the members. If they unite to provide solutions, the project would be a success and it would benefit the many. Socializing also is my strong recommendation. Every team members should taken rest at their own convenience or else they will die in distress. Even though they were very busy at work, at school, or at home, they should not forget that they’re also humans, thus, they can get strenuous and tired. The entire team should go and get a life! It would somehow help them to unwind their busy minds and relaxed their exhausted selves. Socializing to other people or employees would remind them too that not everything you can have. Communication is critical to project management it's important to note that communication doesn't mean just by talking alone or even just by being able to presenting. Communication is about imparting knowledge, sharing ideas, and providing information.
5. What is your assessment on the performance of the company president?
The president or the project manager itself is not a good leader to its subordinate. It lacks the ability to handle the risk going in a project. And unable to manage the team that it handles. The president or the project manager must be "the" individual with the responsibility for managing the project. To get results, the project manager must relate well to: the people to be managed, the tasks to be accomplished, the tools available, the organizational structure, and the organizational environment, including the customer community. A Project Manager should be able to communicate effectively in written form whether writing e-mails or producing project documentation, plans, specifications, reports, agendas, status updates. The performance of the company president only shows that he in not trustworthy of the task given to him or shall we say not being responsible for the project. In short, the project manager or the company president plans to fail from the start. He did not lead his people well resulting in the project failure. As a good project manager, you should be able to handle things and comprehend quickly about how will you face a certain problem meeting your way. That is being comprehensive and active in what you do and how much committed you are to your work and to your team. Taking on a leadership role in a project is distinctly different from being a general member of the team. The project lead or the primary investigator is ultimately responsible for fulfilling the deliverable of the project, on time and on budget. Upholding these responsibilities has implications beyond the success or failure of the project at hand. A good project manager needs not only to be able to manage her own time and obligations, but also to be able to see the big picture and to help manage the time and obligations of the members of the team. This type of orchestrating involves evaluating the demands of the work plan, the strengths of the team members, and the ways that they interact with one another. Each team member will likely need different kinds of guidance and support to produce her best work. Equally important, project managers need to focus on establishing and maintaining good communication with the project team and with other stakeholders, particularly if the project involves collaboration amongst disbursed partners. Communication skills are central not only to shepherding the work of the team in fulfillment of the project goals, but they are also absolutely necessary for building trust among team members. He was in a hurry to implement the project – Failure to consider numerous factors that can affect in one way or another the progress of the project is one of the reasons why projects such as these fail. There are many factors to be considered before taking such risks, and therefore they should be thoroughly considered. By not discussing every possible setback that would come their way (e.g.: incoming and unexpected projects, data loss and corruption, etc.), he and his project team were caught off-guard and did not know exactly what to do when problems hindered the development of the project and caused unnecessary delays. Also, there was no work breakdown structure implemented. By not paying attention to every little detail in the planning stage, the project implementation was very hurried and disorganized. Paying attention to details in the planning stages is very important, and failure to do so will, more often than not, place the whole project at risk of failing. Every little detail, from the plans, to the alternatives and preventive measures, can greatly reduce the risk of failing if properly implemented. A 30-minute meeting is not enough to address every concern that his team may have in the development of the project, which includes alternative solutions, preventive measures such as back-up drives and the like, and every little detail in the planning stage. A one to one hour and a half meeting will suffice to address such concerns. In this way, every possible angle is discussed, every possible setback taken into consideration, and potential disaster averted in time. He put himself in a very disadvantageous position by having two jobs at the same time – Trust me, being the President of a Company and being a project manager at the same time is really a very tough job. Being the President of the Company, he is a guiding force to the successful implementation of the company’s ideals, visions, goals and objectives. Being a project manager not only added to his workload but also made his work more stressful than before, due to the great responsibilities both positions have given him. He should have considered this before he assigned himself to be the project manager of a team. Because of that, he completely lost focus on the first project when he accepted an incoming project which came days later. He left his teammates to fend for themselves and, as a result of not having enough communication between him and his teammates, his two teammates had to struggle to find alternatives and solutions on their own. But that is not the only mistake he made. He assigned the system analyst (who was inexperienced) to be the new project manager (thus effectively making the trio a duo) instead of assigning another experienced person to take his place in the team. This has put undue pressure and additional workload on the part of his teammates, and because of that the system analyst was the one receiving e-mails and talking to the clients. Because the President (who is also the project manager of the team) was already too busy to entertain questions, his teammates were left without someone to manage and guide them to success. Without a good project manager to efficiently and effectively guide the project team, the resulting outcome is a messed up project on its way to ultimate failure. He failed to live up to the expectations of the clients – His company is known to be a company that always aims high in giving quality services and be one of the best solution provider in the field of Information Technology in the whole country. However, the unfortunate incident where a project ultimately failed due to careless and hurried planning has damaged the reputation of the company and will have clients thinking twice about commissioning the company on outsourcing jobs. And it is the fault of the President why the company’s reputation was damaged. He failed to bring high-quality IT services to that particular client and as a result other businesses will think twice about contacting and commissioning his company on IT jobs. Because of what happened, he will be deemed a very incompetent company president. The performance of the development team here is greatly considered because as a team, you cannot work on your own feet and thus, you need help from your teammates and your project manager or leader. The president also failed for the reason of entrusting his responsibilities to an unqualified member thus compromising the whole project. The project manager lacked dedication to the first project. He knows that it was the first project so it must have been also the first priority in his team. Not to look on the 2nd project without finishing first the first. The best project managers are those who consistently deliver, on time and within budget, projects that meet or exceed stakeholders' expectations.
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