Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376

Date: 05/26/2020

Read Case Study: Project Overrun PMCS, pg. 249 and answer the following questions to
be handed in, 5-6 pages, double-spaced; please include your name, title of assignment,
date.

Write a brief synopsis.

The case study is about the Green Company production project. The case study states that the

green production project is completed three months behind the given schedule causing a project

cost to increase by approximately 60%. From the case study, we see that the reasons for

increase in cost and delay in project completion was due to misrepresentation of the facts by

the customers to the company and lack of proper communication between the top level

management and the internal departments of the company. The project managers and functional

managers are called to a meeting by project management director, Mr Phill to understand the

flaws, analyse the mistakes and ensure that same mistakes don’t occur again. As per the views

of project manager, it is learnt that there was no fixed delivery schedule set by green during

signing of initial contract because the customers were not aware when the new production plan

would be ready. The project manager indicates that as only 3000 units were produced per as

per the daily schedule, and when it was noticed that new production plant was going to be ready

2 months before expected date, the employee was made to do overtime which lead to employee

dissatisfaction. Case study indicates that as per the views of functional manager, no proper

OSHA and EPA guidelines were provided to the company until the testing phases of new plant,

which led to the re-production and manufacturing of 6000 units which did not comply with the

given specifications. This resulted in another six months’ time to be completed. The project

manager was unaware that the company was still subjected to huge penalties if the project team

didn’t adhere to the original schedule. This led to the cancellation of pay checks for working

overtime. This made the employees highly dis-satisfied. From this case study, we learn that it

was the mistake of the company to accept the delivery date although it was not mentioned in
Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

the contract and not having gone through the documentation properly for the changes made

during the project.

Whose responsibility is it to review the terms and conditions of the contract, as well as

the statement of work?

It is the project managers responsibility to review the terms and conditions of the contract, as

well as the statement of work.

How important are OSHA and EPA requirements?

OSHA and EPA requirements help to provide final set of specifications depend on the

requirements which was failed to be confirmed until the initial testing of new plant. All

organizations should follow the guidelines and requirements set by the OSHA and the EPA.

These guidelines are established to create better working environment and assure safety for all

the employees working at a company.

Are there detrimental effects to working people on overtime?

Yes, there are detrimental effects to people working overtime. Overtime affects the mental and

physical health of the employees. Making employee do overtime induces a lot of stress and

fatigue in the employee which affects the production rate and quality of product being

produced. In case study, we see that after the project completion, employee’s who were

promised big pay-checks due to overtime were not awarded the pay checks because the

company was subjected to huge penalties company. This resulted in high employee dis-

satisfaction rate.
Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

Read “Project Management Enables Consulting Consistency”, George Lowden, PM

Network, Oct 2002, p 16. Write a brief synopsis, highlighting the major points

The article talks about the need, implementation and importance of investing in project

management in consulting firms. The author mentions that consulting firms should focus on

managing projects based on defining the project, leadership, analysis, identifying alternatives

and making intelligent decisions. The author mentions that in order to be a successful project

manager one must have expertise in planning, leadership, budgeting and communication. The

author states a few reasons for the need for investing in project management skill in consulting

firm. In the first section, the author highlights that a project is won if the scope of the project

and tasks well defined and mentions that a benefit of a well-defined project. In the latter part

of the section, author mention that by making project manager as a key member of the

marketing team it is easy to achieve the proposed scope, budget, and schedule. The author also

states that sometimes the projects get into trouble because consulting firms look overlook what

is reasonable and instead focus on what is possible. In the next the section, article talks about

the managing the project. In this section, the author stresses on planning phase of project before

starting it as rapid phase and states that planning can help in early detection of problems and

saves time and money. He mentions that its it important to strike right balance between

planning and do’s of the project. In last section the author indicates in order to detect potential

problem that would affect client satisfaction, budget, technical quality and schedule, one should

have regular project reviews carried out by company management. He also mentions that

company management must interact with their customers on a frequent basic for performance

review. The author concludes the article by stating that a good project management does not

guarantee success, but its absence will surely invite failure and, project management helps in

winning, managing and monitoring the project.

Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

Read “Should You Be Given A Project End Date?”, Neal Whitten, PM Network, Feb

2003, p 22. Write a brief synopsis, highlighting the major points.

This article is written by Neal Whitten, President of Neal Whitten Group. The articles talk

about the need and importance for project deadline / target end date for projects. The author

mentions two primary benefits of having a target end date for projects, that is, (a) add special

meaning to business and (b) to stretch the project team to be more creative. The author

highlights that a target end date for project will almost always demonstrates good business and

good leadership. The author, with the help of a made-up scenario, mentions the questions a

project manager should be prepared to answer if he believes that target date is not achievable.

A project manager should be prepared to defend the plan if target date is not achievable and

more time is needed. With the help of an example, the author highlight that it is a good business

to provide a target end date and it’s a bad business to demand end date that is not achievable.

In the latter part of article, the author mentions that the target dates for project can help the

project manager plan effectively and set milestone dates for the total duration of project. The

author comments that if the project team members are not able to meet the milestone date, a

project manager should work with them creatively to either meet or change the dates slightly

to achieve the best possible delivery date for the project. The author concludes by stating that

it is a good business to set up target dates for final delivery or for intermediate major milestones

during planning phase so that best plans can be created, and all eyes are on project manager to

ensure right plan is committed.

Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

Read “The Power of the Program”, Greg Seigel, PM Network, Feb 2004, pp 29-34

Write a brief synopsis, highlighting the major points.

The article is written by Greg Seigel and it talks about the importance of continuous learning,

deliver on promises, time is commodity and solution from the front for a project. The author

mentions that in order to determine the exact needs of the customer one should maintain regular

contact with program staff, their contractors and their customers. The author suggests that

hands on approach will help the program managers understand the product better and deliver

exact product customer wants and deliver them on time and within the budget. Author

mentions that executives should demand that their new managers make time to completely

understand the product. The author highlights the view of Mitchell and David Gallop, the

author mentions that according to the view of Mitchell, a good manager is always trying to

adapt a project or program to specific requirement. According to Gallop, the author quotes that

one should be a quick learner, if not, one must pay for the mistakes later. He also quotes it is

necessary to spend money at early stage of project to fix problems in order to avoid spending

more to fix problems at later stage of project. He comments that learning from top down is the

key to guiding programs that deliver the needs of the customer on time. The author indicates

that most productive way for program managers to learn continuously is to ensure their teams

maintain regular contact with customers through constant communication. Author mentions

that program managers should know how to talk efficiently and effectively to customers so that

customer don’t face problems in ordering a product. According to the view of DelGrosso, the

author quotes that one must make sure that he understands the customers requirement and gets

the product delivered to the customer at the right time and at the right place. Realizing one’s

strength and limitations of oneself, product and service and stakeholders and contractors is

equally as important as knowing what the customer needs are, as per the views of Gallop. The
Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

author mentions that a good program manager uses a flexible development approach to focus

on capabilities and limited resources unlike other managers who risk a lot and resulting in no

revenue. According to the views of Gallop, a best business practice is to adopt little by little

approach to build immediate value. A per gallop views of Gallop, making a small quantity of

a product, getting it in the field and testing it and finally taking the reviews and improving it is

what required. He mentions that this approach is a tedious, time consuming, requires

continuous learning and communication at all levels of the program but very effective. As per

Michell’s views, taking time to learn and understand products and services is the biggest

challenge faced by all program managers. Based the on views of Michell, the author mentions

that many companies appoint senior executives as project manager who does not have any prior

knowledge about basic requirements of product which makes the project managers think of

ways to manage change in scope and deliverables required for business. The best advice for

executives joining a program is to seek help from their project manager for a quick project

summary and understand product so that it will help in managing deliverables. The author

concludes the article by stating that the program and project manager can help the executives

reduce workload by helping them avoid pitfalls.

Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

Read “A Measure of Success”, Malcolm Wheatley, PM Network, Jun 2004, pp 39-44

Write a brief synopsis, highlighting the major points.

The article talks about the benefits and the de-merits of performance-based budgeting. The

author mentions that performance-based budgeting (PBB) can discourage further expenditures

on projects that are not going to deliver in line as per the expectations and can deliver results

if executives can realize its potentials. Author comments that performance-based budgeting

defines the benefits of each project it is supposed to achieve, define measures for those

objectives and benefits and stop investment for those projects that are that going to yield

benefits. The author comments that public sectors such as plenty of governments worldwide at

both state and national level has experimented with performance-based budgeting and it has

been beneficial. In the article the author illustrates various examples such as New Zealand’s

public finance act of 1989, labour party initiative in Great Britain, and public school system of

Florida to bring out a few key points from those examples to highlight the benefits and de-

merits of performance based budgeting in public and private sectors. In the case of New

Zealand, he mentions that about the drastic change in country’s economy after application of

performance-based budgeting. In the case of Florida, mixed reviews regarding performance-

based budgeting, that is, the basic skillset improvement, increase in test scores which decreased

the focus on subjects, and reduced new opportunities. Author states that performance-based

budgeting approach holds good and proves to be effective only when outcomes are measured

but fails to provide results when the outcomes are not measured. Article highlights that the

important thing about performance based budgeting is one needs to be decide what one want’s

to achieve from project, decide what are the required measurements, collect data, validate it to

determine whether targets are achieved or not as per expectations and consider re-allocating

resources elsewhere if it does not work. As per the views of Art Drake, the author in the article

quotes that, “Performance based budgeting imposes a discipline in an organization portfolio

Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

management enforcing both rational project approval process and periodic reviews of whether

an anticipated outcome is likely to be met”. Author states that Performance-based budgeting

has been implemented in public sector to minimize the cost associated with projects and

manage portfolios of the project. The author concludes the article by stating that it is easier to

avoid huge failures by constant evaluation of plan of action and it is necessary to measure right

things in performance-based budgeting and equate these measurement numbers to output, as

very important decisions are based on these.

Please turn over to page 9

Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

Read “Share the Vision”, Sarah, Fister Gale, PM Network, Dec 2007, p 30-38. Write a

brief synopsis, highlighting the major points.

The article talks about the importance of business strategies and project objectives in a project.

The author mentions that the project objectives should be in phase with the company’s vison,

core values and business strategy. Project managers and their teams should be focusing on how

their project can help the company achieve its strategic business objectives. As per views of

Ron Rosenhead, the author quotes that “project managers are not the only ones to be blamed

for disconnection that exit between the project objectives and corporate goals , organization

portfolio managers also share some blame. The project managers and organization portfolio

managers are not asking the right questions as they are too focused about meeting project

deadline and making sure whether the project is within budget allocated for it which is why

there is a gap between project objectives and companies strategic business objectives.” The

author mentions that there is no doubt that project manager primary focus should be on project

deadlines, cost cutting, and deliverables but they should always keep in mind the companies

strategic business objectives. Author highlights that a project manager has to define the goals

and measurable specifically keeping the company’s corporate objective in mind and then the

portfolio managers or PMO managers should review the identified objective more effectively

on how it can contribute more to company. As per views of Charles Woodcock, the author

states that goals should be clearly defined, be measurable, and have a specific time frame for

project managers to access their project objectives against long term corporate. As per Donnie

MacNicole, author quotes that, ‘managers aren’t trained to engage in long term strategic

thinking’ and mentions that project managers should be given development opportunities

through which they can learn to be more intuitive about business goals and how they align with

project performance. The author uses the example of property development and management
Name: Manoj Bangalore Arunkumar IE 6840 PM Week 3 Assignment-2 gx4376
Date: 05/26/2020

firm , Melvar, to explain that how training given to employees in the company from day one

about project planning , goal setting apart from technical training has helped the company to

ensure all the employee’s work towards project objectives always keeping in mind companies

vision and strategic goals. The author takes an example of Watson Wyatt, a company in

England. PMO board has eight strategies for the project which are with the line of business of

the company’s goals. The Project managers are advised to rate their projects as priority and

similar the resources are allocated to maintain healthy relation with the clients England. Using

this example, the author explains how rating process in prioritizing projects according to impact

project has on company’s strategic goals and vison, can help the company to complete projects

that are more aligned with company’s business strategy and vision , allocate the resources

better, maintain healthy relationship with clients and state holders and complete most of the

projects within the given deadline. As per the views of Laurel Eaton, the author quotes that the

organization Portfolio managers can take the ownership of portfolio management process by

putting across strategic plans to everyone such as executives and employee’s in organization,

understand their views on it , understand their problems and what solutions can be given from

their perspective” . As per the views of Mrs. Kaur, at IBM, the trend that is followed states that

strategic and business points are kept in front of the business unit owners who then approve the

same. As per the views of Mrs. Kaur, the author mentions that the project is taken into

consideration if it is only approved by the board of business unit owners. The author concludes

the article by stating that interest and the goals of the company should be inculcated in the

employees so as the strategic business objectives of the company are met and it is important to

share the vision of the firm, so that the gap between the corporate executives and the

project managers reduces.