INFOST 490X Senior Capstone CSS1: Project Management Knowledge Mini Case Studies

Comment on the following aspects of the case study:

a) Why did Global Green Books Publishing struggle?

Global Green Books Publishing was started two years ago by two friends, Jim King and Brad
Mount, whomet in college while studying in Philadelphia, USA. In the new business Jim focused
on editing, sales andmarketing while Brad Mount did the electronic assembly and publishing of
books for Global Green Books.
Global Green Books publishing struggle because of significant rise in issues, a lot of unpleasant
“surprises” were cropping up, business was down as new resources were hired, and also some
of the projects were poorly estimated. The local university was unhappy as their eBook products
reached campus late for use by professors and student.
In some cases, the books were a week or two late. Since the courses must start on schedule and
students need their books at the beginning of their courses, the new lucrative college customer
was unhappy
b) What were the specific PM solutions that were introduced by Samantha that worked?

Samantha noted that Jim and Brad did not use any project software for scheduling and they did not
use tools or techniques to estimate, budget or to communicate with stakeholders. Finally, they had
no processes in place to manage project risks and quality, then she introduced formal project
management processes, created a PM manual and trained the employees to get the work done well.
Within nine months Samantha had fully turned things around.

Due to proactive risk analysis and risk response planning, surprises and issues reduced.
Communication with stakeholders was enhanced.

Global Green Books saw a significant rise in issues, a lot of unpleasant “surprises” were cropping up
business was down as new resources were hired, also some of the projects were poorly estimated.
The localuniversity was unhappy as their eBook products reached campus late for use by professors
and student
good interpersonal skills and detail-oriented. Within thefirst three months in her new role as.

c) What kind of suggestions would you give to Brad and Jim if you were the PM
 Good communication skills should be used while communicating with the stakeholders
 proactive risk analysis and risk response planning should be used
 There should be formal project management processes

PM, she introduced formal project management processes, created a PM manual and trained the
employees to get the work done well. Within nine months Samantha had fully turned things around.
Due to proactive risk analysis and risk response planning, surprises and issues reduced.
Communication with stakeholders was enhanced
Case study 2:

Comment on the following aspects of the case study:

a) What risks can you identify? Why are they a risk to Global Green Books Publishing?

They had been told how many different printing jobs the college would need, but they weren’t all
arriving at once, and orders were quite unpredictable in arriving from the professors at the college.
Some professors needed rush orders for their classes. When Global Green Books finally got the
orders, some of these jobs were much larger than they had thought they would be.

b) What kind of impacts does each of your identified risks have?

Quality was a serious issue, as they had to provide quality texts—if there were quality
problems with the printed product, they would have to spend time and money to fixing
defects in their products.
Deliveries started slipping past their requested dates and times. Global Green Books was
unable to deliver eBooks to their customers on schedule. The local university was unhappy
as their eBook products reached campus late for use by professors and student. In some
cases, the books were a week or two late.
c) How probable are each of your identified risks? You can think about something simple like
categorizing these as not very likely, likely, and highly likely to occur.

She started looking at what was happening in the business, talking about it with the owners and
employees, and heard about the college’s unhappiness. As she did this, she started identifying risks
and potential risks. As she went along, she started doing more proactive risk analysis and risk
response planning, and as she did surprises and issues were reduced

d) What would you advise Global Green Books are their three most critical risks?

Good communication skills should be used while communicating with the stakeholders
proactive risk analysis and risk response planning should be used There should be formal
project management processes

Samantha had been hired as a project management assistant. In her new role as a project manager,
one of theprocesses she was trying to institute was risk management. She started looking at what
was happening in thebusiness, talking about it with the owners and employees.

e) What would you suggest that they do about these three risks? Are there specific actions to
deal with these risks? Have you identified a contingency plan to carry out if the risk occurs?

As Samantha started identifying risks and potential risks. As she went along, she started doing more
proactive risk analysis and risk response planning, and as she did surprises and issues were reduced.
By talking with stakeholders and addressing their concerns, communication with stakeholders was
also enhanced
Case study 3

a) Printing books in a print shop, especially large quantities of a single book, is a process. A
process is an ongoing day-to-day repetitive set of activities the print shop performs when
producing its products. How are these customized eBooks different from a standard printing
process? What characteristics make these customized eBooks a project?

Comment : Customized e book have some settings done in the soft copy of the book so that it can
look according to the specifications provided by the university and all the e books can be in some
general format so that the rework doesn’t come in and can have the good quality customized e
books As the first term progressed with Global Green Books making customized eBooks for this
college, there were a number of issues that affected the quality of the eBooks produced and caused
a great deal of rework for the company.

The local university was unhappy as their eBook products sometimes reached campus late for use by
professors and student. In some cases, the books were a week or two late.

b) Who are the stakeholders in these eBook projects? How are they involved in or affected by
an eBook project?
Understanding what each eBook needed had to be clearly documented and understood
before starting production. Global Green Books had been told by the college how many
different printing jobs the college would need, but they weren’t all arriving at once, and
orders were quite unpredictable in arriving from the professors at the college. Some
professors needed rush orders for their classes. Some orders arrived as projected, but some
came later than anticipated. When Global Green Books finally got all their orders, some of
these jobs were much larger than they had thought they would be
c) Why is it important to have a defined project scope? Why is it important to make sure there
is agreement about the scope and what will be done in producing each eBook?

Project scope is very important as it defines the overall overview of the project and also testing is
defined in terms of the project to avoid future conflicts and to maintain the dignity and the quality
of the work

d) Do you think developing a standard job template would be useful for Global Green Books?
Why? What advantages could it give them in planning work?

Yes it is good as it is specified that Global Green Books wanted to start developing a
template for job orders. This template should list all of the possible tasks that should be
performed in producing an eBook for the college.

These tasks could be broken down into the different phases of the work,Understanding what each
eBook needed had to be clearly documented and understood before starting
production. Global Green Books had been told by the college how many different printing jobs the
collegewould need, but they weren’t all arriving at once, and orders were quite unpredictable in
arriving from theprofessors at the college.
 Mini-Case Study 4: Cost Estimation at Global Green Books Publishing

a) What are the types of direct costs identified in this case? Why are they viewed as
direct costs?
Comment:
The direct costs for an eBook project include labor costs for those in the company
working on the project, materials costs (if any), subcontractor or outside labor, and
equipment and facility costs. They are known as direct cost because it is the pay which is
to be made on day basis

b) What are two forms of costs identified?

Material cost and Indirect cost

C ) What are some problems that might arise that could impact the budget?
With the existing job orders, estimates of time required for each task were sometimes not
completed until after the work was done, causing problems as workers were supposed to
move on to new tasks but were still finishing their previous tasks.
Some tasks required specialized equipment or skills, sometimes from other groups within
Global Green Books

D) Why would Global Green Books set aside contingencies? How would needed rework, if
caught in the quality reviews, be accounted for in the budget?

In addition to direct and indirect costs, Global Green Books targets a 25% profit margin on each
project, and budgets for a 10% contingency on labor and 20% contingency on permissions. As these
are in contingencies because they require the labor and labor can delay the work hence the
contingencies are defined

Mini-Case Study 5: Managing Change at Global Green Books Publishing

a) Who are the stakeholders of this project? Who are the key stakeholders of the project?

Strategic Human Resource Management in a Global Context from a senior professor in the business
school. This distinguished faculty member is dissatisfied with the current textbooks, and wants a
customized eBook for use with her on-campus courses, graduate seminars, and her executive
education courses.

c) What impacts could these requested changes have on the budget?

This will effect a lot in the budget as they are treated as the mediator will take the money from the
Global Green and then create issues also

d) Could these requested changes also impact the schedule? If so, how?
Yes it effect the schedule also as it the stake holders will create issues and delay the process which
effect whole schedule

e) What is Global Green Book’s process for dealing with changes from their customers?
Do you see any possible issues with this process?
The Customer Service Representative communicated these issues to several people
within Global Green Books: the account manager for the college account, the supervisor
managing production for this eBook, the Publishers Liaison obtaining permissions for this
book

f) How would you recommend that Global Green Books handle these changes? Who
should be involved?
professor’s requests just kept coming, at an increasing rate as it got closer to her
deadline for needing this eBook. The supervisor was starting to make some estimates of
what each change requested by the professor would cost:  An extra $500 for each new
permission needed, in addition to the $500 already spent for each permission already
acquired that can no longer be used
 Two hours of Publishers Liaison effort for each new permission needed at an
unburdened cost of $22 per hour (loaded cost is $55 with a 1.5 overhead rate)
 One hour of supervisor time for replanning each change at an unburdened cost
of $28 per hour (loaded cost is $70 with a 1.5 overhead rate)
 Sales commission of 20% This continuing series of requests for changes from
the professor is quickly adding to the upwardly spiraling cost of this project. The
supervisor feels that something must be done about this scope creep –
continually

Supervisor will be incharge

Mini-Case Study 6: Developing Project Managers at Global Green Books Publishing

a) What are some of the challenges facing supervisors?

As the eBook business grew, there were more and more demands on the supervisors. Many
were great print technicians who had caught the eye of the founders for their attitudes and
customer service ethic. But today, they were being called on to do more complex tasks than
merely running a highly automated print copier.
b) What skills do you think the supervisors need to be effective project managers? Why do
they need these skills?
Good communication skills should be used while communicating with the stakeholders
proactive risk analysis and risk response planning should be used
There should be formal project management processes
 c) Are there skills that team members need to be effective team members in a project? If so,
what are these skills?

diverse set of skills, backgrounds, and motivations

d) ) Which characteristic or skill do you think is the most significant characteristic of an
effective project manager?

Motivations because it can provide the strength to work for the employees and also maintain the
discipline

Mini-Case Study 7: Closing Projects at Global Green Books Publishing

a) What are some of the reasons why it is important to close out a project? What can project
managers accomplish in closing out a project?

One of the project managers even described dealing with these problems as being like playing
the popular arcade game of “Whack-a-Mole” - as soon as you deal with one to make it
disappear, the same one or another one just pops up.

It seems like a never-ending struggle to try and solve some of these problems, especially when
some seem like they were already solved on another earlier project.

b) Why should projects capture lessons learned? What are some ways that the project team
members, project managers and the organization can use lessons learned?

The Project Manager team was discussing making changes to the PM manual and holding a short
training for supervisors to implement some improvements to their project completion processes.
They wanted to change their standard job template to incorporate these additions: a planned task
for supervisors to close out the project, a task to create a lessons learned report, and an optional
task for a closing celebration for the team to mark the end of the project

c) What benefits come from celebrating project accomplishments? Do you believe that rewards and

recognition can serve as motivators for staff?

Supervisors liked the ideas, especially because the close-out meeting or team celebration would give
them a chance to recognize and reward team members and would serve to motivate the teams for
future projects. As time went on, the Project Managers started collecting these lessons learned from
many projects. As they collected these lessons learned from these projects, the Project Managers
started to look at the data from the lessons learned across the projects
c) If you were the Project Manager looking at this Pareto analysis, what recommendations
might you make to address the three key problem areas in eBook projects that this analysis
identified

As Samantha started identifying risks and potential risks. As she went along, she started doing
more proactive risk analysis and risk response planning, and as she did surprises and issues were
reduced. By talking with stakeholders and addressing their concerns, communication with
stakeholders was also enhanced