Marketing Education Review

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The Project Management Plan: Improving Team

Process and Performance

Debbie Thorne McAlister

To cite this article: Debbie Thorne McAlister (2006) The Project Management Plan:
Improving Team Process and Performance, Marketing Education Review, 16:1, 97-103, DOI:
10.1080/10528008.2006.11488946

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2006.11488946

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 THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN: IMPROVING TEAM PROCESS AND
PERFORMANCE

Debbie Thorne McAlister

This teaching and learning innovation introduces an organizingJramework, the project management plan (PMP), that
provides structure to team processes and guides effective team outcomes in marketing course projects. Using basic
principles of project management, the PMP incorporates process issues not commonly discussed in the marketing
classroom, demonstrates instructor commitment to student learning, creates excellent project outcomes, and provides
a system that can be transferred to other courses and the workplace. While the design of the PMP is straightforward, it
also requires the instructor to take a more active and supportive role in team process and performance.

Team projects are ubiquitous in the business cur-
riculum, especially in the marketing discipline where
assignments range from developing marketing plans
to starting new businesses. While many marketing
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.
Innovative Approach to Team Projects
The purpose of this paper is to outline the project
management plan (PMP), which enables a professor to

courses include a team project, there is less empha-
sis on the process of creating and managing teams
(i.e., teaching about teams) than on the content of
the team project. Emphasizing content issues may
be appropriate when students effectively practice
team processes taught in required courses, usually
in the management discipline. The volume of litera-
ture on teams in business education journals sug-
gests that team project skills continue to present chal-
lenges in many college classrooms (see Marketing Edu-
cation Review and Journal of Marketing Education).
In this literature, most articles either explore is-
sues with team project management or detail types
of projects that may be implemented. For example,
Ducoffe and Tucker (2004) provided an example of a
team-based iterative exercise in setting price and
product levels. Deeter-Schmelz, Kennedy and
Ramsey (2002) created a model of team effectiveness
that focused on the importance of team cohesion and
suggested several strategies for increasing cohesion.
Amato and Amato (2005) used the Myers-Briggs ty-
pology to explore students' preference for compat-
ible or complementary teammates. While these ar-
ticles and others are important, the tendency has
been to examine student characteristics and curricu-
lar concerns. One area examined less frequently is
the pivotal role of the professor in creating more
successful processes and outcomes for integrated
team projects (see Bacon, Stewart and Silver 1999).
DEBBIE THORNE MCALISTER (PhD., University of Memphis) is
Chair of the Department of Marketing at Texas State University,
McCoy College ofBusiness Administration, San Marcos, Texas. (email:
dm29@txstate.edu)
provide structure to the team process and guide effec-
tive outcomes much like the project management ap-
proach used in business. The project management plan
was developed as a mechanism for strengthening team
projects by ameliorating several problems, including
the unequal distribution of work, procrastination, dis-
jointed "team" reports, and unhealthy conflict. The plan
was also conceived as a device for modeling a cross-
disciplinary approach that could be transferred to other
project assignments. While the design of the PMP is
straightforward, it requires the integration of several
learning approaches. The instructor is a vital partici-
pant in the team process, as he or she functions much
like an executive to whom a project team is reporting.
Therefore, the instructor also gains valuable experience
and teaching insights by utilizing the PMP.
This approach is innovative because it seeks to en-
sure a successful team experience and outcomes by pro-
viding a rubric for organizing and implementing a com-
prehensive and integrated project. While this teaching
method initially demands more of the professor's time,
it also reduces energy spent on resolving team issues,
grading poorly constructed plans, rewriting plans be-
fore giving them to clients, or complaining about poor
outcomes. This innovation requires the instructor and
teams to contemplate both content and process elements
of the project, thus achieving multiple learning goals
and preparing students for today's team-based and
project-based workplace. Since the teaching approach
explicitly incorporates project management, which is
relatively unexamined in the marketing curriculum, this
paper resonates with repeated calls for stronger inte-
Marketing Education Review, Volume 16, Number 1 (Spring 2006).
 Marketing Education Review
Table 1
Project Management Principles
Project Management Principle
Project: a temporary endeavor undertaken to create
a unique product, service, or result.
Project Scope: includes all the work required and only
the work required.
Project Time Management: the duration, sequencing,
and dependency amongst project activities.
Project Human Resources: the roles, responsibilities,
and performance of project team members.
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.
Project Communications Management: the
collection, distribution, and use of project-related
information.
Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle: the continuous cycle of
activities designed to achieve better quality projects.
gration across the disciplines (Malykhina 2005; Porter
and McKibben 1988). Project management skills are fun-
damental to success, as they require the ability to set
goals, determine resources, generate support, meet
deadlines, communicate effectively, assess outcomes,
and modify for continuous improvement.
Project Management Principles
According to the Project Management Institute (2004),
project management is "the application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activi-
ties in order to meet the requirements of a particular
project." Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and
controlling, and closing the project are the five major
processes to any project management endeavor. While
most businesspeople are trained in a functional area,
workplace initiatives increasingly involve multiple
stakeholders, time and resource constraints, risk and
reward tradeoffs, cross-functional communication, and
other complexities. Employers often find it difficult to
hire individuals who are competent in managing the
areas required to meet and exceed project objectives.
Recent college graduates are typically content experts,
who have little experience making decisions in com-
plex and integrated environments.
98
Application to Teaching Innovation
Marketing plans are developed in one semester for
individual clients.
Information on the company, industry, and current
marketing situation define the initial project scope. Outline
of the marketing plan also defines the project scope.
Scheduled team meetings, section due dates, rough draft
due dates, in-class exercises, and other activities ensure
timely completion of marketing plan.
Team assessment, section role assignments, values, and
other guidelines provide direction and accountability to
team members.
Scheduled team meetings, research approaches, in-class
exercises, and information preferences ensure
communication flow.
In-class team assignments, client interaction, and
continuous improvement meetings provide feedback to
student teams before submitting final marketing plan.
Project management is a critical component of busi-
ness performance and a number of universities offer
graduate degrees and certificates in the area. However,
project management is not widely required within the
general business curriculum. The paper does not at-
tempt to address this void and, because of space con-
straints, does not fully elaborate on project manage-
ment concepts. Rather, the innovation serves as an in-
troductory experience to this important business prac-
tice. Table 1 provides an overview of several basic project
management principles and how they specifically ap-
ply to this teaching innovation, which is fully explained
in the next section.
Project Management Plan Components
The following discussion is based on the implemen-
tation of the project management plan in the Marketing
Management course, where the team project is the de-
velopment of a marketing plan for a local client. This
method has been used with both undergraduate and
graduate students, where a marketing plan assignment
counts for nearly 50 percent of each student's course
grade. The marketing plan clearly requires significant
student and instructor attention. Teams are based on
student preferences for clients. Each student lists his or
her top three client preferences and the teams are formed
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring2006

Table 2
Project Management Plan Outline

I. Team Assessment (What resources do we have? How and when will we work together?)
A. Skills and styles
Team Member (phone & email) Key Skills Behavioral Style
1.
2.
3.
4.
B. Schedule and time preferences (consistent meeting time for several hours per week)
C. Quality, communication, and professional standards
1. Core values:
2. Targeted grade for final project and presentation:
3. How information will be distributed amongst team members:
4. How team will deal with a lack of professionalism:
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.

II. Situation Assessment (What do we know? How will we get more information?)
A. Industry category and description of client's product/company
B. Synopsis of client's current marketing situation
C. Research methods (including unique approaches to understand company and marketing environment)
III. Action Items (What needs to be accomplished? Who is responsible?)

Section to be Developed (What?) Person Responsible (Who?) Deadline (When?)

External Forces
External Environment
Competitor Analysis
Customer Analysis
Internal Factors & SWOT
Organizational Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Rough Draft # 1 Due Entire team meets with instructor March 7
Marketing Goals & Objectives
Target Market
Marketing Mix
Product
Price
Promotion
Distribution
Marketing Implementation
Evaluation and Control
Conclusion
Rough Draft # 2 Due Entire team meets with instructor April 11

Finalize Paper (executive summary,

introduction, cover page, table of contents,
references, review for errors, and turn paper in) May 2
Develop Presentation Slides
Practice Presentation Entire team
Final Presentation Entire team May 2 or 9

99
 Marketing Education Review
by the instructor using a sorting method. This step is
pivotal, as the teams are created using affinity, rather
than being forced by the instructor or peer relationships.
Students are provided with a copy of project man-
agement plan (see Table 2) only after they understand
the basic structure and scope of a marketing plan. Thus,
the reading assignment, instructor lecture, and class
discussion on the appropriate chapter must be com-
plete before students begin work on the PMP. Typi-
cally, this occurs during the second week of a fifteen-
week semester. The following sections describe key com-
ponents of the plan implemented during the spring
2005 semester.
Team Assessment
With any new team, the critical step is for team mem-
bers to get to know and understand each other. The
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.
team assessment is the first section of the PMP and
includes basic information, such as phone numbers and
email addresses, as well as an understanding of each
member's skills and likely contributions. Especially with
short-term projects, members need to quickly discover
the individual personalities on the team. Behavioral
styles of individuals have a great influence on team
process and decisions, so this information is central to
effectiveness. To aid this understanding, students hear
a short lecture and complete an assessment of their
behavioral styles (e.g., driver, amiable, analytical, and
expressive) as presented in the work of Merrill and
Reid (1981) during the first week of class. There are
other measures that can be used for the same purpose,
including Myers-Briggs and the Keirsey Temperament
Sorter (Amato and Amato 2005). Students learn the
strengths and weaknesses of each style, the importance
of flexibility, and how these characteristics relate to
teamwork. This part of the PMP highlights individual
differences that affect team performance, inclucting the
unique qualities and strengths that each member brings
to the project. Armed with this knowledge, team mem-
bers can make more effective and efficient progress to-
ward mutual understanding and respect. This step also
mirrors the workplace, where team members mayor may
not know each other before the project assignment.
Schedule and Time Preferences
A frequent difficulty for student teams is finding a
time and place to hold productive meetings. This is
further exacerbated as the semester progresses and is
especially pronounced in part-time graduate programs
and on commuter campuses. Instead of taking an ad-
hoc approach to scheduling, each team is required to
-----------------------------------100-----------------------------------
establish a weekly time and location that is suitable for
all team members. This discussion should also assist in
setting up meetings with the team's client. Students are
encouraged to block this time on their calendars for the
rest of the semester, so there is less opportunity for sched-
uling difficulties. On occasion, this step will reveal that a
student needs to be transferred to another team. Unlike
other project approaches, this transition is handled early
in the semester before conflict has occurred.
Quality, Communication, and
Professional Standards
Team conflict is usually rooted in communication
problems, inconsistent goals, and other misunderstand-
ings that can be clarified by discussing mutual expecta-
tions. Thus, the next section requires each team to es-
tablish standards for project quality, communication
flow, and professional behavior. Each team develops a
list of core values, a targeted grade for the final project,
details on the distribution of information amongst team
members, and ideas on how to deal with a member
who is not meeting his or her team obligations. Since
the teams work with business clients, they also discuss
protocol for communicating with the client. The process
of discussing and agreeing on the standards moves the
team further along in its development. During the early
part of the semester, students also participate in a discus-
sion of professionalism and develop written expectations
of students and expectations of the instructor. Thus, stu-
dents are well-prepared for this team discussion.
Situation Assessment
The PMP is designed to address both content and
process issues. Whereas the first sections were mainly
focused on process concerns, the situation assessment
moves the team toward a substantive discussion of their
client's product, company, and industry. This section is
an initial verification that team members, the instruc-
tor, and the client share a common understanding of
the current marketing situation. Responses to this sec-
tion are generally broad, which is appropriate at this
stage. Teams also delineate several methods for learn-
ing about the company, customers, and related areas.
These answers are used to gauge the team's creativity,
familiarity with research resources, and understanding
of business intelligence methods.
Action Items
The last component of the PMP document requires
the team to assign specific sections of the marketing

plan project to individual team members. The individual
is responsible for writing that particular section for the
appropriate rough draft and final paper. The columns
in the action items table delineate the content to be
written, the person responsible, and the date the team
member should complete the section. Sections that tend
to be long have been sub-divided. For example, two
people will write on the 4Ps in the marketing plan.
The due dates for each rough draft, the final paper,
and presentations in the PMP are determined and pre-
filled by the instructor. In Table 2, the rough drafts are
due at the seventh week and eleventh week of the fif-
teen-week semester, so students have plenty of time to
make revisions before the final projects are due. All other
dates are assigned by the team, with many teams choos-
ing to preview sections before the rough draft is due to
the instructor. In preparation for rough draft # 1 due on
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.
March 7, a team may decide that the external forces, in-
ternal factors and SWOT sections should be circulated to
all team members by March 1. This allows for a brief
review period to ensure accountability and consistency.
In addition to marketing content, there are other roles
for successfully completing the marketing plan project.
One student will need to finalize the paper, which in-
cludes editing, solidifying the references, and submitting
a professional report. Another student will develop the
presentation slides. There is also a place for determining
when the team will practice its presentation. These action
items ensure that teams are aware of the importance of
these tasks, especially towards the end of the semester
when energy and enthusiasm are often diminishing.
Project Management Plan Implementation
While the PMP provides the foundation for improv-
ing team projects, there are several implementation steps
that ensure full effectiveness. These steps illuminate
the pivotal role of the professor, suggest ways of allo-
cating class time to maximize performance and reduce
barriers, and discuss common concerns with evalua-
tion and assessment.
Initial Project Review
A key project management principle is the impor-
tance of obtaining approval of primary stakeholders
early in the process. While it is common for instructors
to approve topics and content (i.e, selection of com-
pany on which to write a marketing plan), it is less
common for them to review the team's process ap-
proach. For this reason, student teams are required to
tum in one copy of the completed PMP during the third
week of the semester. The instructor reviews the plan,
--------------------------------------101 --------------------------------------
Spring 2006
makes suggestions, and returns it to the team. No grade
is assigned. If the instructor believes there is a problem
with any aspect of the plan, the team either makes the
adjustment or discusses an alternative with the instruc-
tor. In most semesters, less than 15 percent of the teams
require a major change to meet the instructor's approval.
The instructor keeps a copy of all plans, as they remain
important documents throughout the semester. Project
management teams in the workplace commit to dead-
lines and deliverables in a similar way.
In-Class Exercises
To increase student learning on important marketing
concepts, in-class team assignments are employed
throughout the semester. Simple exercises can be con-
ducted with every section of the marketing plan. For
example, after lecturing on the five questions of cus-
tomer analysis, each team is asked to answer the ques-
tions using the customer group for their marketing plan.
Similar approaches are used to analyze the external
environment, develop the SWOT matrix, write market-
ing goals and objectives, detail the 4Ps, and create a
control and evaluation system. The exercises link course
concepts to the marketing plan project and provide
teams with class time to discuss and decide on a direc-
tion. It also gives the instructor an opportunity to as-
sess team cohesion, communication effectiveness, and
student learning. As the teams work on these short
assignments in the classroom, the instructor should be
available to provide direction, ask questions, and medi-
ate disagreements.
Although some instructors may not believe that class
time should be used for team projects, this step is inte-
gral. Students appreciate the class time because they
gain immediate feedback, make meaningful progress,
and reinforce testable concepts through their own ex-
amples. These exercises also ensure that every team
member, not just the section author, has contributed to
the development process of the entire marketing plan.
These benefits outweigh concerns about pampering the
students with in-class teamwork and simulate the pro-
cess management approach of breaking down large
projects into manageable parts. Teams spend no more
than ten or fifteen minutes engaged in-class, yet the
time is more valuable than the hours teams may spend
overcoming disorganization and disagreement.
Continuous Improvement Meetings
The continuous improvement meeting involves a face-
to-face encounter between the instructor and all mem-
bers of each team. Class time is used to hold these
 Marketing Education Review
meetings, with teams scheduled in twenty minute in-
crements. These meetings could also be held during
office hours or other times. The meetings are best held
in the instructor's office, not the classroom, which tends
to formalize the interaction pattern.
The meetings coincide with two project milestones:
rough draft # 1 and rough draft # 2 of project manage-
ment plan (see Table 2). These appointments assess the
team's work on the rough draft and provide specific
recommendations for improving the plan. Students are
reminded that the instructor will only review drafts
that are reasonably developed, although bullet-format
and other approaches are acceptable. To date, no team
has ever failed to meet expectations for the rough drafts.
With a pen in-hand, the instructor reviews each sec-
tion for content, but not grammar and related issues.
Since all teams use the same marketing plan template,
each section can be read fairly quickly and the instruc-
Marketing Education Review 2006.16:97-103.
tor has time to make positive and corrective written
comments. When a concern or question arises, the
instructor's copy of the team's PMP is used to identify the
responsible student. Other questions may be directed to
the entire team. Near the end of the meeting, the team is
also asked about the effectiveness of its practices and
processes. Finally, students are reminded that the
instructor's "approval" only relates to content decisions
and that they are fully responsible for grammar, spelling,
flow, readability and related areas. This approach mir-
rors the workplace, where project managers are expected
to engage key stakeholders throughout the process, not
just at the beginning and end of a project.
Assessment Concerns
A common concern in typical team projects is the
inability to determine the relative quantity and quality
of each member's role in a project. While peer evalua-
tions provide input, instructors are hesitant to fully rely
on peer judgments. By assigning specific roles, the PMP
allows the instructor to assess each student's contribu-
tion. The "free rider" problem of unequal contribution
can be managed through the PMP. Instructors also
worry about the extent to which each student learned
the project material. In-class team assignments, exams,
and other techniques partially allay such concerns.
The PMP also provides a mechanism for improving
outcomes assessment. Accrediting agencies often re-
quire that individual-level data on specific course prod-
ucts (Le., exams, cases, papers) be gathered for out-
comes assessment purposes. The project management
plan is an excellent tool for assessing key skills and
knowledge. The assignment of individuals to specific
project sections allows the instructor to evaluate each
------------------------------------- 102 -------------------------------------
student's written contribution as well as the overall
team performance. These separate evaluations can be
utilized in determining each student's final grade on
the team project. For example, the individual grade
may be weighted at 75 percent, with the team grade
weighted at 25 percent.
Conclusion
Since implementing this approach five years ago, there
have been no significant negative issues with students
or team projects guided by the PMP. Instead, team co-
hesion, student confidence, project quality, and instruc-
tor satisfaction with student learning outcomes and per-
formance have greatly increased. There are several rea-
sons for such outcomes. First, the PMP incorporates
content, process, and behavioral issues that are not com-
monly required in marketing courses. Kelley and
Bridges (2005) found that marketing graduates often
lack professional skills which make them ill-prepared
for workplace realities. The project management plan,
through its integrated and process elements, may be
one mechanism for improving career-readiness. Sec-
ond, the plan tends to create excellent outcomes. The
PMP and continuous improvement meetings are cen-
tral to these outcomes, but accountability at the indi-
vidual and team level is equally significant. The PMP
creates a level of commitment that better simulates
wOJkplace expectations.
Third, the plan provides students with a system that
can be transferred to other courses and the workplace.
At the suggestion of students, several instructors have
asked to borrow the PMP, which can be quickly adapted
for different types of projects across the business cur-
riculum. This approach can also be tailored to indi-
vidual projects, with team elements deleted or modi-
fied. Finally, the plan demonstrates instructor commit-
ment to student learning because it explicitly addresses
and manages problems that teams often encounter. Stu-
dent feedback via the teaching evaluation system is very
positive, especially on instructor organization, clarity of
expectations, level of preparation, and value of the course.
Students recognize that they are gaining knowledge and
skills by learning on multiple levels. Thus, the greatest
impact of the innovation is on the students' learning out-
comes and quality of the client reports.
Instead of leaving team project outcomes to chance,
this paper advocates a controllable, flexible, and straight-
forward teaching and learning innovation. This ap-
proach drives the development of general business skills
while reframing marketing planning into a complex
and integrated decision-making system, rather than dis-
crete and disparate steps. Although it may be expedi-

ent to assume that student teams will organize and
succeed by contagion, marketing educators are encour-
aged to adopt the project management plan as a major
step in improving team processes, learning outcomes,
cross-functional integration and career-readiness.
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