Project Brief: Scenario B

You are a disaster response project manager at Romero Humanitarian Relief Services, a
nongovernmental organization (NGO). A densely populated but isolated island in the Pacific
Ocean is experiencing an intensifying pattern of devastating tropical storms, resulting in
mudslides. You have been tasked with building an emergency protocol that will deliver food,
medical, and other humanitarian assistance to help the victims of this natural disaster. Although
it is unknown when these processes will be deployed, it is apparent that disaster preparedness is
urgent to minimize harm to the island's population.
LEVEL 1
Food relief, temporary housing, field hospital
LEVEL 2
All of the above plus reinforcement/repair of the sanitation infrastructure
LEVEL 3
All of the above plus a field-based emergency surgical facility
LEVEL 4
All of the above plus home rebuilding and security services

Prepare to play
Being familiar with this information will help you complete your project successfully and on
time.
 Project Brief
 Scenario Objectives
 Managing Your Project

Scenario Objectives: Scenario B

Your relief plan needs to get help to those in need in accordance with an accelerated and
challenging schedule that reflects the frequency of emergencies on the ground. The target
schedule is shortened to start delivering more aid quickly. Due to recent unexpected costs, the
available budget will be more constrained than usual. Your own analysis of the work required
and subsequent work breakdown structure has led to you conclude that the project targets are
difficult but achievable.
Your information about what is happening on the ground is considered reliable, so the project
requirements are reasonably well defined and understood, and not expected to change during the
project. You are pleased that your project is reasonably staffed because other project managers
running similar relief efforts have struggled to complete their work with limited resources.

Specific Objectives

Target Scope: Level 3

You will need to deliver a higher level of services than usual for such a project. You will receive
175 points for delivering a relief plan with the scope requested and up to 100 additional points
for delivering one with a more sophisticated scope.

Target Schedule: Week 17

This schedule is more compressed than that for most similar projects. You will receive 175
points for meeting your schedule goals and up to 100 additional points for completing ahead of
schedule.

Target Cost: $39,220

This budget is more constrained than for similar projects in the past. You will receive 250 points
for meeting your budget/resources goals and up to 100 additional points for completing under
budget.

You may also receive up to 100 points for team process by maintaining a consistent morale
of 85–95%.

Prepare to play
Being familiar with this information will help you complete your project successfully and on
time.
 Project Brief
 Scenario Objectives
 Managing Your Project

Managing Your Project: Scenario B

Before you start the project, and each week as it unfolds, you will have an opportunity to adjust
certain project parameters. Spend a few minutes entering initial decisions for the following areas.

1. Project Scope

You have flexibility as to what type of emergency protocol you wish to design. Below are four
possible processes you might develop. Each project builds on the previous level, allowing you to
adjust mid-course if desired.
LEVEL 1: 130 TASKS
Food relief, temporary housing, field hospital
LEVEL 2: 170 TASKS
All of the above plus reinforcement/repair of the sanitation infrastructure
LEVEL 3: 185 TASKS
All of the above plus a field-based emergency surgical facility
LEVEL 4: 200 TASKS
All of the above plus home rebuilding and security services
2. Project Schedule

Senior management has given you its objectives regarding schedule based on its analysis of the
competitive situation and required time for launch of your emergency protocol.

You may change your schedule (your target completion time) in any week. However, if you
exceed the completion target handed to you by senior management, you can expect your project
performance to be judged accordingly.

3. Project Resources

To staff your project, you must choose a number of team members and an average staff skill
level. You may also choose to outsource some of the work in any week. More project team
members can do more work, but of course each additional team member also adds to project
costs. Teams with higher average skill levels are more productive, but they also cost more.
Outsourcing offers some staffing cost savings, but also incurs additional effort to coordinate
work done at remote locations. Note that adding resources during a project requires some startup
communication and coordination work; this may temporarily hinder the team's productivity.
Also, changing skill level during a project incurs temporary productivity penalties, due to the
changeover in personnel.

While you may choose how many individuals to put on the team, you will be rated on the total
cost of labor for this project.

Team Process
You may make ongoing decisions regarding your team process.

Overtime

You may choose to allow overtime. Team members will work in excess of 40 hours/week as
required to complete the project. This is not guaranteed, however. If your team suffers from poor
morale, absenteeism, or tardiness, for example, the number of hours worked will decline. If you
encourage your team to work overtime, they will work more hours per week than they would
have otherwise. Finally, you may also choose to prohibit overtime.

Meetings

As you assemble your staff, you may want to schedule meetings to help coordinate activities
among members or train new staff in the details of the project. You may choose among several
types of meetings:

One-on-One Coaching: 2 hours/session

You work directly with an individual on your team, helping to develop specific knowledge and
job skills. Such skill-building will increase productivity and decrease problems over the long
term.

Standup: 0.25 hours/session

A 15-minute meeting to start every day in which team members discuss their plans for the day
along with successes and problems from the previous day. Standups aid in preventing mistakes
and subsequent rework due to miscoordination.

Status Review: 2 hours/session

A full team meeting discussing current status of the project, ensuring everyone is informed. This
helps both with team coordination and with personal skill-development.

Meetings can have a positive effect on team productivity and skill level, but too many meetings
will reduce available task time and create stress.

You will also be rated on the average morale and stress of your team members.

Prototypes

You may decide whether you want to create emergency protocol prototypes during your project
—and if so, how many. Prototypes are rough, not fully-functional, trial runs of the final process.
It is extra work to create them, but trial runs can help you discover things you might not know
(but will eventually need to know) about the emergency protocol, how people on the ground will
interact with it, and other aspects of the process development effort.

PROTOTYPES: MAXIMUM OF ONE PER WEEK

Prototyping entails the creation of a prototype and a testing/review period. Both internal
resources and external reviewers vet the prototype. External reviewers are paid for feedback and
the feedback generated from the vetting process informs necessary changes.

Tasks
Scoring
Senior management is looking closely at how you perform while managing this effort. The
specific breakdown will be listed in the Scenario Objectives tab. You will be scored on the
following areas:

 Project Scope: Did you deliver an effective emergency protocol that met or exceeded
senior management's expectations?
  Project Schedule: Did you deliver on time to meet senior management's schedule
requirements? Was your schedule estimate consistent during the project?
 Project Resources: Did you complete the project within senior management's budget
objective?

In addition, you will receive points for maintaining a consistently high level of morale and a low
level of stress throughout the project.