Nicolette Larson was loading the dishwasher with her husband, Kevin, and telling him about the first meeting of the Manchester United Tournament Organizing Committee. Nicolette, a self-confessed “soccer mom,” had been elected tournament director and was responsible for organizing the club’s first summer tournament. Manchester United Soccer Club (MUSC), located in Manchester, New Hampshire, was formed in 1992 as a way of bringing recreational players to a higher level of competition and preparing them for the State Olympic Development Program and/or high school teams. The club currently has 24 boys and girls (ranging in age from under 9 to 16) on teams affiliated with the New Hampshire Soccer Association and the Granite State Girls Soccer League. The club’s board of directors decided in the fall to sponsor a summer invitational soccer tournament to generate revenue. Given the boom in youth soccer, hosting summer tournaments has become a popular method for raising funds. MUSC teams regularly compete in three to four tournaments each summer at different locales in New England. These tournaments have been reported to generate between $50,000 and $70,000 for the host club. MUSC needs additional revenue to refurbish and expand the number of soccer fields at the Rock Rimmon soccer complex. Funds would also be used to augment the club’s scholarship program, which provides financial aid to players who cannot afford the $450 annual club dues. Nicolette gave her husband a blow-by-blow account of what transpired during the first tournament committee meeting that night. She started the meeting by having everyone introduce themselves and by proclaiming how excited she was that the club was going to sponsor its own tournament. She then suggested that the committee brainstorm what needed to be done to pull off the event; she would record their ideas on a flipchart. What emerged was a free-for-all of ideas and suggestions. One member immediately stressed the importance of having qualified referees and spent several minutes describing in detail how his son’s team was robbed in a poorly officiated championship game. This was followed by other stories of injustice on the soccer field. Another member suggested that they needed to quickly contact the local colleges to see if they could use their fields. The committee spent more than 30 minutes talking about how they should screen teams and how much they should charge as an entry fee. An argument broke out over whether they should reward the winning teams in each age bracket with medals or trophies. Many members felt that medals were too cheap, while others thought the trophies would be too expensive. Someone suggested that they seek local T-shirts and sweatshirts was followed by a general critique of the different shirts parents had acquired at different tournaments. One member advocated that they recruit an artist he knew to develop a unique silk-screen design for the tournament. The meeting adjourned 30 minutes late with only half of the members remaining until the end. Nicolette drove home with seven sheets of ideas and a headache. As Kevin poured a glass of water for the two aspirin Nicolette was about to take, he tried to comfort her by saying that organizing this tournament would be a big project not unlike the projects he worked on at his engineering and design firm. He offered to sit down with her the next night and help her plan the project. He suggested that the first thing they needed to do was to develop a WBS for the project. 1. Make a list of the major deliverables for the project and use them to develop a draft of the work breakdown structure for the tournament that contains at least three levels of detail. What are the major deliverables associated with hosting an event such as a soccer tournament? 2. How would developing a WBS alleviate some of the problems that occurred during the first meeting and help Nicolette organize and plan the project? 3. Where can Nicolette find additional information to help her develop a WBS for the tournament? 4. How could Nicolette and her task force use the WBS to generate cost estimates for the tournament? Why would this be useful information?
> Draw a project network from the following information. What activity (ies) is a burst activity? What activity (ies) is a merge activity? ID Description Prodecessor A Identify topic Research topic Draft paper Edit paper Create graphics None B A D E
> Given the network below, compute the early, late, and slack time for each activity. Clearly identify the critical path. Lag 1 E Build Cabinets Install Cabinets 7 A Lag 5 Design 3 Tear Down G Install Appliances Lag 2 Inspect 2 Lag 5 Order Ap
> Given the following information, compute the early, late, and slack times for the project network. Which activities on the critical path have only the start or finish of the activity on the critical path? Lahes Lag Pave Post Signs Signng
> You have prepared the following schedule for a project in which the key resource is a backhoe(s). This schedule is contingent on having 3 backhoes. You receive a call from your partner, Brooker, who desperately needs one of your backhoes. You tell Brooke
> You are creating a database for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Basketball team. Given the project network that follows, complete the forward and backward pass, compute activity slack, and identify the critical path. Use this information to create a Gant
> A large Southeast city is requesting federal funding for a park-and-ride project. One of the requirements in the request application is a network plan for the design phase of the project. Sophie Kim, the chief engineer, wants you to develop a project net
> K. Nelson, project manager of Print Software, Inc., wants you to prepare a project network; compute the early, late, and slack activity times; determine the planned project duration; and identify the critical path. His assistant has collected the followi
> You are creating a customer database for the Hillsboro Hops minor league baseball team. Draw a project network given the information in the table that follows. Complete the forward and backward pass, compute activity slack, and identify the critical path
> You have signed a contract to build a garage for the Simpsons. You will receive a $500 bonus for completing the project within 17 working days. The contract also contains a penalty clause in which you will lose $100 for each day the project takes longer
> How does the WBS differ from the project network?
> What is a hammock activity, and when is it used?
> What is the difference between free slack and total slack?
> Why bother creating a WBS? Why not go straight to a project network and forget the WBS?
> How are WBS and project networks linked?
> Review the front page of your local newspaper, and try to identify all the projects contained in the articles. How many were you able to find?
> You are creating a customer database for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs minor league baseball team. Draw a project network given the information below. Complete the forward and backward pass, compute activity slack, and identify the critical path. How lo
> Here is a partial work breakdown structure for a wedding. Use the method described in the Snapshot from Practice 6.1: The Yellow Sticky Approach to create a network for this project. Do not include summary tasks in the network (i.e., 1.3, Ceremony, is a
> The CyClon project team has started gathering information necessary to develop a project network—predecessor activities and activity time in days. The results of their meeting are found in the following table: Part A. Create a netwo
> The optical disk project team has started gathering the information necessary to develop the project network—predecessor activities and activity times in weeks. The results of their meeting are found in the following table The project
> Using Microsoft Project, set up the network and determine the critical path for Phase 1 of the Whistler Ski Resort project. The project workweek will be 5 days (M–F). Whistler Ski Resort Project Given the fact that the number of skiing visitors to Whis
> The planning department of an electronics firm has set up the activities for developing and production of a new MP3 Player. Given the information below, develop a project network using Microsoft Project. Assume a five-day workweek and the project starts
> You are managing a product upgrade project for Bangkokagogo. Given the project network that follows, complete the forward and backward pass, compute activity slack, and identify the critical path. Use this information to create a Gantt chart for the proj
> The G&E Company is preparing a bid to build the new 47,000-seat Shoreline baseball stadium. The construction must start on July 3, 2017, and be completed in time for the start of the 2020 season. A penalty clause of $250,000 per day of delay beyond A
> Brian Smith, network administrator at Advanced Energy Technology (AET), has been given the responsibility of implementing the migration of a large data center to a new office location. Careful planning is needed because AET operates in the highly competi
> How does the culture of an organization influence the quality of estimates?
> Develop a resource schedule in the loading chart that follows. Use the parallel method and heuristics given. Be sure to update each period as the computer would do. Note: activities 2, 3, 5, and 6 use two of the resource skills. Three of the resource sk
> Exercise Figure 5.1 is a project WBS with cost apportioned by percentages. If the total project cost is estimated to be $600,000, what are the estimated costs for the following deliverables? a. Design b. Programming c. In-house testing. What weaknesse
> What are the differences between bottom-up and top-down estimating approaches? Under what conditions would you prefer one over the other?
> Why are accurate estimates critical to effective project management?
> Why is it difficult to estimate mega project (e.g., airports, stadiums, etc.) costs and benefits?
> What are the major types of costs? Which costs are controllable by the project manager?
> Calculate the direct cost of labor for a project team member using the following data: Hourly rate: $40/hr Hours needed: 80 Overhead rate: 40%
> Firewall Project XT. Using the “complexity weighting” scheme shown in Table 5.3 and the function point complexity weight table shown below, estimate the total function point count. Assume historical data suggest five f
> Mrs. Tolstoy and her husband, Serge, are planning their dream house. The lot for the house sits high on a hill with a beautiful view of the Appalachian Mountains. The plans show the size of the house to be 2,900 square feet. The average price for a lot a
> Josh and Mike met each other as roommates during freshman year at MacAlister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite a rocky start they became best friends. They are planning on going on a two-week adventure together to celebrate their graduation in June
> Check out the Project Management Institute’s home page at www.pmi.org. a. Review general information about PMI as well as membership information. b. See if there is a PMI chapter in your state. If not, where is the closest one? c. Use the search functi
> Three years ago the Sharp Printing (SP) strategic management group set a goal of having a color laser printer available for the consumer and small business market for less than $200. A few months later the senior management met off-site to discuss the ne
> NSDC has a contract to produce eight satellites to support a worldwide telephone system (for Alaska Telecom, Inc.) that allows individuals to use a single, portable telephone in any location on earth to call in and out. NSDC will develop and produce the
> What does it mean if the priorities of a project include: Time-constrain, Scopeaccept, and Cost-enhance?
> What questions does a project objective answer? What would be an example of a good project objective?
> What are the six elements of a typical scope statement?
> When would it be appropriate to create a responsibility matrix rather than a fullblown WBS?
> How does a communication plan benefit management of projects?
> What kinds of information are included in a work package?
> In small groups, identify real life examples of a project that would fit each of the following priority scenarios: Time-constrain, Scope-enhance, Cost-accept Time-accept, Scope-constrain, Cost-accept Time-constrain, Scope-accept, Cost-enhance
> You are in charge of organizing a dinner-dance concert for a local charity. You have reserved a hall that will seat 30 couples and have hired a jazz combo. a. Develop a scope statement for this project that contains examples of all the elements. Assume
> You have prepared the following schedule for a project in which the key resource is a tractor(s). There are three tractors available to the project. Activities A and D require one tractor to complete while activities B, C, E, and F require 2 tractors. D
> Develop a WBS for a local stage play. Be sure to identify the deliverables and organizational units (people) responsible. How would you code your system? Give an example of the work packages in one of your cost accounts. Develop a corresponding OBS which
> Develop a WBS for a project in which you are going to build a bicycle. Try to identify all of the major components and provide three levels of detail.
> Lukas Nelson and his wife, Anne, and their three daughters had been living in their house for over five years when they decided it was time to make some modest improvements. One area they both agreed needed an upgrade was the bathtub. Their current house
> This chapter discussed the role of values and beliefs in forming an organization’s culture. The topic of organizational culture is big business on the Internet. Many companies use their Web pages to describe their mission, vision, and c
> What distinguishes a weak matrix from a strong matrix?
> What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the functional, matrix, and dedicated team approaches to managing projects?
> What do you believe is more important for successfully completing a project—the formal project management structure or the culture of the parent organization?
> Other than culture, what other organizational factors should be used to determine which project management structure should be used?
> Why is it important to assess the culture of an organization before deciding what project management structure should be used to complete a project?
> Individually, identify what you consider to be the greatest achievements of mankind in the last five decades. Now share your list with three to five other students in the class, and come up with an expanded list. Review these great achievements in terms
> How can project management offices (POs) support effective project management?
> Under what conditions would it be advisable to use a strong matrix instead of a dedicated project team?
> Going to college is analogous to working in a matrix environment in that most students take more than one class and must distribute their time across multiple classes. What problems does this situation create for you? How does it affect your performance?
> You work as an analyst in the marketing department for Springfield International (SI). SI uses a weak matrix to develop new services. Management has created an extremely competitive organizational culture that places an emphasis upon achieving results ab
> Use the cultural dimensions listed in Figure 3.5 to assess the culture of your school. Instead of employees, consider students, and instead of management, use faculty. For example, member identity refers to the degree to which students identify with the
> You work for Barbata Electronics. Your R&D people believe they have come up with an affordable technology that will double the capacity of existing MP3 players and use audio format that is superior to MP3. The project is code named KYSO (Knock Your Socks
> You work for LL Company, which manufactures high-end optical scopes for hunting rifles. LL Company has been the market leader for the past 20 years and has decided to diversify by applying its technology to develop a top-quality binocular. What kind of p
> Bruce Palmer had worked for Moss and McAdams (M&M) for six years and was just promoted to account manager. His first assignment was to lead an audit of Johnsonville Trucks. He was quite pleased with the five accountants who had been assigned to his team,
> Patti Smith looked up at the bright blue Carolina sky before she entered the offices of Horizon Consulting. Today was Friday, which meant she needed to prepare for the weekly status report meeting. Horizon Consulting is a custom software development comp
> Explain the role projects play in the strategic management process.
> Compute the early, late, and slack times for the activities in the network that follows, assuming a time-constrained network. Which activities are critical? What is the time-constrained project duration? Recall, in the schedule resource load chart the
> Why does the priority system described in this chapter require that it be open and published? Does the process encourage bottom-up initiation of projects? Does it discourage some projects? Why?
> The portfolio of projects is typically represented by compliance, strategic, and operations projects. What impact can this classification have on project selection?
> How are projects linked to the strategic plan?
> Describe the major components of the strategic management process.
> Discuss the pros and cons of the checklist versus the weighted factor method of selecting projects.
> Why should an organization not rely only on ROI to select projects?
> Pinyarat worked in the IT department of a diversified IT firm. She was describing the firm’s early encounters with critical-chain scheduling to a friend in another IT firm. Three years ago management decided to add 10 percent time to all activity estim
> In Chapter 6, Brian Smith, network administrator at Advanced Energy Technology (AET), was given the responsibility of implementing the migration of a large data center to a new office location. Careful planning was needed because AET operates in the hi
> International Capital, Inc. (IC), is a small investment banking firm that specializes in securing funds for small- to medium-sized firms. IC is able to use a standardized project format for each engagement. Only activity times and unusual circumstances c
> Why is it difficult to apply Agile PM to large-scale projects?
> What is iterative incremental development? Why is it useful for developing new products?
> Why is the traditional project management approach less effective when project scope and technology are not well known?
> What are the differences between a self-organizing team and a conventional project team?
> What similarities and differences exist between a traditional project manager and a Scrum master?
> You manage a hotel resort located on the South Beach on the Island of Kauai in Hawaii. You are shifting the focus of your resort from a traditional fun-in-the-sun destination to eco-tourism. (Eco-tourism focuses on environmental awareness and education.)
> What are the advantages of Agile PM? What are the disadvantages of Agile PM?
> You’ve just taken over a project from another project manager and have come back from a very uncomfortable meeting with your business sponsor. In the meeting, the sponsor told you how dissatisfied he is with the project’s performance to date and that he’
> Break into small groups and discuss the following question: What organizational, group, individual, and project factors do you think would promote the successful adoption of Agile PM methodologies like Scrum? Why?
> Kendra Hua had worked for six years as a software engineer in the IT department at Point 2 Point (P2P), a large freight moving company. She liked her job and the people she worked with. While she did some maintenance work, she worked primarily on project
> Why is it important to honor the customs and traditions of a country when working on an international project?
> What role do local intermediaries play in helping an outsider complete a project?
> How do environmental factors affect project implementation?
> How should you go about preparing yourself for an international project?
> What is culture shock? What can you do to reduce the negative effects of culture shock?
> Interview someone who has worked or lived in a foreign country for more than six months. a. What was his experience with culture shock? b. What did he learn about the culture of the country he lived in? c. What advice would he give to someone who woul
> The Custom Bike Company has set up a weighted scoring matrix for evaluation of potential projects. Below are five projects under consideration. a. Using the scoring matrix in the following chart, which project would you rate highest? Lowest? b. If the w
> Place in order the following countries in terms of what you would think would be the least to most corrupt: United States, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Australia, Hong Kong, Nepal, China, Kenya, Indonesia, Botswana, Greece, Chile. Use an Internet sea
> Try as best you can to apply the Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck cross-cultural framework to the four countries discussed in this chapter: Mexico, France, Saudi Arabia, and China. Where do you think these countries lie on each of the cultural issues?
> Michael Thomas shouted, “Sasha, Tor-Tor, we’ve got to go! Our driver is waiting for us.” Thomas’s two daughters were fighting over who would get the last orange for lunch that day. Victoria (“Tor-Tor”) prevailed as she grabbed the orange and ran out the
> On December 26, 2004, an earthquake reaching 9.1 on the Richter scale triggered a series of devastating tsunamis off the coast of Indonesia. They spread throughout the Indian Ocean, killing large numbers of people and inundating coastal communities acros
> What major information would you expect to find in a project review?
> Why is it difficult to perform a truly independent, objective review?
