Tree Trimming Project Wil Fence is a large timber and Christmas tree farmer who is attending a project management class in the spring, his off season. When the class topic came to earned value, he was perplexed. Isn’t he using EV? Each summer Wil hires crews to shear fields of Christmas trees for the coming holiday season. Shearing entails having a worker use a large machete to shear the branches of the tree into a nice, cone-shaped tree. Wil describes his business as follows: . I count the number of Douglas Fir Christmas trees in the field (24,000). . Next, I agree on a contract lump sum for shearing with a crew boss for the whole field ($30,000). . When partial payment for work completed arrives (5 days later), I count or estimate the actual number sheared (6,000 trees). I take the actual as a percent of the total to be sheared and multiply the percent complete by total contract amount for the partial payment [(6,000/$30,000 = 25%), (.25 × $30,000 = $7500)]. Is Wil over, on, or below cost and schedule? Is Wil using earned value? How can Wil set up a scheduling variance?
> How did the project management system evolve at Navy Federal Credit Union?
> Assume you are to command a similar mission. What are two things you would insist on, based on what you learned about Eagle Claw?
> What could the NBA have done differently to increase the likelihood of success?
> How did the culture of the NBA affect this project?
> Brandon was having an ale with his girlfriend, Sierra, when the subject of the Omega Theta Pi 5K-run project came up. Brandon has been chosen to chair the 5K-charity run for his fraternity. At the time, Brandon thought it would look good on his resume an
> What was Sally able to achieve by holding a wake for the canceled project?
> Why do organizations use the percent complete instead of the cheaper, easier pseudo-earned value percent approach?
> How did limiting work packages to one week help management identify problems sooner?
> What additional information would you like to have in order to assess performance on the project?
> Based on the information provided in Exhibit 13.2, how well is the Decommissioning project doing in terms of cost and schedule?
> Should milestones only be on the critical path?
> Why should a milestone be a concrete, specific, measurable event?
> Does partnering only work on construction projects?
> What best practices are evident in this snapshot?
> Has anyone used these strategies when dealing with foreigners? Or wish he or she had?
> Patti Smith looked up at the bright blue Carolina sky before she entered the offices of Horizon Consulting. It was Friday, which meant she needed to prepare for the weekly status report meeting. Horizon Consulting is a custom software development company
> What does this project say about the importance of taking a socio-technical approach to projects?
> What disadvantages of outsourcing were evident in the Boeing 787 project?
> How did Singer establish effective patterns of communication?
> How did Singer enhance trust on his project?
> Looking back on your experience working on low-priority projects, did any of these strategies work?
> In addition to acting as a cheerleader, what other important roles does Tom West suggest a project manager play?
> How easy do you think it is to identify people who respond to challenges?
> What similarities do you see between the Ford Diesel team and the Mac team at Apple and the Skunk Works at Lockheed?
> How important is a fun culture for innovation?
> Which of the eight characteristics associated with positive synergy were not evident in the 2004 team that lost in the Olympics in Athens?
> 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,
> How does the nominal group technique prevent groupthink from occurring on a project?
> What do you think would have happened if the work had been completed in Japan instead of Australia?
> Which of the eight characteristics associated with positive synergy were evident in the case of the Redeem team?
> What aspects of the Arthur Andersen culture contributed to the scandal?
> It seems like every 5–10 years a scandal damages, if not brings down, a well- known business. Is this inevitable, given the competitive nature of business?
> What do you think would have happened to the crew of the Endurance if Shackleton had not led by example?
> How important is leading by example on a project?
> Can you think of other metaphors that would be appropriate?
> What aspects of being a project manager are not reflected in this metaphor?
> Why is a conductor of an orchestra an appropriate metaphor for a project manager?
> The purpose of this case is to give you experience in using a project priority system that ranks proposed projects by their contribution to the organization’s objectives and strategic plan. COMPANY PROFILE The company is the film divisi
> Have you ever used bets to motivate someone? How effective was it?
> Wui arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in the middle of summer, unprepared for humidity and heat. The first day he bought a lightweight, breathable business suit. He was helped by a salesgirl who smiled as she packed the coat and slacks into a box. Americans ar
> 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
> 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
> Ken Buttrey scratched his head as he looked over an e-mail from John Barbata. Ken was the team lead on the Jasper Jones project. He and 13 other developers were charged with creating Jasper Jones (JJ), a new character to appear in the next edition of the
> Kendra Hua 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 projects, u
> Olaf Gundersen, the CEO of Wireless Telecom Company, is in a quandary. Last year he accepted the Maximum Megahertz project suggested by six up-and-coming young R&D corporate stars. Although Olaf did not truly understand the technical importance of the pr
> You are a member of a project management practicum class. The major assignment for this class is to plan and implement a fund-raising project that will raise at least $1,500 and provide an opportunity to practice project management. You have joined a gro
> Scanner Project You have been serving as Electroscan’s project manager and are now well along in the project. Develop a narrative status report for the board of directors of the chain store that discusses the status of the project to da
> Ventura Stadium Status Report Case You are an assistant to Percival Young, president of G&E Company. He has asked you to prepare a brief report on the status of the Ventura Stadium project. Ventura Stadium is a 47,000-seat professional baseball stadi
> Hector Gaming Company (HGC) is an educational gaming company specializing in young children’s educational games. HGC has just completed their fourth year of operation. This year was a banner year for HGC. The company received a large influx of capital fo
> The purpose of this case is to provide you with an opportunity to practice negotiations. PROCEDURE STEP 1 The class is divided into four groups, each comprising the project management group for one of four projects at Goldrush Electronics. STEP 2 Read
> Chad Cromwell, head of university housing, gazed up at the tower at Buxton Hall and smiled as he walked toward the landmark building. Buxton Hall was built in 1927 as a residential complex for over 350 students at Pacifica State University. At the time,
> Sitting in her office, Karin Chung is reviewing the past four months of the large corporate accounting software installation project she has been managing. Everything seemed so well planned before the project started. Each company division had a task for
> Shell Case Fabricators (SCF) designs and builds shell casings that enclose electronic products such as calculators, cell phones, and modems. Typically the cases are plastic or plastic compounds. SCF has six different production lines that cover different
> Franklin Equipment, Ltd. (FEL), with headquarters and main fabrication facilities in Saint John, New Brunswick, was founded 75 years ago to fabricate custom-designed, large machines for construction businesses in the Maritime Provinces. Over the years it
> Tran was taking his dog, Callie, on her evening walk as the sun began to set over the coastal range. He looked forward to this time of the day. It was an opportunity to enjoy some peace and quiet. It was also a time to review events on the Ajax project a
> Amber Briggs looked nervously at her watch as she sat at the front of a large table in the cafeteria at Kerzner Office Equipment. It was now 10 minutes after 3:00 and only 10 of the 14 members had arrived for the first meeting of the Kerzner anniversary
> Cerberus is a successful producer of specialty chemicals. It operates nine large campus sites in the United States, with a number of different business units on each site. These business units operate independently, with direct reporting to corporate hea
> Tom Bray was mulling over today’s work schedule as he looked across the bay at the storm that was rolling in. It was the second official day of the Pegasus project and now the real work was about to begin. Pegasus was a two-month renovation project for A
> The purpose of this “case exercise” is to provide you with experience in using a project selection process that ranks proposed projects by their contribution to an organization’s mission and strategy.
> Garth Hudson was a 29-year-old graduate of Eastern State University (ESU) with a BS degree in management information systems. After graduation he worked for seven years at Bluegrass Systems in Louisville, Kentucky. While at ESU he worked part time for an
> Several complications arose during the course of trying to meet the deadline of January 20 for the “Now” wedding rehearsal. Since Lauren was adamant on having the wedding on January 21 (as was Connor for obvious reasons), the implications of each of thes
> On December 31 of last year, Lauren burst into the family living room and announced that she and Connor (her college boyfriend) were going to be married. After recovering from the shock, her mother hugged her and asked, “When?” The following conversation
> Rassy and the team were concerned with the results of your analysis. They spent the afternoon brainstorming alternative ways for shortening the project duration. They rejected outsourcing activities because most of the work was developmental in nature an
> You are the assistant project manager to Rassy Brown, who is in charge of the Nightingale project. Nightingale was the code name given to the development of a handheld electronic medical reference guide. Nightingale would be designed for emergency medica
> Each year countries enter their sailing vessels in the nine-month Round the World Whitbread Sailboat Race. In recent years about 14 countries entered sailboats in the race. Each year’s sailboat entries represent the latest technologies
> This case is based on a project introduced in Chapter 6 (p. 209). You will need to use the project plan created in the Ventura Baseball Stadium case to complete this assignment. Ventura Baseball Stadium is a 47,000-seat professional baseball stadium. G&E
> Given the project network derived in Part A of the case from Chapter 7, Appendix 7.1, Beth also wants to be prepared to answer any questions concerning compressing the project duration. This question will almost always be entertained by the Accounting De
> On June 23, 2018, in Thailand, a group of 12 boys aged between 11 and 17 from the local football team, named the Wild Boars, and their 23-year-old assistant coach entered the Tham Luang cave. Tham Luang is a large cave complex in northern Thailand along
> We have great information systems for reporting, tracking, and controlling costs on design projects. Our planning of projects is better than any I have seen at other companies. Our scheduling seemed to serve us well when we were small and we had only a f
> Fatma settled down for lunch at the Yank Sing Chinese restaurant. She was early and took the time to catch up on her e-mail. Soon she would be joined by Jasper and Viktoria, two fellow 2014 grads from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Jasper worked
> What kinds of projects is Agile PM best suited for and why?
> Describe the four phases of the traditional project life cycle. Which phase do you think would be the most difficult one to complete?
> What are some of the key environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed? What has been the effect of these forces on the management of projects?
> Jack and Jill Smith have just retired and want to build a small, basic cabin in the Blue Mountains of Vermont. They have hired Daryl Hannah as the general contractor for the project. She has assembled a team of three workers to complete the project: Tom,
> Define a project. What are five characteristics that help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization?
> How does a Kanban board work?
> Why should an organization be interested in knowing what level they are at in the project maturity model?
> How can outsourcing increase the quality of work performed?
> Trust can actually encourage disagreement and conflict among team members.” Explain why this would be the case.
> Which of the eight traits/skills associated with being an effective project manager is the most important? The least important? Why?
> Define a white elephant in project management. Provide a real-life example.
> What are the eight elements of a typical scope statement?
> The technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management are two sides of the same coin. Explain.
> The Munsters have been saving money in order to buy a house. They figure that, given current interest rates, they could afford a $400,000 home. Before looking at houses on the market they decide to explore the possibility of building a new home. The Muns
> Bill (senior VP of product development): Carlos [project manager], we have to talk. I am concerned about the way we manage project risk here at Futuronics. I just came from an international “Future Mote Devices” meeting at UC Berkeley. [Note: A mote is a
> Calculate the direct and total direct costs of labor for a project team member using the following data: Hourly rate: $50/hr Hours needed: 100 Overhead rate: 30%
> Calculate the direct cost of labor for a project team member using the following data: Hourly rate: $50/hr Hours needed: 120 Overhead rate: 40%
> Safety is a major concern when working on projects abroad. Select a country that you would consider dangerous to work in and look up the travel advisory provided for that country by the U.S. State Department (http://travel.state.gov/). How safe is it to
> Following are four mini-cases from practice. Break into small groups and (1) analyze the case and (2) provide five recommendations for the IT Department.
> Access agilealliance.org and review the subsections Agile 101 and Timeline. What do they have to say about how Agile evolved and gained acceptance in the project management community?
> Use a project you are currently working on to hold a Scrum meeting according to the steps outlined in Figure 15.5. Designate one member to act as the Scrum master and hold a standing meeting that lasts no longer than 15 minutes. Assess the value of such
> Break into small groups and identify at least two real-life examples of projects in which a. The scope and technology are well known. b. The scope is well known but the technology is less well known. c. The scope is not well known but the technology is k
> Interview a project manager who works for an organization that implements multiple projects. Ask the manager what kind of closure procedures are used to complete a project and whether lessons learned are used.
> Given the following project network, baseline, and status information, develop status reports for periods 1–4 and complete the project summary graph (or a similar one). Report the final SV, CV, CPI, and PCIB. Based on your data, what is
> Review the network of stakeholders on p. 358 (Figure 10.1). Choose five different stakeholders and provide examples of why a project manager would need to negotiate with that stakeholder.
> You are a member of the X State University (XSU) student body entertainment committee. Your committee has agreed to sponsor a spring concert. The motive behind this concert is to offer a safe alternative to Hasta Weekend. Hasta Weekend is a spring event
> Break into four groups and review the instructions for a “Get the most you can” exercise provided by your teacher. Complete the exercise. What was your initial strategy? Did it change? If so, why? What does this exercise tell you about our ability to col
> Enter “outsourcing” in an Internet search engine and browse different websites. Who appears to be interested in outsourcing? What are the advantages of outsourcing? What are the disadvantages? Does outsourcing mean the same thing to different people? Wha
> The following activities are based on a current or recently completed group project that you are (were) involved in. This project may be a student project, a work project, or an extracurricular project. a. How strong is the team identity on this project
> The following activities are based on a recently completed group project that you were involved in. This project may have been a student project, a work project, or an extracurricular project. a. Analyze the development of the team in terms of the five-s
