Management Question

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Assignment Case Study: (Marks-6)

Please read the Case-5.2 “Post-Graduation Adventure.” from Chapter 5 “Estimating Project Times and Costs” given in your textbook – Project Management: The Managerial Process 8th edition by Larson and Gray page no: 164 also refer to specific concepts you have learned from the chapter to support your answers. Answer the questions asked in case study as deliverables where you should consider the milestones and technical requirements.

Assume you are either Mike or Josh; how would you go about making a decision using project management methodology? Explain in 250 words (2 Marks).
After cost, what other factors should be considered before making a decision?Explain in 250 words (2 Marks)
Discuss top-down and bottom-up estimating and different approaches used. (250 words) (2 Marks)
Discuss different project management structures. (250 words) (2 Marks)

2.Looking first at only cost, what decision would you make? Explain in 250 words (2 Marks).

Discussion Questions (4 Marks)

Answers:

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‫المملكة العربية السعودية‬
‫وزارة التعليم‬
‫الجامعة السعودية اإللكترونية‬
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Ministry of Education
Saudi Electronic University
College of Administrative and Financial Sciences
Assignment 2
Project Management (MGT 323)
Due Date: 11/11/2023 @ 23:59
Course Name: Project Management
Student’s Name:
Course Code: MGT323
Student’s ID Number:
Semester: First Semester
CRN:13882
Academic Year:2023-24
For Instructor’s Use only
Instructor’s Name: Dr. Majed Helmi
Students’ Grade: /10
Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low
General Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY
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The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated
folder.
Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted.
Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented, marks may be reduced
for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page.
Students must mention question number clearly in their answer.
Late submission will NOT be accepted. Peer-Reviewed Journals are required as
references.
Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other
resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions.
All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font. No
pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism).
Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted.
• Do not make any changes in the cover page.
Assignment Workload:
• This Assignment comprise of a Case Study and discussion questions.
• Assignment is to be submitted by each student individually.
Assignment Purposes/Learning Outcomes:
After completion of Assignment-2 students will be able to understand the
1. Recognize the steps of planning process in the project management.
(L.O-1.2)
2. Estimate the project budget and cost control. (L.O-2.2)
3. Analyze to work effectively and efficiently as a team member for
project related cases. (L.O-3.1)
Assignment-2
Assignment Case Study:
(Marks-6)
Please read the Case-5.2 “Post-Graduation Adventure.” from Chapter 5
“Estimating Project Times and Costs” given in your textbook – Project
Management: The Managerial Process 8th edition by Larson and Gray page
no: 164 also refer to specific concepts you have learned from the chapter to
support your answers. Answer the questions asked in case study as
deliverables where you should consider the milestones and technical
requirements.
1. Assume you are either Mike or Josh; how would you go
about making a decision using project management
methodology? Explain in 250 words (2 Marks).
2. Looking first at only cost, what decision would you
make? Explain in 250 words (2 Marks).
3. After cost, what other factors should be considered
before making a decision? Explain in 250 words (2 Marks)
Discussion Questions
(4 Marks)
4. Discuss top-down and bottom-up estimating and different
approaches used. (250 words) (2 Marks)
5. Discuss different project management structures. (250 words)
(2 Marks)
Answers:
The Blue Sky Project*
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 oceanography professor, Ahmet Green, creating a customized
database for a research project he was conducting. Green was recently appointed
director of Eastern Oceanography Institute (EOI), and Garth was confident that this
prior experience was instrumental in his getting the job as information services (IS)
director at the institute. Although he took a significant pay cut, he jumped at the
opportunity to return to his alma mater. His job at Bluegrass Systems had been very
demanding. The long hours and extensive traveling had created tension in his
marriage. He was looking forward to a
normal job with reasonable hours. Besides, Jenna, his wife, would be busy pursuing
her MBA at Eastern State University. While at Bluegrass, Garth worked on a wide
range of IS projects. He was confident that he had the requisite technical expertise
to excel at his new job.
Eastern Oceanography Institute was an independently funded research facility
aligned with Eastern State University. Approximately 50 full- and parttime staff
worked at the institute. They worked on research grants funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Nations (UN), as well as research
financed by private industry. There were typically 7 to 9 major research projects
under way at any one time, as well as 20 to 25 smaller projects. Onethird of the
institute’s scientists had part-time teaching assignments at ESU and used the
institute to conduct their own basic research.
FIRST YEAR AT EOI
Garth made a point of introducing himself to the various groups of people upon his
arrival at the institute. Still, his contact with the staff was limited. He spent most
of his time becoming familiar with EOI’s information system, training his staff,
responding to unexpected problems, and working on various projects. Garth
suffered from food allergies and refrained from informal staff lunches at nearby
restaurants. He stopped regularly attending the biweekly staff meetings in order to
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devote more time to his work. He only attended the meetings when there was a
specific agenda item regarding his operation.
The IS staff at EOI consisted of two full-time assistants, Tom Jackson and Grant
Hill. They were supported by five part-time student assistants from the Computer
Science Department. Grant Hill was assigned full-time to a large fiveyear NSF
grant aimed at creating a virtual library of oceanographic research. Grant worked
out of the project leader’s office and had very little interaction with Garth or Tom.
Garth’s relationship with Tom was awkward from the start. He found out, after the
fact, that Tom thought he would get the job as director. They never talked about it,
but he sensed tension the first couple of months on the job. One of the problems
was that he and Tom were totally different personalities. Tom was gregarious and
very talkative. He had a habit of walking around the institute after lunch, talking to
different scientists and researchers. Often this led to useful information. Garth, on
the other hand, preferred to stay in his office, working on various assignments, and
ventured out only when called upon. While Garth felt Tom was not on top of the
latest developments, as he was, he respected Tom’s work.
Last month the system was corrupted by a virus introduced over the Internet.
Garth devoted an entire weekend to restoring the system to operation. A recurring
headache was one of the servers, code-named “Poncho,” that would occasionally
shut down for no apparent reason. Instead of replacing it, he decided to nurse
Poncho along until it could be replaced. His work was page 385 frequently interrupted
by frantic calls from staff researchers who needed immediate help on a variety of
computer-related problems. He was shocked at how computer illiterate some of the
researchers were and how he had to guide them through some of the basics of email management and database configuration. He did find time to help Assistant
Professor Amanda Johnson on a project. Amanda was the only researcher to
respond to Garth’s e-mail announcing that the IS staff was available to help on
projects. Garth created a virtual project office on the Internet so that Amanda could
collaborate with colleagues from institutes in Italy and Thailand on a UN research
grant. He looked forward to the day when he could spend more time on fun projects
like that.
THE BLUE SKY CONVERSION PROJECT
The “Blue Sky” conversion project began in earnest four months ago. Ahmet Green
returned from Washington, D.C., with grim news. The economic downturn was
going to lead to a dramatic reduction in funding. He anticipated as much as a
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25 percent reduction in annual budget over the next three to five years. This would
lead to staff reductions and cutting of operating costs. One cost-cutting measure
was moving IT operations to the “cloud.” Ahmet had first proposed the idea to
Garth after attending a meeting with several directors of other institutes who faced
similar financial challenges.
The basic strategy was to move all of the institute’s databases, software, and
even hardware to a “private cloud.” Staff would use their current PCs to simply
access more powerful machines over the Internet. These powerful machines could
be partitioned and configured differently according to the needs of research staff,
giving each staff member his or her own virtual machine (VM). Staff could also
access, use, and share virtual servers over the Internet as needed. Garth worked
with the institute’s accountant on a cost/benefit analysis. From their standpoint it
made perfect sense. First, the institute would not have to replace or upgrade aging
computers and servers. Second, the institute would enjoy significant IT savings,
since they would pay for only IT resources actually used. They would not have to
make any major IT capital expenditures. Third, cloud computing would provide
the scientists greater flexibility by accessing desired resources or software from
anywhere at any time. And finally, once the system was up and running, the
institute would no longer need the services of at least one full-time IT worker.
Ahmet decided to name the project “Blue Sky” to put a positive spin on the
conversion.
At first the associate directors balked at the idea. Some had a hard time
conceptualizing what cloud computing meant. Others were worried about security
and reliability. In the end they reluctantly signed off on the project when given
alternative cost-cutting initiatives. Garth assured them that cloud computing was
the wave of the future and setting up or accessing virtual machines on the “cloud”
was as simple as setting up or accessing their g-mail account.
The conversion project would be completed in stages. The first stage was
selecting a provider. The next stage was migrating non–mission critical
information to the cloud. The next stages would entail migrating each of the six big
grant projects in waves to the cloud. The final stage would focus on the remaining
smaller projects. Training would be an integral part of each stage. The institute
would maintain a back-up for all the data until six months after complete
conversion. After that the cloud service provider would be responsible for backing
up the data.
At first Tom was excited about the project. He was savvy enough to realize that
this was the future of computing and he was intrigued with how the whole system
would work. His feelings soon changed when he started thinking about the
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potential ramifications for his job. He asked Garth more than once what the
department would look like after the conversion. Garth replied vaguely that they
would figure it out once the system was up and running.
A task force was formed, headed by Garth, to select a cloud service provider.
Garth was surprised by how many choices there were. Plans and cost structures
varied considerably. After much deliberation the committee page 386 narrowed the
choices to three. The first two were among the bigger providers in the industry,
VMWARE and Microsoft. The third choice was a relatively new company,
OpenRange, which offered a cheaper solution. Tom argued that even though the
bigger providers would cost more, they were a much safer bet. Garth responded
that he had confidence in OpenRange and cutting costs was the primary goal
behind the project. In the end, Garth persuaded the committee to choose
OpenRange. Not only would cost be significantly cheaper, but OpenRange would
help in training the personnel. Garth liked this idea; training was not his strength,
and he wasn’t looking forward to holding senior scientists’ hands through the
process.
It took Garth and Tom six weeks to identify noncritical data. Garth worked on
the back end while Tom met with staff to identify noncritical information. The
motto was when in doubt, leave it out. The actual migration only took a couple of
days. Training proved to be more problematic. The staff sent by OpenRange
appeared to be straight out of college. While enthusiastic, they were inexperienced
in the art of getting older staff to accept and use new technology. Many trainers
had the habit of simply doing things for the staff instead of showing them how to
do it themselves. It all came to a head when a power outage at the OpenRange
storage system shut down and disrupted operations at the institute for 36 hours.
Ahmet held an emergency meeting. Garth reported that the power outage
occurred in North East India and that OpenRange was expanding their back-up
systems. Several members argued that the institute should switch to one of the
bigger providers. When this came up Garth looked at Tom and was relieved when
he remained silent. In the end, Ahmet announced that it would be too costly to
switch providers and Garth and his staff would have to make the conversion work.
Tom stepped forward and volunteered to manage the training. Everyone agreed that
the institute should hire three more part-time assistants to help the staff with the
transition.
Garth worked behind the scenes, coordinating with his counterparts at
OpenRange and planning the conversion of the next segment of the project. Tom
worked closely with the OpenRange trainers and refocused their attention on
teaching. Resistance was pretty high at first. Tom used his personal contacts within
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the institute to rally support for the change. He persuaded Garth to change the
conversion schedule to begin with those projects in which the leads were most
supportive of the change. Training improved and Tom created some useful training
materials, including short videos on how to access the virtual machines.
One problem that occurred early in the process involved a graduate research
assistant who mistakenly hit the wrong commands and terminated her virtual
machine instead of logging off. This resulted in complete loss of that machine’s
data in the cloud. Fortunately, the institute had back-up and Tom was able to
recover the work. Collaborating with some programmers at OpenRange, Tom
wrote a program that triggered a pop-up message on the screen, warning users not
to terminate their virtual machine when logging off.
CLOSING OUT THE BLUE SKY PROJECT
It took almost a year to complete the Blue Sky project. After the rocky beginning
things went relatively smoothly. Acceptance was slow, but Tom and his staff
worked with the staff to demonstrate how the new system would make their work
easier. Two student assistants were always on call to address any problem or
question. Garth spent most of his time interacting with the OpenRange counterparts
and rarely ventured out of his office. He had his student assistants collect
information from staff so he could configure the new virtual machines to exactly
match staff needs. He put in long hours so that customized databases would work
in the new environment. This proved to be a very difficult task and he was quite
pleased with his work. Twice OpenRange experienced page 387 momentary power
shortages at their server facility, which disrupted work at the institute. Garth was
happy to report that OpenRange was breaking ground on an alternative server
system in Ukraine.
When the institute conducted a retrospective (project review) on the Blue Sky
project, some still questioned the choice of OpenRange as a cloud service provider
but praised Tom’s work on helping the staff make the transition. Despite the
criticism over the choice of OpenRange, Garth felt good about the project. The
system was up and running and the staff was beginning to enjoy the flexibility it
provided. Besides, the institute would achieve real savings from the new system.
Soon after the retrospective, Garth was surprised when Ahmet walked into his
office and closed the door. Ahmet began by thanking Garth for his work on the
project. He then cleared his throat and said, “You know, Garth, one of the
consequences of Blue Sky is reducing our IT staff. Grant Hill is needed for the data
library project. So it comes down to you or Tom. Frankly, there is general
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agreement among the associate directors that Tom is essential to the institute. I
know this might come as a surprise to you, and before I make a decision I want to
give you a chance to change my mind.”
1. If you were Garth, how would you respond to the director?
2. What mistakes did Garth make?
3. What are the lessons to be learned from this case?
*
Prepared by Erik Larson and V. T. Raja, senior instructor at the College of Business, Oregon
State University.
Case 10.2
Tom Bray
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 AtlantiCorp, a major financial
institution headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Tom’s group was responsible
for installing the furniture and equipment in the newly renovated Accounts
Receivable Department on the third floor. The Pegasus project was a dedicated
project team formed out of AtlantiCorp’s Facilities Department, with Tom as the
project lead.
Tom was excited because this was his first major league project and he was
looking forward to practicing a new management style—management by
wandering around (MBWA). He had been exposed to MBWA in a business class
in college, but it wasn’t until he attended an AtlantiCorp leadership training
seminar that he decided to change how he managed people. The trainer was a
devout MBWA champion (“You can’t manage people from a computer!”).
Furthermore, the testimonies from his peers reinforced the difference that MBWA
can make when it comes to working on projects.
Tom had joined the facilities group at AtlantiCorp five years earlier after
working for Electronic Data Systems for six years. He quickly demonstrated
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technical competencies and good work habits. He was encouraged to take all the
internal project management workshops offered by AtlantiCorp. On his last two
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