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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 1
Project Management (MGT323)
Deadline:09/03/2024 @ 23:59
Course Name: Project Management
Course Code: MGT323
Student’s Name:
Semester: II
CRN: 26759
Student’s ID Number:
Academic Year:2023-24, II Term
For Instructor’s Use only
Instructor’s Name: Dr. Swapnali Baruah
Students’ Grade:
Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low
Marks Obtained/Out of 10
Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY
• 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.
• 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. Peer-review Journals should be included in
References.
• All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, doublespaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be
considered plagiarism).
• Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted.
Assignment Workload:
• This Assignment comprise of a Case Study.
• Assignment is to be submitted by each student individually.
Assignment Purposes/Learning Outcomes:
After completion of Assignment-1 students will able to understand the
1. Defining the concepts, theories and approaches of project management. (L.O-1.1)
2. Recognize the steps of planning process in the project management. (L.O-1.2)
3. Estimate the project budget and cost control. (L.O-2.2)
4. Analyze to work effectively and efficiently as a team member for project related cases.
(L.O-3.1)
Assignment-1-Case Study
Assignment Question:
(Marks 10)
Please read the Case-4.2 “The Home Improvement Project.” from
Chapter 4 “Defining the Project” given in your textbook – Project
Management: The Managerial Process 8th edition by Larson and Gray page
no: 132 also refer to specific concepts you have learned from the chapter to
support your answers. Answer the following questions with 500 Words
limit.
1. What factors and forces contributed to scope creep in this
case? (3 Marks)
2. Is this an example of good or bad scope creep? Explain. (3
Marks)
3. How could scope creep have been better managed by the
Nelsons? (4 Marks)
Answers:
1.
2.
3.
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 1
Decision Making and Problem Solving (MGT 312)
Due Date: 09-03-2024
Course Name: Decision Making and Problem Student’s Name:
Solving
Course Code: MGT312
Student’s ID Number:
Semester: Second
CRN: 26680
Academic Year:2023-24; SECOND SEMESTER
For Instructor’s Use only
Instructor’s Name: Dr. Farhat Anjum
Students’ Grade:
/ 10
Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low
General Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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.
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.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Define different perspectives and concepts of problem solving in diverse contexts
and business situations. (C.L.O :1.2)
2. Demonstrate decision tools and employ appropriate analytical business models to
break down complex issues. (C.L.O :2.2)
3. Explain and apply critical thinking and cognitive psychology as it pertains to
analyze and synthesize information for problem solving and decision making.
(C.L.O :2.1)
Case Study:
Talal, CEO and the president of a pharmaceutical company based in Riyadh. Talal is going
to retire after three months and has been asked to select his successor. He wanted to decide
one candidate from the following three best possible candidates he feels would best take
over his position.
1) Badar the VP – Marketing, Working with company from 20 years and under Talal
for 7 years.
2) Rayyan the VP-Operations, been with company 23 years has most experience.
3) Sayeed VP-HR, been with company for 15years but has worked his way up the
ladder impressively.
Outside the workplace Badar, Rayyan, Sayeed are close friends and after receiving word
that they are the finalists for the job promotion. Tension rises both within and outside the
workplace. They also find out that the decision will not be announced until few weeks,
which causes that tension to raise that much more. Outside the work the three close friends
have not talked nearly as much since the promotion announcements and is causing negative
effects in their home lives. With the three of them failing to communicate, they won’t know
how they each perceive the situation, thus building on the already present stress and anxiety.
Talal ultimately chooses Badar due to his experience under him as VP. This puts even more
responsibility in Badar’s hands. The decision surely sends shockwaves throughout the
company, starting with Rayyan and Sayeed. Rayyan is extremely upset with the decision,
and with him being a very verbally aggressive person, he starts to cause some conflict with
his work behaviour. Sayeed, who is also highly upset, decides he cannot work under Badar,
quits the job, and cuts off the friendship they had.
To resolve this conflict, Badar calls multiple meetings hoping to improve the
communication within the business, however, this backfires tremendously. Rayyan’s work
behaviour continues to spiral out of control and is constantly verbally aggressive in
meetings, targeting Badar in certain comments, which only makes things worse by making
the rest of the group uncomfortable, this leaves Badar clueless as what to do simply because
he has not done anything wrong. He was awarded a job promotion and has not done
anything to provoke Rayyan or Sayeed to act the way they have.
Read the above case study and answer the following questions:
Q1: What is the main problem in the above case?
[Marks 3]
Q2: Discuss the problem with 5-Why analysis. Draw a cause-and-effect diagram
based on the problem of the case?
[Marks 4]
Q2: If you are consultant and asked to solve the problem, how will you solve the
problem of case? What are the steps you will follow to solve? [Marks 3]
Answers
1. Answer2. Answer3. Answer-
create really neat T-shirts for the event. Others wondered where you get the
dye and if it is safe. Another talked about the importance of a website and
creating a digital account for registration. Others began to argue whether the
run should be done on campus or through the streets of their small college
town. One by one students excused themselves due to other commitments.
With only a few members remaining Brandon and Olivia adjourned the
meeting.
While Brandon took a sip of his IPA beer, Sierra pulled a book out of
her knapsack. “Sounds like what you need to do is create what my project
management professor calls a WBS for your project.” She pointed to a page
in her project management textbook showing a diagram of a WBS.
1. Make a list of the major deliverables for the 5k-run color project and use
them to develop a draft of the work breakdown structure for the project
that contains, when appropriate, at least three levels of detail.
2. How would developing a WBS alleviate some of the problems that
occurred during the first meeting and help Brandon organize and plan the
project?
Case 4.2
The Home Improvement Project
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 had one standard shower/bathtub
combination. Lukas was 6 feet four and could barely squeeze into it. In fact,
he had taken only one bath since they moved in. He and Anne both missed
soaking in the older, deep bathtubs they enjoyed when they lived back East.
Fortunately, the previous owners, who had built the house, had plumbed
the corner of a large exercise room in the basement for a hot tub. They
page 132
contacted a trusted remodeling contractor, who assured them it
would be relatively easy to install a new bathtub and it shouldn’t cost more
than $1,500. They decided to go ahead with the project.
First the Nelsons went to the local plumbing retailer to pick out a tub.
They soon realized that for a few hundred dollars more they could buy a big
tub with water jets (a Jacuzzi). With old age on the horizon a Jacuzzi
seemed like a luxury that was worth the extra money.
Originally the plan was to install the tub using the simple plastic frame
the bath came with and install a splash guard around the tub. Once Anne
saw the tub, frame, and splashguard in the room she balked. She did not like
how it looked with the cedar paneling in the exercise room. After
significant debate, Anne won out, and the Nelsons agreed to pay extra to
have a cedar frame built for the tub and use attractive tile instead of the
plastic splashguard. Lukas rationalized that the changes would pay for
themselves when they tried to sell the house.
The next hiccup occurred when it came time to address the flooring
issue. The exercise room was carpeted, which wasn’t ideal when getting out
of a bathtub. The original idea was to install relatively cheap laminated
flooring in the drying and undressing area adjacent to the tub. However, the
Nelsons couldn’t agree on the pattern to use. One of Anne’s friends said it
would be a shame to put such cheap flooring in such a nice room. She felt
they should consider using tile. The contractor agreed and said he knew a
tile installer who needed work and would give them a good deal.
Lukas reluctantly agreed that the laminated options just didn’t fit the
style or quality of the exercise room. Unlike the laminated floor debate,
both Anne and Lukas immediately liked a tile pattern that matched the tile
used around the tub. Anxious not to delay the project, they agreed to pay for
the tile flooring.
Once the tub was installed and the framing was almost completed, Anne
realized that something had to be done about the lighting. One of her
favorite things to do was to read while soaking in the tub. The existing
lights didn’t provide sufficient illumination for doing so. Lukas knew this
was “nonnegotiable” and they hired an electrician to install additional
lighting over the bathtub.
While the lighting was being installed and the tile was being laid,
another issue came up. The original plan was to tile only the exercise room
and use remnant rugs to cover the area away from the tub where the
Nelsons did their exercises. The Nelsons were very happy with how the tile
looked and fit with the overall room. However, it clashed with the
laminated flooring in the adjacent bathroom. Lukas agreed with Anne that it
really made the adjacent bathroom look cheap and ugly. He also felt the
bathroom was so small it wouldn’t cost much more.
After a week the work was completed. Both Lukas and Anne were quite
pleased with how everything turned out. It cost much more than they had
planned, but they planned to live in the house until the girls graduated from
college, so they felt it was a good long-term investment.
Anne had the first turn using the bathtub, followed by their three girls.
Everyone enjoyed the Jacuzzi. It was 10:00 p.m. when Lukas began running
water for his first bath. At first the water was steaming hot, but by the time
he was about to get in, it was lukewarm at best. Lukas groaned, “After
paying all of that money I still can’t enjoy a bath.”
The Nelsons rationed bathing for a couple weeks, until they decided to
find out what, if anything, could be done about the hot water problem. They
asked a reputable heating contractor to assess the situation. The contractor
reported that the hot water tank was insufficient to service a family of five.
page 133
This had not been discovered before because baths were rarely
taken in the past. The contractor said it would cost $2,200 to
replace the existing water heater with a larger one that would meet their
needs. The heating contractor also said if they wanted to do it right they
should replace the existing furnace with a more energy-efficient one. A new
furnace would not only heat the house but also indirectly heat the water
tank. Such a furnace would cost $7,500, but with the improved efficiency
and savings in the gas bill, the furnace would pay for itself in 10 years.
Besides, the Nelsons would likely receive tax credits for the more fuelefficient furnace.
Three weeks later, after the new furnace was installed, Lukas settled
into the new bathtub. He looked around the room at all the changes that had
been made and muttered to himself, “And to think that all I wanted was to
soak in a nice, hot bath.”
1. What factors and forces contributed to scope creep in this case?
2. Is this an example of good or bad scope creep? Explain.
3. How could scope creep have been better managed by the Nelsons?
Design elements: Snapshot from Practice, Highlight box, Case icon: ©Sky
Designs/Shutterstock
1The limitations of the waterfall method for software development have led to the
emergence of Agile project management methods that are the subject of Chapter 15.
2 For a more elaborate scheme for assessing stakeholders, see: Bourne, L. Stakeholder
Relationship Management (Farnham, UK: Gower, 2009).
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