Project Management in Business Leadership

Instructions

Please put your name/date in the header. Answers should be no longer than six sentences per question. Please refer to the class syllabus for the grading rubric. Assignment is worth a total of 5 points. Case Studies can be found at the end of each chapter.

Please save the file using the following naming system: Class_Name_Week#_Assignment. For example, if Rosie Dodson was submitting her week 7 homework, her file would be saved with the following title: MGMT410_RDodson_week7_homework.

After reading Case Study 13.1, please answer the following questions:

1. As a consultant monitoring this problem, what solutions will you propose? To what degree has Dan’s management style contributed to the problems?

I will propose that Dan have a meeting with the project management team’s leaders. During this meeting, they would discuss their plans and analyze each of the projects giving Dan a better understanding of the projects. After the meeting, Dan should become more proactive in tracking the projects and implement corrective measures that will require project team leaders to only take on projects they can handle. This can be done using tools such as the Gantt chart that will allow for more effective project management. By failing to implement all these measures, Dan’s management style effectively contributed to the problems at hand. He adopted a laissez-faire management style and this caused the project management teams to relax and become less productive.

2. What are some types of project status information you could suggest the project team leaders begin to collect in order to assess the status of their projects?

Status reports give project managers and team leaders a critical view of the current status of the projects and should contain vital and correct information about the project’s progress. This includes actual detailed information about each project. This includes the up-to-date actual status of the project and information about any re-baselining what has been done. It should also contain a summary of any changes and progress of the project. An aggregate summary of the project’s portfolio can also prove useful and should be included in the status report. Lastly, the report should contain a summary of the project with information that can be presented to external parties.

3. How would you blend “hard data” and “managerial or behavioral” information to create a comprehensive view of the status of ongoing projects in the IT department at Kimble College?

“Hard data” is the data in the form of numbers or graphs and is the opposite of qualitative information while Managerial or behavioral information often falls under the “soft data” category and contains elements that are hard to measure. One of the ways of creating a comprehensive view of both aspects is using earned value. Earned value provides a concise and timely view of the project’s progress. Since it uses a schedule breakdown and budget that matches up the setup of the timekeeping system, earned value is one of the indispensable communication tools that can be used to handle “soft issues” that managerial or behavioral information often present. Since it also takes “hard data” such as budget breakdowns into consideration, it can be used to blend both aspects. Therefore, it can be used to create a comprehensive view of the status of an ongoing project in the IT department at Kimble College.