...Senior Project People in the government offices and on the worksite work tirelessly to approve and solve many problems ranging from basic service fulfillment to catastrophic emergency contingencies. Cities are complex machines that requires constant upkeep and maintenance from many agencies that face a multitude of interconnecting and magnitudinal tasks in order to keep it a productive, efficient, and clean population center. Civil engineering and complex procedures keep a city in working order, and infrastructure is the keystone of concerns and problems that people in these departments face. In the city infrastructure is broken down into two categories, hard infrastructure, the physical manifestation of services such as transportation, energy, information, and sanitation. Things like roads, power lines, and sewers fall into this category. The other is “soft” infrastructure, things such as law, accounting/ finance. and business capabilities fall into this. Hard infrastructure is what really drives a city, and allows it to grow and...
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...Case Study Analysis: The Reluctant Workers Name Withheld BUS xxx-Business Class Professor Name Withheld Saturday, May x, 20xx Case Study Analysis: The Reluctant Workers Tim Aston, a young Project Manager only three months into the company, is experiencing difficulty with the operation of his project. The case study is a dialog between Tim and his director, Phil Davies, concerning the advancement of the project. The analysis is on three of the ten effective program management skills and the improvements that should be made for the project to succeed. The three skills identified and analyzed are team building, leadership, and management support, based on my interpretation of the case study. I also have recommendations for both the project manager and the director of project management that will improve environment for the project, and the relationship between the project manager and his staff, and between the project manager and the director of project management. Team Building Team building is described as one of the main responsibilities of the program manager.. "Team building involves a whole spectrum of management skills required to identify, commit, and integrate the various task groups from the traditional functional organization into a single program management system. To be effective, the program manager must provide an atmosphere conducive to teamwork." (Kerzner, 2009, p 148-149) The characteristics for effective team building are choosing committed workers...
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...PROJECT FEASIBILITY DOCUMENT |Project name |insert project name | |Release |Draft/Final | | |Date: | |Author: | | |Project | | |Director: | | |Project | | |Champion: | | |Accountable | | |Body: | | |Executive Summary ...
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...Case Studies Radical innovation at Philips Lighting 1.0 Introduction To state the obvious, radical innovation isn’t easy. It involves taking a leap into the unknown – and is particularly difficult for established organizations who have a track record of success which they don’t want to put at risk. So how does an organization jump the tracks? How can it switch off its immune system and open itself up to new – and potentially dangerous – inputs? How can it reframe, let go of its old ways of looking at the world and take on something which is very new – but by definition untried and risky? These are not academic challenges but the very stuff of innovation management – the essence of what it means to lead strategically. Put very simply, innovation is a survival imperative. If organizations don’t change what they offer the world – products and services – and the ways in which they create and deliver those offerings (processes) then they risk being left behind and at the limit disappearing. History shows us an almost Darwinian pattern of the rise of new entrepreneurial and agile organizations which mature, become comfortable and then fat and gradually lose their edge. Middle age gives way to a kind of sclerosis where change is reduced to smaller and smaller increments until one day the organization is upstaged by external events and unable to move fast enough to cope. It is the new kids on the block who exploit the new technology, pick up on the new market...
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...PAPERS How Effective Are Project Management Methodologies? An Explorative Evaluation of Their Benefits in Practice Hany Wells, Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England ABSTRACT I INTRODUCTION I This article investigates the benefits and supports provided by project management methodologies (PMMs) to project managers for the management and delivery of information technology/ information system (IT/IS) projects. Using a qualitative approach, through case study strategy, the role of PMMs is examined in different business and project contexts. This article evaluates the benefit of PMMs based on their traits and characteristics and investigates PMMs in their operational context: where PMMs come from and how they support practitioners. The findings suggest a misalignment between the intended benefit of PMMs at the strategic level and the reported benefits by project managers at the project level. Additionally, it is shown that practitioners’ expertise, accountability, and attitudes all have a direct influence on the extent to which PMMs contribute to and benefit the management of projects. report from former UK Health Secretary Andrew Lansley captured the attention of many by highlighting that “Labour’s IT programme let down the NHS [National Health Service] and wasted taxpayers’ money by imposing a top-down IT system on the local NHS, which didn’t fit their needs” (BBC News, 2011). This report highlighted...
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...* ------------------------------------------------- SIDE NOTES * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- BUSINESS SCHOOL CASES * ------------------------------------------------- BEST MBA TEXTBOOKS * ------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE Part-time MBA Degree in DC Blog on in and out of class experience of part-time MBA student at GWU School of Business Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group Case Analysis APRIL 12, 2011 The presented case of Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group engagement with SKS Manufacturing is offering invaluable lessons in team and project management. It briefly touches upon all major facets of the consulting company involvement with client projects, such as: • Engagement planning • Team selection • Roles and responsibilities of team members • Background and qualifications of key people • Client participation • Gathering and analyzing data • Making recommendations Most importantly, however, the case is emphasizing the need for the proper balance between the core competencies that consulting companies bring to the table in their engagement with the clients. Namely, the balance between the technical knowledge and skills vs. internal communication...
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... Assignment 8: The Reluctant Workers Project Management Prepared for: Professor Larry Grant THE RELUCTANT WORKERS 2 Introduction The objective of this paper is to exam the Reluctant Workers Case. The three core skills that played a role in the case study will be analyzed. The project manager’s skills and relationship with the project staff and functional managers will be discussed. Degrees of support for the project and project manager will be examined. The study concludes by making recommendations to the company on how it can assist the project manager Tim Aston in becoming an effective project manager. Three Core Skills The three core skills that were at play in the case of the reluctant workers are, team building, management support, and conflict resolution. 1. Team building – According to Kerzner, “building the program team is one of the prime responsibilities of the program manager” (Kerzner, 2009,p.149). The project manager’s responsibility it to make the team work by motivating the project staff. The staff should feel that the project manager has an open door policy. The key is for the project manager to learn how to communicate successfully. The manager must show the team members he has a sincere interest in their thoughts and would like them to be as committed as he or she is to the project. THE RELUCTANT WORKERS ...
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...Summary of HH Gregg Case Study The HH Gregg case study was a classic case of a company making a litany of bad business decisions being made more complicated by a culture of procrastination. Unlike the MSCC case study, HH Gregg appeared to have sufficient finances to undertake the Information Technology platform upgrade. Not only did they appear to possess the resources, they also had ample notification regarding when Hewlett Packard (HP) would discontinue support of the older HP 3000 system. A knowledgeable CIO was in place to ensure that the upgrade was being done by someone qualified to handle such an undertaking. Although the CIO, Mr. John Burns had an extensive background with the company and experience with the aging HP 3000 platform, he inexplicably left the company months before the deadline to transition. In no part of the case study did I see senior decision makers give a “drop dead date” to when they would migrate to a new system, or simply make a decision as to what system they would choose. The old CIO conducted countless visits from all of the significant software vendors, but in the end a decision was delayed and not one vendor was chosen. When the new CIO came on board, he was immediately handed a project that had been kicked around in the company for the previous three years. On top of being given such a huge and important task, he was required to make a decision quickly and ensure a smooth transition from the old platform. Based on previous estimates...
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...Management, Southern Cross University, Australia, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration 15 May 2009 Statement of Original Authorship I certify that the substance of this thesis has not currently been submitted for any degree and has not previously being submitted for any other degree. I also certify that to the best of my knowledge any help received in preparing this thesis and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis. Signed ………………………………………………. Ken Lovell 15 May 2009 K Lovell: SHRM in Australia Page i Acknowledgements This study had its origins in my curiosity about the divergence that I perceived to exist between the management practices recommended in scholarly literature, and often by professional HR managers, and the actions and priorities of senior managers in Australian organisations. I worked as a senior executive in a construction...
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...Management, Southern Cross University, Australia, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration 15 May 2009 Statement of Original Authorship I certify that the substance of this thesis has not currently been submitted for any degree and has not previously being submitted for any other degree. I also certify that to the best of my knowledge any help received in preparing this thesis and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis. Signed ………………………………………………. Ken Lovell 15 May 2009 K Lovell: SHRM in Australia Page i Acknowledgements This study had its origins in my curiosity about the divergence that I perceived to exist between the management practices recommended in scholarly literature, and often by professional HR managers, and the actions and priorities of senior managers in Australian organisations. I worked as a senior executive in a construction...
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...Assignment 3: Selling Executives on Project Management Deborah Miller Strayer University Project Management BUS 375 Professor George Dollar May 22, 2015 1. Analyze the fundamental reasons why the executives in the case refused to listen to their own employees but were willing to listen to a consultant. Discuss the main reasons why the executives still seemed apprehensive even after the consultant’s presentation. 2. Imagine that you are the consultant from the case study. Speculate on three (3) strategies that you could employ to get the executives to understand your point of view and thus support your project management recommendations. I believe there are three fundamental reasons why the executives in the case refused to listen to their own employees but were willing to listen to a consultant. The first is the belief that the consultants possess top-level expertise in the field, whereas employees possess only average knowledge in the field. In other words, executives were receptive to the consultant because of their status. They were able to call on someone who they believed combined excellent management skills…with high-level industry-specific expertise (MBA & Company, 2014). The second reason is the belief that employees are looking out for own interests, rather than the company's interest (i.e. management’s interest). In noncooperative cultures, employees are more concerned about their well-being and personal interests than that of their team, organization...
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...substantial failures, the implementation of packaged ERP software and associated changes in business processes has proved not to be an easy task. As many organizations have discovered, the implementation of ERP systems can be a monumental disaster unless the process is handled carefully. The aim of this study is to identify the risks and controls used in ERP implementations, with the objective to understand the ways in which organizations can minimize the business risks involved. By controlling and minimizing the major business risks in the first instance, the scene can be set for the successful implementation of an ERP system. The study was motivated by the significance, for both the research and practice communities, of understanding the risks and controls critical for the successful implementation of ERP systems. Following the development of a model of risks and controls, a field study of an ERP system implementation project in an organization was conducted to provide a limited test of the model. The results from the field study provided support for risks and controls identified in the literature. The results also identified several controls not mentioned in the reviewed literature. The study lays the foundation for further research into the risk/control framework so important for the success of the implementations of ERP systems. Key Words: ERP Systems, Business Risks, Controls...
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...Case #1 – Team ACT Contributors: Leroy: ineffective development of an effective project team ASSIGNMENT: Case Analysis – Why didn’t we know, by Ralph Hasson. DESCRIPTION: This case study will provide an analysis of the problems and the mechanisms leading up to the accusations against Galvatrens. Galvatrens is a US based consumer products company. The company discovers a significant problem within their sales department via a whistleblower that has been fired. Through this study we will examine the communication breakdown and identify key instances of failure. Problem Identified -A project team should include managers and team members with interpersonal skills, training and team building to enhance the team’s performance throughout the project (PMI, 2008, p. 232). The sales team for Galvatrens was not successfully developed. There were several flaws in the initial structure of the sales team, the management plan and execution, which led to inefficient management. Situation Analysis -The chain of command within Galvatrens directly affects the development of the sales team. The hierarchy of management has the COO responsible for daily operations, including the sales team, which is not consistent throughout all operations (Hasson, 2007). The next dilemma is with the CEO, Chip Brownlee. He follows the ill advice of the senior vice president of HR, Dale Willis. Dale believes that if something is outside the management’s chains of command it can allow a problem that...
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...Organizational Patterns A case study in a large utility company Software Engineering Project Management Course Presentation - Fall 2008 Introduction 1. a. A little bit history Early work by Alfred L. Kroeber Kroeber, 1963 Milestone work by Christopher Alexander Alexander, 1979 pattern researches actively conducted in the organization domain in terms of software development (1991 - ) b. c. 2. What is organizational pattern? “Organizational patterns are recurring structures of relationship, usually in a professional organization, that help the organization achieve its goals” Wikipedia 2008 2 Key research directions 1. Social network analysis Coplien, 1995 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Requirements acquisition Whitenack, 1995 Kerth, 1995 Harrison, 1996 Berczuk et. al., 2003 Evolution from analysis to design Formation and function of teams Episodes (or Agile) Scrum Configuration management patterns Cunningham, 1996 Sutherland, 2007, Sutherland, 2008 3 Organizational patterns, Agile, and Scrum 1. There are patterns in Agile development methodology Scrum is the first formal organizational pattern to describe a complete Agile process Sutherland, 2008 2. 4 Case study – Organizational Environment 1. a. Organization Environment Description The author is working with an utility holding company that provides electric and natural gas services to more than 1 million customers The IT department focuses on integrating...
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...Assignment 2 Project Leadership Roles at Tri Health Strayer University HRM 517 Project Leadership at Tri Health Q1# Identify the common roles in a human resource project. Then, analyze these roles to typical human resource functions. Tri Health is an organization that oversees the responsibilities of large hospitals and other health facilities alike. In the best interest of the organization, it was decided that more specifically defined roles and responsibilities become a part of every project moving forward to ensure the best quality assurance for all parties involved. In every aspect of project management there is a varying range of goals. Depending on the size of the project determines how it is organized in structure. For instance, a smaller project would only consist of a project manager and project team; whereas a larger project would consist of more common roles such as a primary sponsor, stakeholder, project managers, facilitators, and clients. The primary sponsor makes the vital decisions, provides guidance and direction on what is expected and all parties that should be involved, during the oversight of the intended project. They support the project manager by engaging in multi levels of communication, identifying and excluding obstacles, while providing the necessary resources. On whole, the goal of success is attained by ensuring stakeholders are satisfied. To achieve this, the primary sponsor also establishes a rapport with stakeholders, while managing...
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