Exercise 1

Schwalbe P.35 - Chapter 1, Ex 4

Find any example of a real project with a real project manager. Feel free to use projects in the media or a project from your work. If applicable. Write a one-page paper describing the project in terms of its scope, time, and cost goals. Discuss what went right and wrong on the project and the role of the project manager and sponsor. Also describe if the project was a success or not and why. Include at least one reference and cite it in the last page.



The Project

Link to source article:
"The project was three years late: but an incredible success!" (Woodward, 2005),
http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2005/cases05-0506.htm#02

This article describe a project conducted in USA, a company intended to increase its production by modifying the machines in their manufacturing plants throughout the country.

Here I summarize the project in terms of the Triple Constraint - Scope, Time and Cost (Schwalbe, 2006, p. 7) :

• Scope: To modify 21 paper machines at 4 manufacturing plants in USA, by installing control devices designed to reduce defects and allow workers to speed up the machines.
• Time: 2 years.
• Cost: Not mentioned in the article.

The objective of this project is: To produce additional production at an affordable cost.

As described in the article, inputs of the project includes a scope statement, a diverse team, a list of interested contractors, and the enthusiastic support of management. The project manager oversaw all aspects essential for the project such as communication, change management, risk management, and all the others. To begin with, the project team thought that they had had an excellent plan, even though it was implemented under tight cost and schedule requirements.


What Went Wrong??

The project turned out has the following problems:

1. Over-spending at the earlier stage.
2. New technology did not increase production as anticipated, sales volume was not developing.
3. Further cost constraint induced deference of the project and eventually it could not be completed within the time frame.
4. Downgrade of the project priority from management - from top to none.
5. The project was ordered to put on hold, but permitted to restart at any time.

What Went Right??

Once the project was put on hold, the company left the development team a free hand to restructure it. The project finally accomplished the goal in doing something right:

1. Reduced risk by prototyping each of the technologies included in the original scope, conducted sufficient testings until they found out which one works on the paper machines.
2. Strategic modification of scope - only premium devices were installed, new ideas evolved.
3. Proven methodology recovered sales and provided return on investment.

Role of Project Manager and Sponsor

On the whole, this project does not comply to a rigid plan of management. The project manager was supposed to monitor costing and timing at initial stage, ensure that expected results are shown at intervals. Yet, this is overlooked. The project manager should also investigate a proven or lower-risk methodology of execution during project planning, instead of doing trial and error in a full scale. He did perform a certain degree of change management, such as to redesign the cost and schedule commitments, restructure the project scope and process, etc. Yet the final success only arrived with some luck and flexibility of the sponsor.

Success or Failure?

Obviously this project would not have reached fruition if the management team was out-sourced to an external agent, say, a consultant company. It was possible to take a second chance to restart the whole project with no constraints, only because the project team resided in the company of its sponsor, that its existence was relying on other profit-generating jobs. The desired goals of the project was finally reached, but 3 years after the original completion date. I would consider this project a failure from a traditional project management perspective.

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson CourseTechnology.

Woodward, H. (2005). The project was three years late: but an incredible success! pmforum.org, Inc. Retrieved August 19, 2005, from http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2005/cases05-0506.htm#02.