Case Study:

In October $1989,$ the vice president for project management decided to take a more active role in the problems that

project managers were having and held counselling sessions for each project manager. The following major problem

areas were discovered.

R&D PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project manager: $"$My biggest problem is working with these diverse groups that aren't sure what they want. My job is

to develop new products that can be introduced into the marketplace. I have to work with engineering, marketing,

product management, manufacturing, quality assurance, finance, and accounting. Everyone wants a detailed schedule

and product cost breakdown. How can I do that when we aren$$t even sure what the end$-$item will look like or what

materials are needed? Last month I prepared a detailed schedule for the development of a new product, assuming that

everything would go according to the plan. I worked with the R&D engineering group to establish what we considered to

be a realistic milestone. Marketing pushed the milestone to the left because they wanted the product to be introduced

into the marketplace earlier. Manufacturing then pushed the milestone to the right, claiming that they would need more

time to verify the engineering specifications. Finance and accounting then pushed the milestone to the left asserting that

management wanted a quicker return on investment. Now, how can I make all of the groups happy?"

Vice president: "Whom do you have the biggest problems with?"

Project manager: "That's easy$-$marketing I Every week marketing gets a copy of the project status report and decides

whether to cancel the project Several times marketing has cancelled projects without even discussing it with me$,$ and I$\text{'}$m

supposed to be the project leader"

Vice president: "Marketing is in the best position to cancel the project because they have the inside information on the

profitability, risk, return on investment, and competitive environment."

Project manager: "The situation that we're in now makes it impossible for the project manager to be dedicated to a

project where he does not have all of the information at hand. Perhaps we should either have the R&D project managers

report to someone in marketing or have the marketing group provide additional information to the project managers"

SMALL CUSTOMER PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project manager: "I find it virtually impossible to be dedicated to and effectively manage three projects that have

priorities that are not reasonably close. My low$-$priority customer always suffers And even if I try to give all of my

customers equal status, I do not know how to organize myself and have effective time management on several projects"

Project manager: "Why is it that the big projects carry all of the weight and the smaller ones suffer?"

Project manager: "Several of my projects are so small that they stay in one functional department. When that happens,

the line manager feels that he is the true project manager operating in a vertical environment. On one of my projects I

found that a line manager had promised the customer that additional tests would be run. This additional testing was not

priced out as part of the original statement of work. On another project the line manager made certain remarks about the

technical requirements of the project. The customer assumed that the line managers' remarks reflected company policy.

Our line managers don't realize that only the project manager can make commitments $($on resources$)$ to the customer

as well as on company policy. I know this can happen on large projects as well, but it is more pronounced on small

projects"

Adapted from $$ Kezner, H$.(2006).$ Project Management Case Studies. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

QUESTION

There are two main types of project work namely project type and operations type of work. Compare both types and advise how the case study project could have used the theory to alleviate the problems experienced.

Guideline:

Compare the project work type and operations type of work.

Relate the theory to the case study.