CASESTUDY

READ THE CASE STUDY AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOWGLOBALGREENBOOKSPUBLISHINGGLOBAL

Global Green Books Publishing started two years ago by two friends, Jim King and Brad Mount, whomet in college while studying in Philadelphia, USA. In the new business, Jim focused on editing, salesandmarketingwhileBradMountdidtheelectronicassemblyandpublishingofbooksforGlobalGreenBooks.Theirbusinesswassuccessfulandprofitableinthefirsttwoyears,largelyduetocontractsfromtwobigbusinesses.Intheirthirdyear,theygotverybusythankstotheirthirdmajorcustomer,alocalcollegethat neededcustomized eBooks.

They hired several part-time employees to help them with their publishing business. Green BooksPublishingiscontinuingtogrow.AstheireBookbusinesscontinuestodrivethatgrowth,theynowarecontinuingtoaddstafftobeabletokeepupwithcustomerdemand.AllofthenewpeopleandmanyoftheeBookstaffhavenotworkedtogetherintheoriginalprint-basedbusinessareaofthecompany,andindeedarenewtothecompanyanditsculture.Thesenewemployeeshaveadiversesetofskills,backgrounds,andmotivations.

Theirsupervisorsknowhowtomanagetheirprojects,butdonotalwayshavetheexpertisetostepinand do each of the unique tasks assigned to team members. Most of the employees that have beenaround since the beginning of the eBook business have been trained in their project managementtechniques, so they can get the work done well; but not all of the newer employees have had thistraining. There is just too much work that needs to be done to take time out for training. Supervisorsneed to provide leadership, to provide inspiration for their team and to be good motivators of theirteam members, as well as be good managers, worrying about the day-to-day and minute-by-minuteaccomplishmentofthe project'sgoals.

Being a good motivator also means that the supervisors must be good listeners to understand whatissuesareconfrontingtheirteammembersandtheneedsoftheirteammembers.Beyondthisroleasleaders,supervisorsneedtobegoodmanager.Theyneedtoidentifytheskillsthattheyneedfortheirprojects. Supervisors at Global Green Books normally do this as they start from the standard jobtemplate for eBook projects and build the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for their eBook project.Next, they need to identify team members that have those skills and work with their current projectmanagerswithhumanresourcestomake surethattheywillbe availabletosupportthe new project.

Based on the lessons learned analyses, a supervisor might also identify a person as a backup for acritical role on the project, in case they run into difficulties or assigned staff are not available asplanned. Once the team is assembled, challenges can arise. Some of the challenges teams face haveto do with knowing the status of the work, as part-time employees come in and hand a piece of aprojectofftoanotherworker.Somedealwithmanagingconflictsastheyarise-bothtechnicalissuesas permissions are delayed and content cannot yet be incorporated, leading to scheduling changes,andinterpersonal issuesamongstaff.

Some of these conflicts occur between a mostly young, part-time contingent of student workers andfull-time employees. Supervisors are often drawn into mediating or resolving these conflicts. Theyreallyneedtomeldtogethertheirstafftocreatehighlycapable,productiveprojectteamsforthese

fast-paced eBook projects. The staff needs to trust each other and their leadership to be fair and tobalance work priorities with the times that they are available. Supervisors are finding it is veryimportant to make sure every team member understands the goals of the project, the roles of eachteammemberandhowthey inter-relate,andthesense ofurgencyaboutcompletingthe project.

This urgency comes from understanding the intense schedules for completing eBooks and fromunderstandingwhyitisimportantthatalloftheworkcometogethertocreateafinishedeBook -anypart not completed keeps the final eBook from going into quality check and release. Because of theissues around employee absence and the use of part-time employees, they are also trying to makesure that employees can do their role, but can also help out in related roles as needed. Customersexpect a high-quality product that works in each of the environments in that these users use variousoperatingsystems,eBookreaders,andhardware(desktopcomputers,tablets/phablets,andsmartphones).

Aspartofthestandarddevelopmentprocess,eacheBookgoesthroughseveralqualitychecks.Whentheorderisreceived,acustomerservicerepresentativecheckstheorderandamoreseniorcustomerservice representative verifies the order. During the Production Phase, a quality assistant will checktheeBookagainstthejoborderandcustomerordertomakesureitisreadyforproduction,andonceapproved by quality, each of the requested eBook formats is created. A second quality check isperformedbythecustomerservicerepresentativewhoisassignedtothecustomertomakesurethateach requested format is ready to release to the customer. Some customers (and their eBook users)arecomplainingaboutqualityproblemsintheeBookstheyhavereceivedfromGlobal GreenBooks.

SometimestheeBooksdonotworkcorrectlyintheintendedenvironment.Sometimes,thecontentisnot clear or fuzzy. Sometimes, a quality check will find that not all parts of the requested order havebeen included in the eBook. This causes rework before the eBook can come back for a second qualitycheckbeforebeingreleasedtothecustomerservicerepresentativeforthefinalqualitycheck.Ineachofthesecases,the"costofquality"isthecostofNOTcreatingaqualityproduct.Everytimetheprojecthastoreworkan eBooktocorrectaqualitydefect,thecostof quality increases.

You have been hired as a project management intern by Jim and Brad to help them overcome someof thechallengesthattheycurrently face.

SOURCE:https://www.pmi.org/learning/academic-research/project-management-curriculum-and-resources/academic-project-management-case-studies

QUESTION:1

"Evaluatetheobjectivesofteamdevelopmentandrecommendeffective methodsofdevelopingtheprojectteamat Global Green BooksPublishing".

QUESTION:2

Identifyandcriticallydiscusseachofthefivemotivationaltheoriesandprovidearecommendationontheone/ssuitable forGlobal GreenBooksPublishing.

QUESTION:3

Criticallydiscusswhichofthekeysuccessfactorsformanagingprojectquality youbelievewerenotmetin theabovecasestudy andexplain howthis hasaffected theprojectoutcome.

QUESTION:4Identifyandcriticallydiscusseachofthesixtypesofqualitycontrol toolsandindicate whichyou

would have consideredusinginthe GlobalGreenBooksPublishingproject. Substantiateyouranswers.