Problems have been building at Reveytwa Ltd. for several years now with the new product development process. The last six high visibility projects were either scrapped outright after excessive cost and schedule overruns or, once released to the marketplace, were commercial disasters. The company estimates that in the past two years, it has squandered more than Rs15 million on poorly developed or failed projects. Every time a new project venture failed, the company conducted extensive postproject review meetings, documentation analysis, and market research to try to determine the underlying cause.

You have been called into the organization as a consultant to try to understand the source of the problems that are leading to widespread demoralization across the firm. After spending hours interviewing the senior project management staff and technical personnel, you are convinced that the problem does not lie with their processes, which are up-to-date and logical. On the other hand, you have some questions about project team productivity. It seems that every project has run late, has been over budget, and has had suboptimal functionality, regardless of the skills of the project manager in charge.

As you analyze the company’s project development process, you note several items of interest. First, the company is organized along strictly functional lines. Projects are staffed from the departments following negotiations between the project coordinator and the department managers. Second, the culture of the company seems to place little status or authority on the project coordinators. As evidence of this fact, you note that they are not even permitted to write a performance evaluation on project team members: That right applies only to the functional department heads. Third, many projects require that team members be assigned to them on an exclusive basis; that is, once personnel have been assigned to a project, they typically remain with the project team on a full-time basis for the term of the project. The average project lasts about 14 months.

One morning, as you are walking the hallways, you notice a project team “war room” set up for the latest new product development initiative within the company. The war room concept requires that project team members be grouped together at a central location, away from their functional departments, for the life of the project. What intrigues you is a hand-lettered sign you see taped to the door of the project war room: “Les Sous Doués” When you ask around about the sign, some members of the firm laugh it out, “Oh, we like to play jokes on the guys assigned to new projects.”
Further investigation of project team members suggests they are not amused by the sign. One engineer shrugs and says, “That’s just their way of making sure we understand what we have been assigned to.

Last week they put up another one that said ‘L’Enfer’” When you ask the project co-ordinator about the signs later in the day, he confirms this story and adds some interesting information: “Around here, we use centralised project teams. I get no say as to who will be assigned to the project, and lately the functional heads have been using our projects as a dumping ground for their poor performers.”

When you question him further, the project coordinator observes, “Think about it. I have no say in who gets assigned to the team. I can’t even fill out a performance review on them. Now, if you were a department head who was trying to offload a troublemaker or someone who was incompetent, what could be better than shipping them off to a project team for a year or so? Of course, you can imagine how they feel when they hear that they have been assigned to one of our project teams. It’s as if you just signed their death warrant.”

When you question various department heads about the project coordinator’s comments, they deny that this is an adopted policy. As the head of finance puts it, “We give the project teams our best available people when they ask.” However, they also admit that they have the final say in personnel assignment and project coordinators cannot appeal their choices for the teams.

(a) How is project management faring in Reveytwa Ltd.?
(b) Explain the stages which a team goes through during its development.
(c) With respect to the case, what is not being given due attention in terms of team building?
(d) How is the organisation structure linked to the performance in terms of project management in the case?
(e) What would you do to improve project performance in Reveytwa Lts.?