I need help with Project Management subject, MBA 3rd semester subject,

what is the proper format to answer case studies, our college has given some hints verbally but its not enough. they will ask the case study for 15 marks and they expect 5 pages of written content for this question.

I am listing out the case studies given in the first unit 1 "Introduction to project management ", Please help me with the answers and also the general format that I can use as guidance in exams.

1.CASE STUDY

Project Management at Global Green Books Publishing Global Green Books Publishing was started two years ago by two friends, Jim King and Brad Mount, who met in college while studying in Philadelphia, USA. In the new business Jim focused on editing, sales and marketing while Brad Mount did the electronic assembly and publishing of books for Global Green Books. Their business was successful and profitable in the first two years, largely due to contracts from two big businesses. 20 In their third year they got very busy thanks to their third major customer, a local college that needed customized eBooks. They hired several part time employees to help them with their publishing business. But by the end of third year of operation, Global Green Books started experiencing critical problems. They were:

Unable to leverage all the new employees effectively

Unable to deliver eBooks to their customers on schedule

Unable to provide quality textstime and money was being spent fixing defects in their products

Unable to control coststheir business was not profitable in the third year.

Global Green Books saw a significant rise in issues, a lot of unpleasant "surprises" were cropping up; business was down as new resources were hired, also some of the projects were poorly estimated. The local university was unhappy as their eBook products reached campus late for use by professors and student. In some cases, the books were a week or two late. Since the courses must start on schedule and students need their books at the beginning of their courses, the new lucrative college customer was unhappy. One of the new part-time employees hired by Jim and Brad, Samantha, had taken a project management course at college. Samantha was excited about the discipline of project management and had intentionally selected a job with Global Green Books Publishing as she saw an opportunity to polish her project management skills. One fine day, Jim invited Samantha, for a lunch meeting. He was aware that Samantha was familiar with project management, and wanted to hear what she had to say about the problems he and Brad were facing. Over lunch he questioned why their small business which had operated and implemented projects so successfully over the first two years was being challenged significantly now. He specifically listed the problems they were facing and asked for input to solve them. Samantha asked for more time to research all the issues but noted that Global Green Books, while being innovative, completed projects without a roadmap or a project plan and lacked a disciplined approach to project management. She noted that Jim and Brad did not use any project software for scheduling and they did not use tools or techniques to estimate, budget or to communicate with stakeholders. Finally, they had no processes in place to manage project risks and quality. 21 Impressed with this and other conversations, Jim King asked Samantha if she would consider joining them as a project associate or project manager on a full-time basis to help them introduce project management practices and help them tide over their current crisis. Samantha accepted the offer! She has several key skillsshe is an excellent communicator with very good interpersonal skills and detail-oriented. Within the first three months in her new role as PM, she introduced formal project management processes, created a PM manual and trained the employees to get the work done well. Within nine months Samantha had fully turned things around. Due to proactive risk analysis and risk response planning, surprises and issues reduced. Communication with stakeholders was enhanced. Brad and Jim noted that the company was delivering projects on schedule, the quality processes workedand customers were happy with the products!

Comment on the following aspects of the case study:

a) Why did Global Green Books Publishing struggle?

b) What were the specific PM solutions that were introduced by Samantha that worked?

c) What kind of suggestions would you give to Brad and Jim if you were the PM?

d) Are you aware of other similar start-up businesses that struggle in a similar manner? How did they overcome the challenges?

e) Global Green Books Publishing is a technology intensive business, but Samantha is not technically knowledgeable, will she continue to be a successful project .

Case study 2

Anusha garments, a manufacturing company in apparels is exporting to European countries. Quality of the finished product and meeting the time schedule is the competitive strength of the Company. Even though new orders were lining up the company is not showing interest because of the overload already committed. Recently the company is facing problems due to scarcity of electrical power, manpower and government regulations.

As the project manager identify the risk factors in the project and do a suitable analysis of the same.

case study 3

In recent years, Vietnam Rubber Company (VRC) has invested big capital for expanding rubber plantations and upgrading rubber processing facilities both domestic and outside the country. For VRC, the concept and practice of owner's project life cycle have been used in rubber plantation projects. Nevertheless, VRC has not built a type of project life cycle appropriating with its specific characteristics; therefore, some projects meet with serious difficulties during performance.

According to internal audit and situation report, VRC's overseas rubber projects show many problems especially in cost and schedule on the project management in construction during 2007-2010 such as:

- Cost overrunning or over budget;

- Projects are prone to delay;

- Project quality uncontrolled;

- Project scope creep.

Also according to this report, VRC recognize the bad results in Cambodia are created by many reasons; however, poor management of the project life cycle is one of the reasons bring about serious consequences including the followings:

- Not establishing a framework of project life cycle;

- Project proposals and business cases and project selecting process in the first phase were carried out incautiously have impacted to all remain phases of the project life cycle;

- Some projects do not have a strong project management team;

- Inadequate delegation from VRC's head quarter and the project organization is not properly;

- Lack of managerial skills and competencies as well as the internal capacities of the owner

VRC considered that poor management of the project life cycle caused negative impact to the projects. They are the critical problems which VRC and other related parties to Cambodia projects need to consider cautiously.

Mr. Do Huu Phuoc made a research to study Vietnam Rubber Company's project life cycle approach, analyze situation and develop a framework of project life cycle of a rubber plantation project and guideline to possibly ensure the projects deliver on time, on budget and to the level of quality expected.

Give your Conclusion and also recommendations for VRC's project life cycle approach.

case study 4:

Chennai is the 4th largest metropolitan city in India. Chennai, often known as the Detroit of Asia, is widely known for its presence in the automotive industry and has attracted several global automakers to set up their factories in the city becoming one of the global leaders in the industry.

Apart from automobiles, it also has development centers set up by many software companies which contributed 14% of India's total software exports of 144,214 crore (US$28.77 billion) during 2006-07, making it the second-largest exporter of software in the country, behind Bangalore. Based on all these industrial and technological advancements, urban population has risen rapidly, requiring need for faster and safer transportation at all times. The city already has multiple modes of transportation. A bus system is run by the Chennai MTC and is augmented by the Chennai suburban railway network run by the Southern Railway. In addition to this, the Southern Railway has also implemented the Chennai MRTS project; an elevated railway system was sanctioned in 1984 to ease congestion in central Chennai. However, traffic congestion was still a big problem for both the citizens as well as the City's governing body. Hence, the Chennai Corporation has decided to implement the Chennai Metro project which will be another alternate transportation mode to a metropolis like Chennai.

Corridor 1 is intended to cover the Anna Salai stretch and corridor 2 is intended to cover Poonamalle High Road and Inner ring road. Both the corridors have underground and over ground structures.

If you are in the project planning and coordination department, list at least four functional areas which require close attention. What are the challenges (state briefly) in each these areas and how you propose to address through planning?

My exams are starting this month end, I can use all the help I can get, Thank you.