Project Brief: Scenario A

You are a senior project manager at Delphi Printers & Peripherals, a small electronics and
computer peripheral manufacturer. You have been tasked with assembling and directing a
product design team to develop a new and innovative consumer printer. Delphi has
intelligence suggesting that a competitor is launching a printer with similar features and
capabilities in six months, putting pressure on you and your team to develop a new printer
that can compete effectively.
LEVEL 1
4-color, wireless, manual duplex (2-sided printing), with regular and photo-specific printing
modes
LEVEL 2
All of the above plus print-from-mobile functionality and touchscreen control panel
LEVEL 3
All of the above plus duplex (2-sided) printing and 3-in-1 with scanning and copying
functions
LEVEL 4
All of the above with 6-color printing, plus nonmanual duplex (2-sided) printing

Scenario Objectives: Scenario A

Senior management expects you to release a new printer retaining rough parity with your
competitor's new printer. The projected schedule allows you to ramp up manufacturing
and marketing quickly enough to match the competitor's new printer profile with your
own. The target budget supports a cost structure that will permit profit margins at a level
roughly equivalent to those of your current printer.
Market intelligence gathered on your competitor's plans is considered reliable, so the
target specifications for your new printer, required to retain parity with the competition,
are clearly defined, well understood, and expected to remain stable throughout the project.
Management has indicated that scope, schedule, and cost are of equal importance in a
successful launch, and they have committed to providing stable access to resources during
the project.
Specific Objectives
Target Scope: Level 2
You will retain rough parity with the competitor's expected new printer. You will receive
200 points for delivering a printer with the scope requested and up to 100 additional points
for delivering a printer with a more sophisticated scope.
Target Schedule: Week 18==90days 126 108
This schedule will allow you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing soon enough to
quickly match the competitor's new product announcement with one of your own. You will
receive 200 points for meeting your schedule goals and up to 100 additional points for
completing ahead of schedule.

Target Cost: $42,500

This will support a cost structure that will permit profit margins at a level roughly
equivalent to those of the current printer. You will receive 200 points for meeting your
budget/resources goals and up to 100 additional points for completing under budget.

You may also receive up to 100 points for team process by maintaining a consistent
morale of 85–95%.

Managing Your Project: Scenario A

Before you start the project, and each week as it unfolds, you will have an opportunity to
adjust certain project parameters. Spend a few minutes entering initial decisions for the
following areas.
1. Project Scope
You have flexibility as to what type of printer you wish to design. Below are four
possible products you might develop. Each product builds on the previous level,
allowing you to adjust mid-course if desired.
LEVEL 1: 130 TASKS
4-color, wireless, manual duplex (2-sided printing), with regular and photo-specific
printing modes
LEVEL 2: 170 TASKS
All of the above plus print-from-mobile functionality and touchscreen control panel
LEVEL 3: 185 TASKS
All of the above plus duplex (2-sided) printing and 3-in-1 with scanning and copying
functions
LEVEL 4: 200 TASKS
All of the above with 6-color printing, plus nonmanual duplex (2-sided) printing
2. Project Schedule
Senior management has given you its objectives regarding schedule based on its analysis
of the competitive situation and required time for market launch of the new printer.

You may change your schedule (your target completion time) in any week. However, if you
exceed the completion target handed to you by senior management, you can expect your
project performance to be judged accordingly.
3. Project Resources
To staff your project, you must choose a number of team members and an average staff
skill level. You may also choose to outsource some of the work in any week. More project
team members can do more work, but of course each additional team member also adds
to project costs.
Teams with higher average skill levels are more productive, but they also cost more.
Outsourcing offers some staffing cost savings, but also incurs additional effort to
coordinate work done at remote locations. Note that adding resources during a project
requires some startup communication and coordination work; this may temporarily hinder
the team's productivity. Also, changing skill level during a project incurs temporary
productivity penalties, due to the changeover in personnel.

While you may choose how many individuals to put on the team, you will be rated on the
total cost of labor for this project.

Team Process
You may make ongoing decisions regarding your team process.
Overtime
You may choose to allow overtime. Team members will work in excess of 40 hours/week as
required to complete the project. This is not guaranteed, however. If your team suffers
from poor morale, absenteeism, or tardiness, for example, the number of hours worked
will decline. If you encourage your team to work overtime, they will work more hours per
week than they would have otherwise. Finally, you may also choose to prohibit overtime.

Meetings
As you assemble your staff, you may want to schedule meetings to help coordinate
activities among members or train new staff in the details of the project. You may choose
among several types of meetings:

One-on-One Coaching: 2 hours/session

You work directly with an individual on your team, helping to develop specific knowledge
and job skills. Such skill-building will increase productivity and decrease problems over the
long term.

Standup: 0.25 hours/session

A 15-minute meeting to start every day in which team members discuss their plans for the
day along with successes and problems from the previous day. Standups aid in preventing
mistakes and subsequent rework due to miscoordination.

Status Review: 2 hours/session

A full team meeting discussing current status of the project, ensuring everyone is informed.
This helps both with team coordination and with personal skill-development.
Meetings can have a positive effect on team productivity and skill level, but too many
meetings will reduce available task time and create stress.

You will also be rated on the average morale and stress of your team members.

Prototypes
You may decide whether you want to create product prototypes during your project—and
if so, how many. Prototypes are rough, not fully-functional, mockups of the final product. It
is extra work to create them, but prototypes can help you discover things you might not
know (but will eventually need to know) about the product, how customers will interact
with it, and other aspects of the product development effort.

PROTOTYPES: MAXIMUM OF ONE PER WEEK

Prototyping entails the creation of a prototype and a testing/review period. Both internal
resources and external reviewers vet the prototype. External reviewers are paid for
feedback and the feedback generated from the vetting process informs necessary changes.

Tasks
Product design efforts are measured in tasks, each of which typically takes about an eight-
hour workday for one person to accomplish. For the purposes of this initiative, you may
treat them as independent tasks that can be assigned and completed by your team.
Scoring
Senior management is looking closely at how you perform while managing this effort. The
specific breakdown will be listed in the Scenario Objectives tab. You will be scored on the
following areas:
 Project Scope: Did you deliver a competitive printer that met or exceeded senior
management's expectations?
 Project Schedule: Did you deliver on time to meet senior management's schedule
requirements? Was your schedule estimate consistent during the project?
 Project Resources: Did you complete the project within senior management's
budget objective?
In addition, you will receive points for maintaining a consistently high level of morale and a
low level of stress throughout the project.
Decision for Week 1
PROJECT SCOPE
Deliverable
Choose a product type to design

Level 1130 TASKS

Level 2170 TASKS
MANAGEMENT TARGET
Level 3185 TASKS
Level 4200 TASKS
RESOURCES: TEAM
Team Size
Team Size
The minimum team size is 1 in order to submit your decisions
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 12
Skill Level
Skill Level
Basic
Medium
Medium-high
High
Outsourcing
Outsourcing
None
Support Tasks
Some Primary Tasks
Extensive
YOUR COST
$0 per week
MANAGEMENT BUDGET
$2,361 per week
YOUR EST. CUMULATIVE COST FOR WEEK 1
$0
TOTAL MANAGEMENT BUDGET
$42,500
SCHEDULE
Project Completion
Choose a target for project completion
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 25
 WEEKS
Estimated completion
Week 100
Your target
Week 18
Management target
Week 18
TEAM PROCESS: MEETINGS
One-on-one Coaching
Meetings per week
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 10
Time allotted
0 hours per week
Standup
Meetings per week
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 50
Time allotted
0 hours per week
Status Review
Meetings per week
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 10
Time allotted
0 hours per week
TOTAL HOURS OF MEETINGS PER WEEK
0 hours per week
TEAM PROCESS: OVERTIME
Team Process: Overtime

Not allowed
Allowed
Encouraged
REVIEW
Prototypes
Number of prototypes
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 17
Prototypes completed
0
 Prototypes remaining
0
Weeks during which prototypes will be built

PROTOTYPE SCHEDULE
 0
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10
 11
 12
 13
 14
 15
 16
 17
 18
EST. TASKS
0 per week
EST. COMPLETION
Week 100
EST. COST
$0 per week
End Project?
ADVANCE BY
Week

Basic $800 per week Medium $1,000 per week Medium high $1,200 per week high $1500