Case Study 1:

1. Critique Briggs’s management of the first meeting. What, if anything, should she have done
differently?
Given the time constraint and late start, Briggs probably accomplished as
much as she could in this meeting. At the same time, one might question how
the other members felt upon leaving the meeting. First, many of the members
seem less than enthusiastic about the project. Second, the members don’t
have a good idea about how they are going to accomplish the project and
what kind of involvement it will require from them. She should have
anticipated the meeting times dilemma and avoided the jousting by simply
requesting the schedule information up front.
2. What barriers is she likely to encounter in completing this project?

Barriers Solutions

1. Large task force (14 Break the task force into subgroups
members) around major tasks

2. Members not selected based Clarify involvement, supplement expertise

on skill and expertise with outside input, delegate carefully

3. Low or indifferent Build enthusiasm by personal example,

commitment on the part of some developing a shared vision, and top
members toward the project management support

Find a common meeting place, develop e-

4. Spatially separated mail list, create a project Web page,
establish communication protocols

5. Limited, part-time Assess individual availability and assign

involvement tasks accordingly

6. No experience working Provide strong direction and create

together on event projects opportunities to get to know each other

3. What can she do to overcome these barriers?

We recommend that you record students’ responses to the barriers question
first on one half of the blackboard (or on a flip chart) and then discuss and
record potential solutions to each barrier on the second half of the blackboard.
One might begin the discussion by asking students whether this will be a
difficult project to manage.

One of the key issues Briggs has to resolve is how she will use the team to
complete the project. One path would be for her to do most of the work and
consult the team on important issues. A different path would be to delegate
specific tasks to the team (for example, deciding when the celebration should
take place, deciding where it should be held) and manage the process. This
path would more consistent with the culture at Kerzner.

4. What should she do between now and the next meeting?

She needs to meet with individual members and get some sense of the kind of
contributions they can make to the project both in terms of time and ability.
She should test some of her ideas about how to organize the project when
talking to members and revise those plans as she acquires new information.

She needs to develop a master plan for the project which includes a list of
milestones, a breakdown of major tasks, and how the team will be organized
to complete the project. She should seek the advice of people outside the
organization who have experience organizing such events.

She needs to schedule a longer second meeting to present and revise the
master plan. She needs to request an administrative assistant who can handle
details. She should persuade Tubbs to attend at least part of the next meeting
to communicate the importance of the project to the team members.

Case Study 2:
1. How effective has Tran been as a project manager?
2. Explain. 2. What problem(s) does Tran face?
3. How would you go about solving them? Why?

CBX is a big defense company of U.S with the annual turnover of $30
 billion and worldwide employment of 120,000. CBX has named a code
for high-tech security system project as AJX. This project has been
funded by Department of Defense of the U.S. The project manager of
this AJX is Mr. Tran and his team consisted of 30 engineers from both
hardware and software department. CBX has the confidence that they
can control the technical skill and political connections in order to be at
the top of the defense market. The motive of AJX project is to design,
create and install a security system at a significant government
installation.

Tran, being an experienced project manager organized a retreat before the

actually starting the project. In the retreat period, he discussed about the
important objectives of the project and disclosed the basic plan of the project.

Tran was worried about two issues related with AJX. The first one was the
technical applications of the project. Though, theoretically all the applied
technologies are proven safe but they have never been applied in practical
world. There was a big difference between theoretical and practical
application of technology.

His second concern was about the difference between expertise and age
among his team members. Most of the hardware engineers are of older age
and family person with conservative values while the software engineers are
mainly all of young age with liberal ideologies. There is a difference in their
salaries as well. The consultant from the company arranged various team-
building activities for resolving issues due to generation gap and succeeded
up to a certain extent. Tran was aware of the technical glitches associated
with the project. When the project failed to perform at the initial phase, the
members solved the technical problems and tried to catch up the schedule.
Again, the project failed in the second test. The tempo of the overall team
slowed down.

Case Study 3:
1. Evaluate the criteria FEL uses to assign managers to project teams. What efficiencies do these
criteria create? What are the resulting problems?
Answer 1= The different managers are assigned to the different project team
by FEL depending on the manager's expertise and the availability to work on a
certain project provided that are free form other commitments. With the help
of availability of time using as the main parameters, it will be quite useful to
ensure that the project is on time and no delay occurs. The main problem that
can be witnessed due to this is that FEL was not able to identify that it is
important for the success of the project to have the different team members to
work together on a given project. The project that has a number of teams
made up by the different individuals has a greater probability of success
irrespective of their personal differences.

2. Why is it even more important that project team members work well together on international
projects such as Project Abu Dhabi?

Answer 2-

it is even more important that project team members work well together on
international projects such as Project Abu Dhabi as for the success of this
type of project, it was imperative to develop the collaborative culture in the
project teams that will still be persisting even if the project is completed. The
main issue that is experienced in any kind of international project is that only a
limited number of team members have a better understanding of the cultural
differences that prevails among the different members and thus it is very
important to have an environment of cooperation and communication among
the team members.

3. Discuss the dilemma that Jobe now faces.

Answer 3=

The main dilemma that is faced by Jobe is between Rankins and Perry. They
both have worked with each other in the earlier projects and they seem not to
have a good understanding with each other. They cannot cooperate with each
other so that the project can be a success, Gatenby states that if things do not
change after two months between these two individuals then FEL will decide
to fire Rankins.

I would recommend that they both must try to understand each other and
wrinkle out any personal differences. They must sit together to find the
solution to personal differences and try to help each other in finding the best
solution to the problem faced by them.