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CASE STUDY

Mr. Abdullah has recently joined as a project manager of a large project sponsored by one of the ministry departments of government. The purpose of this project is to improve the security systems in different organizations and it is titled as Integrated Safety System (ISS). Mr. Abdullah found that there is a need to analyze and evaluate the performance of the project as he is new to the project. He found that he needs to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the project and its team members immediately to manage the project in future as per the schedules given by government. The project team of Mr. Abdullah consisted of 30 full-time hardware and software engineers. Mr. Abdullahhad a rich experience of 12 years in various projects. He enjoyed working with people and making the right things happen in his previous experience. This is his fifth project and up to now he was always ahead of schedule in the completion of projects. ISS is one of the several new projects sponsored by the government. It is one of the several projects directed at designing, developing, and installing a security system at an important government installation.

Mr. Abdullah faced two major issues when he started the project.

Issue - 1: Identification of risks and developing a Risk Management Process

The first issue was identification of different types of risks of the project. He believed that 'risk' is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on project objectives. For understanding the nature of risks, he used the 'Risk Event Graph' and realized the importance of managing the risk at the early stages of the project. He developed a well-designed 'Risk Management Process' for the project. It is a preventive process designed to ensure that surprises are reduced and that negative consequences associated with undesirable event are minimized. This process prepared him to take action when a time, cost, and / or technical advantage is possible. He carefully identified the sources of risks. He found that external sources, such as i) inflation, ii) Market Acceptance, iii) Changes in economy, iv) Fluctuations in market conditions, v) Changing attitudes of customers, and vi) Changing requirements of

sponsor have influenced the project and developed into potential risks. Similarly, he found that internal risks like i) Mismanagement of Processes, ii) Lack of proper machines and tools, iii) Breakdown of machines, iv) lack of motivation of project team, v) Absenteeism of team, vi) lack of understanding of project objectives, vi) non-availability of funds in time etc. were the sources of internal risks. Based on this, Mr. Abdullah realized that he needs to develop a modified Risk Management Plan which consists of several steps in it. He hired a consultant for this purpose. The consultant found that the project need to develop a Risk Breakdown Structure for classifying all the risks. The consultant found that there are four types of major risks in the project, i.e., technical, external, organizational, and project management related. He then developed a RBS and performed Risk Profiling. Then he collected risk related data through Risk Severity Form and developed a Risk Severity Matrix to assess the risks.

Then Mr. Abdullah and the consultant jointly analyzed the four decisions related to Risk Response Development. It was decided to maintain a Risk Register to record all the incidences of risks with all the details.

Issue - 2: Differences in Project Teams

The second issue for Mr. Abdullah was related to the differences in his Project Team. The team was pretty much split down the middle between hardware and electrical engineers. Not only did these engineers have different skill sets and tend to look at problems differently, but generational differences between the two groups were evident as well due to age gap between the two groups. The hardware engineers were almost all former military, family men with conservative attire and beliefs. The electrical engineers were a much younger and easy-going crew. They tended to be young and single. While the hardware engineers talked about raising their teenage sons and daughters, and going to clubs to play golf, the software engineers talked about the latest concert in theaters, and going for mountain biking, trekking etc.

To make the matters worse, there was a tension / gap between these two groups due to the differences in salaries. Electrical engineers were paid high and premium salaries, and the hardware engineers were disappointed and showed their anger on the younger electrical engineers who are relatively newly recruited. The salaries of these newly recruited electrical engineers were comparable to what the hardware engineers were earning after 20 years of working for the company and their salaries were linked to performance. Realizing these two issues, Mr. Abdullah arranged a two-day team-building event at a luxurious resort for his entire project team as well as key staff from the government. He used this time to discuss about the major objectives of the project, released the basic project plan and highlighted the importance of working in teams for achieving success in the project.

Along with the consultant, he conducted several team-building activities which brought together the electrical and hardware engineers and reduced the gap between the two groups. He also formed cross- functional teams and conducted a project-kick off meeting. He explained the team members the rules, norms and regulations of project, planning decisions, and tracking decisions. He provided them with the role clarity, explained them the organization chart of the project, made the team members realize the importance of each one's contribution in the overall success of the project, made them realize how important is this ISS project for achieving the vision, mission and objectives of the organization, explained the team how the performance appraisal will be done and how the reward system will benefit all the team members based on their performance. He also explained about sources of conflicts and how they can be resolved using conflict management techniques. The Project Life Cycle was explained by him to make the team members understand the sources of conflict in each stage of the project. The types of conflicts were explained as i) functional and ii) dysfunctional conflicts.

Soon after this event, Mr. Abdullah and the consultant found that there was an improvement in the coordination and cooperation between the two groups and the overall progress of the project started showing positive growth. The project conducted a series of five tests to find gaps in the execution of the security requipment developed as a deliverable of the ISS Project.

Passing each test represented a key milestone for the project. The team was excited about conducting Test - 1, one week early - only to be disappointed by a series of minor technical glitches that took two weeks of problem solving to resolve. The team worked extra hard to make up for the lost time. Mr. Abdullah was proud of the team and how hard members had worked together. The Test - II was conducted on schedule, but once again the system failed to perform. This time the project team spent three weeks to correct the errors in the deliverable. During the final Test - III, it was a great success for the entire team and Mr. Abdullah. The ISS equipment worked perfectly in front of the government officials and it was cleared for installation purpose at the place it was meant for. Abdullah was very happy about his achievement and congratulated the entire team for their sincere effort in achieving a positive outcome for the project and for successfully closing it within the schedule and budget.

Questions:

1. Analyze what initiatives of Mr. Abdullah enabled the achievement of increased project management performance. Relate your answer to the concepts learnt

2. Analyze types of conflicts between the two groups of teams in the project and how Mr. Abdullah resolved them. Relate your answer to the concepts learnt

3. Assess all types of risks in the above situation by developing a Risk Breakdown Structure and explain how Mr. Abdullah could successfully close the project.

your answer is highly appreciated. Thank you very much.