ODULE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT $2$

Total Marks: $70$

READ THE CASE STUDY BELOW AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW:

Metova Increases Billable Utilization by $10\%$ With Mavenlink

OVERVIEW

Metova, Inc. is a technology firm that helps companies transform their business through

technology to meet the growing expectations of modern customers. Metova strategists and

architects have helped companies solve problems, from health care to lawn care, and heavy

machinery to heavy metal music. As an Advanced Consulting Partner of Amazon Web

Services, and Gold Partner of Microsoft, Metova has access to resources and services that

help companies innovate faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost.

As a global technology firm developing custom telehealth and internet of things solutions,

Metova needed to juggle a wide variety of projects, each with their own unique demands and

teams. Dependence on several legacy solutions, including an abundance of Google Sheets,

was inhibiting the organization$$s ability to grow. As a result, the team at Metova experienced

several distinct challenges in their everyday work, including: Spreadsheet Slowdown Teams

and project managers at Metova were largely reliant on Google Sheets to keep track of and

coordinate their projects, as well as to document both the skills and availability of resources,

leading to errors and slowing projects down. Lack of Reporting Because of Google Sheets$$

lack of features and inability to integrate with Jira, Metova project managers were unable to

easily generate the project reports they needed, preventing the level of insights required for

continued refinement and success. $$One of the biggest issues we were running into was the

lack of consistency across projects,$$ said Shannon Harris, VP of Finance & Operations.

$$Because we had no real project management system and everything was run out of Jira,

each project manager was left to their own devices as to how they wanted to run a project.$$

Source: Mavenlink.com

QUESTION ONE $[40]$

$1\mathrm{.}1$ In the light of the project management challenges faced by Metova, critically discuss

how the phases of the project management lifecycle can assist the organisation

standardise it$$s project management processes. $(25)$

$1\mathrm{.}2$ Describe the steps during the execution phase of the project. $(15)$

QUESTION TWO $[30]$

$2\mathrm{.}1$ Critically discuss the factors that must be considered by contractors when deciding to

develop a proposal $(14)$

$2\mathrm{.}2$ Describe three $(3)$ three key factors that the contractor should highlight in the proposal

in order to demonstrate value $(6)$

$2\mathrm{.}3$ Costs are not always the main criteria that a customer will use to select a project. List

additional criteria which may be used by the customer in evaluating the contractor$$s

proposal.