Question $1[25$ marks$]$

Final year students enrolled in the Interactive Multimedia course at Edith Cowan University are

required to develop skills and expertise in managing the design and development of client web

sites. The unit IMM $3228/4228$Project Management Methodologies$,$ uses teams of four or

five students to utilise their specialist skills to meet a $$real need$$ for an industry client. Team

roles include programmers, graphic designers and project managers. There were $82$ students $(20$

teams$)$ completing this unit. The aim was to have students experience project management issues

that occur when dealing with $$real$$ clients in $$real$$ projects and was heavily focused on

teamwork and problem solving. The environment was based on the learning principles of

authenticity, self$-$regulation and reflection $($Luca & Oliver, $2001).$ Features included student

contracts, journals $($for self$/$peer assessment & reflection$),$Conference Centre$$ for problem

solving, bulletin boards, time management tools, syllabus and assessment materials, lecture

notes, legal$/$QA templates, relevant URL$$s$,$ web sites and assignments developed by previous

students and a student details database. Within this setting, two teams were selected for

investigation. One team was highly successful in developing a quality product, and collaborated

in a highly successful manner. Another team, experienced severe team problems, which caused it

to become dysfunctional and had to be split.

Case questions

i$.$ After reading the above case study identify and explain three $(3)$ ways to consider in

building strong and effective teams to sustain the market competition. $(15$ Marks$)$

ii$.$ Discuss any five $(5)$ points that could have led to the other team failing and remedies.

$(10$ marks$)$