QUESTIONS $1.$ Based on Drago$$s observations, what do you think are the main issues in Tecknokrat$$s project management? $2.$ What do you think about the awards and incentives? Tecknokrat Company, a software consulting firm, has $18$ project managers, many of whom started

as systems analysts and developers when the company was founded in $1997.$

Tecknokrat has a good reputation in terms of quality products and services but has recently

seen its business and profits fall because many of its projects are completed late and over budget.

To reverse the trend, the firm hired Drago Kovacic, a project manager who had been PMO director

of IT at a bank. Drago's mandate is to assist project managers so as to improve project schedule

and budget performance.

In his first $2$ weeks at Tecknokrat, Drago interviewed the project managers and observed them

in practice. He noted the following:

They all have their own way of doing things. There are no prescriptions about how to man$-$

age projects.

They all work in the same office but seldom interact. No one knows much about what the

others are doing.

Some of the managers seem antagonistic toward each other.

Some seem to be competing with each other.

There is no mentoring. Old$-$timers feel: whatever I know I had to learn through experience;

new$-$timers have to do the same.

Digging further, he discovered some curious company policies:

At year$-$end, the "best" project managers in terms of meeting schedules and budgets get

awards: best gets $$10,000,$ second best gets $$7,000,$ third best gets $$5,000.$ Every year, for

as long as anybody can remember, the same four or five people have won the awards; all of

them have been with the company over $20$ years.

The company uses education as an incentive. For each project that exceeds goals or

receives praise from the customer, the manager can attend a local business seminar of

his choice. The incentive tends to go to a small group of managers that, not coincidentally,

includes the same group who gets the year$-$end dollar awards.

The ostensible purpose of the awards and incentives is to spur managers to do a better job in terms

of meeting project goals.