what is the solution to the questions?

Case The Project Manager/Customer Interface (B) Jack R. Meredith Jacqueline Doyle, Manager of Contract Management for BWNS, was having second thoughts about their recent contract dispute with NLP over the Green Meadow plant had recently issued a memo to project m avoid such future problems by listing the including the following: (1) Know who are: (2) ask the right questions of the rig! 452 CHAPTER 11 Project Control the customer; (4) get money for work performed; and (5) perse- vere. However, upon reflection, she wasn't confident these vague responsibilities would be sufficient to avoid similar problems in the future, or in some cases even actionable. She thus decided to consult some reference books on the topic of managerial control of projects, taking some notes as she read. She was first interested in the way changes occurred in the exe- cution of the project plan due to unexpected changes in the scope of what was to be done and when. She read that this was called "scope creep." and was defined as follows: "The natural inclination of the client (or sometimes project team members) to change the deliver- ables as they obtain better information about their needs over time."" She also found out that there are three common causes of scope creep: (1) Uncertainty about the technology involved in the project: (2) an increase in the knowledge of the client or user about their needs; and (3) A change in the agreed-upon rules of the project. Jacqueline then wondered how to exercise control over these kinds of unanticipated changes. She found a book on proj- ect control that said there were three major types of control that could be exercised in projects: cybernetic, a type of automatic major delaying event in that project was the late de generators by NLP to SPIS, which could have bee and a clause inserted in the contract. A primary assus contract was that the generators would be delivered suppose they weren't? Another assumption was that accept SPIS budging process, but they insisted on usi process, which also delayed the project. Clearly, futu would have to be carefully reviewed for unspecified and then either contingency measures added for each monitoring to avoid their occurrence. But what if a c pating a problem, asked to charge the contract before was completed, which could circumvent the contin sures? Jacqueline realized that a change control" se be needed in future contracts specifying how requested either party regarding things such as schedule, cost, or would be handled. Any proposed changes would have to by both parties, perhaps a compromise reached, and the by the appropriate officials of both the client and the co Lasi. Jacqueline was irritated that she and Robert a meeting with a client without having a clue what 11 control set folk DN u US P consulted books on managerial communications a information systems. As she took notes, she came likely possibilities. One was that the information in her reports but was buried in details that were Another was that the monitoring systems she relie weren't appropriate for tracking projects, or perh project plans. The information systems book inc possibilitythat the project's and BWNS's inform didn't work together and information about proje the upper management level. She decided that: look further into these three possibilities. nized as precisely what she was doing. The book indicated that some incidents that affect the scope are clearly one-time events that, although difficult to predict, can frequently be mitigated by actions preceding the project. Jacqueline was intrigued by some of the techniques the book suggested such as adding time or cost buffers to the project, monitoring potential incidents for their impending occurrence, or through specific exclusions in the contract such as descoping contingencies. However, many events that appear to be one-time occurrences may in fact have been anticipated early on by careful attention to the past actions of the client, potential subcontractors, the likely project team, the PM, the project owner, the sponsor, and other such stakeholders. Jacqueline found the idea of monitoring project progress in real time to be interesting, rather than discovering problems later on after it was too late to rectify them. The book suggested a few different measures that could be used. One overall mea- sure to indicate potential problems was a "critical ratio" defined as the actual over scheduled progress times the budgeted over actual cost which, if less than 1. indicated problems in the proj- ect. However, this ratio can be misleading if the actual cost or schedule looks good but the other measure is bad. To dig further into what the problem is, the book recommended individual var- iance analyses on both cost and schedule, or simply a projection of the final budget at completion. She decided to ask Reggie Brown about the feasibility of doing this. Since Jacqueline was in charge of contracts, the idea of add- ing contingency language to all project contracts in the future seemed to her to be an easy and excellent way to avoid conflicts with BWNS's clients, as long as they weren't perceived as harm- ing the clients interests. Thinking back to the NLP contract, a Questions 1. Would you consider the scope changes in the "scope creep"'? 2. Are each of the scope changes one of the three b= change in projects? If so, which one and why? 3. Would you recommend any of the goo-go = for BWNS? If so, how would you suggest the these controls? 4. Do you suspect that any of the three common re lems Jacqueline found were occurring? Can dence in the case to support your suspicions? 5. Jacqueline is trying to solve two problems: Avoid with clients and learning about potential proble when they can be solved. What would you suge one from what she has learned? 6. What else would you recommend to Jacqueline? The following article describes the installation of a PMO at Ford to improve the delivery and success of projects. In contrast to the chapter, the article shows how to control projects by design rather than by correction. Case The Project Manager/Customer Interface (B) Jack R. Meredith Jacqueline Doyle, Manager of Contract Management for BWNS, was having second thoughts about their recent contract dispute with NLP over the Green Meadow plant had recently issued a memo to project m avoid such future problems by listing the including the following: (1) Know who are: (2) ask the right questions of the rig! 452 CHAPTER 11 Project Control the customer; (4) get money for work performed; and (5) perse- vere. However, upon reflection, she wasn't confident these vague responsibilities would be sufficient to avoid similar problems in the future, or in some cases even actionable. She thus decided to consult some reference books on the topic of managerial control of projects, taking some notes as she read. She was first interested in the way changes occurred in the exe- cution of the project plan due to unexpected changes in the scope of what was to be done and when. She read that this was called "scope creep." and was defined as follows: "The natural inclination of the client (or sometimes project team members) to change the deliver- ables as they obtain better information about their needs over time."" She also found out that there are three common causes of scope creep: (1) Uncertainty about the technology involved in the project: (2) an increase in the knowledge of the client or user about their needs; and (3) A change in the agreed-upon rules of the project. Jacqueline then wondered how to exercise control over these kinds of unanticipated changes. She found a book on proj- ect control that said there were three major types of control that could be exercised in projects: cybernetic, a type of automatic major delaying event in that project was the late de generators by NLP to SPIS, which could have bee and a clause inserted in the contract. A primary assus contract was that the generators would be delivered suppose they weren't? Another assumption was that accept SPIS budging process, but they insisted on usi process, which also delayed the project. Clearly, futu would have to be carefully reviewed for unspecified and then either contingency measures added for each monitoring to avoid their occurrence. But what if a c pating a problem, asked to charge the contract before was completed, which could circumvent the contin sures? Jacqueline realized that a change control" se be needed in future contracts specifying how requested either party regarding things such as schedule, cost, or would be handled. Any proposed changes would have to by both parties, perhaps a compromise reached, and the by the appropriate officials of both the client and the co Lasi. Jacqueline was irritated that she and Robert a meeting with a client without having a clue what 11 control set folk DN u US P consulted books on managerial communications a information systems. As she took notes, she came likely possibilities. One was that the information in her reports but was buried in details that were Another was that the monitoring systems she relie weren't appropriate for tracking projects, or perh project plans. The information systems book inc possibilitythat the project's and BWNS's inform didn't work together and information about proje the upper management level. She decided that: look further into these three possibilities. nized as precisely what she was doing. The book indicated that some incidents that affect the scope are clearly one-time events that, although difficult to predict, can frequently be mitigated by actions preceding the project. Jacqueline was intrigued by some of the techniques the book suggested such as adding time or cost buffers to the project, monitoring potential incidents for their impending occurrence, or through specific exclusions in the contract such as descoping contingencies. However, many events that appear to be one-time occurrences may in fact have been anticipated early on by careful attention to the past actions of the client, potential subcontractors, the likely project team, the PM, the project owner, the sponsor, and other such stakeholders. Jacqueline found the idea of monitoring project progress in real time to be interesting, rather than discovering problems later on after it was too late to rectify them. The book suggested a few different measures that could be used. One overall mea- sure to indicate potential problems was a "critical ratio" defined as the actual over scheduled progress times the budgeted over actual cost which, if less than 1. indicated problems in the proj- ect. However, this ratio can be misleading if the actual cost or schedule looks good but the other measure is bad. To dig further into what the problem is, the book recommended individual var- iance analyses on both cost and schedule, or simply a projection of the final budget at completion. She decided to ask Reggie Brown about the feasibility of doing this. Since Jacqueline was in charge of contracts, the idea of add- ing contingency language to all project contracts in the future seemed to her to be an easy and excellent way to avoid conflicts with BWNS's clients, as long as they weren't perceived as harm- ing the clients interests. Thinking back to the NLP contract, a Questions 1. Would you consider the scope changes in the "scope creep"'? 2. Are each of the scope changes one of the three b= change in projects? If so, which one and why? 3. Would you recommend any of the goo-go = for BWNS? If so, how would you suggest the these controls? 4. Do you suspect that any of the three common re lems Jacqueline found were occurring? Can dence in the case to support your suspicions? 5. Jacqueline is trying to solve two problems: Avoid with clients and learning about potential proble when they can be solved. What would you suge one from what she has learned? 6. What else would you recommend to Jacqueline? The following article describes the installation of a PMO at Ford to improve the delivery and success of projects. In contrast to the chapter, the article shows how to control projects by design rather than by correction