International Project Management
Spring 2010
#4:Preparation Assignment Description
The documentation for this course consists of the following:
1.Syllabus
2.Course Outline
3.Project Description
4.Preparation Assignment Description – This Document
Class Preparation
Students are required to perform 10 hours of preparation work before the class starts.There are 5 topics assigned, one for each day. Each day, students should be prepared to give a 2 minute talk in class on the assigned topic. Students are expected to do their own research and find their own interesting examples for presentation in class.
You must time your speech, and get it down to no more than 2 minutes. Practice it!
The topics of the research assignment are listed in the table below under the column heading “Student Presentation Topic.”
General Guidelines:
In this exercise, I am interested in what you find “interesting.”
If it is interesting to you, then it will probably be interesting to everyone else. Study the readings below and decide what it is that interests you. It will take some time to find the theme of what you want to say.
Students are expected to make a short presentation in class. Students should not speak from notes, and not read a prepared script.
Write your notes on a single note card.
Put your name on the back
I will collect the cards and grade them.
In the U.S.we use note cards that are 3 x 5 (inches!), so please find something similar. That is why this is called the 3x5 assignment.
The class will briefly discuss each presentation, so be prepared to answer questions on your topic.
There are no restrictions on what you may talk about. Anything goes.
Class Topics
Class # / LectureTopic / Student
Presentation
Topic / Tools
& Workshop
Topic
1 / Definition of a Project & PMI
Project Life Cycle
Company Mission, Strategy & Project Selection / Cultural Differences: The Matsushita Case / Party Plan
2 / Organizational Culture
PM Structures:
Function, Matrix, Network
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) / Project Managers vs. Technical Directors
(PM vs. TD) / WBS for a house
3 / Networks
Forward & Backward Pass
Critical Path / A Project Failure / MS Project
4 / Earned Value / The “Big Dig” / MS Project
5 / Project Management vs. Leadership
Teams & Partners
International Projects / Tigers & Teddy Bears / Cost Estimate
If there are words that you do not understand, look them up. These exercises do not require you to be experienced in Project Management. The exercises are all quite accessible. However, there will be things that are unfamiliar. That is where the research comes in. In the class discussion we will reflect on the Project Management lessons of the topics.
Google and Wikipedia are great starting places and are useful to begin your search, help find the definition of terms, etc. However,I would like to see some more in-depth, original research. Pick something that fascinates you, and tell us something interesting.
I expect students to have an opinion, and I want to hear it. However, that opinion should be backed up by some research.
Assignment #1 (Monday):
Cultural Differences: The Matsushita Case
Read the article below. Prepare your talk on what you find interesting about it. You may not cover more than one aspect of the piece. This piece is quite sophisticated, so there is plenty to work on here.
“Why the West Will Lose”
K. Matsushita
Extracts from remarks made by Mr. Konosuke Matsushita of the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, Japan to a Group of Western Managers. Industrial Participation, Spring, 1985, p. 8. Quoted by Terry Hill in Manufacturing Strategy, 2nd Ed. Irwin, p 220, 1994.
We are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose: there is nothing you can do about it, because the reasons for your failure are within yourselves.
Your firms are built on the Taylor model; even worse, so are your heads. With your bosses doing the thinking, while the workers wield the screwdrivers, you are convinced deep down that this is the right way to run a business.
For you, the essence of management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses into the hands of labor.
We are beyond the Taylor model: business, we know, is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous in an environment increasingly unpredictable, competitive, and fraught with danger, that their continued existence depends on the day to day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence.
For us, the core of management is precisely this art of mobilizing and pulling together the intellectual resources of all employees in the service of the firm. Because we have measured better than you the scope of the technological and economic challenges, we know that the intelligence of a handful of technocrats, however brilliant and smart they may be, is no longer enough for a real chance of success.
Only by drawing on the combined brain power of all its employees can a firm face up to the turbulence and constraints of today’s environment.
This is why our large companies give their employees three to four times more training than yours; this is why they focus within the firm such intensive exchange communication; this is why they seek constantly everybody’s suggestions, and why they demand from the educational system increasing numbers of graduates as well as bright and well-educated generalists, because these people are the lifeblood of industry.
Your “socially-minded bosses,” often full of good intentions, believe their duty is to protect the people in their firms. We, on the other hand, are realists and consider it our duty to get our own people to defend their firms, which will pay them back a hundredfold for their dedication. By doing this, we end up being more “social” than you.
Assignment #2 (Tuesday):
Project Managers vs. Technical Directors
Any Project Management textbook says that the role of the Project Manager (PM) is to manage the budget, the customer interface, and the schedule and milestones. That leaves the interesting question of who manages technical aspects of the product (i.e. will it do the job?). Who is the person who ensures that the project meets the project’s goals and objectives?
I suggest that there is always a defined role for a person, who I call the Technical Director (TD), whose job it is to manage the value of the product, and to ensure that customers actually get what they want.
There is an inherent conflict between the TD and the PM.
PM: "Ship it! It’s due tomorrow!"
TD: "No, it's not ready!"
Sometimes you have to look carefully, but in any project you can almost always find both roles. Here are some examples that help to clarify the concepts, and illustrate some of the problems.(For small projects the PM and TD are usually the same person, which leads to schizophrenia!)
Construction
In construction projects the role of TD is often played by the Architect. If you are building a house, the contractor has a lot of say on the entire process and even the quality. However, if there is a problem or conflict, the customer usually appeals to the architect. In fact, one of the roles of architects is to represent the client in an unbiased way.
Movies
In movies, the TD is the director, who controls almost all of the interesting things about a movie: directing, casting, staging, lighting, etc. In some ways the director is the "boss" of a movie. The producer does control the money, and interface to the studio (the customer) and so we can say that the producer is fulfilling the role of the PM. What makes the movie case interesting is that it is one of the few cases where the TD is in control, since the director often has more power than the producer.
The assignment is to discuss the conflict between PM and TD in a particular example. Find your own interesting example of the conflict between PM and TD. Find a specific example. Do not describe a general theoretical management situation. Be prepared to answer the question: “Who is responsible for resolving the issue?”
Anything goes here. You may use any organization you like.
Assignment #3 (Wednesday):
Project Failure
It is not difficult to find examples of Project failures. Find a specific example. What surprised you about this, or what did you find interesting?
Assignment #4 (Thursday):
Boston’s “Big Dig”
One of the most famous projects in the U.S.A. is Boston’s “Big Dig.” Read about the Big Dig and present some interesting observations about it to the class. Concentrate on what you find interesting about the project, not some general statistics.
Assignment #5 (Friday):
Tigers & Teddy Bears
This assignment is not due until Friday. I will go over this in class, so you will have chance to ask questions and modify your ideas. However, early preparation will make your life much easier!
Find you own example of the “Tigers and Teddy Bears” structure described below. You can choose any organization at all -- there are no limits. Be prepared to email me your diagram in power point.
Each student will send 2 slides: one with their name and title, and one with whatever they like.
Tigers & Teddy Bears:
A Guide to Organizational Structures
Organizations publish organization charts which are in layers. Department managers report to the CEO. Section managers report to the department managers, etc. The question we want to explore is, “How do the layers communicate?”
If the CEO is very forceful, then the next layer down tends to be accommodating. We say that the CEO is a “tiger” and the layer below consists of “teddy bears.”
It is important to realize that we are saying nothing about the qualifications or the abilities of either layer. These descriptions are all about communication styles. Tigers are neither good nor bad. Teddy bears are neither good nor bad. Tigers can be women and teddy bears can be men. Tigers can be smart or dumb. Likewise, teddy bears can be smart or dumb. We are only discussing their management communication style.
“Tigers” tend to be forcefuland aggressive, and they strongly advocate their position.
“Teddy Bears” tend to be more accepting and conciliatory. They are often consensus builders, and are interested in the process.
What about the third layer? We have the CEO (Tiger) and below a layer of department managers (Teddy Bears). Below that are the section managers. What role should they play? Where do they fit in the Tigers and Teddy Bears scale?
The answer is that in most organizations, tigers and teddy bears tend to alternate. So in the above example, you are likely to find that the section managers are tigers. (See Figure.)
Companies, government agencies, universities, and even small organizations that are stable tend to self-organize into layers of tigers and teddy bears. This seems to be a stable structure. However, problems arise when these layers get mixed up:
When there are two tigers without intervening teddy bears, the tigers tend to fight all the time, and the results are destructive.
When there are two teddy bears without intervening tigers, there is stagnation and stalemate. The result is that work does not get done.
When the layers alternate, you get the best of both worlds. The tigers push the organization forward, while the teddy bears encourage consensus and get the work done constructively.
Issues arise when situations change, e.g., when someone gets promoted. Often the entire organization must readjust to accommodate. For example, suppose the CEO was a teddy bear and a layer of tigers reported to the CEO. If the CEO leaves and a tiger is promoted, then we have tigers reporting to tigers, and something must give. Over time, the entire organization readjusts and creates a new hierarchy.
Your assignment is to describe an example of this tigers and teddy bears layering. You can choose any organization at all -- there are no limits.I will put up your slide.