Question

Jack and Alien’s new gaming laptop.

Jack Daniel is an expert in digital signal processing and was promoted to Senior Design Engineer just two years after Alien whose company motto is “For gamers by gamers”. After serving as a Senior Design Engineer for two years, he was promoted to Project Manager and asked to over­see a product development project involving a relatively minor product line extension one of Alien’s gaming keyboards.

Alien had a range of existing gaming laptops and gaming peripherals that are distributed through a net­work of value-added resellers. After completing the gaming keyboard product line extension project about nine months ago, Jack was asked to serve as the project manager for a project to develop a new line of ”Superlite” gaming laptops. This was the first time he was to lead a major strategic project for the organization so Jack wasted no time in planning the project. Based on the success of the product line extension project, he decided to mod­ify the work breakdown structure he had developed for the product line extension project and apply it to this new project to develop a new line of notebook computers. He recalled the weeks of planning that went into developing­ the work breakdown structure for the desk­top product line extension project. The entire project team had been involved, and that was a relatively straightforward product line extension. The current project was more complicated, and there simply was not sufficient time to involve all team mem­bers. What was the point of wasting valuable time and resources to re-invent the wheel? Jack thought between his experience and the suggestions made by the Vice-President he has more than enough information to plan the project.

After modifying the work breakdown structure, Jack scheduled a meeting with the Vice-President of Product Development to discuss staffing the project. As was typi­cal of other product development projects at Alien, Jack and the Vice-President agreed that the project should be housed within the engineering division. In his capacity as project manager, Jack would serve as liaison to other functional areas such as marketing, purchasing, finance, and production. However thought since they had finished the desk­top product line extension project they should have plenty of spare capacity for the new line of notebook computers. Jack was concerned that half the engineers had already been assigned to other projects but thought that if everything worked out well it should still work.

As the project progressed, it continued to slip behind schedule. Jack found it necessary to schedule a meeting each week to address how unanticipated activities would be completed. For example, last week the team realized that no one had been assigned to design a light system to allow the screen to attach and detach the base so that it could be used as a touch screen.

Indeed, Jack found himself increasingly in crisis mode. For example, this morning the manufacturing group sent a heated email to Jack complaining about his conflict management style which was described as aggressive. The manufacturing group noted that they just learned of the notebook computer project and based on the design presented to them, they would not be able to manufacture the printed circuit boards because of the extensive amount of surface mount components required. Jack responded to this message by noting that the engineering group was doing its job and had designed a state-of-the-art notebook computer. He added that it was the manufacturing group's problem to decide how to produce it. He thought some people just do not have a "can do" attitude wanted to spend too much time talking about problems.

Just as troubling was the crisis that had occurred earlier in the week. The Vice-President of Product Development had requested that the notebook com­puter incorporate a new type of interface that would allow the notebook computer to synchronise informa­tion with the new portable playing platform Alien was about to introduce. Jack explained that incorporating new interfaces for high speed synchronise of large would delay the introduction by a minimum of several months. Nevertheless, the Vice-President was adamant that the change be made. The Vice-President of Product Development said to Jack it was pretty obvious from Alien's President's speech last week that all Aliens products would interface with each other and expressed concern that Jack seems to be losing his "can do" attitude and wanting to spend too much time talking about problems. The Vice-President of Product Development thought it was time to get a new project manager. He felt Jack did not know how to play the game and was disappointed that Jack had messed up such a simple project.

Questions:

Q1.    Does Jack Daniel show the competencies' of a good project manager? Describe the characteristics of a good project manager and compare Jack to these characteristics using frameworks discussed in the course.

Q2.   “Jack’s great strength is his ability to manage teams.” Do you agree or disagree? Use relevant concepts from the course and specific examples from the case to justify your answer.

Q3     How could the problems facing Jack been avoided or lessened if good project management practices and auditing processes had been used. Identify four problems and how these could have been addressed using specific concepts and frameworks covered in the course. Clearly define the problem and provide specific examples of how specific concepts and frameworks covered in the course these could have been used to lessen the risk or impact of this problem.

Answer 1

Ans 1- No. Jack Daniel does not show the competencies of a good project manager.

Characteristics of a good project manager:

1. Team Building skills/ Team work

A good manager involves his team in all major decisions concerning the project, understand the problems areas, discuss what can be improved, decide on guidelines with the team and then move on to implement the idea. Here Jack did not involve his team any decision making nor did he discuss the issues or changes with any of his engineers. He thought he will be able to plan the project on his own.

2. Calm under pressure

A good manager should remain calm under critical situations. Instead of arguing or getting aggressive, he is the one who should try and find a way out to the problem. But in the above case, Jake had heated arguments with the manufacturing department when they pointed out the challenge. He should have worked with the manager to overcome the challenge.

3. Good planning skills

A project manager should have good planning skills which includes estimation of efforts, resources, deadline, etc. But in this scenario, Jack assumed that things would work out in his favour and he would meet the project deadline. He knew half of the engineers were working on other projects, still he decided to carry out his plan on the basis of his assumptions.

4. Good communication skills

An effective manager knows how to communicate roles and expectations to his team or how to highlight issues to the upper management. Jack lacked good communication skills. He missed the fact about new interface that was to be added. He was not able to highlight the challenge bout the delay to the vice president in a convincing manner.

Ans 2- I do not think Jack's strength was his ability to manage teams. Few scenarios which support this fact are:

• He did not involve his team during the project planning process
• All the descions were taken by Jack and the vice president, team members were not given any say in the decision making process
• He was not good in delegating tasks as he had missed assigning someone to design the light system to allow the screen to attach and detach the base so that it could be used as a touch screen
• During the whole project, he was in a crisis mode
• He knew half of the engineers were working on some other project. Instead of taking this matter up with the team and deciding on new strategies, he carried out the plan assuming things would work out.
• He lacked problem solving skills which is clearly noted when he blamed manufacturing group for not having "can do" attitude

Ans 3- The problem areas and their solutions are as follows:

• ​Project planning

The project lacked effective planning. Jack should have discussed the project with the team, how many hours are required, no. of people required, new features and characteristics, deadline, challenges etc. In this way, he could have got complete support from his team. He should then have approached the vice-president along with the plan for his approval.

• Communication

Jack did not communicate proper roles, deadlines and expectations to his team due to which the project got delayed. When he was aware of the fact that no. of engineers available were less than what was required, he should have discussed the same with his manager. In this way, the huge delay could have been avoided.

• Aggression

From the above case, we can clearly note that Jack's behaviour was aggressive when he was dealing with the manufacturing group. He could have enderstood their problem and tried to find a way out instead of having heated arguments.

• Time management

Jack was unable to manage time and deadlines and hence the project got delayed. He could have drafted a time schedule and few critical time points in order to check the progress of the project.