Susans Consulting Company (SCC) has been in business for ten years and has experienced a significant turnover in the project management group, which has prompted senior leadership to investigate.

A preliminary review by senior leadership has determined that Project Managers are frustrated with the amount of required project management documentation, which has impacted their ability to manage projects successfully.

A recent review of the project management process has determined that SCC has spent between 30-40% of its total project budget on projects’ overhead costs to include project management costs. A review of industry standards is between 5-15% higher than most companies. In addition, senior leaders found that projects are being delivered between 25% and 50% over budget and late 95% of the time.

Note: Project Management overhead includes the PM’s time managing the project, attending meetings, and developing the required documentation.

SCC Request: SCC has reached out to your team because you are experts in defining project management processes and delivering projects on time. The SCC request includes the following:

• The development of a new project management process which at a minimum should include the following:

• • The ability to track issues, risks, changes
  • The ability to view project activities consists of a view of what has been completed and what activities the team is working on over the next reporting period
  • The company must have a view into total life cycle project costs to include what has been spent to date, baseline budget, any changes to the budget, remaining budget, and cost of the project at completion
• In addition, to the new process request, SCC has a new project they need to complete by the end of the year with a limited budget and no project management staff.

Assignment

• Identify a project manager – this individual is responsible for the team assignment ensuring that team members are completing their assigned work on time.
• I will act as the sponsor both for the project and for the methodology build-out. Any questions should be directed to me.

The group assignment has two parts

Part 1: Build a Methodology

• Identify and descript the methodology to be used by the company. Both a narrative and pictorial representation is required.
• Identify and describe the deliverables which must be completed for each project by the project team.
• Identify and describe the process the Project Management Office should use when reviewing changes to the methodology, this should include cadence for the process reviews.
• Identify the prioritization technique the project manager will use to prioritize work delivered in the process. Look at options like PV, IRR, NPV, Pay Back Period
• Identify and describe any risks you see with the new process and mitigation strategies.
• Identify and describe the optimum organizational structure for your methodology.
• Identify and describe the life cycle costing model for your methodology

Boston Electric Generators has been getting many complaints from its major customer, Home Station, about the quality of its shipments of home generators. Daniel Shimshak, the plant manager, is alarmed that a customer is providing him with the only information the company has on shipment quality. He decides to collect information on defective shipments through a form he has asked his drivers to complete on arrival at customers’ stores. The forms for the first 279 shipments have been turned in. They show the following over the past 8 weeks:

Even though Daniel increased his capacity by adding more workers to his normal contingent of 30, he knew that for many weeks he exceeded his regular output of 30 shipments per week. A review of his turnover over the past 8 weeks shows the following:

a) Develop a scatter diagram using total number of shipments and number of defective shipments. Does there appear to be any relationship?

b) Develop a scatter diagram using the variable “turnover”(number of new hires plus number of terminations) and the number of defective shipments. Does the diagram depict a relationship between the two variables?

c) Develop a Pareto chart for the type of defects that have occurred.

d) Draw a fish-bone chart showing the possible causes of the defective shipments.