Project Management -Discussion 3

As a matter of fact, using the principle of concurrency, we should begin developing our soft- ware packages right now.”

Livingston: “Because of the importance of this project, I’m going to violate our normal struc- ture and appoint Tim Emary from our planning group as project leader. He’s not as knowl- edgeable as you people are in regard to computers, but he does know how to lay out a schedule and get the job done. I’m sure your people will give him all the necessary support he needs. Remember, I’ll be behind this project all the way. We’re going to convene again one week from today, at which time I expect to see a detailed schedule with all major milestones, team meet- ings, design review meetings, etc., shown and identified. I’d like the project to be complete in eighteen months, if possible. If there are risks in the schedule, identify them. Any questions?”

THE INVISIBLE SPONSOR1

Some executives prefer to micromanage projects whereas other executives are fearful of making a decision because, if they were to make the wrong

decision, it could impact their career. In this case study, the president of the company assigned one of the vice presidents to act as the project sponsor on a project designed to build tooling for a client. The sponsor, however, was reluctant to make any decisions.

Moreland Company was well-respected as a tooling design-and-build company. Moreland was project-driven because all of its income came

from projects. Moreland was also reasonably mature in project management. When the previous VP for engineering retired, Moreland hired an executive from a manu-

facturing company to replace him. The new VP for engineering, Al Zink, had excellent engi- neering knowledge about tooling but had worked for companies that were not project-driven. Al had very little knowledge about project management and had never functioned as a project sponsor. Because of Al’s lack of experience as a sponsor, the president decided that Al should “get his feet wet” as quickly as possible and assigned him as the project sponsor on a medium- sized project. The project manager on this project was Fred Cutler. Fred was an engineer with more than twenty years of experience in tooling design and manufacturing. Fred reported directly to Al Zink administratively.

Fred understood the situation; he would have to train Al Zink on how to function as a project sponsor. This was a new experience for Fred because

subordinates usually do not train senior personnel on how to do their job. Would Al Zink be receptive?

Fred explained the role of the sponsor and how there are certain project documents that require the signatures of both the project manager and the project sponsor. Everything seemed

658 NETWORK SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES

1. ©2010 by Harold Kerzner. Reproduced by permission. All rights reserved.

Background

Assigning the VP

Fred’s Dilemma

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