Unit VII Project (For hifsa shaukat Only) Project Management

Unit IV Case Study

Claude Holmes

Professor Jim Marion

Project Management

Columbia Southern University

17 November 2016

Part 1-Case Study 3.1

Keflavik Paper presents a good example of the danger of excessive reliance on one screening technique (discounted cash flows). How might excessive or exclusive reliance on other screening methods discussed in this chapter lead to similar problems?

The case presented elucidated that the company has relied too much on single screening method. The given screening method is related to the discounted cash flow. However, in reality the given method is not leading to the overall gaining of the profit with the help of the production. In order to have a long term successful business, one has to look forward for the alternatives. The company should have the alternative methods in case if one method fails then the other can be used. It should not put all the eggs in one basket and should move towards diversification. There are certain inclusive methods that can cause the creation of the project portfolio. These can have effect in terms of having harm for long term business practices of the company. The company can adopt the method for the projection of the cost of the product in order to evaluate the profit and cost relationship. Similarly, in the meantime, the company might overlook the expectations of the potential customers which are also responsible for the profitability of the organization. The contemporary method executed by the company is only leading the account of the loss of the sales due to the not selling of the product in the open market. Sometimes clients are well aware of the discounted methods and all the other tactics used in the market. So, all the methods have equal potential of low profit.

Assume that you are responsible for maintaining Keflavik’s project portfolio. Name some key criteria that should be used in evaluating all new projects before they are added to the current portfolio.

In order to maintain the Keflavik’s project portfolio, some new criteria are required. The criteria are followed by the most important point that is about the proper management of the project using the matching of the projects with the portfolio of the company. In this whole time, the projects have been mismatched that leads to the mismanagement of all the current and new projects. As a manager, it is required to align the portfolio of the projects of the company along with the strategic mission of the organization the aims and objectives should be kept at foremost while choosing the project. It will boost the potential and reliability of the organization among the customers. In addition to it, it is also recommended that the company should diversify the processes of costing and profit analysing depending on the feasibility and nature of the project.

Each project has different scope and nature, so there are different methods for the evaluation of the cost and profit of the organization. Furthermore, as a manager, in order to maintain the organization, it is also recommended to apply the lessons learned in the previous projects into new projects. For this purpose, there is a need of an efficient feedback mechanism that should be maintained at most along with the extensive communication network. It is further elaborated that the maintenance of the project portfolio is dependent on the manager as well. So each project should have the skilled and well-matched manager whose set of skills matches the responsibilities of the project. It will help in increasing the efficiency and performance of the project in return increasing the profit of the organization.

What does this case demonstrates about the effect of poor project-screening methods on a firm’s ability to manage its projects effectively?

The effect of the poor management of the project screening method on the firm is diverse and disastrous. The project development of the company has a very lose and spotty record due to it. Some projects have been delivered on time whereas, other projects destroys the budget badly. Budgets are over run but the inconsistence project performance yields bad results and company has lost money. The major effect of the practice is the development of the project’s family that are not related to each other in any manner. It has been seen that it put forward the major lack off of the organization that is the mismatching of the portfolio of the projects with the processes. The projects are not measured on the scale of the objectives and strategic missions of the firm. It is misleading the organization is wrong direction. The management become worst due to incompatibility of the mismanaged and mismatched projects with the wrong set skills of the manager. There is sheer effect on the feedback mechanism and the distortion in the application of the solution to the new project the reason of which leads to the mismanagement of the later one. The in nutshell it leads to worst management of the project.

Part 2-Case Study 3.2

Phyllis has called you into her office to help her make sense of the contradictions in project evaluation. How would you explain the reasons for this divergence of opinion from one technique to the next? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each screening method?

I would have elaborated to the Phyllis that there are two classifications and general classes for the selection of the project namely non-numerical and numerical. It depends on the selection of the head of the software development department to choose the scoring method. One of the methods that can be used can be Simplified Scoring method. In the use of the scoring method, the numeric values are used in order to represent the simplified scoring method. It represents various key factors that can be helpful in the decision making process of the proposed project. These numerical values are actually numbers that are based on importance of the company to correlate the proposed project. The numbers used in the project ranges from 1-3. The number 3 is given the maximum importance whereas number 1 is given the least importance. The external and internal issues determine the criteria which are best suited for the organization. The risks factors are also involved in determining the screening and selection methods for the project. The factors such as market potential, additional factors (such as proprietary, strategy and branding) and internal operational factors are also responsible for it. The advantages of it is include the alignment with the strategic goal of the organization and easy to use. The disadvantages include the manipulation of the data and inaccurate structure.

Furthermore, another method used by the business organization includes the Net Present Value method. The net present value (NPV) method is often used by the organizations for decision making to choose between the appropriate projects. It includes the identification of the initial investment along with the added value of the project that is proposed. It results in the analysis with more scoring inflows and outflows to determine the viability of the projects. The advantages of the method include the decision based on general profits, performance evaluation based on financial output and provide base from investment point of view. The disadvantages include the divergence of opinion, inconsistent with short term strategic goals of the firms and long term predictions that mostly inaccurate and complicated.

Choose the project that you feel, based on the above analysis, Nova Western should select. Defend your choice.

As per the information provided in the case, I would prefer to go with the simplified scoring method because I feel it suits the needs of the business in every best possible way. The financial model provides the outlook of the five year comparison plan for both the proposed projects to decide for the accurate choice between them. The project Janus offers the given opportunity:

The investment of today is $ 250,000 whereas the yielded expected stream is of $150,000 for the first year in compliance with the calculated NVP of $60,995for preceding five years.

On the other hand, the project Genesis has the investment of initial of $400,000 with the expected yield of $75,000 each year. The calculation of its NPV depicted the value of $25,695 after 3 years. In order to analyse the both project, I will require NPV of both projects and recalculate them. After this, I will calculate the internal rate of return in order to take in consideration the stream of the cash flows and the estimation of the breakeven point for the each project. So, using both of the models it will be easy to analyse individual project by considering the internal rate of return.

What does the above case suggest to you about the use of project selection methods in organizations? How would you resolve the contradictions found in this example?

In the above given case it can be elucidated that the project selection methods has two point of views. One model of them is the financial model; it suggests that the given values are the support for the basic goals of the organization. In fact, this model does not reflect the more elaborated financial aspects of the proposed projects. In addition to it, the other method of the scoring method depicted the simplistic values method I decision making about the projects. It is open to misunderstandings and inaccuracies. It has different criteria and it will weigh the projects on different basis that can be different from the basic goal of the organization. The company is reviewing the project on the basis of these two methods. It will create misunderstandings for the foundation of the projects with varying ideas about the success of the project. The financial model followed remains incomplete and leads to the decision that is based on inaccuracies. The department who is administrating these projects methodologies and ideas are making their best for good results. The decision is based on these models; it will be hectic and misleading most of the times. According to my analysis, there is lack in terms of expert knowledge and lack of experience to analyse such projects efficiently.

Part 3-Fictional Group Project

The group project is based on four team members. It is using the technique of the software development project. The project is about the development of the software that is about the recording of the notes of the students during lectures with the help of the software without disturbing them during lectures. The group is composed of the software engineer, project manager, financial advisor and marketing and public relation manager. The software should entangle the needs of the students of recording and preparing automatic hand written notes of the lectures that teachers deliver. It will save the time of the students and help them to concentrate fully on the lecture rather than the hassle of noting the lectures.

Part 4

Background

This is a common observation that the noting of the speeches and lectures are a common practice in educational institutions, corporate meetings, and press conferences. It is not possible for the human to note each and every line of the speaker on the spot. So there are many distortions and individuals cannot keep pace with the speech of the speakers. There are many devices that can be used for the purpose of recording of the lectures and speeches in audio form. But there is no device or software that can help the individuals with taking notes of the live speeches and lectures.

Task

The project production involves a number of tasks that needs to be done step by step. These tasks are as follow:

· Market research

· Software designing

· Entity Relationship Diagram preparation

· Software prototype preparation

· Software prototype

· Software development

· Production planning

· Marketing

· Project planning

Objectives

The basic objectives are as follow:

· To record the lecture for the students in written form to make the notes

· To record the speeches of the individuals during press releases and press conferences for the reporters

· To record the details of the corporate meetings for the revision purpose and for record keeping

Approach

The approach used in the project is software development. The software of the specified specifications needs to be developed according to the lists of the task.

Input Source

The input source can be any android phone, Mac book, laptop, smart phones and any device that can have the compatibility with the software.

Part 5 - Work Breakdown Structure

( Notes Recording Software )

( Advertising ) ( Marketing Collateral ) ( Marketing Plan ) ( Marketing Strategy ) ( Initial Prototype ) ( Production Development Sign Off ) ( Concept Model ) ( Design Selection ) ( Research Evaluation ) ( Research Analysis ) ( Survey ) ( Focus Group ) ( ERD ) ( Prototype Testing ) ( Design ) ( Concept Model ) ( Market Analysis ) ( Research Analysis ) ( Survey ) ( Focus Group ) ( Project Management ) ( Marketing ) ( Production Planning ) ( Software Development ) ( Software Design ) ( Market Research )

Part 6 - Responsibility Matrix

Group Member’s Name	Responsibilities & Task
		Market research	Software designing	Production plan	Software development	Marketing	Project management
	Kelly
	Isabela
	Kim
	John