MGT323 SEUMid

1. SE TB Mid
1. Compare and contrast the Product Life Cycle and Project Life Cycle. The Product Life Cycle deals with the time it
takes to develop a product and the time it remains in the marketplace. The Project Life Cycle is the stages that a
new product goes through while being developed.
(1) Identify the five major characteristics of a project. An established objective; (2) A defined life span with a
beginning and end; (3) Usually the involvement of several departments and professionals; (4) Typically, doing
something that has never been done before; (5) Specific time, cost and performance requirements.
2. Identify and briefly describe the four stages of a project life cycle. Defining stage: goals, specifications and
objectives established; Planning stage: schedules, budgets, risks management and resource assignment;
Executing stage: majority of physical and mental work, status reports, changes and forecasts; Closing stage: train
customer, transfer documents, release resources, and lessons learned.
3. "Project managers perform the same functions as other managers." Agree or disagree, and support your
decision. Many of the same basic management functions are performed by project managers; however, there
are aspects of the project manager's job that make it unique. For example, they manage temporary, non-
repetitive activities to complete a fixed life project.
4. Identify and briefly describe the five current drivers of project management. (1) Compression of the product life
cycle; (2) Knowledge explosion; (3). Triple bottom line; (4) Increased customer focus; (5) Small projects represent
big problems.
5. Even if you never aspire to be a "project manager," why is it important to know how to manage projects
effectively? Explain your answer and use an example to support your answer. Even if you have no desire to be a
project manager you may be a part of a project team where you will have a better understanding of the
processes involved. In addition, there are many project management skills that can be applied to other
professions and industries.
6. Identify and briefly discuss the two key dimensions of managing actual projects. Explain why both are
important to successfully manage a project. Use an example to support your answer. The technical includes
schedules and status reports. The sociocultural dimension includes leadership, problem solving and negotiation.
7. What are the major differences between managing a process and managing a project? At first glance project
managers perform the same functions as other managers. That is, they plan, schedule, and control. However,
what makes them unique is that they manage temporary, nonrepetitive activities to complete a fixed life project.
8. Describe what it means that a project manager must work with a diverse group of characters? Project
managers manage the tension between customer expectations and what is feasible and reasonable. They
provide direction, coordination, and integration to the project team. They often must work with a diverse group
of outsiders—vendors, suppliers, subcontractors—who do not necessarily share their project allegiance.
9. What is the difference between a project and a program? The terms are often used interchangeably in business;
however, a program is considered to be a series of coordinated, related, and multiple projects that continue over
an extended time intended to achieve a goal.
1. "Politics and project management should not mix." Agree or disagree and support your position. Projects and
politics invariably mix and effective project managers recognize that any significant project has political
ramifications. A good project selection process will minimize the impact of internal politics.
2. Why do project managers need to understand strategy? Project managers need to understand strategy so they
can make appropriate decisions and adjustments and so they can be effective project advocates.
3. Why is it important that organizations develop a process to align selected projects with strategic goals? A
result of not having a process that aligns selected projects with strategic goals is poor utilization of resources.
Companies that have developed this process have more cooperation across the organization, perform better on
projects and have fewer projects.

2. 4. The typical Strategic Management Process includes four activities. Identify and briefly describe each of those
four activities. (1) Review and define the organizational mission; (2) Analyze and formulate strategies that align
with mission; (3) Set objectives to achieve the strategy; (4) Implement strategies through projects.
5. The advantages of successful project portfolio management systems are becoming well recognized. Briefly
describe three. The following are all examples of acceptable answers: (1) Builds discipline into project selection
process; (2) Links project selection to strategic metrics; (3) Prioritizes project proposals across a common set of
criteria, rather than politics or emotion; (4) Allocates resources to projects that align with strategic direction; (5)
Balances risk across all projects; (5) Justifies killing projects that do not support organization strategy; (6)
Improves communication and supports agreement on project goals.
6. Identify and briefly describe the five characteristics of effective objectives. (1) Specific; (2) Measurable; (3)
Assignable; (4) Realistic; (5) Time related
7. What is a SWOT analysis and how does it relate to the Strategic Management Process? It is an assessment of
the internal and external environments and is the link between reviewing the current mission statement and the
development of goals and objectives that support organization strategy
8. What is the implementation gap and how does it impact project management? How can it be prevented? The
implementation gap refers to the lack of understanding and consensus of organization strategy among top and
middle-level managers. If managers lack a common understanding of the priority for a given set of projects, then
the achievement of long-range goals will be impossible. A project portfolio system can go a long way to reduce or
even eliminate this problem.
9. Identify and briefly discuss the three classes of projects usually found in an organization's project portfolio. (1)
Compliance (must do); (2) Operational; (3) Strategic
10. Management of a portfolio system requires two major inputs from senior management. What are they? Senior
management must provide guidance in establishing selection criteria that strongly align with the current
organization strategies and they must decide how they wish to balance the available organizational resources
among different types of projects.
11. Why is profitability alone not an adequate measure of a project's value to an organization? Today management
is interested in identifying the potential mix of projects that will yield the best use of human and capital
resources to maximize return on investment in the long run. Factors such as researching new technology, public
image, ethical position, protection of the environment, core competencies, and strategic fit might be important
criteria for selecting projects.
12. What are the two major shortcomings of using the Checklist approach to select projects? The Checklist
approach fails to determine the relative importance of the project to the firm and fails to compare projects to
other potential projects.
1. There are often considerable differences in how projects are managed within certain firms, even if the same
project management structure is being used. Explain. Many researchers attribute these differences to the
organizational culture. The organizational culture reflects the personality of the organization.
2. What is more important for project success, the formal project management structure or the culture of the
parent organization? The culture of the parent organization is more important than the formal project
management structure. The project management structure should derive from the culture of the organization.
The culture should reveal what types of projects the organization will do and in turn will be reflected by the
project management structure.
3. Identify and briefly describe at least two advantages and two disadvantages of organizing projects within the
functional organization. Advantages include no alteration in the design or operation of the parent organization,
flexibility in use of staff, in-depth expertise, and easy post-project transition. Disadvantages include lack of focus,
poor integration, longer project duration and lack of motivation and ownership.

3. 4. Identify and briefly describe at least two advantages and two disadvantages of organizing project teams as
dedicated project teams. Advantages include simplicity, shorter project duration, strong cohesiveness of project
team members and cross-functional integration. Disadvantages include high cost, internal strife, limited
technological expertise and difficult post-project transition.
5. Identify and briefly describe at least two advantages and two disadvantages of organizing project teams using
the matrix management approach. Advantages include high efficiency, strong project focus, easier post-project
transition and flexibility. Disadvantages include dysfunctional conflict, infighting, high levels of stress, and longer
project duration.
6. Identify and briefly describe the three forms of organizing projects using the matrix management approach.
(1) Weak matrix; (2) Balanced matrix; (3) Strong matrix. In the weak matrix structure the functional manager has
most authority and decision making, deciding how things will be done and who will do them. The project
manager does scheduling, prepares budgets and facilitates the project. In the balanced matrix both project
manager and functional manager share a delicate balance of authority and responsibility. In the strong matrix
structure, the project manager has all of the responsibility and authority while the functional manager merely
provides the human resources.
7. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantage of a weak project management structure and a strong
project management structure. The strong matrix is likely to enhance project integration, diminish internal
power struggles and improve control. However, technical quality may suffer. The weak matrix is likely to improve
technical quality and provide better conflict management; however, there may be poor project integration.
8. Identify and briefly describe three of the 10 primary characteristics of organization culture. Member identity,
team emphasis, management focus, unit integration, unit integration, control, risk tolerance, reward criteria,
conflict tolerance, means vs. end orientation and open system focus.
9. Culture performs several important functions in organizations. Clarifying and reinforcing standards of behavior
is one of these. Explain and provide an example. Culture defines what is permissible and what inappropriate
behavior is. These standards span a wide range of behavior from dress code and working hours to challenging the
judgment of superiors.
10. Describe the difference between a "strong" or "thick" culture and a "thin" or "weak" culture. "Strong" or
"thick" are adjectives used to denote a culture in which the organization's core values and customs are widely
shared within the entire organization. Conversely, a "thin" or "weak" culture is one that is not widely shared or
practiced within a firm.
11. Briefly describe two ways to diagnose the culture of an organization and give an example of each. (1) Study
the physical characteristics of an organization; (2) Read about the organization; (3) Observe how people interact
within the organization; (4) Interpret stories and folklore surrounding the organization.
73. Identify and briefly describe the five steps in defining a project. (1) Defining the project scope; (2)
Establishing project priorities; (3) Creating the work breakdown structure; (4) Integrating the WBS with the
organization; (5) Coding the WBS.
74. Identify and briefly describe the eight elements on the recommended project scope checklist. The eight
items are: (1) Project objectives; (2) Product scope description; (3) Justification; (4)Deliverables; (3) Milestones;
(4) Technical requirements; (5) Limits and exclusions; (6) Acceptance criteria.
75. In terms of project management, what is a deliverable? Give an example. A deliverable is an expected
output that occurs during the life of a project. A deliverable could be a list of specifications, software code or a
technical manual, even a prototype.
76. A priority matrix helps project managers manage trade-offs among time, cost and performance or scope.
This helps to identify which criterion is constrained, which should be enhanced and which can be accepted.
Some argue that all of these criteria are always constrained. Agree or disagree? Explain why. Disagree. If
everything goes well on the project and no major problems arise then this argument might be valid; however,

4. this situation is rare. Project managers are often forced to make tough decisions that benefit one criterion while
compromising the other two.
77. In project management terms, what is meant by "managing the trade-offs"? During project execution
decisions will be needed to balance the three success criteria: costs, schedule, and performance. Typically, one
will be degraded in order to maintain or improve another. Thus, the criteria are traded off.
78. Identify the three categories used to classify the priority of major project parameters. (1) Constrain (the
parameter is fixed); (2) Enhance (the parameter should be optimized); (3) Accept (lower results are acceptable).
79. During the course of a project, project priorities may change impacting the project priority matrix. Give an
example. The customer may suddenly need the project completed one month sooner or new directives from top
management may emphasize cost saving initiatives.
80. What is meant by a work breakdown structure and how does it help manage projects? A work breakdown
structure (WBS) is the logical subdividing of major activities into smaller elements. It is useful to ensure complete
planning of a project as well as a basis for monitoring progress.
81. What is a work package and what information does it contain? A work package is the lowest element in the
WBS. It is the basic unit used for planning, scheduling and controlling the project. Work packages consist of what,
how long, cost, resources, who is responsible, and identify monitoring points for measuring progress.
82. What is a responsibility matrix and how would it be used in project management? The responsibility matrix
(RM) summarizes the tasks to be accomplished and who is responsible for what on a project. It is used to ensure
that all participants understand and agree on their assignments.
83. Define scope creep. When is it good? When is it bad? Provide real-life examples of both cases. Scope creep
is the gradual expansion of project deliverables to the point that overall project constraints (costs and schedule)
can no longer be met. It is good when the customer is happy and the project has been improved. It is bad when
project duration is increased and costs become higher without creating any more value to the customer.
84. What is an organization breakdown structure and how would you use it to plan a project? The organization
breakdown structure (OBS) is the process of defining which organization units are responsible for performing the
work outlined in the individual work packages.
85. What are the major causes of scope creep? What can the project manager do to minimize scope creep
within each of these causes? The major causes of scope creep are poor requirements analysis, not involving the
users early enough, underestimating project complexity, lack of change control, and gold plating. For each of
these there is an obvious remedy that the project manager must apply.
86. Thinking systemically, how would you decide whether a particular function or feature is in or out of scope?
What criteria would you use? Who is the ultimate stakeholder type that will decide this issue? How might their
input be incorporated into the final decision? The stakeholder group that ultimately determines scope is the
customer. Criteria would include asking a variety of questions to determine relevance to and alignment with the
project objective. The importance and value of each feature/function to the customer must be determined. You
could have the customer prioritize the list of functions/features by having them order the list in descending order
from most important to least important. Then you would fund those functions/features that deliver the most
value to the customer. Low-value features for which there is insufficient budget would get scrubbed. You could
even calculate a value/cost ratio and prioritize features in descending order of that ratio.
89. Describe as many different ways to define/describe/delineate scope as possible, as discussed in the
chapter. Scope should be focused on the customer, the project objective, the end results, the deliverables, the
milestones, the departments involved, the development team, which? Some of the documents/delineations
mentioned in the chapter include project scope definition, statement of work, project charter, and, of course, the
WBS. The stakeholder group that ultimately determines scope is the customer. Criteria would include asking the
customer a variety of questions. You could have the customer prioritize the list of functions/features by having
them order the list in descending order from most important to least important. Then you would fund those
functions/features that deliver the most value to the customer. Low-value features for which there is insufficient
budget would get scrubbed. You could even calculate a value/cost ratio and prioritize features in descending
order of that ratio.