Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Structure of the Book
Case Types
Parts
The Principles of Management
Equifinality
Contingency
Acknowledgments
Part I: Case Studies in Project Management
Chapter 1: Introduction
AaronSide Goes to Teams
Cocable Inc.
A RobustArm Global Industries’ Sledgehammer
Another Trojan Horse
Call a Truck
The Project Hand-Off Method
Chapter 2: Cultural Aspects Of Project Management
Engineering Culture at Beck
The Jamming
Chapter 3: Project Management Processes
Special Session
Waterfall Software Development
Extreme Programming
Do you ZBB?
Chapter 4: Project Integration Management
The Abacus Project
The Ticketing System
WRQ Software Development
Chapter 5: Project Scope Management
Workshop: Project Definition
Work Breakdown Structure as a Skeleton for Integration
Project Anatomy
Rapid Prototype for Fast Profits
Chapter 6: Project Time Management
How Long Does It Take to Catch a Fish—TAD?
Workshop: The Jogging Line in Action
Sequencing
The Rolling Wave
Schedule Accuracy
AtlasCom
Workshop: The Milestone Chart
Chapter 7: Project Cost Management
The Court House Disaster
Bad Metrics for Earned Value
The Museum Company
Workshop: Parametric Estimate
No Bottom-up Estimate, No Job!
Earned Tree Analysis
Chapter 8: Project Quality Management
Robots Fail Too
The Peaceful Black Belt
Workshop: Project Quality Program
Chapter 9: Project Human Resource Management
The Bully, Subversive, Prima Donna, Etc.
Startups Born with Conflicts
We Do Not Speak the Same Language
My Job was to Integrate Two Cultures
Rate and Rank
Chapter 10: Project Communications Management
The Russians Join Us Late at Night
Quest for Clear
Electronic Medical Record
Improving Public Health Informatics
A Simple Metric Goes a Long Way
Executive Project Metrics
Chapter 11: Project Risk Management
Risk Policies in Project Russia
Risk Under the Microscope
Monte Carlo in Italy
Probability and Impact
Chapter 12: Project Procurement Management
The $30,000 Frigidaire
Mountain of Iron, Mountain of Dollars
Part II: Case Studies in Program Management
Chapter 13: Themes of Program Management
KUPI
The Bounding Box Boxes You
Chapter 14: Program Initiating Process
Business that Operated without Knowing Where Its Profits Came From
Mega Security®
Chapter 15: Program Planning Process
Quick Release
The Budica Program
Best Practices Overview—Program Scheduling
Expect the Unexpected
Chapter 16: Program Executing Process
The Program Strike Zone
The Program Map
Using Tools on a Mercedes
Chapter 17: Program Monitoring and Controlling Process
I Have Only Three Minutes a Month!
OSSOP!
That Which is Not Earned is Never Valued
Chapter 18: Program Closing Process and Programs in Action
A Checklist
General Public Hospital
American Shogun
Planet Orbits
ConSoul Software
Part III: Case Studies in Organizational Project Management
Chapter 19: Alignment and Portfolio Management
LorryMer Information Technology
Who Owns the Portfolio?
Our Portfolio Stinks
Chapter 20: Standardized Methodologies
Standardized Program Risk Management
Go With the Template Always
We Do Not Need Standard Methodology
Joy Knows How to Defend
Chapter 21: Competencies of Project Managers and the Project Management Office
They Are Business Leaders at Spotlight Corporation
The Program Management Office
Progress—One Step at a Time
Chapter 22: Information Systems, Organization, and Metrics
Is it Information Systems That We Need?
Spreadsheet Is Everything
R&D and Operations: How to Make Them Talk
Bluedogs USA
Point of Contact
Chapter 23: Organizational Culture and Program Culture
What Helps Us Come This Far?
Is it Standard Methodology that We Need?
Chapter 24: Organizational Project Management in Action
Let's Go All the Way
Are We Ready for Portfolio Management?
Index
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Case studies in project, program, and organizational project management / [edited by] Dragan Z. Milosevic, Peerasit Patanakul, Sabin Srivannaboon.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-18388-5 (pbk.)
1. Project management—Case studies. 2. Project management—Standards. I. Milosevic, Dragan. II. Patanakul, Peerasit. III. Srivannaboon, Sabin, 1977-
HD69.P75C375 2010
658.4'04—dc22
2009045965
To Dragana, Jovana, and JR
—Dragan Z. Milosevic
To my parents, Arun and Soisalinee; my wife, Severine; and my children, Ananya and Yanat
—Peerasit Patanakul
To my father, Sabieng, my mother, Songsee, and my lovely wife, Jany
—Sabin Srivannaboon
Preface
Traditionally, the use of case study has been largely emphasized in many disciplines. People use cases in different manners from theory building, to theory testing, to description, or even to simple explanation. Nevertheless, learning is always one ultimate goal in which we center our attention on the gravity of the problems and issues in the case, regardless of any purpose. In particular, the learning occurs when we dissect the case, identify issues or problems in it, and then discuss or solve them.
In the field of project management, case studies as well have been one of the main sources and tools used for professional development and higher education. Over the years, the Project Management Institute (PMI) has attempted to get a large number of authors to contribute to case studies in project management. The idea is to use these cases as a means to accelerate the project management learning. This is also similar to academia where a number of cases are integrated into textbooks. A few standalone case books dedicated to project management are also available.
However, what is critically missing is a comprehensive case study book where it meets diverse needs of the readers at large. To be more specific, there is no book that has project management cases arranged in an orderly fashion that comprehensively addresses various knowledge areas, different process groups, and the global best practice standards. In particular, there are very few cases in program management and organizational project management, even though the two areas are now recognized as two standalone disciplines, and officially standardized by PMI.
We believe this book is the first of its kind to deal with the management of projects from a hierarchy perspective: project, program, and organization. The purpose of this book is to maximize the readers’ learning experiences through the use of case studies, which we believe will allow our readers to carefully think and enrich their understanding of the concepts and practices in project management. In attempting to capture various aspects of project management, we have written 90 cases, each of which was triangulated by professionals with different expertise varying from engineers to industrial psychologists, to quality computer experts, to software programmers, to businesspersons’ service providers, and to organization specialists. These cases are factual from real people and actual companies in different industries, settings, or cultures with diverse sizes and types of projects, although we used fictitious names to conceal their identities. Our goal is to highlight the applications and practices of project management, program management, and organizational project management in real-world settings.
The book is designed to address multiple groups of people with different needs that include but are not limited to:
- Executives, program and project managers: This book will help executives and program and project managers improve their management knowledge regarding projects, programs, and organizations. We present cases that discuss many best practices and lessons learned from such management in actual companies across industries.
- Academics and consultants: For academics, this book is a good resource of project management, and a recommended accompanying reading for their project management, program management, and organizational project management classes. The students may use this book as a reference or as a required text since the cases can well support any basic textbooks of the class, whether it is a project management, program management, or organizational project management class. For consultants, this book provides many real-world stories in which the frameworks for project and program management as well as organizational project management were implemented. They can easily incorporate a number of cases in this book, or use the entire book for their in-class trainings.
- CAPM®, PMP®, and PgMP® candidates: This book perfectly aligns with the standards created by PMI, and provides important details necessary for the CAPM® (Certified Associate in Project Management), PMP® (Project Management Professional), PgMP® (Program Management Professional) certification exam preparations.
For each individual, excellence in project management comes from both theoretical knowledge and practical experiences. Either one of these alone would not be sufficient in today's era of hypercompetition. After reading this book, we believe that our readers will gain such knowledge and learn from experiences shared by other project management practitioners.
All in all, this book just captures small stories. We hope, however, that these stories will serve as building blocks to drive excellence in project management, which is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing disciplines today.
Structure of the Book
This book offers a number of case studies that demonstrate effective use of project and program management methodologies, as well as organizational project management practices. Drawn from a variety of industries and regions, the case studies capture real-world situations, challenges, best practices, and lessons learned both from successful and not-so-successful perspectives. In order for our readers to best learn project management, we have categorized and arranged our cases into two different dimensions: case types and parts.
Case Types
We classify our cases into three different types: critical incidents, issue-based cases, and comprehensive cases. The three case types differ in length and specificity, which are described as follows:
- Critical incidents are written in the form of short stories that illustrate an issue or a problem related to project, program, and organizational project management.
- Issue-based cases provide more information than critical incidents. They handle two or more issues either in project management, program management, or organizational project management.
- Comprehensive cases are the longest in length. They feature multiple issues or the entirety of the project, program, or organizational project management.
The purpose of these different levels is to offer the reader different categories of the learning skills, contingent on their experience. This way they can use this book to customize learning needs. In addition, the book has both open-ended cases, where we don't show the final outcome of the story, and close-ended cases, where the final outcomes are presented for further discussion.
While the case types are different, their structure across different parts is similar. Each case includes an introduction, main body, conclusion, and discussion items.
Parts
In addition to the case types, we adopt the standards created by PMI, the leading global association for the project management profession, to arrange our cases. Namely, these standards are “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” (the PMBOK® Guide), “The Standard for Program Management,” and “The Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®).” We follow these standards, and organize our cases and chapters into three different parts: Project Management (Part I), Program Management (Part II), and Organizational Project Management (Part III), (see Figure i).
- We organize Part I based on the PMI's PMBOK® Guide, which addresses the introduction, project life cycle, and organization (Chapter 1), project management processes for a project (Chapter 3), and the nine knowledge areas (Chapters 4 to 12). Added to that are the cultural aspects of project management (Chapter 2), in which we strongly feel that culture, whether it is corporate, project, or regional, plays a significant role in achieving project goals. In sum, Part I has a total of 52 cases.
- We structure Part II based on the process groups of the PMI's Standard for Program Management, including the Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing processes (Chapters 14 to 18). We also offer cases about the themes of program management (Chapter 13), and program management in action (Chapter 18) for further discussion. There are a total of 19 cases in Part II.
- Part III focuses on issues in organizational project management, which address some of the best practices in the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®). This part presents cases related to strategic alignment and project portfolio management (Chapter 19), standardized methodologies (Chapter 20), and competencies of project managers and project management office (Chapter 21). We also present cases on information systems, organization, and metrics (Chapter 22) and organizational and project or program culture (Chapter 23). Cases on organizational project management in action are presented in Chapter 24. There are a total of 19 cases in Part III.
The Principles of Management
Equifinality
Equifinality, a term from systems science, refers to the principle through which multiple means (different inputs and processes) may lead to a same end in open systems.
Contingency
Contingency, in management terms, refers to one of several approaches one might take in dealing with a condition, situation, or set of circumstances involving uncertainty. In other words, after examining alternatives to find the most appropriate solution, another possible solution might be considered if the first one doesn't work out (a “Plan B,” so to speak).
Acknowledgments
To complete the book, we owe gratitude to many people.
First, we'd like to thank our co-authors who helped us in writing a number of the outstanding cases or provided many valuable inputs for the case write-ups. These people are:
Abdi Mousar, Andrea Hayes-Martinelli, Art Cabanban, Bjoern Bierl, Diane Yates, Don Hallum, Ferra Weyhuni, James M. Waddell, James Schneidmuller, James Staffan, Joakim Lillieskold, Joseph Genduso, Jovana Riddle, Lars Taxen, Mani Amabalan, Marie-Anne Lamb, Mathius Sunardi, Meghana Rao, Michael Adams, Murugappan Chettiar, Nicolas Charpenel, Osman Osman, Priya Venugopal, Rabah Kamis, Russ J. Martinelli, Stevan Jovanovic, Sung Han, and Wilson Clark
Our sincere thanks to many of our colleagues, co-workers, and previous organizations or those we have been involved with in the past for the knowledge and information we gained and used for this book.
Finally, we are deeply grateful to our institutions, namely the Department of Engineering and Technology Management (Portland State University, USA), Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management (Stevens Institute of Technology, USA), and Sasin GIBA of Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) for their support and environment, which enabled us to complete this book.
Part I
Case Studies in Project Management
What is Project Management?
It is well recognized that project management has been practiced since early civilization. The evidences from past history to the present are abundant: the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza in the ancient world, the Great Wall of China construction in the 16th century, and the London Millennium Bridge in the globalization era. Without project management, these structures would not have existed.
With a competitive business environment, many organizations nowadays use projects not only to build structures, to implement changes, or to introduce new products, but also as a way to put strategies into action. Despite multiple meanings of a project, the one defined by Project Management Institute (PMI) is perhaps the most widely known definition. According to PMI, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.1 With its temporary nature, a project is often perceived as standing on the opposite spectrum of business as usual; it is often referred to as an “operation” by project management scholars. As projects differ from operations, managing projects therefore requires a discipline2 of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific goals and objectives. This discipline is referred to as project management.
The discipline of project management has evolved from different fields of application. The work of Frederick Winslow Taylor on theories of scientific management is considered to be the foundation of project management tools, such as the Work Breakdown Structure. The Gantt chart, developed by Henry Gantt, is recognized as a forefather of project management planning and control techniques. And the work of Henri Fayol on management functions is the foundation of project and program management body of knowledge.
However, it wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that project management was recognized as a formal discipline.3; emerging from the construction of the first atomic bomb during World War II (the project known as the Manhattan Project). Since then, more and more new processes and disciplines have emerged that support the use of project management, including Time Quality Management (TQM) in 1985, concurrent engineering in 1990, and reengineering in 1993, just to name a few. As a result, more and more project management tools and techniques have emerged, including the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) in the 1950s, and the Critical Chain Project Management in 1997.
As the discipline of project management has grown, the standards governing the field have also evolved. While each organization practicing project management may develop its own criteria, several national and international organizations have proposed project management standards. These standards are, for example, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) from the Project Management Institute in the United States and PRINCE2: 2009 Refresh (PRoject IN Controlled Environment) from the Office of Government Commerce in the UK. Among these standards, the PMBOK Guide receives strong recognition from project management communities.
The PMBOK Guide suggests nine knowledge areas of project management: integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management. These knowledge areas are used as skeletons for organizing case studies in Part I.
1A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th ed., Project Management Institute, 2008, p. 5.
2David I. Cleland and Roland Gareis, Global Project Management Handbook, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006.
3Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir, Reinventing Project Management: The Adaptive Diamond Approach, Harvard Business School Press, 2007.