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Midterm Project Management Chapter 1: Modern Project Management I) Review Questions

The culture of the parent organization is more important than formal project management processes because it determines how people within the organization will interact and support the project. A misalignment between formal processes and cultural norms can undermine a project's success.

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Faisal Mahmod
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2K views8 pages

Midterm Project Management Chapter 1: Modern Project Management I) Review Questions

The culture of the parent organization is more important than formal project management processes because it determines how people within the organization will interact and support the project. A misalignment between formal processes and cultural norms can undermine a project's success.

Uploaded by

Faisal Mahmod
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Midterm Project Management

Chapter 1 : Modern Project Management

i) Review Questions:
1) Define a project and its 5 characteristics that help differentiate projects from program
-Def :A complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and
performance specifications designed to meet customer needs
-Differentiations:
a) Has an established objective.
b) Has a defined life span with a beginning and an end.
c) Requires across-the-organizational participation.
d) Involves doing something never been done before.
e) Has specific time, cost, and performance requirements.
2) Key environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed
a) Compression of the project life cycle
b) Global competition
c) Knowledge explosion
d) Corporate downsizing
e) Increased of customer focus, etc
3) Important of implementation of project to strategic planning and project manager
a) Do not tie together the overall strategies of the firm.
b) Fail to prioritize selection of projects by their importance of their contribution
to the firm.
c) Are not integrated throughout the project life cycle.
d) Do not match project planning and controls with organizational culture to
make appropriate adjustments in support of project endeavors.
4) Explain technical and socio-cultural dimensions of project management
5) Explain Integrative approach
-Def : An integrative approach to project management is one in which all the parts are
interrelated.
- The importance of the approach:
a) Projects must have a strong link to the organization’s strategic plan, which is
directed toward meeting the customer’s needs.
b) An integrative approach provides an integrated system for the actual
implementation of the projects. This includes an information system which
supports decision making
ii) Exercises:
1) Identify all the projects contained in the local newspaper
-Monorail will be built in the India by Scomi Berhad
-The launching ceremony of KLIA 2 to replace LCCT in 2012
2) Consider the greatest achievement accomplished by mankind to-date.
-Solar passenger car
-Landed on moon (Neil Armstrong)
-Highest building on the earth (Burj Khalifa)
3) Identify on question 1 whether both socio-cultural and technical elements factors in the
success or difficulties in the projects
-Both projects have both socio-cultural and technical elements in the projects.
-Difficulties still can been seen, but it isn’t affect much on the project
4) Check out Project Management Institute’s home page on www.pmi.org to find out about
general information, the location, PMBOK, and other links.
-General information:
Chapter 2 : Organization Strategy and Project Selection

i) Review Questions
1) Describe major components of the strategic management process
-Def: Art & science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating, cross functional
decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives.
-Components:

2) Explain the role project play in the strategic plan


- Functions :
a) Responding to changes in the external environment (environmental scanning)
b) Allocating scarce resources of the firm to improve its competitive

3) How are projects linked to the strategic plan


4) Impact of portfolio of projects on the project
-Problems:
a) The implementation problems
b) Organization politics
c) Resource conflicts and multitasking

- Advantages:

Benefits
Builds discipline
Links project to strategic metrics
Prioritizes project
Allocates resources
Balances risk, etc

5) Explain why priority projects needs to be open and published (m/s43)


-To discourages power play. Over time, the priority team evaluates the progress of the
projects in the portfolio and if this whole process is managed well, it can have a profound
impact on the success of an organization
6) Why organization should not rely on ROI to select project
To select a project, we need to consider them model that we want to use, whether it is a
financial model, non-financial model, or the combination of both.
7) Pros and cons of the checklist versus weighted factor method of selecting method

Advantages Disadvantages
Review potential projects Fails to answer the relative importance of
the of a potential project to the organization
Determine their acceptance or rejection Fails to allow for comparison with other
potential projects
Great flexibility in selecting the projects Power play, politics, manipulation
Easily used across different division and
location

Chapter 3 : Organization: Structure and Culture

i) Reviews Question
1) The pros and cons of functional, matrix, and dedicated team approaches

Functional Matrix Dedicated team


Pros Cons Pros Cons Pros Cons
No Lack of Efficient Dysfunctional Simple Expensive
Structural Focus Conflict
Change
Flexibility Poor Strong Infighting Fast Internal Strife
Integration Project
Focus
In-Depth Slow Easier Stressful Cohesive Limited
Expertise Post- Technological
Project Expertise
Easy Post- Lack of Transition Slow Cross- Difficult Post-
Project Ownership and Functional Project
Transition flexible Integration Transition

2) To differentiate the weak and strong matrix


Weak matrix Strong matrix
Same as functional approach except there is PM predominates
a designated PM for coordinating project
activities (Functional manager
predominates)
PM as a staff assistant only Functional manager as a staff assistant only
PM has indirect authority Functional manager has indirect authority
3) Under what conditions we need to use strong matrix
a) When functional approach is not used widely
b) When PM needs to be a higher authority
4) What the important to assess the culture of an organization
-Def: a system of a shared norms, beliefs, values, and assumptions which binds people
together
-The important:
a) Provides a sense of identity
b) Helps legitimate the management system of an organization
c) Clarifies and reinforces standards of behavior
d) Helps create social orders

5) Which is more important : formal project management or culture of the parent


organization
-I think the more important one is culture of the parent organization. By applying the
culture to an organization, we must know the following characteristics which are not
apply to the formal project management.
a) Study the physical characteristics of an organization
b) Read about the organization
c) Observe how people interact within the organization
d) Interpret stories and folklore surrounding the organization

- Implication in navigating the organization’s culture :


a) Interacting with the culture and subcultures of the parent organization
b) Interacting with the project’s clients or customer organizations
c) Interacting with other organizations connected to the project

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