Beware of Project Selection Biases

Organizations execute corporate strategies through projects. All have a limited amount of funding available and must choose the projects that best meet their objectives. Organizations use project selection processes to compare projects. The intent is to select the projects that provide the best value, as measured through the selection criteria. If project selection teams are able to evaluate objectively potential projects, the organization will be able to select the projects that best meet the selection criteria. However, Lefley (2006) believes that biases of selection team members may influence project selection.

Case Study: Project Selection and Change Management

In a Kerzner (2003) case study, Corwin Corporation is an internationally known rubber products manufacturer with a reputation for quality. Corwin’s management is conservative and favors expanding markets for existing product over new product development. The company receives frequent requests to manufacture specialty products. A strict management policy and a risk adverse culture results in a 90% no bid on specialty product inquiries. However, Corwin selected to respond to a bid from one of its customers. The project was a complete failure and cost Corwin its relationship with the customer. This case study examines the mistakes Corwin made during the initiation and execution of the failed project.

Ignoring Projects Risks Can Lead to Project Failure

As organizations grow and expand to other countries around the world, deploying upgrades and new systems across multiple locations and time zones can become complicated. As is outlined by Ram Garg (2008) in his article about Lucent’s Wireless Call Server, project risks that are ignored can lead a project to failure. This article review outlines the know and unknown project risk events the lead to the failure of the Wireless Call Server deployment project.

Discussion Questions on Project Quality Management

Quality Management is a key factor in managing customer expectations and ensuring that the project requirements are met. What tools and techniques are used to measure quality control?

I am going to take a major left turn on this one. When talking about quality, many think of the same types of quality work that is done in a production environment. In Project Management: A Systems Approach, Kerzner talks through seven tools that are used to measure quality control: data tables, cause-and-effect analysis, histogram, pareto analysis, scatter diagrams, trend analysis and control charts. But I don’t see these as the focus of quality in project management. Instead, I view quality as the degree to which the project meets requirements. The requirements that I focus on are the measures of time, cost, and scope.

Discussion Questions on Project Scope Management

Scope change management is an area frequently overlooked during a project. However, it is one of the most important areas of concern for a project manager as scope changes are typically the source of project overruns. What are the three most important elements in scope change management? Why?

I agree 100% about the importance of scope change management. I haven’t run a project in recent times that did not have changes to the scope at some point in the project. For me, the three most important elements in scope change management are schedule, budget and risk.

Discussion Questions on Project Baselining

A project baseline is essential in order to be able to determine the earned value for your project. This baseline is set at the start of a project and typically not modified. However, modifications are occasionally required.

To set the context for my answers below, we do not use formal EV calculations to report on project performance. Instead, we report progress against scheduled activities and the project budget through a simplified process. We also extend the typical baselining process to include the scope document, the schedule, the budget and the risk response plan. We only change the baseline in response to an approved scope change. When our internal customer and sponsor have approved the change, we update the scope, schedule, budget and risk plans to reflect the approved change. The updated documents than become our new baseline.

Case Study: Small Project Cost Estimating

In the Kerzner (2003) case study, Small Project Cost Estimating at Percy Company, Paul spends his first five years out of collage performing cost estimates for the Manufacturing Division of Percy Company. Percy issues fixed cost estimates for its projects, as indicated by the lengthy and costly procedure used to generate accurate quotes. Paul was promoted to a new position within the project office. His new responsibility was to coordinate all estimates for all divisions of Percy. During this time he did not perform any cost estimating.

After a year in the project office, Paul was assigned to a small projects division. The first five estimates that Paul created were accurate. However, the sixth estimate was off by $20,000, causing an expensive cost overrun. The case study asks to answer the question, “Why did the overrun occur?”

Discussion Questions on Project Risk

Risks can be categorized in three categories: known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. After categorizing risks, the project manager should then mitigate those risks.

Can all risks be mitigated? Explain.

Discussions on Project Procurement

During the procurement execution stage of a project, the project manager must determine whether to make or buy a product. The project manager must also assist in the selection of vendors to supply products/components necessary to complete the project. What criteria should be analyzed before reaching the make or buy decision?

Discussion Questions on Project Execution

Project execution affords the opportunity to adhere the project plan and its various components. What are the key elements of project execution?

The key elements of project execution are the project scope, the project schedule and the project budget. The scope defines the work that must be done in order to achieve the objectives of the project. The scope items are broken down in WBS elements and time phased to develop a project schedule. Costs for each activity in the WBS are rolled back up to form the project budget.

Properly Initiating a Project

During the first week of University of Phoenix’s Project Management Capstone course, students learn about three areas involved with properly initiating a project: project proposals, project selection methods and project chartering (University of Phoenix, 2009). Each organization develops strategic plans and many of the strategies are implemented through tactical projects. Departments within the organization develop proposals based on the strategies and the organization selects the proposals based on priority and potential benefit to the organization. Once a project is selected, the project sponsor creates and issues a project charter and the assigned project manager plans, executes and closes the project, successfully meeting the objectives outlined in the charter. At least that is how project initiation is supposed to work. But what would happen if the objectives were not clearly outlined? If the sponsor did not issue a charter, could that negatively affect the project? What if there was no sponsor? This paper examines the potential negative impact of improperly initiating an information technology (IT) project and provides recommendations for improving the project initiation process.

Discussion Questions on Project Risk

Project risks can/cannot be eliminated if the project is carefully planned. Explain.

Project risks cannot be eliminated by careful project planning. A risk by definition is an event that might occur. If you are certain it will or will not occur, it isn’t a risk! However, through careful planning a project team can reduce the likelihood or impact of a risk.

Discussion Questions on Project Network Construction

Define activity, event, and path as used in network construction. What is a dummy activity?

According to Kerzner, an event is the starting or end point for a group of activites. An activity is the work required to proceed from one event or point in time to another. A path any sequence of activities and paths. Dummy activities are artificial activities use to show dependencies between events but do not consume resources or time like a typical activity.

Lying and Deception in Project Contract Negotiations

Is it unethical to lie during contract negotiations? How about deceptive negotiating tactics? Are they unethical? Business people do it all the time—they hide their true intentions or stretch the truth in order to win. The United States Court of Appeals recognizes that “both sides presumably try to get the best deal” and that “no particular demand in negotiations could be termed dishonest” (Shell, 1991). If everyone is doing it, what is the problem?

Risk Management in Project Contracting

Risk management is an important part of the project contracting process. Cooper (2005) positions contracts as a tool to help allocate or transfer risk in business transactions. The contract is intended as an “agreements between parties for the conduct of specific actions or functions, in return for consideration” (Cooper 162). Through a properly executed and managed contract, both the customer and its vendors are able to more effectively manage risks related to development projects.

Requests for Proposal in Project Management

The information technology (IT) department within my company uses Requests for Proposals (RFP) when obtaining products or services from vendors outside of the organization. A RFP is a “type of procurement document used to request proposals from prospective sellers of products or services” (Project Management Institute, 2004, p. 371). Although the IT department uses RFPs as part of its standard procurement approach, my company can improve its approach by incorporating RFP best practices into its standard process.

Contracts in Project Management

Procurement and project management have many integrated relationships, one of which is controlling procurement risk through the use of contracts. In an article written by John Kavanagh, the author describes a speech delivered to the British Computer Society by BCS fellow and vice president Rachel Burnett where she positioned contracts as an investment as opposed to an expensive list of restrictions. By investing the time to develop clear contracts, both the buyer and the seller can control risk and reduce the need to use litigation to resolve disagreements.

Managing Project Procurement

The information technology (IT) department at my company follows a structured approach to managing infrastructure projects. Infrastructure projects include the installation of a network, telephone system, office equipment, file servers and audio/visual equipment. Most of the products and services needed to complete the projects are purchased from sources outside the company. To ensure consistency across projects, the IT  department follows a standard procurement process for each project.

The procurement process includes “all of the activities that are required to obtain the goods and services required for a project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The primary objective of the procurement process is to “obtain the goods and services in accordance with the technical, quality, schedule, and cost objectives of the project” (Huston, 1996, p. 3). The procurement process can be broken into six basic steps: