Project management: achieving competitive advantage 4th edition pdf download

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We have thousands of online textbooks and course materials mostly in PDF that you can download immediately after purchase. For courses in project management. Project Management Fundamentals with Broad Applications In its 4th edition, Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage takes a contemporary, decisive, and business-oriented approach to teaching and learning project management.

Then, the student could indicate a couple of examples of projects e. The key is for students to recognize the joint responsibility for project staffing between the project manager and the functional manager. One of the best responses here is recognizing that the balancing of resources between functional department and project will require negotiation and bargaining between the project manager and the functional department head.

As the textbook notes, matrix is a constant source of friction between department heads, who want to keep their resources working on their own tasks, and project managers, who are seeking to gain access to these resources to support projects.

The people often caught in the middle are the resources themselves, being pulled in multiple directions. The case also demonstrates the manner in which Rolls-Royce must identify and manage its key stakeholder group for maximum effectiveness. How would you design stakeholder management strategies to address their concerns? Rolls-Royce also must work closely with national governments who subsidize their airlines by resorting to creative financing, long-term contracts, or asset- based trading deals.

Students discussing this case can create a large and very diverse stakeholder list. It is useful to illustrate how the desires of some stakeholders may be in direct opposition to the needs or expectations of others, making the point that stakeholder management is often a creative juggling act. What are the benefits and drawbacks from such an arrangement?

In answering this question, it is helpful to first identify the tremendous barriers to entry and the risk factors associated with manufacturing jet engines. What would Rolls-Royce gain from a consortium arrangement? What could they potentially lose?

The arguments can add up on both sides of the ledger, so the instructor can steer this discussion to include issues of stakeholder management, corporate strategy, and even culture, by highlighting the problems with blending conflicting cultures under a consortium arrangement. Case Study 2. Xerox should have been poised to reap billions; it invested in an advanced research center PARC , hired the best and brightest talent in this fledgling industry, and was first off the mark with a fully- functioning PC, including Ethernet, laser printing, word processing, spreadsheets, and so forth.

In short, the Alto was simply too much for Xerox to know how to handle. Discuss the difference between research for its own sake and the need to bring it to market. Xerox had allowed its culture to become moribund and, hence, their strategic focus was on making incremental improvements. The irony, as instructors may wish to bring up, is that the original Xerox innovation, the model copier, was a radical innovation for its time and led to huge profits for the company.

Thus, an organization that made its fortune and reputation on a highly successful and radical innovation could not bring themselves to do the same thing a decade later with the Alto opportunity. Over the five years after the development of the Alto, a series of ill-timed acquisitions, lawsuits, and reorganizations rendered the PC a casualty of inattention.

What division would oversee its development and launch? Whose budget would support it and PARC in general? By leaving those tough decisions unmade, Xerox wasted valuable time and squandered their technological window of opportunity. One important factor to consider is the nature of the industry in which the organization is operating. For example, it could be argued that office products and information technology, which is the setting in which Xerox competed, requires a willingness to make the radical changes that would not be as necessary in other settings facing less frequent or serious technical changes.

Authenticity is signaled by the relationship that develops between the leaders and the followers as they develop either a cooperative or combative working relationship. The project manager sets the tone; when she creates an atmosphere of distrust, it is much safer for team members to protect themselves by fudging their work estimates.

What pressures does the manager face? What pressures does the subordinate face? In this situation, the project manager faces the pressure of getting the project done as quickly as possible. By subordinating everything to the need for speed, the project manager sends out the message that she only wants to hear good news. If they are likely to be punished for missing their target estimates for the project, they will naturally over-inflate those initials estimates to give themselves sufficient time to complete the assignment.

It now becomes a game between the subordinate and the project manager in which neither is willing to provide authentic information to the other. Subordinates are going to ensure that they protect themselves in the face of a project manager who distrusts them. As noted above, the key lies in authenticity. Where this is lacking, subordinates will assume an attitude of self-preservation.

If they cannot trust their boss, they will take necessary steps to protect themselves. As the case notes, product life cycles have dramatically shortened; however, at the same time, products are slow to market. Many new innovations have passed right by WRU because the company was slow to pick up signs from the marketplace that they were coming.

Internal communication is very poor. These are all signals of an organization that is now facing a very different strategic challenge than one it had been pursuing previously. In the face of these problems, it needs to consider how a new, project-based approach will help the company. Key to understanding this case is recognizing that the old, functional organizational structure it had used will no longer support operations within a new, highly complex marketplace.

D By definition, clients are not stakeholders, they are customers. Answer: B Diff: 2 Section: 2. B environmental groups. C stressor groups. D special-interest groups. A Client refers to the entire customer organization. B Clients are concerned with receiving the project as quickly as they can possibly get it. C Client groups tend to have similar agendas. D A single presentation is best when dealing with all client groups in an organization so that everyone hears exactly the same message.

B intervenor groups. C top management. D functional managers. Answer: A Diff: 1 Section: 2. B assess the environment. C identify the goals of the principal actors. D define the problem. A define the problem B test and refine the solutions C develop solutions D identify the goals of the principal actors Answer: C Diff: 2 Section: 2.

B is used to identify only internal stakeholders. C is used to identify only external stakeholders. D is a recurring cycle that allows new stakeholders to be considered at any time. A well-articulated mission, vision, and value statements B formal reporting relationships C grouping together of individuals into departments D systems designed to ensure effective communication Answer: A Diff: 1 Section: 2.

B companies. C silos. D departments. B function. C product. D geography. B the number of days that the project manager is allowed to complete the project. C the number of employees one person supervises. D the number of levels from top to bottom in an organization. The dean has obviously decided to group employees by: A function. B geography. C project. D product. Answer: D Diff: 3 Section: 2. A The overall structure of the organization specifies how project team members should communicate with the project manager.

B The internal project team structure specifies the arrangement of all units or interest groups participating in the development of the project. C Two distinct organizational structures operate simultaneously within the project management context: the organizational structure and the project team structure. D All of these statements are correct. B functional. C matrix. D organic. Answer: B Diff: 1 Section: 2. B stakeholders. C organizational hierarchy.

D organizational structure. B functional organizations. C matrix organizations D departmental organizations. As soon as one package is released, the programmers and developers have two weeks to latch onto a different team that is updating a different package.

Failure to find another team to work for means an end to their employment. This organizational structure is best classified as a: A functional organization. B matrix organization C project organization. D flexible organization. Answer: C Diff: 1 Section: 2. His annual evaluation features input from his line manager and each of the project managers, all of whom have equal say in how his hour work day is partitioned. John Drone is employed by a: A functional organization.

B project organization. C cross-functional organization. D matrix organization. B it allows for standard career paths. C there is high customer focus. D commitment to project success is high and unwavering. C priorities among functional departments may be different and competing. D standard career paths are enabled so team members only perform their duties as needed. B myopia. C nepotism. D siloing. B there is high instability in the environment.

C project coordination is assigned to the lowest levels in an organization. D there must be rapid response to external opportunities and threats. B functional structure. C project structure. D process structure. One of the primary weaknesses has to do with: A rapid response to market opportunities. B communication across the organization and among functional groups. C effective and speedy decision making. D the low cost of setting up and maintaining project teams.

B maintains a pooled supply of intellectual capital. C assuages the fear of unemployment by project team members once the project has ended. D fosters loyalty to the overall organization by project team members. B project structured. C matrix structured. D process structured. Answer: A Diff: 3 Section: 2. B matrix structure. C functional structure. D bi-modal structure.

B project matrix. C functional matrix. D departmental matrix. B primal matrix. C dual matrix.