Scenario:

Oakniture is a furniture manufacturer located in Bristol, England. It is known for its kitchen tables made out of different types of wood, such as chestnut, walnut, and oak. In early 2022, Lana, one of the senior researchers of the company, conducted a feasibility study to determine if there is a market for oak wood coffee tables, which indicated that the demand for oak wood coffee tables is relatively high. As such, Lana prepared a project brief and presented it to the top management of the company. The project brief included information on the project context and project objectives. After several discussions, the top management agreed that the project should be undertaken, but lastly, they asked Lana about the project duration. Lana claimed that the project duration cannot be determined and such information was not provided in the project brief; however, she added that the project duration will mainly depend on the competencies of the project team and on Oakniture’s suppliers of wood.

Following that, the top management initiated the project and assigned Tom, the operations director, as the project manager, and Lana as the project sponsor. To manage the project, they decided to use the guidelines of ISO 21502.

Initially, Tom defined the governance and management framework alone, and then he mobilized the team and assigned the roles and responsibilities to each team member. In addition, Tom and the project team identified the stakeholders and developed the project plan. To ensure effective management of each project phase, Tom used a work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize project activities. Tom presented the project activities in the WBS by linking task dependencies and showing project milestones. In addition, Tom calculated the duration of each work package by determining the early start and early finish dates. Regarding the relationship between work packages, Tom required the project team to perform tasks in the predetermined order, regardless of any resource shortages they might experience.

A week after the project implementation began, Tom collected and analyzed data regarding the progress of the project. To keep everyone up to date, he held a meeting with Lana and project stakeholders.

Question:

Scenario 4 states that Tom presented the project activities in the WBS by linking task dependencies and showing project milestones. Which WBS format did Tom use?

Scenario:

Mallebare is an American company which designs and manufactures gaming accessories. Apart from keyboards, mice, and controllers, the company also manufactures high-quality headsets for which it is widely known. Recently, upon the request of numerous gamers, the company decided to manufacture mousepads too. For this project, Luke, the CEO of the company, assigned Ross, a senior designer of the company, as the project manager, whereas Smith, a senior engineer, was assigned as project sponsor. In addition, Luke stated the project should be complete within three months, as the company is aiming to promote the mousepads in a major gaming tournament. Lastly, Luke required them to utilize the guidelines of ISO 21502 to manage the project.

Initially, Ross mobilized the team and held a meeting with them to discuss and develop the project plan. He asked the team members to ensure that major functional aspects of the project are covered in the project plan and to identify any issue that might arise throughout the project life cycle. Ross explained that this request comes as a result of the tight deadline of the project and the team must develop a concise plan. Ross added that the plan will not be changed in any circumstance and will be followed in detail.

Following that, Ross and the team discussed the engagement of all relevant stakeholders throughout the project. Ross used a power/interest matrix to categorize all stakeholders in four different groups, where the tournament organizers were categorized as stakeholders with low interest but high power in the project. On the other hand, end users, the gamers, were categorized as stakeholders with high interest and high power in the project, so the project team created a survey to determine their needs and requirements.

Moreover, Ross was aware of the importance of effective communication for the success of the project. Therefore, he developed a communication plan which would ensure that each individual involved in the project gets the right information in a timely manner. The plan indicated that ad hoc discussions would be conducted in more complex and personal cases, whereas notes and text messages would be used for transmitting simple and factual information. Ross claimed that this model had been successful in previous projects conducted by the company because it allows faster processing of information and includes natural use of language. In addition, Ross determined that a relationship among project team members needs to be established to ensure productive work.

Question:

Based on which communication model did Ross develop the communication plan? Refer to the last paragraph of scenario 6.

Scenario:

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, DND is one of the largest worldwide automakers. It first gained global recognition after introducing a sports car, which quickly became highly demanded by sports car lovers around the world. Alec Law, the CEO of DND, and his management team recently decided to embark on a new project, i.e., the production of alternative fuel cars, which would use an alternative fuel source instead of traditional petroleum fuels, as the other cars of the company do, in order to promote sustainable and low-carbon transportation. For the implementation of this project, the company decided to follow the guidelines of ISO 21502 on project management.

During the development of the project governance framework, the company took into account several factors, including, among others, the legal context of stakeholders. In the project governance, the company also included oversights on the management frameworks and the project life cycle. In order to determine the project life cycle, the external environment was considered, including information on studies that related to similar projects. In addition, the company decided to separate this project governance from its overall governance.

Moreover, the company developed a project organization, where the roles, responsibilities, and authorities in the project were defined. In addition, the responsibilities of the project office and project assurance, among others, were defined. The project organization also included a customer representative. Once the project organization was developed and approved by the project board, it was communicated only to the project team.

As the project was entering its design stage, the project board made a change in the structure of the project organization since one of the work package leaders had resigned from the project in order to be involved in another project of the company.

Question:

In scenario 1, DND considered studies related to similar projects when analyzing its external environment. To which external factor do studies belong?

Whose cultural and ethical norms should the governance of projects take into consideration?