29 Dec Work cited: Use the

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 FROM CORPORATE STRATEGY TO PROJECT STRATEGY

How can an organization transfer corporate strategy into meaningful project strategy? What is the relationship between corporate strategy and project strategy?

DQ2 PORTFOLIOS, PROGRAMS, AND PROJECTS

Portfolio, program, and projects: What are they, how do they differ, and what is their relationship to the corporate strategy?

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 PROJECT PORTFOLIO SELECTION

An effective project portfolio does not just happen. There is a process that must be developed and then followed to help ensure a successful portfolio. Let’s start this discussion by examining what decisions must be made before a project is actually looked at or considered. So where do you start in the preprocess stage? Be sure to justify your answer.

DQ2 PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Define the process groups and knowledge areas included in the portfolio management process and explain what happens in each area. How do these areas interact with one another as a group?

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 PM, PGM, AND PPM

Project management, program management, and project portfolio management all sound alike. They are different names for possibly the same thing. These are very different topics. Compare and contrast project management, program management, and project portfolio management.

DQ2 PROJECT COST

Whether you are a project manager or a program manager, you will be concerned with project cost. Below is a list of terms that you would see and use when working with project cost. Choose only one, explain it, and give some examples of how it works.

Planned Value (PV)

Actual Cost (AC)

Earned Value (EV)

Budget at Completion (BAC)

Cost Variance (CV)

Schedule Variance (SV)

Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

Estimate at Completion (EAC)

Estimate to Complete (ETC)

Variance At Completion (VAC)

Probability (P)

Impact (I)

Expected Monetary Value (EMV)

Expected Activity Duration (EAD)

Standard Deviation (SD)

Late Start, Early Start, Late Finish, Early Finish (LS, ES, LF, EF)

Point of Total Assumption (PTA)

To Complete Performance Index [TCPI]

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 CHANGE MANAGEMENT

You have just been hired to manage a new project that will involve not only the installation of a new company-wide computer system but also the implementation of new processes. As project manager, you must create a project plan and a change management plan. Where do you begin? What should be your first task and why?

Who should be part of the planning process? What problems could arise due to the changes? How will you measure the success of the change management plan?

DQ2 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Every organization and project has its share of conflict. What matters is how that conflict is handled. Let’s start this discussion by addressing the causes of conflict in an organization or on a project. Whenever possible, share your personal experiences.

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 5 Discussion

DQ1 HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAMS

What characteristics differentiate a high-performance team from the normal or average team?

DQ2 LEADING HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAMS

In your own words, write a description of an effective leader. List and explain five qualities that you believe are found in effective leaders. (Try to choose qualities that have not already been described.)

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Review the PMP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct located in the Files section. Let’s start with addressing the two scenarios below.

While working on an external project, your customer asks you to perform some additional tasks that are not included in the formal contract. What should you do?

You are managing an internal R & D project. The initial test results are very poor. You are afraid your management might cancel the project, and this could reflect poorly upon you. Verification testing could be done quickly and inexpensively. What should you do?

Pick a question to answer or comment on your classmates’ comments. These questions generate a great deal of discussion in the classroom. I’ll be interested to see how we do here!

DQ2 COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

Chapter 7 of our PMI Standard Portfolio text looks at the communication management knowledge area and the processes to develop the plans required to align the company with the strategic, governance, performance, and risk management processes.

What are the components required to complete a communications plan? How do you go about identifying the stakeholders for communications? Why is it important to align these processes with other portfolio processes?

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 7 Discussion

DQ1 OPTIMIZING RESOURCES

Chapter 15 in the Bender text discusses resource optimization. Bender describes two types of work estimates: effort and duration. Compare and contrast these estimation types and discuss how these can impact the overall project portfolio.

DQ2 TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The lesson this week mentioned several trends in project management. Using the Internet, choose a trend to discuss and include how it could influence or change the profession.

Here are some areas to get you started. You may choose to discuss a trend that is not listed.

Agile

SCRUM

PgM

Lean

Organizational demands/requirements of PM

PM/BA

CCM

ALM

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 3 Quiz

Question 1 (CO A) You work for Holt consulting company, which has been asked to recommend organizational improvements for CDC Software Company. You have been assigned to present PPM. Your boss has informed you that CDC Software Company knows nothing about PPM and you will need to cover the items below in your presentation.

What is a PPM?

Compare PPM, PgM, and Project level.

Benefits of each (PPM, PgM, and Project)

Why should CDC Software Company implement a PPM?

Question 2 (CO B) The portfolio strategic plan is used to meet the organizational strategies and objectives. List five of the key contents required for the strategic plan and explain the responsibilities of the portfolio manager in accomplishing these plans.

Question 3 (CO C) You are DeVry’s PM of a project to develop an Android Bluetooth application. The applications have 4 key features, turning on/off, querying, searching, and pairing. A budget of $180 per feature and a schedule of 1 feature per day. The project should be finished in 4 days for a total of $800.

Now, after Day 3, our progress is as follows:

Day1 Progress: Turning On/Off feature completed, spent $200.

Day2 Progress: Querying started, did not finished, spent $220.

Day3 Progress: Querying finished. 50% of the Searching completed and spent $140.

Calculate the PV, EV, AC, CPI, and SPI.

Question 4 (CO C) As a project manager, you are constantly concerned with keeping the project on schedule and in budget. Four formulas used to measure project schedule and budget are CPI, SPI, CV, and SV. Define each formula, explain how it measures schedule or budget, and what the results mean to the project manager.

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Week 6 Quiz

Question 1 (CO D) As a project manager, dealing with conflict is part of the job. There are many sources of conflict; one source that is often overlooked is the manager. Based on the Week 4 reading and lecture, what major ways do people deal with conflict? Share a personal experience of conflict and how you dealt with the situation.

Question 2 (CO E) In order to be an effective leader you must first recognize the qualities of an effective leader. Describe at least five qualities of an effective leader and then what can be done to develop those qualities.

Question 3 (CO F) The PMI® Code of Ethics is made up of four areas: responsibility, honesty, respect, and fairness. Discuss the area of responsibility and what it means for you, the project manager.

Question 4 (CO F) When developing a stakeholder matrix, the portfolio manager must look at the portfolio governance in order to complete the stakeholder analysis. In your own words, what is the role, interest and expectations of the governance?

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Case Study

Introduction

The Case Study for PROJ587 will place the student in the role of a senior manager in charge of one of your company’s Strategic Business Units (SBU). Your first task in this new position is to develop a project portfolio management process and then use this process to select projects for your SBUs portfolio. The Case Study will involve the application of the tools and techniques of multiproject and program management and will deal with the analysis and establishment of project management systems based on the structure of the project.

The expected outputs from this Case Study will be in the form of a two-part written report due Week 5.

Background

The senior management of your company has already made the strategic decisions to allocate annual funding to each of the Strategic Business Units (SBU) within the company. You have been hired to manage one of the companies SBUs.

Your new company is a mid-cap company with revenues of approximately $350 million dollars a year. This company, like many others, is struggling in today’s economy. It realizes in order to survive it needs to both expand and control costs at the same time. You are new to this industry. This company’s vision is to become the “go to” support or the “provider of choice” for the cruise ship industry throughout the world.

This company currently is in the travel and hotel support industry. As such, you supply support services to the travel and hotel industry such as linen services to cruise ships and major hotel chains in the southeastern United States. Most of your new company’s revenues are derived for the cruise ship industry versus the hotel industry. This company is home based in Tampa, Florida, as most of your business is in that geographic area.

You are in charge of the Operations SBU and responsible for the management of a product portfolio in this strategic business unit. The Operations SBU is the SBU that provides all the company’s services to its clients. There are a number of projects already in progress, but there has not been a good portfolio management process in place.

The parent company has set the following strategic goals for the entire company.

Expansion goals are to grow the company 10% per year, specifically to include the following.

Expand into new markets in Alaska and Europe

Expand services provided to current customers

Increase revenues by 10%

Increase customer satisfaction by 15%

Cost control goals include the following.

Reduce operating costs by 10%

Reduce overhead and warehousing costs by 5%

Assignment

This is a two-part assignment.

Part 1

First, develop project selection criteria and a high-level process for applying the criteria and managing the portfolio. The criteria should be consistent with the business environment for the industry, consistent with your company’s overall mission/strategies, and consistent with the mission and strategies of your strategic business unit. You are proposing a process, not individual projects.

The deliverable for Part 1 is a written proposal for the project selection criteria and a high-level description of a proposed portfolio management process. You may also be expected to make an informal presentation of the report in class.

The proposal should be in the form of a memorandum to your vice president (your instructor) outlining your proposal. The memorandum should be no more than 10 pages, including any figures and tables. It should be double-spaced, 10- or 12-point font with 1-in. margins. This is a summary for an executive, so be concise, to the point, and leave out the fluff. If you don’t need 10 pages to document your proposal fully, I am sure that your vice president will be happy with less as long as it is complete. Using appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure will be part of your grade.

The actual proposal should include the following.

A description of the proposed portfolio process. You are explaining it to the executives.

The reasons it was selected (tie to strategies as appropriate.)

A description of the proposed selection criteria. How will the process be applied in your SBU?

The method for applying the selection criteria, and the justification for both. How are you going to score the projects and evaluate the scores?

Hints for a Successful Part 1:

This is not a complete project proposal or even a complete status report. You are making a specific proposal to management called a Project Portfolio Evaluation and Selection Process.

All reports and memos to executives should include an executive summary at the beginning. This one is no exception.

The discussion of the organization should be limited to how the SBU organization supports projects and the PPM process. It is not necessary to discuss the total company.

Pay attention to the specifics requested in the deliverables. Do NOT make your memo a list of questions and answers. That is not the way a business memo is written. It is easy to select a process that is presented in a reference but you must propose one that works for your SBU.

When you think you are finished, put yourself in the role of someone who was not working on the solution and read your presentation. You can assume you know the basics of PPM.

Does your presentation provide a good description of the process and how it will be applied?

Are there obvious questions that it raises that are not answered?

This is not a classroom assignment, it is a business memo. Also, it is not a research report and you are not trying to demonstrate your academic expertise and how well you are read.

Part 2

In Part 1 of the project, the new vice president (your instructor) of your Strategic Business Unit had asked you to create a portfolio management process and project selection criteria for use by the SBU. It is now time to apply this process in selecting this year’s projects for your portfolio.

In the annual budget cycle, your SBU was allocated $24 million dollars of funding uniformly spread over the next year for your portfolio. This means you have $6 million dollars to spend any given quarter. You may select any of the below projects to be included in your portfolio, but you cannot spend more than the allotted dollars allocated to your SBU. Your task is to select those projects using your selection criteria that most benefit the overall company without exceeding your quarterly budget of $6 million. You must also lay out a plan for what quarter your selected projects will start in.

Below are your possible projects.

Project Call Center

Currently you have no call center to address customer complaints or accept orders. Customers must use the Internet to fill out an online form to address their complaints or service needs. These forms are processed by employees in your department. Currently, the turnaround time on any given form is between 4 to 8 hours. This creates a number of other customer complaints. The Project Call Center is designed to reduce this turnaround time by 75% by creating and staffing a call center in Tampa. Building acquisition, building renovations, building fit out, IT system upgrades, and hiring and training of staff are estimated to cost $8.5 million. This $8.5 million can be paid evenly in any two quarters in the next year. In addition, seven new employees will need to be hired at $40,000 burdened labor costs per year to staff the call center. Management of this project could easily be done with the current in-house staff. Most of the work of this project would be outsourced and will have minimal impact on day-to-operations.

Project Ordering Upgrade

Currently, ordering processing is done online. The software and hardware used in this system are about 10 years old. As such, order processing is a long, arduous process for the 15-person staff. Upgrading this process to a state-of-the-art system would cost approximately $2.5 million, and it is a onetime pay in full internal charge to your SBU. It would also result in a reduction in the 15-person staff by seven individuals and reduce order processing time by 50%. Each individual in this department is paid $35,000 burdened labor costs a year. Most of the work of this project could be done internally with existing staff. One weekend of operations will be impacted by the project in its entirety.

Project Rocky

The Alaskan cruise ship industry is booming. For some reason, people like to look at icebergs. Unfortunately, our company is servicing no cruise ships in Alaska. Project Rocky is to expand into the Alaskan market. This project will require the acquisition of property in Alaska, renovation of that property, and staffing of the facility. This project is seen as a major moneymaker for the company and has an NPV of $19 million over 5 years. Its costs would be $13 million to initially set up the project and $400,000 a year to operate the facility. This initial cost can be spread evenly over each of four quarters of the entire year. These initial costs should be recovered within the first 2 or 3 years of operation. Most of the work of this project would be outsourced and management of the project would likely be difficult.

Project Europa

The Mediterranean cruise ship industry is booming. Unfortunately, our company is servicing no cruise ships in the entire European area. Project Europa is to expand into the Mediterranean market. This project will require the acquisition of property in Italy, renovation of that property, and staffing of the facility. The current governmental overspending and austerity issues may impact this project. However, this project is seen as a major moneymaker for the company and has an NPV of $15 million over 7 years. Its costs would be $11 million to initially set up the project and $500,000 a year to operate the facility. This initial cost can be spread evenly over each of the four quarters of the entire year. These initial costs should be recovered within the first 3 years of operation. Most of the work of this project would be outsourced and management of the project would be extremely difficult.

Project Robot

Our key distribution center is in St. Petersburg, Florida. It has a staff of 100 individuals to process the linens for the Florida cruise industry. Automation would allow us to reduce staff by 35 individuals. The average burdened labor costs of each of these individuals is $45,000 dollars a year. The cost of such automation would be in the neighborhood of $17 million. This initial cost can be spread evenly over the entire year. This project would also likely disrupt the facility for about 3 months while the work is being done. Upon completion, the newly remodeled facility will be one-third smaller allowing our need for warehousing space to be reduced by one third. This would allow us to sublet this space for an estimated $2 million a year in revenue. Most of the work of this project would be outsourced.

Project Tableware

In order to become the provider of choice for the cruise industry, our company needs to expand to more than just linens. A suggestion was made to expand into supplying tableware to the cruise industry, as much tableware is lost to breakage on every cruise. Currently, this need is supplied by a number of smaller companies that we could easily compete with. This project would involve creating a just-in-time process to receive and supply the cruise ships. It would also involve the need for a minimal warehouse facility. This project is likely to cost $5.5 million and have an NPV of $1 million over 5 years. All initial costs can be spread over any two quarters of the upcoming year. It would likely take 4 years to recover the initial costs of this project. It would further cost approximately $300,000 a year to operate this facility. All of the work of this project would be outsourced.

Your Assignment

Your task is to use your portfolio process to determine which of the above projects best fit into your portfolio and create a time-based plan by quarters as to when each project selected should begin and be paid for. Once this is accomplished, you need to write an internal memo to your vice president denoting the projects selected, the time-based plan in quarters, and why you chose as you did.

The document should be double-spaced and 10- or 12-point font with 1-in. margins. This is a Recommendation Memo for an executive, so be concise and to the point. If you don’t need more than eight pages to document your plan adequately, I am sure that your manager will be happy with it as long as it is complete. The use of appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure is part of your grade.

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Course Project

Introduction

Your professor will determine whether the Course Project is an individual or team assignment. If the project is completed as a team, your professor will assign teams promptly. (Watch for an announcement.)

Objective

The project for this course is a portfolio management plan for a company of your choice. You may use your own employer or a public company you can research to provide necessary details. To get started, you need to know the company’s strategic plan and strategic capacity plan.

Course Project Deliverables

There are four deliverables for the Course Project.

Week 2: Course Project Outline due (ungraded, but required)

Week 4: Course Project Rough Draft due

Week 7: Course Project Final Portfolio Management Plan due

Week 8: Course Project Presentation due

The final portfolio management plan should include the content below.

Organization’s strategic plan

Organization’s strategic capacity plan

Portfolio management process

Project selection criteria

Program management plan

Plan to identify and resolve possible areas and sources of conflict related to cost, schedule, or quality.

Change management plan: Develop a plan to manage organizational and cultural change and conflict that may occur due to project, program, and portfolio implementation; and to control changes within your portfolio, program, and projects.

Resource utilization plan: Analyze and plan resource utilization to achieve maximum or optimal capacity utilization.

Guidelines for the Final Portfolio Management Plan

Papers must be 10 to 15 pages in length (this would be roughly one page per area included in the report), double-spaced, and in 10-point font. They must include a cover page, table of contents, introduction, report body, summary or conclusion, and works cited.

Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment and is mostly creative in nature, references are still very important. At least six authoritative outside references are required (anonymous authors or web pages are not acceptable). These should be listed on the last page, titled Works Cited.

Appropriate citations are required (in APA format).

All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.

Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the weekly Course Q & A Forum discussion topic.

This paper is worth 250 total points, plus 45 points for the rough draft, and will be graded on the quality of the research topic, quality of paper information, use of citations, grammar, and sentence structure (see grading rubrics).

Best Practices

Below are best practices in preparing this portfolio management plan.

Cover page: Include who you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date.

Table of contents: List the main ideas and sections of the paper and the pages where they are located. Illustrations should be included separately.

Introduction: Use a header on your paper. This will indicate that you are introducing the paper.

The purpose of an introduction or opening is to

introduce the subject and why the subject is important;

preview the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and

establish the tone of the document.

Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the paper. Also, include an overview of what you will cover and the importance of the material. (This should include or introduce the questions you are asked to answer in each assignment.)

Body of the report: Use a header with the name of the project. An example is, “The Development of Hotel X: A World-Class Resort.” Proceed to break out the main ideas. State the main ideas and the major points of each idea, and provide evidence. Show some type of division, such as separate, labeled sections; separate groups of paragraphs; or headers. Include the information you found during your research and investigation.

Summary and conclusion: Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and the major support points from the body of the report; minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the subject.

Work cited: Use the citation format specified in the Syllabus.

Additional hints on preparing the best possible project are below.

Apply a three step process to writing: Plan, write, and complete.

Prepare an outline of the research paper before going forward.

Complete a first draft and then go back to edit, evaluate, and make any changes required.

Use visual communication to further clarify and support the written part of the report. Examples include graphs, diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, maps, drawings, animation, video clips, pictograms, tables, and Gantt charts.