Team 7 David D. Cho Minyoung Kim Bin (Raymond) Xiao Hua Zhang

 The Company: Genemodem  Impressive Track Record: Profits growth in 6 consecutive years  CEO: Daniel Pullman (fully supported product development project)  VP of Engineering: Issac Levy (insisted on hiring a consulting firm to do an in-depth analysis of Genemodem’s product development)

 The Challenges: 1. Short product life-span (like a triangle, only six months, continue to shrink) 2. Long product development time (roughly twenty four months)  Resolution: Drastically cut development time

 Target: Drastically cut development time  Think tank: Mark Kowalski, Ruth Emerson and Fred Romero  Test ground: A226  Time span: Before A226 is ready (roughly 16 months)  Resources: No budget restrictions  Incentives: 10,000 shares each (current price $62.48, 62.48*10,000=$624,800)

Issac Levy VP of Engineering Ruth Emerson Marketing / Brand Man ager Fred Romero Finance / Project Audit or Mark Kowalski Group Leader / Project Leader of the A226

 Place : University (Business school)  Characters : Rick Silver (Associate Professor), Jim Wilson (Full Professor)  Main Event: - Mr. Rick Silver is newly assigned to teach a course in the Executive MBA. - He is recommended by Jim Wilson, due to his unique style of ‘teaching through open discussion’. - Jim Wilson suggests Rick Silver to teach ‘Project Management’ course and also he needs Rick Silver in finishing some interesting research.

 Place : A dinner event for Universities Presidents  Characters : Ms. BJ von Braun and 4 other presidents  Main Event: - Ms. BJ initiated conversation with other presidents about recent decrease in the number of MBA applicants. - Presidents are sharing about their ideas of that reasons for the decrease could be both ‘over capacity of business schools’ and ‘less demand of MBA degree’. - They also talks about that Ivy leagues are not experiencing any decrease due to their reputation and strong financial ability to attract academic calibers.

Chapters 4-6

Textbook definition: “ A set of activities aimed to achieve a specific objective and have a clear start, middle and end”. Professor Silver’s definition: A complex initiative that needs pictures, diagrams, time charts, or showing sequential or parallel steps in order to manage it.

Regardless of industry or project type, there are three common problems to all projects: Budget overruns Time overruns Compromising content

B.J Von Braun - President of University Saturating demand for new MBAs Overextending capacity Large fixed overhead for business program that might potentially decline Christopher Page – Dean of Business School Demand will not taper off Need investments to maintain talent in the business schools Talent will bring increase reputation and increase demand

Agreements: Ability of graduates to get jobs as indicators of demand Use of survey tool as measurement BJ VonBraun already has the results – she gets Page to agree to the decision-making conditions, then shares results with him.

Sacred cow project for CEO Project is grossly over budget and significantly late Payback period pushed from 3 to 5 years, which still seems unrealistic All use uncertainty as reasons for delay - Upper management blames external environment and lower ranks blames internal sources

Most problems in projects are direct or indirect results of uncertainty Most individuals add a safety margin to any deadline, usually around 80%

IOM580 Project Management Team 6 Leon Tseng, Jasmine Yeh, Troy Yu, Hiroshi Harima

 Scene 1: Conversation between B.J. and Chris Page Trim the budget according to the f orecast!! We shouldn’t cha nge with such sm all fluctuation

 Scene 2: Conversation between B.J. and Bernard Business schools fail to deliver the markets!! Management is a rt. It cannot be ta ught as a science ……………

 Rick and Jim talk about the research subject: Overdue and Overruns The budget overruns are not the main reas ons for the extended payback period It is caused by the delays in completi ng projects Agree, but….

 Rick explains PERT and Gantt techniques to students Critical path is … It’s an optimizatio n problem!! Should postpone t he investments un til really necessary Make an early start a nd keep the slack!!

 Class discussion gets heated The issue must be addressed fr om management’s point of view, too!! if starting too many things managers wo uld be bound to lose focus Using late starts, we l ose slacks and everyt hing becomes import ant The control mechanism measures the progress of the p roject. The problem is that by the time the progress rep ort indicates something is wrong, it’s usually too late.

 Early vs. Late Start of Critical Path  A waste of time  Concentration on minor considerations and neglect the major ones  The main thing is for the project manager to focus ◦ Both early and late start jeopardize the ability to focus, even though to different degrees  Measuring Progress of Projects  Measurement should induce the parts to do what is good for the system as a whole  Measurement should direct managers to the point that needs their attention

 Manage for Cost or Manage for Throughput  Theory of Constraints (TOC) ◦ Only one or two true constraints in system  TOC says that conflict implies a faulty assumption and that must be corrected ◦ Example: The only way to achieve good cost performance is through good local performance everywhere (Sub-Optimization) ◦ Incorrect assumption and root of problems in many organizations  Strengthening the Chain ◦ 1) IDENTIFY, 2) EXPLOIT, 3) SUBORDINATE, 4) ELEVATE

 Prime Measurement  Again, there is only one (or two) constraints in a system ◦ Identification of the system constraint should drive identification of the Prime Measurement  The main reason for an operational measurement is to induce the departments to do what is good for the company as a whole  “Tell me how you measure me and I’ll tell you how I’ll behave.”  Book examples changes at a steel mill

Critical Chain: Chapters 16 thru 18 Group 3 Katelyn Fang ∙ Sherry Liu ∙ Kevin Nagatori ∙ Adam Terry IOM 580 Dr. Ardavan Asef-Vazir Spring 2009

Chapter 16  Pitfalls of Managing a Program: 1.Pad each step’s completion dates. 2.Pad each step with a lot of safety time 3.Waste safety time:  Student Syndrome  Multi-Tasking  Delays accumulate and advances do not

Chapter 16 (cont)  Bottleneck: a resource with capacity that is not sufficient to produce the quantities that the market demands.  Critical Path: the constraint of the project.  Feeding Buffer: a buffer used by the non- critical path so that it does not affect the critical path.

Chapter 16 (cont) #A1 FB #B1#B2 FB Project Plan with buffer at each step Project Plan with buffer at Critical Path and F eeder Buffers for Non-Critical Path Before / Most Common After / Best Way

Chapter 17  Monitoring Progress ◦ Before => Monitor critical path by % complete ◦ After => Adding feeding buffer monitoring  Days consumed on feeding buffer  Days consumed compared with original buffer days  Days left on feeding buffer ◦ Conclusion => Focus on continuous monitoring

Chapter 18  2 Types of Projects ◦ Projects done solely by the company  Reduce lead time estimates  Eliminate milestones  Frequent reporting ◦ Projects done by vendors and subcontractors  Talk their language  Pay for vendor responsiveness  Penalty for not finishing a project on time ◦ Cash Flow ◦ Sales ◦ Market Share ◦ Stock Value

Group 2 Chapters 19-21

 Student (Ted) looks at the relationship between contractors and owners  Lose-Lose: ◦ Contractor bids low to obtain contract ◦ Contractor makes more money off of changes and delays ◦ Owner pays high price for changes ◦ No incentives for contractor to complete the project on time

 The Win-Win relationship: ◦ Owner benefits from a project which is completed early ◦ Owner shares this benefit with contractor in incentive bonus for finishing early ◦ Owner punishes contractor for finishing late with heavy penalties ◦ Contractors no longer bid on price but ability to complete project faster