Project Management Assignment

Samuel’s Approach to Project Management: Joe Samuel was once again asked to be a project manager on a large project. This was the fourth time in the last 14 months, and he was glad to add this type of work experience to his résumé, but he dreaded the interpersonal relationship issues that always came up on projects. He felt like he was the project’s babysitter, always checking on progress, making sure everyone on the team was happy and understood each other’s roles, handing out assignments, and so on.

Joe then remembered an article he had recently read CASE about “tried and true project management practices.” He thought “tried and true” had to be more managerially comfortable than his past experiences. He decided to accept the new project so that he could try out new ideas. The project Joe accepted was to make a decision on whether or not to close one of the company’s distribution centers in order to improve the responsiveness of their supply chain.

Joe had been a manager of a supply chain service, so he felt very qualified to lead this effort. He defined the scope and deliverables of the project and detailed all of the major tasks of the project as well as most of the detail level steps in the project plan. At the first project team meeting, Joe felt very comfortable about the control and direction of the project, much more than any of the previous projects he had managed. He had specifically defined objectives and tasks for each member of the project team.

He even determined completion dates for each task. He wrote individual contracts” for each team member to sign as an indication of their commitment to completion of the designated tasks by the assigned schedule dates. The meeting went smoothly, with almost no comments or questions from the project team. Everyone picked up a copy of their contract” and went off to work on the project. Joe felt great and was pleased with the success of his new approach to project management. Questions: How do you think Joe will feel six weeks after the project is underway? Compare his new approach to project management with his previous approach. Get Operations Management homework help today