WOODY’S CASE STUDY

WOODY’S CASE STUDY

Q1

The project was well-conceived because the organization leadership involved all the key stakeholders in the development of the program. The organization observed that there was an opportunity for growth from the airport expansion and free trade opportunity from the southern border. Therefore, the company saw it fit to expand its manufacturing pace to take advantage of the existing opportunity. Woody consulted with his wife and other stakeholders such as Kim Cashman and Spencer Moneysworth to enrich the quality of concept formulation. However, the company lacked clear objectives on the justification of undertaking the project. Most of the project’s objectives were ambiguous, which increased to be specific to enable every stakeholder to understand their role and performance expectations of the project.

The real objectives of the Woody project were to increase the production capacity by 25% and increase the geographical coverage of the production plant. The company was also aiming at installing air conditioners to enhance the experience of the employees within the organization. The organization was planning to renovate the office of the president and the vice president to reflect its contemporary status. Additionally, the company was aiming at installing a semi-automatic woodworking production train to enhance operational efficiency to utilize the opportunity that exists in the market maximally.

The organization was contemplating increasing the area coverage by expanding the geographical coverage of the institution. The organization also opted to outsource the services of EID to provide expert advice on the feasibility of the project.  The company also allocated $17 million to allow them to undertake the project after internal assessment. I would have recommended for the organization to have consulted with all stakeholders and got the input of the external professional expertise before developing a budget.

The organization did not consider another solution because they did not consult widely. The first, they remained static at $17 million after developing a budget instead of engaging other people. The company did not also consider a different types of air conditioners and paints to utilize in the office. In the case of renovation, the organization was going to spend more than $17 million without include renovation. It means they did not consider the budgetary requirement during the renovations. An alternative strategy would have shown it was feasible to renovate or to build a new office.

The organization failed to achieve its objectives because no air conditions were installed. The renovation of the offices was not yet accomplished; the construction of a semi-autonomic woodworking production train was not yet established.

Q2

The inclusion of the President and vice president’s office would have provided the holistic cost of the project. The office was included in the project to motivate the executives to provide continued support and facilitate effective approval of the project. The renovation was superfluous and did not affect the objectives of the project.

The simple project scopes

The Woody2000 project will integrate the expansion of the production facilities, installation of contemporary equipment to enhance the operational efficiency of the organization and explore new markets within the next 18 months with a budget of $17 million.

Q3

The project requires the creation of the project scope, the schedule, the project charter, the communication outline, the contingency plan, the budget, and the closeout plans. The importance of these components is that it ensures the project is well defined, communicated, monitored, and controlled. Having a contingency plan ensures that the project is successful, and the standard expectations are achieved.

Woody plan for managing project

Woody did not have the plan for managing the project, which made him to higher Mr. Leadbetter as the project manager. Alternative, Mr. Moneysworth decide to hire a contracting company and gave them free rein to provide extensive exact information on the feasibility of the project. The contracting company and the project manager needed to work collaboratively to ensure the success of the project. However, the general feeling within the organization was that the contracting company was replacing the PM. To change the successive phases of the business, I would have encouraged the PM to work collaboratively with the contracting companies to monitor the project as the subcontractor to complete the tasks throughout the project’s lifestyle.

The project did not have project change control. However, the management had set aside $1 million for the contingency plan, which was not also utilized. The change can become unmanageable when the organization is not transparent about how financial resources will be spent. Last minutes changes lead to the rise of additional costs, which jeopardizes operational costs. It is critical to include project changes in the contingency plan to enable effective evaluation and monitoring of the project and the responsibilities of specific stakeholders in dealing with the change.

Q4

Quality is a measure of excellence and state of being free from deficiencies and significant variation. Managing quality means that the organization must understand the expectations of the stakeholders and put a proactive mechanism to meet those expectations. Quality is approached by setting up acceptable criteria and performance standards that are communicated to the stakeholders and ensure that the project’s target is met.

Leadbetter was unaware of the project requirement, which made him develop subjective standards and make him unable to maintain the performance standards. And difficult to meet the project deadline. For example. The plans and shop drawing approval were delayed by two weeks. This costed wastage of time. Lack of invoking specification leads to last-minute changes, which would have been forecasted and backup plan established to ensure both internal and external factors does not compromise business operations.

The importance of quality during the project includes saving on costs by ensuring all projects are undertaken according to the plan. And prevent using of resources on non-beneficial items. Using DMAIC Model, Quality enables the organization to define and align the project demand with customer needs and measuring to ensure the values meet the specification of the stakeholders. The company was operating of budgetary deficit allocation, therefore, establishing the quality standard enhances maximum utilization of the resources. Defining quality standards is critical in ensuring that the project objectives are met. This facilitates determining the completeness and success of the project.

Q5

The Project schedule milestone indicates the implementation progress for the achievement of the project. The project milestone outlines the sequence of events that is built up until the project is built. The milestone enables the managers to know how the program is advancing. The project milestone includes: the air conditioner will be installed by February 2020. The renovation of the presidents and VP offices will begin in January and end in August 2020. And lastly, the construction of the semi-automatic woodworking production train will begin in Jan 2020 till February 2021.

The baseline line dictates the starting point of a project and provides a measure a person can utilize to monitor progress and the assessment on the feasibility of the projects over time. Baseline outlines the tasks, resources, and when the assignment will be undertaken. Thus, it is critical to evaluate business progress during and after completion.

The free float on a critical path outlines the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the beginning time of the successor activities. The arrangement of the free float is dependent on the amount of successive activity and the duration. The management of the float on critical time would have enabled the organization to complete the project in time.

Q6

High-level guesstimation

The estimation can be presented in table content, indicating the cost of a specific project.

The life cycle plays a critical role in determining the cost estimation because the chart represents the transaction costs of what will take place over the course of a given period. It through the life cycle cost analysis that the organization will understand how to allocate the budget based on the priority. The operational cycle indicate that finances need to be allocated for operational performance, maintenance implication, the value of risks, initial expenditures

The cash man kept the cash flow chart as a secret because he wanted to avoid accountability. It is critical for the cashment in a project to portray a high level of accountability, transparency, and integrity. Keeping them hidden would make it impossible for people to notice there was finance misappropriation. The successful implementation of a project is dependent on three factors; that is time, quality, and resources. The cashflow chart could also have been used to facilitate project monitoring and evaluation. If I were the Cashman, I would have developed copies of the cashflow chart and send it to the project t manager and the contracting companies to enable them to have a rough estimate on the cost of the projects and to guide them during project implementation.

Q7

The contracting alternative for the Woody2000 project includes a Fixed price contract where the contracting organization provides its services at a fixed price, meaning the organization will not have to pay wages and salaries. The second alternative is referred to as cost reimbursement, which can take the form of cost-plus incentive fee (CPIF) and cost-plus fixed fees. The cost-plus fixed fee (CPFF). The CPIF allows the contractor to manage the project cost through the provision of incentive. While CPFF caps the cost of the project while the contractor only benefits from fixed fee since there is no provision of incentives. The best contracting alternative was the Cost-Plus Incentive Fees because it caps the cost for the project and provides incentives to the contractor to control costs. This increases the motivation of the contractors, making them offer high-quality services.

The contracts should be organized and tendered by the respective contracting companies.

The selective tendering provides the most effective way of administering the tenders. The initial selective tendering process involves the company advertising the project and invites the application of various contractors who are placed in the list and invited to bid for the project. The selective tendering allows the company to only select the contractors with adequate experience, stable financial base. And sufficient competence and resources to undertake the project. The challenge of selective tendering is that the environmental factor can affect the quality delivery of the project.

The original Woody2000 project requirement was not delivered because the organization did not have contract administration. The failure by the organization to deliver the original Woody2000 project plan to the organization for filing made the contractors have little idea on the justification and outcome expectation of the project. The lack of a proper filing system made it difficult for Win Easley to conduct post-project appraisal because the information and data were scattered across the company making it difficult to develop a solid report. If the original project report had been delivered to a central command/ communication system, the organization would have effectively achieved its set goals and objectives.

Q8

The real relationship existed within the organization. The formal relationship existed between the different levels of management, such as between the chairman to the president and between the vice presidents. There was also a relationship bided by contract between the Project manager with the company’s leadership and between the contracting companies and the project managers a.

Leadbetter should have been left to run the project because sharing responsibility creates role ambiguity, reduced accountability, and responsibility. It is critical during the project to have a unitary commanding authority to enhance information clarity and feedback. The project managers from the contracting companies should have been subjected to his authority. Training would have helped in addressing the skills gap of the project manager and increase the confidence of the Project manager and other stakeholders in undertaking the project.  Training would also be used as a platform for informing people on the objectives of the project, their respective responsibilities, and performance expectations (Armstrong, 2017, 174).

The woody200o project plan could be communicated by sending an attachment to the employee emails and notify them. The organization can also pin copies of the project in the organization notice boards so that employees can read as they pass through. The most effective is ensuring the head of different departments share with their employees in their respective department meetings to enable each department to understand their expectations and obligations. The Project manager can also organize a meeting for all stakeholders with the support of the executive to lay out a detailed statement of work, the project goal and objectives, and performance standards.

During project execution, there needs to be continuous interdepartmental consultation as the management engages too determine if the progress is as expected. There should also be constant interaction between the project supervisors and their employees as they provide instruction and receive feedback from the employees.

Q9

A good baseline plan would have enhanced the maximum utilization of the organizational goals and objectives. If the EID and Woody’s Project managers would have worked collaboratively and established a baseline with all the key stakeholders, the problem encountered during project execution would have been mitigated and possibly eliminated at an early stage. The baseline plan facilitates change control and effective development of the management plan.

The organization would have reset the baseline with all stakeholders after realizing the project would not have met its schedule. This would have facilitated the revision of all assumptions and addressing the immediate issues.

The organization should have developed a central directory or repository structure where all documents are stored and neatly filed. It is essential for the organization to ensure that the data within the organization is always updated and easily accessible. The meeting minutes, budgets, revisions, draft schedules also need to be dated to enable project managers to undertake project evaluation during and after execution effectively. The organization should also have hired record managers who should be responsible for safeguarding, filing, and manage access control to the organization documents and data.

Q10

EID’s price was high due to the lack of a detailed Statement of Work and Program of Requirements Ian Leadbetter, Kim Cashman, and Spencer Moneysworth failed to plan their proposed project accurately and allowed for too many uncertainties. They also made too many uninformed budgetary assumptions and never worked through the proper contracting mechanism to achieve their budget with which could have taken place early on with EID. Cost based on the assumptions could be perceived as reasonable

Woody’s knew they were in trouble when costs escalated due to a multitude of changes resulting in delayed completion and their expenditures exceeding the budget. This all resulted in the project being 85% complete and extending an additional line of credit to cover additional costs.

The budget and expenditures should be mapped out using a budget-focused planning phase where a Project Definition Document is created in conjunction with parallel workflows.

Q11

The EID risk Assessment plan was effective because it had competence in management. Their risk management plan included profiling the risk factors, assessing the risks, and develop a probability matrix to guide them on a possible approach to follow. The risk management plan would have been effective if the risk response plan had been developed to provide a mitigation strategy for every risk identified.

The actual surprise was the budgetary requirement of the EID team. They had budgeted for $17 million, yet EID demanded 21 million. It would have been prudent for EID and the management at woody to work collaboratively in mapping out the project and develop an all-comprehensive budget.

Some of the changes that impacted the quality of the project include the decision to hire a contracting firm. The hiring was not mutually agreed upon by the company’s management and, therefore, resulted in working ambiguity. There were also changes in the specification for the production train, which was aimed at increasing the operational efficiency of the organization. The result of changes in production train specification led to the establishment of five additional feet in the overall building length.

Q12

There was no collaboration between the EID and woody’s Project managers on different responsibilities leading to role overlap. The lack of coordination led to the two-week utility shutdown and delays. It was critical for the project managers to establish a mutual working relationship by developing a responsibility matrix outlining the specific duties of different stakeholders. EID and Woody’s PPM would have discussed and allocated vital activities from the beginning of the project.

The Woody2000 did not properly learn because of lack of coordination between the contractors and the internal organization management, role ambiguity because the project work schedule was not available, there was also no accountability amongst the stakeholder. For instance, Cashman decided to hide the Project cycle cash chart. There was also a misunderstanding between the EID and Woody’s Project managers, and lastly, the budget estimate was insufficient to facilitate effective project execution.

The Key success indicators include delivery quality, completion of tasks after 18 months, achieve al the initial objectives of the projects such as achieving a 25% operational increase, renovation of officers, etc. The project would also be considered successful if it met all the requirements of the stakeholders.

Reference

Armstrong, M., 2017. Armstrong on reinventing performance management: Building a culture of continuous improvement. Kogan Page Publishers.