Marketing and Management

Describe a project failure or challenged project (falling short of project goals/expectations). Reminder: you may use the project description from your exam one response.

Project related characteristics could include:

1. Industry: (e.g. aerospace, banking, construction, education, financial, health, military, marketing, petrochemical, real estate)
2. Size of project: (team size, budget $$$ [if available], duration [weeks, months],
3. Structure of project: (e.g. virtualized, projectized, functional, matrix, mixed)
4. Location information (domestic, international, mixed, single-multiple time zones)
5. Size of company (e.g. number of employees, revenue,
Project type (engineering, software development, manufacturing, management, construction, medical)
6. Your involvement in the project [if appropriate – i.e. you may not have actively participated]

Second, Indicate which of the 42 classic mistakes were involved in the challenged project and describe the manifestation of the mistakes (background on the problems/mistakes and the extent of the project challenge in terms of features/functionality, schedule, budget, and/or quality). FOR EACH classic mistake detailed, explain how any of the 11 project manager skills (see Lecture PPT on Project Manager Skills) were used or could have been used to mitigate the classic mistake(s) identified.

To effectively respond to the question, you would likely have a minimum of two paragraphs for each of the classic mistakes identified. The responses should cover:

1) how the classic mistake manifested during the project, along with the impacts from the mistake- and

2) how any of the skills (from the class presentation on PM skills) were used or could have been used to mitigate any of the negative impacts to the project.

Suggested format for response:

1. Project Description
– Project Details
2. Classic Mistake (1-n) (repeat a & b for each classic mistake identified)
– Classic Mistake description and project consequences from the mistake
– How any of the 11 project manager skill(s) could have been used to mitigate the classic mistake
3. Any additional related observations

Important Criteria:

You may choose or possibly create the type, duration and size of the project. IF possible, the project would be one in which you participated or witnessed. The project could be work related (in any industry) or personal in nature. The point is to relate the project management material to something you have already experienced or have knowledge of in order to extend the relevance of project management to your career or personal life.

For example, if this is an IT development project, it might be in-house or outsourced, involve database and/or web-based functionality, internal or external use, etc. (This flexibility is given so you might describe a software development project you were/are familiar with.)

Another example, if this is personal, it could be a project such as remodeling a house, landscaping a yard, refurbishing an old vehicle, building a boat dock. (These are some of the personal projects that have been previously used in responses to the first exam questions.)

The project description can be from any industry. For example, we have had responses from construction, medical, health care, aerospace, banking, financial, military, marketing, education, and even IT.