Essay on Prioritizing Projects at D.D. Williamson

Contents Page Qualification structures Unit 5001 Unit 5002 Unit 5003 Unit 5004 Unit 5005 Unit 5006 Unit 5007 Unit 5008 Unit 5009 Unit 5010 Unit 5011 Unit 5012 Unit 5013 Personal development as a manager and leader Information based decision making Performance management Resource management Meeting stakeholder and quality needs Conducting a management project Financial control Marketing planning Project development and control Human resource development Managing recruitment and selection Being a leader Leadership practice 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Develop a decision framework for project portfolio management at XYZ highlighting objectives, constraints, risks involved, alternatives, and information required for analysis.

Organizations have become engrossed on achieving rapid outcomes for their projects, which result in actions that essentially contradict the fundamental purpose of project management. The Volkswagen crisis could have avoided if the Volkswagen organization had good management and strong leadership throughout the life cycle of the project. To avoid the existing crisis to repeat itself, the incoming CEO for Volkswagen organization must set the standard, hold managers accountable, and ensure the organization is meeting the desired outcomes.

Developing a project charter before each project is started would improve the prioritizing process at Williamson. A project charter or contract is a necessary tool that helps get the ball rolling with any project. A charter should be a short, brief synopsis of the project that gives the project manager permission to start the project, help the sponsor and project team members develop a clear understanding, holds persons involved accountable, and screening project that have potential (Kloppenborg, Nkomo, Fottler, & McAfee, 2012). A project charter can also identify the potential of a project before it begins so the team can assess whether or not the project should be attempted at this time or another. This approach could help Williamson develop a more systematic strategy to prioritizing projects. Research has shown that only 12.5 percent of companies look at their projects to see if they align with their business and that project failure is mostly due to businesses not having a

D.D. Williamson’s prioritizing process started off not good but once they realized their mistakes they were able to sit down and rethink their prioritizing process. As mentioned, “We took three years and two iterations of our prioritization process to finally settle on an approach that dramatically increased our success rate on critical projects (now called VIPs, or “Vision Impact Projects”). ( Kloppenborg, Nkomo, Fottler, McAfee, 2012) Even though it took them a minimum of three years they realized their mistakes and were able to overcome their negatives results and turn those results into a negative. Not all projects will be successful or even start off successful, but D.D.

D. D. Williamson created a list of 78 projects which needed to be prioritized, organized, and selected. The company used a four step method to rate each project: 1) Establish criteria for prioritizing projects. 2) Weigh each criterion. 3) Refine the list of projects. 4) Rate each project on each criterion and total ratings.

Organizations have an enormous responsibility deciding on which project to pursue since poor decisions can be financially devastating on the firm. In order to stack the odds further in their favor and render the smartest verdict in which projects to invest their time and money in organizations use something called Project selection models to facilitate the best possible out-come. There are two general classes of Project selection models to assistance in decision making, the numeric and the non-numeric. There are so many possibilities of models a firm can choose from in their selecting process and they can range from the simple to more complex. The numeric model uses numbers or mathematical equations as its decision model; it’s usually more complex and deals more with the-bottom-line. Non-numeric relies more on using other data by weighing the importance of certain criteria. It’s the company’s overall objectifies that facilitates which model they decide to go with.

Management plays a vital role for small companies, large corporations, and any other business type. They help assist in making sure that a task is completed in the correct manner that benefits the company in many matters to include legal. Most who think about management today, assume they have a lot of responsibility, to include the ability to lead with great leadership skills acquired through schooling and knowledge. Fortunately for these leaders, these management skillsets were not just acquired overnight, they were developed and tested over a long period of time through trial and error before being taught at an accredited institution or published for others to utilize. Therefore, there have been many theories and milestones that have developed through time, which have assisted in shaping management into how it functions today.

The primary purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis on my organization and identify a problem that the organization is experiencing. To accomplish this task, a brief background of the organization, will first be provided. This will serve to establish a solid foundation for context. Then, the problem will be discussed in detail; to include the nature, as well as any applicable theories that will not only lend support to the paper, but also add additional value. After the issue is laid out, an analysis will be conducted on the nature of the problem. Again, this will help to frame the problem in a context that is easy to identify with. Lastly, a solution will be recommended that would be fit the needs of the organization via it’s members, in order to adequately address the problem.

In order to be able to successfully complete a project the most important factor is having the required resources. This includes both funding and personnel. The lack of either is enough to being a project to a complete stop. Top management can help with the acquisition of funding and making sure that the right people are assigned to project. According to the spendmatters.com article on Senior Management Support this is the most common issue that can cause a project to fail.

Samson, D. and Daft, R.L. (2012) Fundamentals of management. 4th edn. Australia: Cengage Learning Australia.

The inclusion of project teams into a corporate framework and corresponding corporate culture is a problematic one. In the case of the Brazilian cattle feed company, it is imperative to hold onto the innovative aspects of the R&D ad hoc teams, yet there also must be accountability to cost, revenue and performance requirements as well. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate the role of top management in this scenario, defining how the project management structure can be augmented to ensure overall corporate objectives are met. The implications of adding in the R&D ad hoc teams are also explored.

This paper analyzes the Whitbread World Sailboat Race case scenario presented in chapter 9 in the Gray and Larson text, Project Management: the Managerial Process. The Whitbread World Sailboat Race is a nine month round the world race. Bjorn Ericksen has been chosen by his country to head up the project of getting a boat and a team ready for the race. The objectives of the project are to design, build and test a new vessel and select and train a crew capable of winning the race. The objectives must be completed within 45 weeks, the start of the race, and with a planned budget of $3.2 million.

The cultural norm was to operate only within your function. This “decentralized managerial philosophy” hindered proactive communications between departments that that could have assisted in the company’s transition to project management.

Project Management is a tool that is needed in any industry to be successful. In the fashion industry there is always going to be projects, events and shows that are going on. In order to get these projects accomplished on time project management is needed. I am going to use the case of a fashion show. Lihn Tran says that “The fashion industry is probably one of the fastest moving in the business world” (Tran). In order for the fashion industry to run in an orderly fashion, their needs to be a project manager that is in charge of such a big growing industry. In order to put on this type of show we need to make sure that we have a project leader and other employees who are going to have specific jobs with specific deadlines. This is going to be the companies’ first retail fashion show, so they want to make sure things run smoothly. They are a small company with only 8 employees including the owner. Some owners try to accomplish way to much, more than they can do themselves, Skillpath says “project managers and business owners often try to tackle all aspects of running a company or specific project by themselves. While this is ambitious, it 's not realistic” (How).