Peking University HSBC Business School
Course: Managing Projects for Competitive Advantages
Dates: February 21 – April 23, 2011
Instructor: Philip Y. Huang, Ph.D., CFPIM
Professor of Operations Management
Office: _ C219_________________
Email: _phhuang@phsb.pku.edu.cn
Course Description:
While still in the shadow of the current global financial crisis, companies have found it increasingly important to enhance their capabilities of providing customers with well designed, made, and delivered goods or services. There at least three basic ways to accomplish this: 1) design better product/service frequently and effectively, 2) continuously improve production process or service delivery, and 3) rapidly adopt new technology. Because each of the above can be viewed as a one-time occurring activity with a unique goal, limited lifespan, and certain resources required, companies typically manage it as a project using tools developed in project management. Moreover, for those companies in construction, defense, consulting, and IT industries, managers spend even a larger portion of their time in managing projects. If all the business activities are divided into two groups: routine operations and projects; the share of projects has been increasing consistently and significantly in the last few decades. Consequently, project management has become an increasingly important subject in operations management.
Effective management of projects requires good planning, flawless execution, and careful monitoring. Without a sound project management system, the sometimes huge investment of the projects and the extended interruption of the normal operation due to project failures will create a negative impact on the company’s competitiveness. In some tragic cases, the project failure could even endanger the existence of the whole company. However, when a company consistently chooses the right projects to pursue and successfully completes those projects on time and within budget, the positive impact on their competitiveness is also evident. Consequently, managing projects more effectively has definitely become a pressing need for many companies.
To address this need, this course will provide students with an exposure of the strategic importance of project management, the required organizational changes, the role of the top management and project leaders, the effective tools for project management, the implementation system for managing projects, and the key elements of successful project implementation.
Course Objectives:
After completing this course, students are expected to understand
1. the strategic importance of effective project management,
2. the favourable organizational structure that facilitates project management, e.g. the practice of small teams and concurrent engineering,
3. the requirements of being a successful project leader,
4. the distinctive stages of projects: project selection, resource allocation, leader selection, team formation, project planning, project implementation, project risk management, project monitoring, and project closing,
5. those tools that could enhance the chance of successfully completing projects, e.g. WBS, PERT/CPM, critical chain, earned value analysis, and MS Project 2007,
6. the reasons why several well known projects failed,
7. the reasons why companies such as Cisco could realize the benefits of successful project management, and
8. key elements of successful project implementation.
Teaching Methods:
This instructor is a strong believer of participative learning. This course therefore uses an interactive approach, in which both students and instructor are resource pool. Active participation is not just recommended but required. Teaching methods in this class will include lecture/discussion, video clips, case analysis and discussion, team exercises, and a team project.
· Brown and Hyer, Managing Projects: a Team-based Approach, McGraw-Hill 2010.
Recommended Software:
- Microsoft Office Project 2007
Cases:
- BAE Automated Systems (A): Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System HBS # 9-396-311
- Cisco Systems, Inc: Implementing ERP HBS# 9-699-022
Required Readings:
- Beck, J. “The David Statue: Just How Clean is Too Clean?” Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2003, D-5.
- McWilliams, G. “Sink or Swim: After Landing Huge Navy Pact, EDS Finds It’s In Over Its Head,” Wall Street Journal,Tuesday, April 6, 2004, A-1.
- Machalaba, D. and B. Ordwall, “Slow Boat: Why Disney’s Ship, a Fantasy of Detail, Has Yet to Sail,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1998, A-1.
- Nelson, E. and E. Ramstad, “Trick or Treat: Hershey’s Biggest Dud Has turned out to Be Its New Technology,” Wall Street Journal, October 29, 1999, A-1.
- Pinto, J. and O. Kharbanda, “How to Fail in Project Management,” Business Horizon, July-August 1996, pp.45-53.
Student Evaluation:
Class Participation 15%
Team Exercises & Case Analyses 15%
Term Project:
Project proposal 5%
Project plan 15%
Project presentation 10%
30%
Final Exam___________________________ 40%
Total 100%
Class Participation:
Your class participation will be based primarily on the quality of your participation in class and team activities. This will include the quality of your questions and your contributions to the class discussion, as well as the quality of your individual contributions to the team project.
Guidelines for Team Activities:
1. You will be assigned to a small team.
2. Each team should elect a facilitator who is responsible for scheduling and handling team meetings.
3. Team work will include the in-class exercises, case discussion, and a term project.
4. Team members should collectively solve the assigned cases and be ready to present their analysis to the class.
5. For the term project, each team should select a company that one of the team members has or had worked for. Using this real company as the background, team members should develop a comprehensive project plan. The proposed project should be realistic, but the figures or numbers used in the project can be disguised. Additional information concerning this project is provided at the end of this syllabus.
6. Each member is required to evaluate the contributions of all the members in the team by submitting a full-page assessment that gives a clear, written indication of the contribution of each team member to the case analysis and the team project. A student may receive lower grade for lack of contributions.
Case Study:
Throughout the course we will analyze several cases. Teams should schedule meetings to discuss each case before class. During the in-class case discussion, there will be opportunities for multiple teams to present all or parts of their analyses. I will evaluate the presentations based on the quality of your analysis and on the quality of the presentation.
Guidelines of the Term Project:
To successfully complete the term project, each team needs to fulfill the following three requirements:
- Project Proposal. Early in the term, each team is required to submit a project proposal that includes: a description of the project, purpose, project scope, team members and roles, projected benefits, and performance measures.
- Project Plan. In the last week of the term, each team will submit a written project plan. This document should include, but not limited to, the following items:
1) Executive Summary
2) Project objectives
3) Work breakdown structure
4) Responsibility matrix
5) Stakeholder analysis
6) Time estimates
7) Budget
8) Project schedule and Gantt chart
9) Projection of required resources
10) Risk/uncertainty assessment and contingency plans
- Project Presentation. Each team will present its final project plan during the last week of the term. The objective of your presentation is to convince your audience that your proposed project is beneficial to your organization and that your team has the capability to execute it effectively. You have about 15 minutes to present your project plan. Presentations will be graded based on the team’s effectiveness in convincing the audience, who are key stakeholders of this project, that they should support this project. Not all team members must speak, but you should think of ways to involve people in useful ways.
Tentative Schedule:
|
Sequence
|
Topic
|
Case/Reading
|
|
1
|
Introduction |
Chapter 1, video
|
|
2
|
The Effective Project Manager | Chapter 2 |
|
3
|
Project Selection
|
Chapter 3, Handout, article by Beck |
|
4
|
Project Initiation
|
Chapter 4 |
|
5
|
Scope Management | Chapter 5, BAE case, article by McWilliams |
|
6
|
Risk Management
|
Chapter 6 |
|
7
|
Project Scheduling |
Chapter 7, MS Project 2007
|
|
8
|
Resource Management | Chapter 8, video, Cisco case, article by Nelson |
|
9
|
Monitoring and Control
|
Chapters 9, article by Machalaba |
|
10
|
Project Termination
|
Chapter 10, article by Pinto |
|
11
|
Team Presentation and course summary | - |
|
12
|
Final Exam |
-
|