HSBC Business School of Peking University
Course: Managing Projects for Competitive Advantages
Dates: February13 – April 15, 2012
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 are
at least three basic ways to accomplish this: 1) design better product/service more
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.
2
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.
Recommended Text:
? 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.

3
Student Evaluation:
Class Participation 20%
Team Exercises & Case Analyses 20%
Term Project:
Project plan 10%
Project presentation 10%
20%
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. To facilitate your preparation, each team is required to summarize your
results and submit a PowerPoint file before the scheduled class period.

4
Guidelines of the Term Project:
To successfully complete the term project, each team needs to fulfill the following three
requirements:
1. 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, and projected benefits.
2. 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
3. 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.

5
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 -

6
Assignment Questions for Selected Cases
BAE Automated Systems Case
1. Evaluate the implementation of the Denver International Airport Baggage-
Handling System. What do you believe were the top three factors that contributed
to the project's failure? Who do you feel is most at fault (Pe?a, Webb, DiFonso,
others)? Be sure to be prepared to present your thinking, as I plan to cold call a
number of people at the start of class to provide me with their "top 3" list and the
person most at fault.
2. What problems occurred during the timeframe when Federico Pe?a was mayor?
Given the constraints he faced when he succeeded Pe?a in November 1989, what
should Mayor Wellington Webb have done differently?
3. As Gene DiFonso, what would you have done differently to avoid the problems
faced at the end of the case?
4. How should DiFonso respond to Mayor Webb's decision to impose a $12,000 per
day penalty and the requirement that BAE assume the $50 million cost of building
a conventional tug-and-cart baggage system?
Cisco Systems, Inc: Implementing ERP Case
1. What is an Enterprise Resources Planning system? In general, what are the
potential advantages and disadvantages associated with these kinds of systems?
2. What was Cisco’s previous IT approach? What did Cisco expect to gain? (OR,
what did it stand to lose if it did not implement?)
3. Pete Slovick had expected the functional managers to step forward and implement
new modules for their own divisions. Why didn’t they? What did they have to
gain or lose? Was he na?ve in his expectation? What outcomes would you have
expected if they had implemented their own systems?
4. What factors prompted Cisco to move forward with the ERP project?
5. What is your assessment of the way the project rationale was presented to the
board?
6. What was the nature of the contracts with the suppliers? What other contract types
might have been considered?
7. How would you characterize the team structure for this project? How does it fit
into the general scheme of available structural forms? What are the advantages
and disadvantages of this type of team?
8. Would you view the project as a success? Why or why not? How would you
measure success for a project such as this one? What metrics would be relevant?
9. What factors appear to have contributed to the success of this project? What could
they have done better? Was their success attributable, at least in part, to the tech
orientation of the firm? What about the ‘big bang’ approach? Contrast the
performance of this project with the performance of Hershey’s ERP
implementation. What do you believe to be the differences?