Read the “Horizon Consulting” case on pages 97-99

Unit Assignments

Unit I Case Study

Read the “Horizon Consulting” case on pages 97-99 of your textbook.

After reading the case, answer the following questions:

• How successful was the post-meeting?
• What factors contributed to the success or failure of the post-meeting?
• What kind of project management structure does Horizon use? Is it the right structure? Explain.

You will need to identify your own thoughts and cite specific passages from the case study to support your point of view. Your response should be at least one page in length and written in standard essay form following APA style guidelines.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit II Assignment 1

Read the following scenario and answer the corresponding questions upon your completion. Your response should be at least two pages in length in standard essay form following APA style guidelines.

CTO Scenario:

You are working on a project to install 200 new computers for your department. Your sponsor is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Although the CTO is your key stakeholder, you know that many other individuals will affect the success or failure of your project. This is the first time you have worked with this CTO, and you have heard that he often changes his mind about the requirements and due date. In fact, you heard that a PM who failed to meet the project deadline was fired by the CTO.

On your way to the weekly status meeting with the CTO, you run into a colleague who tells you that the best way to handle the CTO is to avoid confronting him. If the CTO tells you to do 10 push-ups, you do 10 push-ups. If he asks for coffee, do not forget the cream and sugar. In other words, the “Yes-Man” approach works best.

You may not like what you hear from the CTO, but at least you will keep your job. In fact, your colleague tells you that the CTO often promotes people who agree with him. Of course, you know what happens to those who fail to follow his recommendations.

Provide your response to the following questions:

• Who are your stakeholders?
• How do you plan to communicate with your stakeholders?
• You schedule a meeting with managers from the impacted departments, and only seven of the 13 you invited show up to discuss the project. What does this tell you about the potential success of the project?
• Because of your failure to coordinate with a vendor, the equipment will arrive 42 days late. How will you notify the sponsor of your serious error?
• Your CTO informs you that the deliverable date is now two months earlier. You know what happened to the last PM. How do you handle that new requirement?

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit II Assignment 2

Read the following scenario and answer the corresponding questions upon your completion. Your response should be at least one page in length in standard essay form following APA style guidelines.

Deerborn Electronics Scenario:

You work for Deerborn Electronics, a multinational firm providing parts for mobile devices. As the project manager for the tablet division, you have been kept extremely busy. In fact, you are putting in 60 hours per week, and it is taking a toll on you and your family. You have thought about quitting, but the $140K annual salary is far too good.

You have been here at Deerborn only 14 months, and you have determined an anti-project culture. You recently confided in a team member the following: “No one is accountable around here.” In fact, you think most people here are flat lazy.

As the project manager, how do you change the culture? How do you ensure that your project is completed? What type of leadership style might work in this organizational setting? How will you measure success? Why?

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit IV Case Study

Read the “Nightingale Project— A” case on page 333 of your textbook.

After reading the case, answer the following questions:

• Will the project as planned meet the October 25th deadline? Why, or why not? What schedule compression techniques would you use?
• What activities lie on the critical path?
• How sensitive is this network?

You will need to identify your own thoughts and cite specific passages from the case study to support your point of view. Your response should be a minimum of one page in length in standard essay form following APA style guidelines.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit V Case Study

Read the following scenario and answer the corresponding questions upon your completion.

Lobos International Scenario:

Over the past few years, you and Cindy have been on the fast track at Lobos International, a multinational company providing Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) solutions to companies operating in the Pacific Rim. You were just informed that you have been promoted as Senior VP of Global Affairs, a position that, for the foreseeable future, has Cindy reporting directly to you.

You received a text message from a colleague congratulating you on the promotion, but she also alerted you that Cindy and several of her team members were upset and resentful that she failed to receive the position. She had, after all, been with Lobos a couple years longer than you.

The first project on the table requires you to increase the number of clients in the region by 10% over the next 12 months. To do that, you will need Cindy’s help because she heads the sales and marketing team. Given that you are new to this position, it is imperative that you demonstrate your ability to lead, regardless of personality differences.

Please provide a response to the following questions:

• Please discuss how you will approach Cindy to ensure she is on board with the project objectives?
• How will you get the team to the performing stage (stages forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning)?
• How will you manage the potential conflict?
• How will you handle the situation in which some of Cindy’s team members are sabotaging the success of the project?
• If Cindy steps up to the plate and performs admirably, will you seek for her to be promoted? Explain.

Identify your own thoughts, and answer each question in detail. Your response should be a minimum of two pages in length written in standard essay form according to APA style guidelines.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit VI Case Study

Read the “Shell Case Fabricator” case on page 442 of your textbook.

After reading the case, answer the following questions:

• Should Shell Case Fabrications (SCF) accept or reject Air Connection Links’ (ACL) request? Which option would you select? What risks are involved?
• How should SCF negotiate with ACL? How can SCF and ACL develop a positive, long-range relationship? Give some specifics.

You will need to identify your own thoughts and cite specific passages from the case to support your point of view. Your response should be a minimum of one page in length written in standard essay form following APA style guidelines.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit VI Assignment

Essay

As you have read in this unit’s assigned reading, earned value management (EVM) assists project managers when measuring the overall performance of a project. EVM can be very useful in project forecasting and is used for cost and schedule control.

For this assignment, write an essay detailing the basic elements of earned value management. Additionally, discuss how the calculated results from EVM are part of an audit.

Your essay should be at least one page in length written in standard essay form following APA style. You are required to use at least one source outside of your course textbook, preferably from the CSU Online Library.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit VIII Case Study

Read the following scenario and answer the corresponding questions upon your completion.

You recently earned your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, and you are excited to share the news with your manager. After a short discussion, the manager looks at you and says, “Shawn, let’s not waste any time. I have a big project that just hit my desk. We are going to automate the medical records processes for an established hospital in Omaha. Congrats! You’re in charge!”

When you walked in to see your manager, you were excited. Now, you are scared! Although you just passed the PMP exam, you are unsure that you can lead such a big project. On the way back to your desk, the light bulb goes off, and you start thinking about how leaders surround themselves with top-notch team members.

Provide your response to the following questions:

1. What advice do you give Shawn regarding forming the project team?
2. How should Shawn handle the situation where some team members possess far more experience managing these types of projects?
3. What are some ground rules that Shawn should consider?
4. What might happen to Shawn’s career if he is honest with his manager and tells her that he lacks the experience needed for this project?
5. Once the project is complete, what are some items that Shawn should include in the lessons learned?

You will need to identify your own thoughts to support your point of view. Your response should be a minimum of one page in length written in standard essay form according to APA style guidelines.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

APA Guidelines

The application of the APA writing style shall be practical, functional, and appropriate to each academic level, with the primary purpose being the documentation (citation) of sources. CSU requires that students use APA style for certain papers and projects. Students should always carefully read and follow assignment directions and review the associated grading rubric when available. Students can find CSU’s Citation Guide by clicking here. This document includes examples and sample papers and provides information on how to contact the CSU Success Center.

Grading Rubrics

This course utilizes analytic grading rubrics as tools for your professor in assigning grades for all learning activities. Each rubric serves as a guide that communicates the expectations of the learning activity and describes the criteria for each level of achievement. In addition, a rubric is a reference tool that lists evaluation criteria and can help you organize your efforts to meet the requirements of that learning activity. It is imperative for you to familiarize yourself with these rubrics because these are the primary tools your professor uses for assessing learning activities.

Rubric categories include: (1) Assessment (Written Response) and (2) Assignment. However, it is possible that not all of the listed rubric types will be used in a single course (e.g., some courses may not have Assessments).

The Assessment (Written Response) rubric can be found embedded in a link within the directions for each Unit
Assessment. However, these rubrics will only be used when written-response questions appear within the Assessment.

Each Assignment type (e.g., article critique, case study, research paper) will have its own rubric. The Assignment rubrics are built into Blackboard, allowing students to review them prior to beginning the Assignment and again once the
Assignment has been scored. This rubric can be accessed via the Assignment link located within the unit where it is to be submitted. Students may also access the rubric through the course menu by selecting “Tools” and then “My Grades.”

Again, it is vitally important for you to become familiar with these rubrics because their application to your Assessments and Assignments is the method by which your instructor assigns all grades.