Global Green Books Publishing – Case Study

ASSIGNMENT - BAB206 Page 1 of 3 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Bachelor of Business (Human Resource/Finance) Module Name : Project Management Module Code : BAB206 Batch Number : BBUS-HR-D5/BBUS-FN-D2 Given Date : 22nd August 2016 Due date : 11th October 2016 Instructions - Answer ALL questions - Marks will be awarded for good presentation and thoroughness in your approach. - Strictly no copying, if any student or group is found to have directly copied the work of someone else the student or group will be penalized as per the College procedures. - A completed assignment cover sheet should accompany the assignment. - There is no need to include the assignment question in your submitted work. - Written assignments must be correctly referenced and written in acceptable English. Be sure you acknowledge all sources of information in the body of your assignment and supply a reference list at the end. - Use the APA system referencing style adopted by the College. - Please ensure that your work has been proof read for spelling and for grammatical construction. - If you are not clear about the assignment requirements please contact the subject Lecturer/ tutor. - Keep a copy of each assignment you submit. - All assignments will be accepted before 10:00 pm on the submission date. Those assignments submitted within 4 days after the due date, will have a 5% marks deduction per day, from the total marks for that assignment. Thereafter, no assignments will be accepted. - The word limit allocated for the assignment is 2500 – 3000 words. ASSIGNMENT - BAB206 Page 2 of 3 Descriptive Based Questions – Answer All (50 marks) 1. Define ‘Project’ and explain ‘Project Management’? (5 marks) 2. Explain the nine (9) knowledge areas of Project Management? (10 marks) 3. Discuss the role of the project manager? How does it differ from the role of a line manager? (10 marks) 4. Define Project life cycle and discuss the four (4) phases in detail. (10 marks) 5. What is a project charter? Present the project charter of a project that you were involved in or develop a charter for a project that you are going to do. (5 marks) 6. Explain the main features and advantages of ‘Matrix’ type organizations for projects. (10 marks) Case Study Based Questions – Answer All (50 marks) 1. Why did Global Green Books Publishing struggle? (5 marks) 2. What project management solutions could Samantha suggest to Brad and Jim? Explain and discuss your answers. (20 marks) 3. Global Green Books Publishing is a technology intensive business, but Samantha is not technically knowledgeable, will she continue to be a successful project manager? (10 marks) 4. Brad and Jim requested the help of a Professional Project Manager to come up with a work break down structure (WBS). You are requested to take on role of the Project Manager and develop the WBS for Global Green Books Publishing. (15 marks) ASSIGNMENT - BAB206 Page 3 of 3 GLOBAL GREEN BOOKS PUBLISHING – CASE STUDY Global Green Books Publishing was started two years ago by two friends, Jim King and Brad Mount, who met in college while studying in Philadelphia, USA. In the new business Jim focused on editing, sales and marketing while Brad Mount did the electronic assembly and publishing of books for Global Green Books. Their business was successful and profitable in the first two years, largely due to contracts from two big businesses. In their third year they got very busy thanks to their third major customer, a local college that needed customized eBooks. They hired several part time employees to help them with their publishing business. But by the end of third year of operation, Global Green Books started experiencing critical problems. They were: ♣ Unable to leverage all the new employees effectively ♣ Unable to deliver eBooks to their customers on schedule ♣ Unable to provide quality texts—time and money was being spent fixing defects in their products ♣ Unable to control costs—their business was not profitable in the third year. Global Green Books saw a significant rise in issues, a lot of unpleasant “surprises” were cropping up; business was down as new resources were hired, also some of the projects were poorly estimated. The local university was unhappy as their eBook products reached campus late for use by professors and student. In some cases, the books were a week or two late. Since the courses must start on schedule and students need their books at the beginning of their courses, the new lucrative college customer was unhappy. One of the new part-time employees hired by Jim and Brad, Samantha, had taken a project management course at college. Samantha was excited about the discipline of project management and had intentionally selected a job with Global Green Books Publishing as she saw an opportunity to polish her project management skills. One fine day, Jim invited Samantha, for a lunch meeting. He was aware that Samantha was familiar with project management, and wanted to hear what she had to say about the problems he and Brad were facing. Over lunch he questioned why their small business, which had operated and implemented projects so successfully over the first two years was being challenged significantly now. He specifically pointed out the critical problems and asked for input to solve them. After the conversations, Jim King had asked Samantha if she would is she would consider joining the team as a project manager on a full-time basis to help the introduce project management practices and help tide over their current crisis.