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In that role, an opportunity came up for me to manage a project that involved rolling out a new statistical package-weight-control program throughout the factory.

Successfully completing that project was instrumental in accelerating my career within the com- pany, advancing from supervisor to product manager in less than three years.

After four years in food products I accepted an offer to join a wood products manufacturing company. Initially my role in this company was human resource manager. My HR responsibilities included managing several proj- ects to improve safety and employee retention. Success- ful completion of these projects led to a promotion to plant manager. In the plant manager role, I was tasked with building and managing a new wood door manufac- turing factory.

After successfully taking that factory to full production, I was promoted again, to corporate man- ager of continuous improvement. Shortly after we successfully ingrained this new culture in the company, the owner passed away, leading me to look for other employment.

I was able to leverage my previous experience and success to convince the owner of a struggling glass fabrication company to hire me. In this new role as general manager, I was tasked with turning the com- pany around. This was my largest project yet. Turning a company around involves a myriad of smaller improve- ment projects spanning from facilities and equipment improvements to product line additions and deletions to sales and marketing strategy and everything in between.

In four years we successfully turned the com- pany around to the extent that the owner was able to sell the company and comfortably retire. Successfully turning that glass company around got the attention of a much larger competitor of ours, resulting in an offer of employment. We were able to take that facility from a dirt field to the highest- volume manufacturing facility of its kind in the world in just three years.

After building and operating this factory at a world-class benchmark level for eight years, I came across a new and exciting oppor- tunity to help expand a strong glass fabrication.

Traditional project management focuses on thorough planning up front. Planning requires predictability. For plans to be effective, managers have to have a good under- standing of what is to be accomplished and how to do it. For example, when it comes to building a bridge, engineers can draw upon proven technology and design princi- ples to plan and build the bridge. Not all projects enjoy such predictability.

Figure 1. Project uncertainty varies according to the extent the project scope is known and stable and the technology to be used is known and proven. Many projects, like the bridge project, product extensions, events, marketing campaigns, and so forth have well-established scopes and use proven technology, which provide the predictabil- ity for effective planning.

I spent four years successfully transitioning this Canadian company from a medium- sized glass fabrication facility to one of the largest and most successful of its kind in North America. This new project. Success in this role, although still far from being certain, will eventually revolutionize the glass industry through the intro- duction of a product that dramatically improves the energy efficiency and occupant comfort of buildings around the world.

Looking back on my career, it is apparent that my degree of success has largely been the result of taking on and successfully completing successively larger and increasingly impactful projects. I like my tool bag filled with gener- alist tools: things like communication skills, leader- ship, common sense, judgment, reasoning, logic, and a strong sense of urgency. I often wonder how much more I could have accomplished, had I actually studied project management and had more of that toolset in my bag.

With a bag full of strong generalist tools, you can tackle any problem in any business. Project man- agement is clearly one of those skills where the better you are at it, the higher your chances of success in any business environment. Having the tools is only part of the equation, though. Enter Agile project management Agile PM. Agile methodologies emerged out of frustration with using traditional project management processes to develop software.

Software projects are notorious for having unstable scopes in which end user requirements are discovered not defined up front. Agile PM is now being used across industries to manage projects with high levels of uncer- tainty. Examples of people encountering high-uncertainty work include software systems engineers, product designers, explorers, doctors, lawyers, and many problem-solving engineers.

Instead of trying to plan for everything up front, the scope of the project evolves. Iterations typically last from one to four weeks. The goal of each iteration is to make tangible progress such as define a key.

Search pmi. At the end of each iteration, progress is reviewed, adjustments are made, and a different iterative cycle begins. Each new iteration subsumes the work of the previ- ous iterations until the project is completed and the customer is satisfied. Agile PM focuses on active collaboration between the project team and customer representatives, breaking projects into small functional pieces, and adapting to chang- ing requirements.

Agile methods are often used up front in the defining phase to establish specifications and requirements, and then traditional methods are used to plan, execute, and close the project.

Agile methods may be used to address certain technical issues on a project while most of the project work is being managed in the traditional way. The internal dynamics on Agile projects is quite different from the traditional PM approach. Agile works best in small teams of four to eight members. Instead of directing and integrating the work of others, the project manager serves as a facilita- tor and coach.

The team manages itself, deciding who should do what and how it should be done. Project management is no longer a special-need management. It is rapidly becoming a standard way of doing business. The future promises an increase in the importance and role of projects in contributing to the strategic direction of organizations.

Several reasons for this are discussed briefly in this section. Compression of the Product Life Cycle One of the most significant driving forces behind the demand for project management is the shortening of the product life cycle. For example, today in high-tech indus- tries the product life cycle is averaging 6 months to 3 years. Only 30 years ago, life cycles of 10 to 15 years were not uncommon.

Time-to-market for new products with short life cycles has become increasingly important. A common rule of thumb in the world of high-tech product development is that a 6-month project delay can result in a 33 percent loss in product revenue share. Speed, therefore, becomes a competitive advantage; more and more organizations are relying on cross-functional project teams to get new products and services to the market as quickly as possible.

Knowledge Explosion The growth in new knowledge has increased the complexity of projects because projects encompass the latest advances.

For example, building a road 30 years ago was a somewhat simple process. Today, each area has increased in complex- ity, including materials, specifications, codes, aesthetics, equipment, and required specialists. The same is likely to be true soon for artificial intelligence AI. Product complexity has increased the need to integrate divergent technologies.

Project management has emerged as the key discipline for achieving this task. Triple Bottom Line Planet, People, Profit The threat of global warming has brought sustainable business practices to the fore- front. Businesses can no longer simply focus on maximizing profit to the detriment of the environment and society. Efforts to reduce carbon imprint and utilize renewable resources are realized through effective project management.

The impact of this move- ment toward sustainability can be seen in changes in the objectives and techniques used to complete projects. For example, achieving a high LEED certification award is often an objective on construction projects.

Increased Customer Focus Increased competition has placed a premium on customer satisfaction. Customers no longer simply settle for generic products and services. They want customized products and services that cater to their specific needs. This mandate requires a much closer working relationship between the provider and the receiver.

Account executives and. Increased customer attention has also prompted the development of customized products and services. For example, 25 years ago buying a set of golf clubs was a relatively simple process: you picked out a set based on price and feel. Today there are golf clubs for tall players and short players, clubs for players who tend to slice the ball and clubs for those who hook the ball, high-tech clubs with the latest metallurgic discovery guaranteed to add distance, and so forth.

Project management is critical both to developing customized products and services and to sustaining lucrative relation- ships with customers.

Small Projects Represent Big Problems The velocity of change required to remain competitive or simply keep up has created an organizational climate in which hundreds of projects are implemented concurrently.

This climate has created a multiproject environment and a plethora of new problems. Businesses and nonprofits thrive and survive based on their ability to manage projects that produce prod- ucts and services that meet market needs. Here is a small sample of. Intuitive hopes to one day use robots to not only diagnose but also treat lung cancer.

The film stars Academy Award�winner Brie Larson in the title role. The SB-1 Defiant is being built to travel faster, longer, and more quietly than other models.

At stake is a billion-dollar-plus contract with the U. Department of Defense. It is a fully equipped, luxury SUV with a mile range. The Dominican restoration project involves manually removing ferns and planting native trees and shrubs. Sharing and prioritizing resources across a portfolio of projects is a major challenge for senior management. Many firms have no idea of the problems involved with inefficient management of small projects.

Small projects typically carry the same or more risk as large projects. Because so many small projects are going on concurrently and because the perception of the inefficiency impact is small, measuring inefficiency is usually nonexistent. Unfortu- nately, many small projects soon add up to large sums of money. Many customers and millions of dollars are lost each year on small projects in product and service organiza- tions. Small projects can represent hidden costs not measured in the accounting system.

Organizations with many small projects going on concurrently face the most difficult project management problems. A key question becomes one of how to create an organizational environment that supports multiproject management.

A pro- cess is needed to prioritize and develop a portfolio of small projects that supports the mission of the organization. Managing a project is a multidimensional process see Figure 1. The first dimension is the technical side of the management process, which consists of the formal, disci- plined, purely logical parts of the process.

This technical dimension includes plan- ning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Clear project scope statements are written to link the project and customer and to facilitate planning and control. Creation of the deliverables and work breakdown structures facilitates planning and monitoring the progress of the project. The work breakdown structure serves as a database that links.

Understand that manag- ing projects involves bal- ancing the technical and sociocultural dimensions of the project. Effects of project changes are documented and traceable.

Thus, any change in one part of the project is traceable to the source by the integrated linkages of the system. This integrated information approach can provide all project managers and the customer with decision information appropriate to their level and needs. A suc- cessful project manager will be well trained in the technical side of managing projects.

The second and opposing dimension is the sociocultural side of project manage- ment. In contrast to the orderly world of project planning, this dimension involves the much messier, often contradictory and paradoxical world of implementation. It centers on creating a temporary social system within a larger organizational environ- ment that combines the talents of a divergent set of professionals working to complete the project.

Project managers must shape a project culture that stimulates teamwork and high levels of personal motivation as well as a capacity to quickly identify and resolve problems that threaten project work. Things rarely go as planned and project managers must be able to steer the project back on track or alter directions when necessary. The sociocultural dimension also involves managing the interface between the proj- ect and external environment.

Project managers have to assuage and shape the expec- tations of customers, sustain the political support of top management, and negotiate with their functional counterparts, monitor subcontractors, and so on. Overall, the manager must build a cooperative social network among a divergent set of allies with different standards, commitments, and perspectives.

To be successful, a manager must be a master of both. Unfortunately, some project managers become preoccupied with the planning and technical dimension of project management. Often their first real exposure to project management is through project management software, and they become infatuated with network charts, Gantt diagrams, and performance variances; they attempt to manage a project from a distance.

Good project managers work with others to balance their attention to both the technical and sociocultural aspects of project management. A project is defined as a nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, resources, and performance specifica- tions designed to meet customer needs.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of project management is that it has both a beginning and an end and typically consists of four phases: defining, planning, executing, and closing. Successful implementation requires both technical and social skills.

Project managers have to plan and budget projects as well as orchestrate the contributions of others. Text Overview This text is written to provide the reader with a comprehensive, socio-technical under- standing of project management. The text focuses on both the science and the art of managing projects. Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 focuses on how organizations go about evaluating and selecting projects.

Special attention is devoted. The organizational environment in which projects are implemented is the focus of Chapter 3. The discussion of matrix management and other organizational forms is augmented by a discussion of the significant role the culture of an organization plays in the implementation of projects.

The next six chapters focus on developing a plan for the project; after all, project success begins with a good plan. Chapter 4 deals with defining the scope of the project and developing a work breakdown structure WBS. The challenge of formulating cost and time estimates is the subject of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 focuses on utilizing the infor- mation from the WBS to create a project plan in the form of a timed and sequenced network of activities. Risks are a potential threat to every project, and Chapter 7 examines how organiza- tions and managers identify and manage risks associated with project work.

Resource allocation is added to the plan in Chapter 8, with special attention devoted to how resource limitations impact the project schedule. After a resource schedule is estab- lished, a project time-phased budget is developed. Throughout all these technical discussions, the sociocultural aspects are highlighted.

Chapters 10 through 12 focus on project implementation and the sociocultural side of project management. Chapter 10 focuses on the role of the project manager as a leader and stresses the importance of managing project stakeholders within the organization.

Chapter 12 continues the theme of managing project stakeholders by discussing how to outsource project work and negotiate with contrac- tors, customers, and suppliers. Chapter 13 focuses on the kinds of information managers use to monitor project progress, with special attention devoted to the key concept of earned value. The proj- ect life cycle is completed with Chapter 14, which covers closing out a project and the important assessment of performance and lessons learned.

Agile project management, a much more flexible approach to managing projects with high degree of uncertainty, is the subject of Chapter Finally, so many projects today are global; Chapter 16 focuses on working on projects across cultures.

Throughout this text you will be exposed to the major aspects of the project management system. However, a true understanding of project management comes not from knowing what a scope statement is, or the critical path, or partnering with contractors, but from comprehending how the different elements of the project management system interact to determine the fate of a project.

If by the end of this text you come to appreciate and begin to master both the technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management, you should have a distinct competitive advantage over others aspiring to work in the field of project management. Define a project.

What are five characteristics that help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization? What are some of the key environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed? What has been the effect of these forces on the management of projects? Describe the four phases of the traditional project life cycle.

Which phase do you think would be the most difficult one to complete? What kinds of projects is Agile PM best suited for and why? The technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management are two sides.

Review the front page of your local newspaper and try to identify all the projects contained in the articles. How many were you able to find?

Now share your list with three to five other students in the class and come up with an expanded list. Review these great achievements in terms of the definition of a project. What does your review suggest about the importance of project management? Individually, identify projects assigned in previous terms. Were both sociocultural and technical elements factors in the success or difficulties in the projects?

Review general information about PMI as well as membership information. See if there is a local PMI chapter. If not, where is the closest one? Use the search function at the PMI home page to find information on Project. Explore other links that PMI provides. What do these links tell you about the nature and future of project management?

If you were a student interested in pursuing a career in project management,. How valuable do you think being certified PMP is? Why was it important to give players and staff a chance to explore London one. Benko, C. Cohen, D. Darnell, R. Derby, C. Jonas, D. Mortensen, M. Peters, T. Schwaber, K. Stewart, T. A Day in the Life� Troi, the project manager of a large information systems project, arrives at her office early to get caught up with work before her co-workers and project team arrive.

However, as she enters the office she meets Neil, one of her fellow project managers, who also wants to get an early start on the day. Neil has just completed a project overseas. They spend 10 minutes socializing and catching up on personal news. Troi walks to her desk and opens her laptop. She has 2 voicemails, 16 e-mails, and 10 posts on her team Slack channel.

See slack. Troi spends the next 25 minutes going over project reports and preparing for the weekly standup meeting. Her manager who just arrived at the office, interrupts her. They spend 20 minutes discussing the project. The a. The team members arrive, and the remaining 45 minutes of the progress review meeting surface project issues that have to be addressed and assigned for action. After the meeting Troi goes down the hallway to meet with Victoria, another IS project manager.

They spend 30 minutes reviewing project assignments, since the two of them share personnel. Troi returns to her office and makes several phone calls and returns several e-mails before walking downstairs to visit with members of her project team. Her intent is to follow up on an issue that had surfaced in the status report meeting.

She tells her people that she will get on this right away. Returning to her office, she tries to call her counterpart, John, at the client firm but is told that he is not expected back from lunch for another hour. She is surprised to hear that Jonah Johnson, the director of systems projects, may join another firm. Jonah has always been a powerful ally. She returns to her office, answers a few more e-mails, catches up on Slack, and finally gets through to John.

They spend 30 minutes going over the problem. The con- versation ends with John promising to do some investigating and to get back to her as soon as possible.

Troi then takes the elevator to the third floor and talks to the purchasing agent assigned to her project. They spend the next 30 minutes exploring ways of getting necessary equipment to the project site earlier than planned.

She finally authorizes express delivery. When she returns to her desk, her watch reminds her that she is scheduled to participate in a conference call at It takes 15 minutes for everyone to get online due to problems with the technology.

During this time, Troi catches up on some e-mail. She spends the next hour exchanging information about the technical requirements associated with a new version of a software package they are using on systems projects like hers. Troi decides to stretch her legs and goes on a walk down the hallway, where she engages in brief conversations with various co-workers. She goes out of her way to thank Chandra for his thoughtful analysis at the status report meeting.

Troi thanks John for the information and immediately takes the stairs to where the marketing group resides. She asks to see Mary, a senior marketing manager. She catches up on Slack updates on her phone while she waits for 10 minutes before being invited into her office.

After a heated discussion, she leaves 40 minutes later with Mary agreeing to talk to her people about what was promised and what was not promised.

She goes downstairs to her people to give them an update on what is happening. She also shares with them the schedule changes she and Victoria had agreed to. She returns to her office and spends 30 minutes reviewing e-mails, her team Slack channel, and project documents. How effectively do you think Troi spent her day? What does the case tell you about what it is like to be a project manager?

She was early and took the time to catch up on her e-mail. Jasper worked as a software engineer for a start-up company that wanted to expand the boundaries of sharing economy. Viktoria was an electrical engineer who worked for a German healthcare company in San Francisco. They had met each other at a Silicon Valley alumni reception hosted by Virginia Tech.

Each of them felt a bit like a fish out of water on the West Coast, so they decided to have lunch together each month. The lunch evolved into a professional support group. A major part of each of their jobs was managing projects, and they found it useful to share issues and seek advice from each other.

Fatma worked for a very successful Internet company whose founders believed that everyone in the firm should devote three days a year to community service projects.

The company was partnering with several companies in the construction industry to renovate abandoned buildings for low-income families. The next project was the renovation of an empty warehouse into eight two-bedroom apartments. Fatma was part of the core team in charge of scheduling and managing work assignments. Viktoria and Jasper entered the restaurant together.

Viktoria was the first to move to the Bay Area. In the past, patients would have to have an operation to replace the stimulator battery every 10 years.

PAX 2 was being designed to take advantage of new battery technologies and 1Hokies is the name associated with Virginia Tech athletic teams. In concept, this battery system would eliminate the need for replacement surgeries and allow the implanted battery to be recharged externally. It had been tricky trying to predict the lifespan of the new rechargeable battery without testing it in real time. She was anxious to begin seeing the test results.

Jasper was working for a start-up company after doing contract work for his first nine months in San Francisco. He was sworn to secrecy about the project and all Fatma and Viktoria knew was that the project had something to do with sharing economy. He was working with a small development team that included colleagues from Bangalore, India, and Malmo, Sweden. After ordering and chit-chatting a bit, Fatma started the discussion.

At first glance our project seems relatively simple, build eight two-bedroom apartments in an old warehouse. But there are a lot of unanswered questions. What kind of community space do we want to have?

How efficient should the energy system be? What kind of furniture? Everybody wants to do a good job, but when does low-income housing morph into middle-income housing? Before a project is authorized, a detailed scope statement is developed that clearly defines the project objectives, priorities, budget, requirements, limits, and exclusions. All of the key stakeholders sign off on it. It is really important to identify priorities up front. I know on the PAX Landscape Curbing Green Bay Wi 750 2 project that scope is the number one priority.

I know that no matter how long it takes it is imperative that my work is done right. I guess that one of the things you have to do as a project manager is end discussions. He is going to make the tough calls and finalize the project scope so we can begin planning. In my work the scope is constantly changing. You show the founders a feature they wanted, and they say, well, if you can do that, can you do this? We have to demonstrate we are ahead of the pack if we are going to continue to get VC funding.

Jasper said that despite the pressure, his project had been a lot of fun. He especially liked working with his Swedish and Indian counterparts, Axel and Raja. They worked like a global tag team on their part of the project. Jasper would code and then pass his work on to Raja, who would work on it and pass it on to Axel, who would eventually hand it off to Jasper.

Given the time zones, they were able to have at least one person working on the code around the clock. Trust was an issue. Everyone was trying to prove himself. Eventually a friendly competition arose across the team.

The programmers exchanged funny cartoons and YouTube videos. He showed Fatma and Viktoria a YouTube video about scope creep that got a chuckle from everyone. The bad news is that our first pro- totype failed its tests miserably. The good news is that I have a smart project manager. She knew this could happen, so she mitigated the risk by having us working on two alternative battery technologies. The alternative technology is passing all of the tests.

Instead of falling behind months, we are only days behind schedule. This precipitated a discussion of risk management. Fatma reported that there had been a two-day session on risk management for the renovation project. They spent the first day brainstorming what could go wrong, and the second day coming up with strategies for dealing with risks.

A big help was the risk report that was generated after the last project. The report detailed all of the problems that had occurred on the last renovation project as well as recommendations. Jasper reported that on his project they spent very little time on risk management.

His project was driven by a build-test mentality. Jasper went on to say that things were not going well at work. They had missed their second straight milestone, and everyone was feeling the pressure to show results. Jasper showed them a cartoon that was being circulated across his team. Well, some of my colleagues have been pretty aggressive lobbying for choice assignments. Everyone wants to work alongside Bruno or Ryan. I am sure they think it will influence my decisions.

You need to ask your- self what Bruno and Ryan would want you to do. Jasper had canceled the last meeting because of work, so Viktoria and Fatma saw a movie together instead. Jasper was the last person to arrive and it was clear from the look on his face that things were not going well.

Jasper explained after months and months of work they had been unable to demon- strate a functional product. I just spent the best six months of my programming life for nothing. Fatma and Viktoria tried to comfort their friend. Fatma asked Jasper how the others were taking the news.

Jasper said the Swedish programmer, Axel, took the news very hard. He started blaming us for mistakes we never made. There are lots of opportunities here in Bangalore.

My company is always looking for top-notch programmers and it is a really great company. Can you believe it, the two founders, Bruno and Ryan, are working side by side with everyone on renovating the warehouse? In fact, people were amazed at how good Bruno was with sheet rock.

A big part of my job now is scheduling their time so they can work with as many different people as possible. They really want to use the project to get to know their employees.

I have had to juggle their calendars, their abilities, and work opportunities. Now I just use the Project master schedule and each of their calendars to schedule their work. This seems to work best. Sometimes all you need is an Excel sheet and common sense. Viktoria felt awkward, given what had happened to Jasper. She was just wrap- ping up the successful PAX 2 project.

She was also getting ready for a well-deserved holiday in Vietnam paid for by her project bonus. Document, document, document!

I keep kicking myself for not tracking things when they happened. I am spending most of my time scouring my computer for files. For example, one of the things we learned was that we needed to bring the manufacturing people on board a lot sooner in the design process. We focused on designing the very best product possible, regardless of cost. We found out later that there were ways for reducing production costs without compromising quality.

I did good work. I am sure someone will want me for their project. A little while later, they walked out of the restaurant and gave each other hugs. Fatma reminded Jasper to send her his latest resume. What are two important things you learned about working on projects from the case? Why are they important? Strategy is fundamentally deciding how the organization will compete. Organiza- tions use projects to convert strategy into new products, services, and processes needed for success.

Intel relies on projects to create specialty chips for products other than com- puters, such as autos, security, cell phones, and air controls.

Another strategy is to reduce project cycle times. Toyota and other auto manufacturers are now able to design and develop new cars in two to three years instead of five to seven. Projects and project management play the key role in supporting strategic goals. It is vital for project managers to think and act strategically. Aligning projects with the strategic goals of the organization is crucial for business success.

For these reasons project managers will find it valuable to have a keen under- standing of strategic management and project selection processes, which are discussed next. Constant scanning of the external environment for changes is a major requirement for survival in a dynamic competitive environment.

The second dimension is the internal responses to new action programs aimed at enhancing the competitive position of the firm. The nature of the responses depends on the type of business, environment volatility, competition, and the organizational culture.

Strategic management provides the theme and focus of the future direction of the organization. It supports consistency of action at every level of the organization. It encourages integration because effort and resources are committed to common goals and strategies. See Snapshot from Practice 2. Strategic management is a continuous, iterative process aimed at developing an integrated and coordinated long-term plan of action.

It positions the organization to meet the needs and requirements of its customers for the long term. With the long-term position identified, objectives are set, and strategies are developed to achieve objectives and then translated into actions by implementing projects. Strategy can decide the survival of an organization.

Most organizations are success- ful in formulating strategies for the course s they should pursue. However, the prob- lem in many organizations is implementing strategies�that is, making them happen. Integration of strategy formulation and implementation often does not exist. The components of strategic management are closely linked, and all are directed toward the future success of the organization.

Strategic management requires strong links among mission, goals, objectives, strategy, and implementation. The mission gives the general purpose of the organization. Goals give global targets within the mission. Objectives give specific targets to goals. Objectives give rise to the formulation of strategies to reach objectives.

Finally, strategies require actions and tasks to be implemented. In most cases the actions to be taken represent projects. Figure 2. Four Activities of the Strategic Management Process The typical sequence of activities of the strategic management process is outlined here; a description of each activity then follows. Review and define the organizational mission.

Analyze and formulate strategies. Set objectives to achieve strategies. Implement strategies through projects. Identify the significant role projects contribute to the strategic direction of the organization. Watson performed at human expert levels in terms of precision, confidence, and speed during the show.

Does Watson represent a new strategic direction for IBM? Not really. The Watson project is simply a manifestation of the move from computer hardware to a service strategy over a decade ago. Chess is finite, logical, and reduced easily to mathematics. The IBM Watson project took three intense years of research and development by a core team of about Eight university teams working on specific challenge areas augmented these researchers.

Watson depends on over million pages of structured and unstructured data and a program capable of running trillions of operations per second. With this information backup, it attacks a Jeopardy question by parsing the question into small pieces.

With the question parsed, the program then searches for relevant data. Using hundreds of decision rules, the program generates possible answers. These answers are assigned a confidence score to decide if Watson should risk offering an answer and how much to bet. Now that the hype is over, IBM is pursuing their service strategy and applying the knowledge gained from the Watson project to real business applications. For example, it would be able to.

Although the system holds tremendous poten- tial, it is humanmade and depends on the database, data analytics, and decision rules to select options. The Watson project provides IBM with a flexible component to continue their decade-old strategy, moving IBM from computer hardware to service products. Ferrucci, E.

Brown, J. Chu-Carroll, J. Fan, D. Gondek, A. Kaylanp, A. Lally, J. Murdock, E. Nyborg, J. Prager, N. Schaefer, and C. Mission statements identify the scope of the organization in terms of its product or service. A written mission statement provides focus for decision making when shared by organizational managers and employees.

For example, at one large consulting firm, partners who fail to recite the mission statement on demand are required to buy lunch. The mission statement communicates and identifies the purpose of the organization to all stakeholders. Mission statements can be used for evaluating organization performance.

Traditional components found in mission statements are major products and services, target customers and markets, and geographical domain. In addition, state- ments frequently include organizational philosophy, key technologies, public image, and contribution to society.

Including such factors in mission statements relates directly to business success. Mission statements change infrequently. However, when the nature of the business changes or shifts, revised mission and strategy statements may be required. More specific mission statements tend to give better results because of a tighter focus.

Mission statements decrease the chance of false directions by stakeholders. For example, compare the phrasing of the following mission statements:. Provide hospital design services. Provide data mining and analysis services. Provide information technology services. Provide high-value products to our customer. Clearly the first two statements leave less chance for misinterpretation than the others.

The mission sets the parameters for developing objectives. Formulating strategy answers the question of what needs to be done to reach objectives. The first step is a realistic evaluation of the past and current position of the enterprise. The next step is an assessment of the internal and external environments. What are the internal strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise? Examples of internal strengths or weaknesses are core competencies, such as technology, product quality, manage- ment talent, low debt, and dealer networks.

Managers can alter internal strengths and weaknesses. Opportunities and threats usually represent external forces for change such as technology, industry structure, and competition. Competitive benchmarking tools are sometimes used to assess current and future directions. Opportunities and threats are the flip sides of each other. That is, a threat can be perceived as an opportunity, or vice versa.

Examples of perceived external threats are a slowing of the economy, a maturing life cycle, exchange rates, and government regulation. Typical opportunities are increasing demand, emerging markets, and demographics. Managers or individual firms have limited opportunities to influence such external environmental factors; however, notable exceptions have been new technologies such as Apple using the iPod to create a market to sell music.

The keys are to attempt to forecast fundamental indus- try changes and stay in a proactive mode rather than a reactive one. This assessment of the external and internal environments is known as the SWOT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From this analysis, critical issues and strategic alternatives are identified.

Critical analysis of the strategies includes asking questions: Does the strategy take advantage of our core competencies? Does the strategy exploit our competitive advantage? Does the strategy fit within our acceptable risk range? These strategic alternatives are winnowed down to a critical few that support the basic mission. Strategy formulation ends with cascading objectives or projects assigned to lower divisions, departments, or individuals.

Objectives translate the organization strategy into specific, concrete, measur- able terms. Organizational objectives set targets for all levels of the organization. Objectives pinpoint the direction managers believe the organization should move toward.

Objectives answer in detail where a firm is headed and when it is going to get there. Typically objectives for the organization cover markets, products, innovation, productivity, quality, finance, profitability, employees, and consumers. In every case, objectives should be as operational as possible. That is, objectives should include a time frame, be measurable, be an identifiable state, and be realistic.

Doran created the memory device shown in Exhibit 2. Each level below the organizational objectives should support the higher-level objectives in more detail; this is frequently called cascading of objectives. In summary, organizational objectives drive projects. Implementation answers the question of how strategies will be realized, given available resources.

The conceptual framework for strategy implementation lacks the structure and discipline found in strategy formulation. Implementation requires action and task completion; the latter frequently means mission-critical projects. Therefore, implementation must include attention to several key areas.

First, task completion requires resources. Resources typically represent funds, people, management talents, technological skills, and equipment. However, multiple objectives place conflicting demands on organizational resources. Second, implementation requires a formal and informal organization that complements and supports strategy and projects. Authority, responsibility, and performance all depend on organization structure and culture.

Third, planning and control systems must be in place to be certain project activities necessary to ensure strategies are effectively performed. Fourth, motivat- ing project contributors will be a major factor for achieving project success. Finally, areas receiving more attention in recent years are portfolio management and prioritiz- ing projects.

Although the strategy implementation process is not as clear as strategy formulation, all managers realize that without implementation, success is impossible. S Specific Be specific in targeting an objective M Measurable Establish a measurable indicator s of progress A Assignable Make the objective assignable to one person for completion R Realistic State what can realistically be done with available resources T Time related State when the objective can be achieved, that is, duration.

Although the four major steps of the strategic management process have not been altered significantly over the years, the view of the time horizon in the strategy formu- lation process has been altered radically in the last two decades. Global competition and rapid innovation require being highly adaptive to short-run changes while being consistent in the longer run.

Implementation of projects without a strong priority system linked to strategy creates problems. Three of the most obvious problems are discussed in this section. A priority-driven project portfolio system can go a long way to reduce, or even eliminate, the impact of these problems.

Problem 1: The Implementation Gap In many organizations, top management formulate strategy and leave strategy implementation to functional managers. Within these broad constraints, more detailed strategies and objectives are developed by the functional managers. The fact that these objectives and strategies are made independently at different levels by functional groups within the organization hierarchy causes manifold problems.

Following are some symptoms of organizations struggling with strategy disconnect and unclear priorities. Employees are confused about which projects are important.

Because clear linkages do not exist between strategy and action, the organizational environment becomes dysfunctional, confused, and ripe for ineffective implementa- tion of organization strategy and, thus, of projects.

The implementation gap is the lack of understanding and consensus of organization strategy among top and middle- level managers. A scenario the authors have seen repeated several times follows. Top management pick their top 20 projects for the next planning period, without priorities.

Unfortunately, independent depart- ment priorities across projects are not homogenous. Implementation of the projects rep- resents conflicts of interest, with animosities developing over organizational resources. If this condition exists, how is it possible to implement strategy effectively? The problem is serious. Problem 2: Organization Politics Politics exist in every organization and can have a significant influence on which proj- ects receive funding and high priority. This is especially true when the criteria and process for selecting projects are ill-defined and not aligned with the mission of the firm.

Project selection may be based not so much on facts and sound reasoning as on the persuasiveness and power of people advocating projects. The term sacred cow is often used to denote a project that a powerful, high-ranking official is advocating. Case in point, a marketing consultant confided that he was once hired by the marketing director of a large firm to conduct an independent, external market analysis for a new product the firm was interested in developing.

His extensive research indicated that there was insufficient demand to warrant the financing of this new product. The marketing director chose to bury the report and made the consultant promise never to share this information with anyone.

Project sponsors play a significant role in the selection and successful imple- mentation of product innovation projects. Project sponsors are typically high-ranking managers who endorse and lend political support for the completion of a specific project.

They are instrumental in winning approval of the project and in protecting the project during the critical development stage. The importance of project sponsors should not be taken lightly. Many promising projects have failed to succeed due to lack of strong sponsorship. The significance of corporate politics can be seen in the ill-fated ALTO computer project at Xerox during the mids. All of these developments were five years ahead of their nearest competitor.

Over the next five years this opportunity to dominate the nascent personal computer market was squandered because of internal in-fighting at Xerox and the absence of a strong project sponsor.

Politics can play a role not only in project selection but also in the aspirations behind projects. Individuals can enhance their power within an organization by managing extraordinary and critical projects. Power and status naturally accrue to successful innovators and risk takers rather than to steady producers. Many ambitious managers pursue high-profile projects as a means for moving quickly up the corporate ladder. Many would argue that politics and project management should not mix.

A more proactive response is that projects and politics invariably mix and that effective project. Likewise, top management need to develop a system for identifying and selecting projects that reduces the impact of internal politics and fosters the selection of the best projects for the firm. Problem 3: Resource Conflicts and Multitasking Most projects operate in a multiproject environment.

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