Case Study 1

Case Study 1 - Project Communications Management 1. Assignment Instructions Review each section and respond to each question within a saved copy of the assignment. Review the tools and techniques from Modules 1 to 5 and incorporate into your responses as required. Assignment is worth 15 % of your mark but is marked out of 30 points. 2. Background and Team Members Red River College (RRC) is redesigning one of the key systems that allow students to register for courses online. This system replacement has a diverse team which is geographically dispersed in order to acquire the resourcing required and those available. A team has been pulled together from various parts of the organization, as well as various consultants. The team lead on this project is Sandra from the Winnipeg office who has 15 years experience as a project manager/team lead managing process improvement projects. Sandra reports into a Project Management Office (PMO). The other members of the team include:  Peter (analyst) : 10 years experience on various types of projects, expertise in scheduling (office location: Selkirk)  Sarah (developer) : 5 years experience as an individual contributor on projects, strong programming background, some experience developing ordering systems, some intermediate experience in testing (office location: Winnipeg)  Mohammed (architect): 8 years experience working on various projects, stakeholder analysis and problem solving (office location: Winnipeg).  Donna (customer) : 2 years experience as an individual contributor on projects, being groomed to be the power Subject Matter Expert (SME) on the customer size (office location: Morris)  Ameya (quality assurance analyst) : 4 years experience on website projects, strong background in testing and databases (office location: Brandon) Sandra has worked on projects with Sarah and Mohammed, but has never worked with the others. Donna has worked with Mohammed. No one else has worked with other members of this team. Sandra has been given a very tight deadline to get this project completed. Sandra has decided that it would be best if the team met face-to-face initially, even though they will be working virtually for the project. She has arranged a meeting at the Notre Dame office (company headquarters) for the entire team. They will spend 2 days getting introduced to each other and learning about the project. 3. The Initial Meeting The day of the face-to-face meeting in Winnipeg has arrived. All team members are present. The agenda includes:  Personal introductions  Team building exercises Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 1

 Information about the online registration replacement project  Discussion around team roles and responsibilities  Discussion around team norms for working together  How to use the SharePoint site that will be used to share ideas, brainstorm, store project documentation Some of the things Sandra notices are the following as a result of the team meeting:  Ameya needs some facilitation assistance as she’s very quiet during the meeting which Sandra suspects may be cultural and/or indicative of her confidence  Mohammad is very senior and has lots of knowledge of the previous system; however he tends to confuse the teams with historical technical terms/jargon  Peter has concern that some of the processes supporting the system that he created years ago may be re-engineered as part of the project and is challenging Sandra often to state if re-engineering of processes is in scope, or is it just the system replacement? Sandra has indicated no process re- engineering is in scope, but Peter wants sponsor confirmation. He’s very close to the processes and Sandra gets the impression he’d be resistant to changing them as they are his “baby”. Question #1 – Name two barriers to communication and define what categories they fit into (4 marks)  Category : Knowledge Based Communication Barrier  Barrier : Technical Jargon - Mohammed uses a lot of jargon  Category : Inter-personal Communication Barrier  Barrier : Hearing What You Expect to Hear / Lack of Openness and Trust – Peter is not open to new ideas and is only willing to hear what he expects to hear. Peter does not trust that Sandra is sharing everything. 4. Project Work Starts The team members have gone back to their home offices and are beginning work on their project. They are interacting via SharePoint site and the project is off to a good start. However, some arguments begin . Sarah is arguing with Ameya over who should lead the database design and testing effort for this project. While Sarah acknowledges that Ameya has a few years more experience than she does in test development, she only agreed to be on this project in order to take a lead role and develop her skills further so she could advance at the company. Ameya feels much of her input to the project is being ignored and missed by the team. People are finding it difficult to read through Ameya’s emails and determine what she is asking for. Ameya is treated like a junior resource to Sara, but actually has more experience in the testing domain. Question #2 – Based on what Sandra is observing with Ameya’s communication style, what message strategy is Ameya’s using and why you think Ameya might be using it? (2 marks)  Message Strategy: Indirect Approach  Why is Ameya likely using it (based on the use case information)? : Ameya feels that her credibility is rated low by the team as her input is being ignored and missed by the team and that Sarah wants to take the lead in the database design and testing even when Ameya is more experienced. Indirect approach is Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 2

Question #3 – The following is an example of one of Ameya’s communication. Rewrite/restructure it so that the core of the message does not get lost and it is more clear (3 marks) In my previous experience testing WebAdvisor , the test plan and scripts were written immediately after the project requirements were finalized. This ensured often helped remove ambiguity in the requirements because the customer needs to think about how to test the requirements, which drives out more details and surfaces assumptions. I’m noticing that we have test plan creation later in the project: after design is done (about 5 weeks after requirements are finished). Also, I think I would like to automate the testing since the solution is being built in chunks, but I would require some automated tool training which is 3 days and a total of $2000CAD. The automated tool licenses are free. Any concerns, or am I good to go with the above?  Based on my previous experience, I advise that we create the test plan immediately after the project requirements are finalized, not after design is completed. I learned that creating test plan in the earlier stage drives more details out and surfaces assumptions. Also, I would like to take training in some automated tool training to automate the testing, which is 3 days and a total of $2000CAD. The licenses for the tool are free and will save resources when testing the solution since it is being built in chunks. Let me know if you have any concerns. Question #4 – What communication style is this? (tell, sell, consult, join) (1 mark)  Sell. Ameya is advocating her ideas which are unfamiliar to the team. Her communication objective is that after the team reads this communication, they will create the test plan immediately after the project requirements are finalized and the testing will be automated. Peter has drafted a version of the architecture document based on conversations with only Mohammed and Ameya on the team. Donna and Sarah feel as if their input to the deliverable was not considered. They believe because they are more junior on the team, Peter has completely disregarded their concerns. They challenged Peter's architecture when comparing it to the schedule, stating that it was impossible to achieve and was setting up the team for failure. Also, the team has identified new work on the project that needs to be estimated from a cost, resource, and schedule perspective that the architecture document didn’t identify. Sandra suspects this news (more cost/resources/schedule impact) may be difficult to take from the sponsors/funding authority and she’s wondering what might be the best way to deliver the news. Question #5 – Sandra needs to communicate the new work to her sponsor/funding authority. What communication method and channel would be the most effective and why? (2 marks)  Method and Channel (Verbal/Written and Formal/Informal) : Written and Formal  Why? : As Sandra is delivering difficult news to the sponsors/funding authority which can impact the project, she should prepare a formal document. The information Sandra is communicating to sponsors/funding authority is complex and requires sufficient supporting information. Written document allows sponsors/funding authority to be able to receive information and allows them time to digest the information. If the sponsors/funding authority have questions or concerns regarding this communication, they will also communicate to Sandra via written communication which allows Sandra to have time to prepare to answer questions and address concerns. Question #6 – Sandra has heard that Peter’s manager (Manager, Enterprise Architecture) would like to review the new work contemplated before it goes to the sponsor/funding authority. Furthermore, a decision by the Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 4

Project Management Office (PMO) is that all changes need to be routed through the PMO and formally presented at a program/portfolio level before approval can be secured. Identify the Decision Maker, Opinion Leaders, and Gatekeepers in this scenario (3 marks)  Decision Maker: The sponsor/funding authority  Opinion Leader : PMO  Gatekeeper : Peter’s manager 5. “WebAdvisor 2.0” Gains Progress The team has now been working together for nearly 3 months. Despite not wanting to reference the system they are replacing in the project, the project name to replace the online registration system has morphed into “ WebAdvisor 2.0 ”. There is definitely a sense of teamwork among the group. They have finished the register for course portions of the system and the college is very happy with the implementation of it. The Communications Manager is asking Sandra for some information and to co-draft a communication to rollout to the students, staff, and faculty at RRC about the new system which will go live in 4 months. Question #7 – Reviewing the “Editing Inverted Pyramid” above, list a consideration for all the pyramid tiers except “Correctness” that Sandra and the Communication Manager should consider when creating and distributing the communication that would be specific to this case study (3 marks)  Strategic Issues : o Channel choice (how it will be communicated to them, whether in email or homepage announcement) o Communication Objective (introducing the new system to direct and indirect user) Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 5

Question #8 – Reviewing the Leadership Diagram below, identify 2 directions the communication should satisfy and how? (4 marks)  Direction: Outwards  How?: This communication is targeted for product users, and therefore includes information that would be more relevant to them. Other stakeholders who may not be a direct user of the new product, they will gain a good understanding of how this product would beneficial.  Direction: Upwards  How?: This communication is being developed to present the outcome of the project which satisfies sponsor’s project objective. Question #9– Given this case study; identify a stakeholder group specific to each stakeholder category. If required, explain your assumptions on why you feel it would be applicable to this use case (4 marks) Stakeholder Category Stakeholder Description Stakeholder Group Product usage Directly or indirectly use the project products; ultimately responsible for the achievement of business objectives using the project deliverables Students Registrar’s office Product support Responsible for ensuring that the project product is available for use IT department, Ameya (as she is quality assurance analyst, she would continue to monitor the product after the project) Contributor Individuals or groups who provide inputs and services to the project Sandra Ameya Peter Siddi Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 7

Sarah Review/audit Groups or organizations who need to review or audit the project and it's deliverables to ensure that proper processes are followed and the quality of deliverables meets appropriate standards PMO Question #10 – With the stakeholder groups identified in Question#9 , identify their level of stakeholder commitment required by inserting the stakeholder group name into the appropriate level. If required, explain your assumptions on why you feel it would be applicable to this use case (4 marks) Level Commitment required Stakeholder Group Action Required Stakeholders should have the highest level of commitment to the project and action is required on their part for the project to achieve its objectives. Sandra (PM), Sponsors, Project team Belief or Buy-in Stakeholders must fully commit to the project and their participation is required for the project to be successful. PMO, Sponsors and Funding Authority Understanding Stakeholders require an understanding of the project and need a positive perception of changes brought about by the project. Register’s office Awareness Stakeholders should be aware of the project, but their commitment or adoption of the changes is not required. Students Project Communication Management – Case Study #1 Page 8