Macon Inc
Case Study Assignment – Macon, Inc.
1 Where will the greatest resistance for excellence in Project Management come from? In the process of going from a non-project driven firm to a project-driven one, the greatest resistance might come from the executives including the board members, company owners and the vice president. The strong and rigid culture has been instilled in the company since 50 years and as a result, the president's preaching fell on deaf ears. Authoritative support is necessary to execute such strategies and it seems that for Macon Inc., that will be the most difficult one. Resistance will also surface among other groups like the line managers and engineers as there is a lack of accountability and cross-functional composition. The arrogant and accusing attitude of engineers towards the production group as well as vice president's favoritism towards the mechanical department will be uprooted if excellent project management is executed, thereby they will resist the change. 2 What plan should be developed for achieving excellence in Project Management?
The following systematic plan should be followed in order to achieve desirable results for project management:
a A comprehensive list of current pit holes and improvement areas in Macon Inc. has to be compiled. For example a few of them could be: i Project Delays ii Customer Complaints iii Conflict within departments due to documentation iv Project failure due to uncontrolled scope
This helps in recognizing the need for project management techniques implementation.
a The second step will be to educate and convince the executive management including the board members and vice-president for the need of these techniques. Without executive support and acceptance, excellence in PM is impossible.
b Next in line would be the line managers whose acceptance is critical due to changing functional roles leading to shared resources (employees) between line and project management.
1 Where will the greatest resistance for excellence in Project Management come from? In the process of going from a non-project driven firm to a project-driven one, the greatest resistance might come from the executives including the board members, company owners and the vice president. The strong and rigid culture has been instilled in the company since 50 years and as a result, the president's preaching fell on deaf ears. Authoritative support is necessary to execute such strategies and it seems that for Macon Inc., that will be the most difficult one. Resistance will also surface among other groups like the line managers and engineers as there is a lack of accountability and cross-functional composition. The arrogant and accusing attitude of engineers towards the production group as well as vice president's favoritism towards the mechanical department will be uprooted if excellent project management is executed, thereby they will resist the change. 2 What plan should be developed for achieving excellence in Project Management?
The following systematic plan should be followed in order to achieve desirable results for project management:
a A comprehensive list of current pit holes and improvement areas in Macon Inc. has to be compiled. For example a few of them could be: i Project Delays ii Customer Complaints iii Conflict within departments due to documentation iv Project failure due to uncontrolled scope
This helps in recognizing the need for project management techniques implementation.
a The second step will be to educate and convince the executive management including the board members and vice-president for the need of these techniques. Without executive support and acceptance, excellence in PM is impossible.
b Next in line would be the line managers whose acceptance is critical due to changing functional roles leading to shared resources (employees) between line and project management.