PART 1- Required Question (40%)
Recommended max length—750 words

Project Closure and Communication Takeaways

In preparation for a project kick-off meeting, you have reviewed lessons-learned from previous projects that were closed last year, and identified the following feedback received from stakeholders regarding project communication–

• Formal planned and reoccurring project team meetings were scheduled but occurred only twice, in the beginning of the project.
• Many stakeholders were often given project reports containing irrelevant information to them. Identical content was sent to everyone regardless of their role on the project.
• There was a total confusion among stakeholders on the role they play on the responsibilities on the project.
• Sponsor was not involved- when he was needed he was busy with other competing priorities.
• Project meetingswhen occurred, formally or informally (i.e., to handle ad-hoc emergencies) were chaotic—no structure and unclear what decisions were made. No follow through on actions people thought we agreed to.

1. How will you incorporate such input into your communication planning for the new project that you are about to start?
2. To which of these areas of feedback will you give the highest priority? Why?

PART 2 (60%) Select 2 out of the following 3 questions—

Recommended max length—500 words per question

Option 1- Monitoring and Controlling Project Communication

As we discussed in class, the common communication variables we need to monitor and control include– Accuracy, Impact, Timing, Audience, Location, Level of Detail, Medium, Format, Distribution, Formality, Confidentiality, Reason, and Cost.

We also mentioned that during the life-cycle of the project we need to gather feedback to monitor the effectiveness of our communication.

1. Who will you gather such feedback from, and how?
2. Assume that you have gathered such feedback and discovered that you need to make changes to the stakeholder audiences you communicate with, and to the level of detail you share with them. Do you need to go back and revise your PCMP? Why do you believe you do, or don’t need to? If you believe you do, what sections of the PCMP will likely require updates?
3. Do you agree with the completeness of the list of variables above? Would you add other/new variables that you would consider looking at as a Project Manager?

Option 2- Planning and Crafting Presentations

You are a project Manager at JP Morgan Chase Bank. You are now in final stages of completing the Planning Phase, at which time you also realized that you overlooked the need to involve one of the technology teams earlier in the project. That team will be critical for the success of the project.

At this point you have two meetings planned. One is with the Board of Directors in which you need to INFORM them on the status of the project. The other meeting is with the technology team that you have not yet involved, in which you need to be very persuasive to convince them that their involvement is critical for project success.

1. Will your meeting purpose
2. and thesis statements be the same, or differ, for both meetings? Please explain.
3. Write a purposestatement and  argument statement for the meeting with the Board of Directors.
4. Write a purpose statement and argumentative statement for the meeting with the Technology Team (if different than the one you drafted for the Board of Directors).
5. As a Project Manager, how can you minimize the risk of not identifying and engaging a stakeholder early enough in the project life-cycle?

 

 

Option 3- Closing the project you created a PCMP for in this course

Assume that you are now planning to close the project you created a PCMP for in this course [your individual project that you presented in class].

You are planning your final meeting for the project, the lessons-learned meeting, in which you would also like to learn (among many things) how effective your PCMP was, and what communication aspects can be improved in future projects.

1. How will you gather such information? For example, how will you prepare for this meeting, what questions will you plan to ask regarding your PCMP, will you gather all the feedback you need in the lessons-learned meeting itself or outside of the meeting? Please explain your arguments.
2. One of the feedback items you gathered was that the Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) where project documents were stored was not easy to use, and people found it difficult to navigate and find the information they need. Also, people often got error messages saying that “the system is down for maintenance”. You feel that fixing these issues is outside of scope for your project. How will you handle such feedback?