PRO4801 ASSIGNMENT 4 Solutions 2022

PRO4801 ASSIGNMENT 4 Solutions 2022. PRO4801 - Project Management LIAISON ROLES, TASK FORCES, AND TEAMS The liaison role is a specialized person or group that links two or more departments. This person performs duties in the assembly department, but also notifies purchasing of impending shortages and keeps track of orders placed, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). The role relieves the assembly foreman of the responsibility and, by legitimizing the process, ensures that orders get placed and are funded and documented. But the liaison role is not always effective. Though the inventory controller in the example expedites parts ordering, the reason for part shortages goes unresolved. To unravel the problem it might be necessary to involve people from elsewhere in the company. This is where the next kind of integrative role, a multifunctional task force or team, comes into play, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). A task force is a temporary group with representatives from several subunits (multifunctional) that meet to solve a problem. When such a group is formed and begins addressing the problem, they are, in fact, conducting a project. For example, when a shortage occurs, the assembly foreman might call together representatives from the areas of inspection, finance, and purchasing, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). The task force meets as often as necessary to solve the problem, and then it disbands. The most effective task forces have ten members or less and a team leader or coordinator, and are short-lived. 2. PROJECT EXPEDITORS AND COORDINATORS The simplest kind of project organization is a single, small group of people, a task force or team formed on a full- or part-time basis to perform an assignment. Such a group can exist inside one functional area or span across multiple functional areas, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). Projects within One Functional Area It makes sense that a project that affects only one functional area should be located in that area. For example, a project to survey customer attitudes about a new product would ordinarily be placed entirely within the marketing department. The team does everything, it prepares the survey instrument, obtains mailing lists, distributes the survey, and processes the results. A project team like this is managed by a project expeditor, someone selected by the manager of the area wherein the project lies. The expeditor coordinates decisions, creates and monitors schedules, keeps the project moving, and apprises the manager, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). The expeditor, however, typically has no authority over team members and so must rely on persuasion, personal knowledge, and information about the project to influence team members. A large organization might have over 100 such projects being conducted in its functional departments at any given time. Multifunctional Project Teams An example of a project that might use a multifunctional team is one to develop an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which is a companywide system that connects information about forecasting, order entry, purchasing, and inventory. The team, which might be called the “ERP Task Force,” would include representatives from all the departments that must provide inputs to the system or would utilize its outputs, such as accounting, inventory control, purchasing, manufacturing, engineering, and IT. Representatives from suppliers and customers might also be on the team. The team is responsible for defining the system requirements and overseeing the development and installation of the system. S - The study-notes marketplace Multifunctional teams are commonplace in product development. By forming closely knit teams of engineers, designers, manufacturers, assemblers, marketers, suppliers, dealers, and customers, phases of the systems development cycle can be done simultaneously instead of sequentially. This approach, called concurrent engineering, eliminates cross-functional barriers and can result in higher quality and lower cost. 3. PURE PROJECT ORGANIZATIONS Nicholas and Steyn, (2017), point out that projects that involve much complexity, major resource commitments, and high stakes require a pure project or projectized form of organization. A pure project is a separate organization, sometimes its own company, created especially for and singularly devoted to achievement of the project goal. Whatever is needed to accomplish project goals all necessary human and physical resources is incorporated into the pure project organization. Often, within the pure project organization are liaisons, task forces, and teams. Heading the pure object organization is the pure project manager. Unlike a coordinator or expeditor, the pure project manager has formal authority over all people and physical resources assigned to the project and, thus, maximum control. The project manager can bring in resources from internal functional areas as well as contract out with external subcontractors and suppliers. The pure project manager is involved in the project from start to finish: during proposal preparation she requests and reconciles plans from functional areas and prepares preliminary budget and schedule estimates; after acceptance, she hires personnel; during project execution, she allocates resources and approves changes to requirements and the project plan. When personnel must be “borrowed” from functional areas, she negotiates to obtain them. When external resources are required, the project manager heads selection of and negotiations with subcontractors. She oversees and coordinates their work with other areas of the project, (John Nicholas and Steyn, 2017)