Operations Management

  I have seen the problems in my projects too. The first problem is converting everyone in the team to follow one process. I work in an IT Service Company. And when the industry was the transition from the waterfall model to an agile scrum, I saw this over and over. People would come out without any experience in the agile scrum and faced a huge problem. They did not want to change or learn and adopt a new way of doing things. So, first, the managers had to learn scrum, get certified and then they started training tea members. The second hurdle is also something I experienced in a project. In a few projects, customers could not give us clear requirements and the team did not really know what to deliver. Higher management actually came and joined the team, observed how we worked and what impediments we faced. This worked better than just our emails to management stating the challenges we were facing. In IT services, people are the main resources, and we often see that the critical

Keeping in mind that every product has a launch date and companies rush to push out products by that date, they could not do enough quality control of every part. Actually, recalls because these companies way too much, so I think if these companies were aware of the faults, they would not have sold those products in the first place. But in the supply chain when someone fails in quality control that impacts the end product. And that is exactly what happened in each of these cases. More important we can see the recalls happened in Ford, GM, Chrysler and they were QA9000 certified ( The Greatest Quality Management System Failures in History, n.d.).   And we see other examples like that, this shows getting certified of processes does not guarantee that those processes are precisely being followed. So, if every supplier in the supply chain would establish quality control and auditors to make sure that quality control is doing their job accurately then the risk would go down significantly.

    I work in IT consulting. And oftentimes when we start a project we get some resources who are on the bench, that means they are being released from other projects and they are available, so they get pulled in for this project, and if we need specific skill which is not available in bench pool, then external hires come and join the team. Being a manager if I am familiar with the team members then factoring in EI becomes easier. When I have worked with someone before I would know the self-efficacy and cognitive ability of that person. But in case the person is new to me and I am meeting them for the first time, I do not think it is easy to know their EI. While if I am interviewing someone I will get an idea of their EI, but once the person comes in and joins the team, it becomes clearer whether or not my understanding was correct. As a project manager, it might not be possible to factor in emotional intelligence. As in a project selecting a resource/team member is not an opti

  I work in IT consulting, so everything I am going to share will be solely based on what I have experienced in the last 12 years in the industry. Saying that I do agree with the author. We often start estimating without having much information in the hand. And asking the client for clarification might not be an option. Because different consulting firms are given the same bullet points in the name of requirements, which are really high levels, and most probably clients also do not know much about the solution. They are expecting the consulting firm to propose the solution and quote a price that will be within budget. And if the competing firms do not have any prior relationship, then the price would be the primary differentiator. And often in this kind of situations, conservative estimation is the way to go, so that the firm gets the project and get the foot inside the door. And another reason is, due to lack of information firms often underestimate. After the project starts

- The stakeholders for the LAMP H projects were the project manager, then he appointed the Independent system analysis organization to perform requirement analysis for the project, they were critical stakeholders too. Army Material Command controlled the funds required for the project, so they were stakeholders too. Troop-Support Command, DOD and Department of Army Staff were stakeholders too. The R&D center and the Transportation School or T school were stakeholders too. Since DOD is associated with the United States Government, hence the government would be a stakeholder too. Since this amphibian vehicle was planned to be used in battlefields by all troops, Navy and Air Force were stakeholders too. Stakeholders’ influence including at least potential for threat, the potential for cooperation and strategy adopted. Initially before the PEO role came into existence the project manager did an excellent job by getting requirement analysis done. The project manager got the cons

V alue of robust project management approach   Before the financial crisis of 2007 – 08 Project management was not so much popular. With the financial crisis, most companies recognized that they had to optimize their processes, efficiencies and maintain timeline and budget was also very critical for organizations' long term success. An economic Intelligence report established the fact that 80% of executives thought that having a project management competency helped them remain competitive during the recession(PMI, n.d.).   In a survey done by Mckinsey, 60% of executives have said that having a project management competency in the organization is among their top 3 priorities. With globalization companies are operating in multiple geographies, teams are spread out in different geographies. And in this environment managing a project means managing output, managing timeline, stakeholders, and of course the budget. During the economic crisis when resources were scares, executi

Before the financial crisis of 2007 – 08 Project management was not so much popular. With the financial crisis, most companies recognized that they had to optimize their processes, efficiencies and maintain timeline and budget was also very critical for organizations' long term success. An economic Intelligence report established the fact that 80% of executives thought that having a project management competency helped them remain competitive during the recession(PMI, n.d.).   In a survey done by Mckinsey, 60% of executives have said that having a project management competency in the organization is among their top 3 priorities. With globalization companies are operating in multiple geographies, teams are spread out in different geographies. And in this environment managing a project means managing output, managing timeline, stakeholders, and of course the budget. During an economic crisis when resources were scares, executives found out that sticking to project management pr