Need PM case studies for senior level university classes
Bob KostrubanicPrinciple| Kostrubanic ConsultingFort Wayne, In, United States
I have converted my lectures to outside videos in order to spend more time in the classroom working problems, studying successful and failed projects, and clarifying topical and procedural questions. I need resources for fueling these class sessions. Please forward any that you can recommend Saving Changes...
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Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Bob, what sort of resources are you looking for? Saving Changes...
John ColePM II| County of RiversideRiverside, Ca, United States
Bob,
Your profile says you are adjunct at two universities. I might first start with projects that originated in either of those places. A new building, computer or science lab, new library...or even something fun like a newly dedicated rose garden or something to do with the sports fields or teams. This is a great way to help students learn about their university as well as PM.
A slightly different extension of this might be projects the university performed that affected the community around it (new stadium), or projects that the community performed that affected the university (new freeway, new shopping center).
As you decide to scale up, you could talk about Motorola's Iridium project, the space shuttle Challenger, the Boeing 777 (cool because it used new design techniques), or Microsoft's Vista operating system debacle.
Something else that immediately pops to my mind are projects triggered from disasters because they blur the lines between disaster recovery, business continuity, project management and politics. The bridge collapse near the university 2 or so years ago comes to my mind (was that in Wisc. or Minn?).
Hopefully, this was helpful.
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Bob KostrubanicPrinciple| Kostrubanic ConsultingFort Wayne, In, United States
- Thanks to John Cole. Your suggestions have led to some more thinking and creation of example case studies.
- Answering Elizabeth Harrin: My lectures are pre-recorded, with PPT slides and narration, as well as some study material and guiding questions. These are to be studied before class. When we are in the classroom, I give each of my five teams a different case study of a real project. They discuss the study questions in the light of their case study, and the recorded topic relative to project management. We then discuss their answers and additional questions in the entire class. The goal is to have them start on learning the principles by wrestling with them outside of class, then use discussion of case studies to solidify their understanding of principles and expand this by application. Realistic case studies of short duration (2-5 pages), but with enough "meat" to cause their to dig deeper, are what I need. And obviously I need quite a few of them. Saving Changes...
Hi Bob,
If change & team management in the context of project management is something of interest to you, I can share a case study discussed on ZilicusPM blog. You can visit following link
Bob KostrubanicPrinciple| Kostrubanic ConsultingFort Wayne, In, United States
Thanks to Dhan for the suggested case study. I have added it to my schedule for student review. Saving Changes...
Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Bob, I like the sound of the way you are running this course.
How about Project Management in competitive environments?
For 9 months I was an Interim PM (following the death of the previous post-holder) on the UK National Programme for IT (NPFIT) which had a number of key players all trying to respond to a defined set of requirements, each company had a different approach based on their individual legacy software and culture. The NPFIT was competitive in that there were levels of attainment and compliance with incremental increases in standards and functionality - I forget the detail, but if a solution didn't maintain compliance at a rate within around 80% of the majority of the other companies then it was deemed to have failed and would no longer be allowed to provide a service - non-compliance would mean that the customer's (GP doctors surgeries) would have to find an alternative provider in order to receive state funding.
It was a very complex environment, with lots of lobbying and game play... IT WAS SCRAPPED, just a few weeks after I made some comments and moved on.
I was looking for a suitable link to send you and this one hits it right on the head
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health
Good luck with the outcomes if you choose to take this one to your classes.
Russell Saving Changes...
Bob KostrubanicPrinciple| Kostrubanic ConsultingFort Wayne, In, United States
Thanks to Russell Geake for the reference to an excellent project management case study. I'll use this for a critical analysis by the teams re. what was done vs. what should have been done on PM processes learned to date. Saving Changes...
