Assignment #5 - Answer Key

MECH 3170 Assignment #5  – ANSWER KEY Instructions: Please answer all questions. You are encouraged to work with and share ideas fellow students on the assignment, however, each student is required to submit their own, original, hard copy assignment for grading. 

Please refer to the University’s policy on Academic Integrity at http://umanitoba.ca/student/resource/stude http://umanitoba.ca/stu dent/resource/student_advocacy/academicin nt_advocacy/academicintegrity/students/ tegrity/students/   

If you work with others, please list their names on your assignment. Assignment #5 is worth 1% of your final grade in the course. Assignment #5 is due by Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016 at 9:30am (in class).

Questions:

1) For each of the 12 risk response strategies listed below, please identify if the respective strategy is a response to a threat or an opportunity, and what response strategy is being employed (i.e. avoid, mitigate, transfer, exploit, enhance, share, or accept).

Description of Strategy

Opportunity or Threat?

1 Remove Remove a work package package or activit activity y from the the project. project.  Assign a team member member to visit the seller s manufacturing 2 facilities frequently to learn about a problem with delivery as early as possible. ’

3

Move a work package to a date when a more experienced resource is available to be assigned to the project.

4

Begin negotiation for the equipment earlier than planned so as to secure a lower price.

5 Outsource Outsource a work work package package so as to gain gain an opportuni opportunity ty..

6

Notify management that there could be a cost increase if a risk occurs because no action is being taken to prevent the risk.

7 Remove Remove a troublesom troublesome e resource resource from from the project project

8

Provide a team member who has limited experience with additional training.

9 Train Train the team team on conflict conflict resolutio resolution n strategies. strategies.

10 Outsource difficult difficult work to a more experienced company. company.

11 Ask the client client to handle handle some some of the work. work.

12 Prototype Prototype a risky risky piece piece of equipment equipment Question attribution: Rita Mulcahy’s PMP® Exam Exam Prep, 8th Edition

Name of Risk Response Strategy

3 Marks total 1) Threat / Avoid 2) Threat / Mitigate 3) Opportunity / Exploit 4) Opportunity / Enhance 5) Opporutnity / Share 6) Threat / Accept 7) Threat / Avoid 8) Threat / Mitigate 9) Threat / Mitigate 10) Threat / Transfer 11) Threat / Transfer 12) Threat / Mitigate 2) You need to fly from one city to another for an important meeting. You can take airline A or B. Airline A has a fare of $900 and is on time 90% of the time. If the flight is late, you will miss the important meeting and have determined the cost of this to be $4000. Airline B has a seat sale right now and the fare is $300. However, Airline B has a reputation for being late 30% of the time. Again, if the flight is late and you miss the meeting it will cost you $4000. a) Draw a decision tree. b) Calculate the Expected Monetary Value for each option. c) What option should you choose? 3 Marks total

a) Decision Tree On Time Airline A

90%

Fare $900 Late $4000 On Time 70% Airline B Fare $300 Late $4000

b) EMV Airline A = (10% * $4000) + (90% * $0) + $900 = $1300 EMV Airline B = (30% * $4000) + (70% * $0) + $300 = $1500

c) We should choose the airline with the lower EMV, therefore, Airline A.

3) Read the case entitled “The Poor Worker” (taken from: Project Management Case Studies, 4th Edition, by Harold Kerzner, pg. 376-377) attached to this assignment and answer all 4 questions that follow. (4 Marks) 1) What options are available to Paula? Do nothing Talk to Frank more directly about the issues (confronting conflict resolution) Talk to the line manager and ask for involvement in dealing with the issue Involve HR Remove herself from the project     

2) If Paula tries to handle the situation first by herself rather than approach the line manager, what should Paula do and in what order? Be prepared for the discussion with Frank and have examples of poor performance identified to discuss Let Frank know in advance of the meeting to discuss performance Potentially ask for advice on dealing with the situation from HR Meet with Frank Follow up with actions/game plan 

   

3) If all of Paula’s attempts fail to change the worker ’s attitude and the line manager refuses to remove the worker, what options are available to Paula?    

Do nothing Assign the worker less important tasks Talk to the sponsor Remove herself from the project

4) What rights, if any, does Paula have with regard to wage and salary administration regarding this employee? Likely none as she is working in a functional project management environment. 4) Read the case entitled “Office Communications” (taken from: Successful Project Management, 6 th Edition, Jack Gido and James P. Clements) attached to this assignment and answer the 4 case questions that follow. (4 Marks) 1)

What are some of the communication problems presented in this case?

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Joe doesn’t notice Cathy is busy and keeps talking to her about non-work related things.

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Cathy isn’t paying attention to Joe either (which is also not respectful). She should have told Joe

right away that she busy and that he would have to come back later 

Joe interrupts Cathy – and it’s not even related to work (it’s about the weather)

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Joe is obviously not following up on or even looking at his emails (he didn’t know about the report due to the customer)

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Joe is also not reading the meeting agendas as he didn’t know that he had to make a presentation

at the meeting the next day (Good point  – Cathy distributed the agenda prior to the meeting) 

Perhaps Cathy needs to rethink how she communicates with Joe – email may not be the best medium for him

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Cathy doesn’t call Joe out for his statements about nobody caring about the meetings and using

slides from six months ago  

2)

Joe was impolite using Cathy’s phone to ta lk to his assistant coach

Joe was also rude about his comments about being a typist and implying that Cathy overedits his work What should Cathy do? What do you think Joe will do?

Be more forceful with Joe. Pay attention to what his is saying and if it gets off work topics redirect him and let him know that she is serious. She’s giving him the impression that she’ll do the work for him and

he is taking advantage of her. If Cathy becomes more assertive, Joe might balk (push back) at first, but will likely soon realize that Cathy is serious and that he needs to take his work more seriously as well. Cathy also needs to consider other, more effective, ways of communicating with Joe. Email and meeting agendas don’t seem to be working (he is not paying attent ion to them). Perhaps face to face discussions where Cathy initiates the conversation.

3)

How could Cathy and Joe have handled this situation better? 

Active listening to each other

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Focus on the work, then the small talk

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More respect

4) What could have been done to prevent the communication problem between Cathy and Joe? Perhaps a clearly defined communication policy in the Communication Management Plan  – something that outlines ground rules for reading emails/agendas etc. Cathy could have followed up on the request for the design team input. If it was due last Friday, why hadn’t she already followed up with Joe (and

even once or twice more leading up to the due date). She should be requesting feedback and followup in her emails/agendas to ensure that people have read them.