Exercises at the end of the chapter are designed to strengthen your understanding and retention of the information recently acquired in the chapter.
Essay Questions
Write several paragraphs to provide more in-depth analysis and consideration when answering the following questions.
- Choose an organization of which you are a member. Identify the type of organization (profit, not-for-profit, government) and locate its mission statement. Quote the mission statement and then analyze it to determine if it has the four elements described in this chapter as necessary for a well-written mission statement. Revise the mission statement, if necessary, so that it addresses all four of the elements of a well-written mission statement.
- Describe the pros and cons of assigning a project manager to the project during the design phase. Describe how the complexity of the project might affect that decision.
- Describe a project with which you are familiar that suffered from lack of alignment. Identify the component of alignment that was missing and its effects.
- Describe the function of a communication matrix and provide an example of how it would be used to create, edit, approve, and distribute a particular type of document.
Discussion
The exercises in this section are designed to promote exchange of information among students in the classroom or in an online discussion. The exercises are more open ended, which means that what you find might be completely different from what your classmates find, and you can all benefit by sharing what you have learned.
- Effects of lack of trust: Relate an example of a project on which you worked where the participants did not know each other well enough to trust each other, and describe the effect of this lack of trust on the project. Describe alignment activities that could have increased trust on that project.
- Describe an example of a project with which you have been personally involved that suffered from undocumented changes in scope. Consider an example provided by a classmate and determine if their example is a deviation or a scope change and if it requires a scope change, how should it have been handled? Demonstrate your knowledge of the steps for making scope changes described in the text.
- What is the mission statement of your college or university? Give an example of a recent project undertaken by the organization. Determine if the project directly supports the stated mission and explain your opinion.
- Do you think a communication matrix is necessary on a small project that only involves six people? Be prepared to support your opinion with examples.
