IT Project Management 3/e
ISBN: 0-619-15984-7
Copyright 2004, Kathy Schwalbe
1
Additional Running Cases
INTRODUCTION
These cases are provided here on the companion Web site as additions to the four running cases in
Appendix C of the text. Each running case includes five partsinitiating, planning, executing,
controlling, and closingwith scenario-based information and several tasks to complete under each part.
Several of the tasks involve using templates provided in Appendix D and on this companion Web site.
Table D-1 on page 595 of the text summarizes the templates by process group, chapter where used in the
text, application software the templates were created in, and the filename of each template. Instructions
on using these templates and completed samples are available in the text. Instructors can download the
suggested solutions for these cases from the password-protected section of the book's homepage.
Anyone can use these cases as long as they mention the source.
ADDITIONAL CASE 1: VIDEO GAME MARKET RESEARCH PROJECT
This case should be interesting to the video game enthusiast as well as anyone interested in marketing
new products. It also involves business and personal ethics. The main purpose of this and other cases
presented here, however, is to help you practice some of the project management skills you are
developing as part of your course.
Part 1: Initiating
Scenario
An international marketing and distribution company is considering several new projects related to the
video game industry. They already have several products and services related to the entertainment
industry, such as movie and book clubs. The company mostly deals with adult customers and markets,
but the VP of marketing, Lori, wants to investigate opportunities related to the growing video game
market. After spending a small fortune on a new gaming system and video games for her son, she
believes that parents usually pay for video games and want to be even more informed and involved in
knowing what their children are playing. She also knows that many adults spend more and more of their
free time using video games, and children also pay for games and other products themselves, especially
via online orders. This Video Game Market Research Project would involve several marketing and
information technology professionals. The main goals of the project would be to research the current and
projected market, develop and administer online surveys to collect data, hold focus groups to help
understand the potential market and target markets, analyze the data, determine whether or not your
company should enter this market and how, and develop a plan for moving forward, if applicable.
Tasks
1. To become more familiar with the video game market, do some preliminary research to find out
how big this market is, who the main companies are in the market, what the best-selling products
are, who buys video games (adults vs. children), how the games are distributed, etc. Write a two
to four-page paper (double-spaced) with your findings, citing at least two references. You can
include a paragraph or two with your personal experience in this area, if applicable.
2. An important part of market analysis is preparing financial projections. Prepare a spreadsheet that
can be used to determine the profit potential of getting into the video game market. Include
inputs for the initial investment cost, number of customers in the first month, customer growth
rate/month, monthly rental fee/customer, and fixed and variable monthly operating costs.
IT Project Management 3/e
ISBN: 0-619-15984-7
Copyright 2004, Kathy Schwalbe
2
Determine how long it would take to breakeven (recover the investment cost – without
discounting, for now), and projected profits/losses for the first twelve months in operation.
Assume the following three scenarios:
Year 0 investment cost:
Number of customers in month 1:
Monthly customer growth rate:
Monthly rental fee/customer:
Fixed monthly operating costs:
Monthly operating costs/customer:
Most likely
$400,000
2,000
20%
$20
$20,000
$5
Pessimistic
$800,000
1,000
10%
$15
$30,000
$8
Optimistic
$200,000
3,000
25%
$25
$15,000
$4
3. The VP of marketing is not sure who should manage this Video Game Market Research Project.
Lori has several strong people in her department, but many of them are unfamiliar with this
market and the potential of doing almost all of the marketing for a product over the Internet.
Write a one-page job description that would help decide who would be a good candidate for
managing this project.
4. Create a weighted scoring model (see the template in Appendix D) that Lori could use to help
evaluate candidates for the project manager position. Make up at least five criteria for evaluating
the project managers, four potential candidates, and scores for the candidates. Print out the
spreadsheet including the chart on one page.
5. Prepare a project charter for the Video Game Market Research Project. Assume the project will
take six months to complete and cost about $200,000. Use the project charter template provided
in Appendix D.
Part 2: Planning
Scenario
The VP of marketing, Lori, selected Elliot Wood as the project manager for the Video Game Market
Research Project. Elliot had previous project management and market research experience within the
company, and he also was an avid video game enthusiast. He still had the Atari system he used to play in
high school, and he enjoyed playing newer games with his two children. Elliot, however, was wary of
doing business on the Internet and refused to make any of his own purchases online. He also did not let
his grade school children use the Internet unless they were supervised, and he screened the video games
they played, as well. Elliot was starting to put the project team together. Team members so far included
you, a programmer/analyst and aspiring project manager (who also loved playing many video games
geared for adult males), Eric, a young market analyst (another video game enthusiast), Katie, an
experienced business analyst (who had never played video games and thought they were a waste of
time), and Krishna, a young Web guru (who also enjoyed video games). Elliot also asked Adam, an
experienced lawyer and ethics specialist for the company, to assist the team on the project. Elliot
expressed his concerns about selling violent or sexist video games, and he wanted to look into marketing
strategies that would address buyer’s ethical concerns. Elliot also hired an outside consultant, Michelle,
to assist the team in finding recent research on the video game market. Michelle used to work for several
major video game firms. At their first meeting, Michelle told the entire group that it was common
knowledge that the greatest profits are from violent and adult-rated video games sold directly to 18-30
year-old males. Katie expressed her concern for the lack of girl-friendly or educational games. Krishna
said he thought they should focus on sports-related games and make them available for more sports and
IT Project Management 3/e
ISBN: 0-619-15984-7
Copyright 2004, Kathy Schwalbe
3
in more languages. Elliot stressed the importance of doing a market research study that would be
objective and address all of the potential markets as well as concerns.
Tasks
1. Develop a team contract for this project. Use the template provided in Appendix D as a guide.
2. Prepare a stakeholder analysis for this project, using the template provided in Appendix D and
example in Chapter 4 as guides. Be creative in making up information about stakeholders, if it’s
not provided.
3. Develop a scope statement for the project. Use the template provided in Appendix D and the
example in Chapter 3 as guides. Be as specific as possible in describing product characteristics
and requirements, as well as product deliverables. Assume the survey should be completed by at
least 1,000 people, and 4 different focus groups (involving about ten people each) should be held.
You may want to investigate what goes into conducting a market research study to get more ideas
on the work involved.
4. Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project. Break down the work to level 2 or
level 3, as appropriate. Use the template in Appendix D and samples in Chapters 3 and 5 as
guides. Print the WBS in list form as a Word file. Be sure the WBS is based on the project
charter, scope statement, and other relevant information.
5. Use the WBS you developed in number 4 above (enter the WBS items in the Task Name column)
to create a Gantt chart and network diagram in Project 2002 for the project. Estimate task
durations and enter dependencies, as appropriate. Also include several milestones. Remember
that your schedule goal for the project is six months. Print the Gantt chart and network diagram.
6. Create a probability/impact matrix and list of prioritized risks for the project. Include at least ten
risks. Use the templates in Appendix D and examples in Chapters 3 and 11.
Part 3: Executing
Scenario
Elliot Wood and the project team have run into a few challenges in executing the Video Game Market
Research Project. It has been three months since the project started, and you have three months to go.
You are finding it difficult to collect good market data about who is buying video games and how. There
also seems to be a large black market for games, and there are several lawsuits in process regarding
copyright issues. The government has also launched a huge campaign to minimize the amount of time
school-aged children spend using video games. Two of the companies that distribute movies via monthly
rental programs have expanded their product lines to include video games. The VP of marketing, Lori,
wants you to speed up your research and provide a go/no go decision within a month. She has expressed
her interest in marketing and distributing educational video games as long as there is good profit
potential. Your team hasn’t even started researching educational video games, as they seemed to be a
small percentage of the market. Michelle, your external consultant, did not include pre-school and early
learning gaming systems in her information. You feel your team has overlooked the main market that
Lori now seems most interested in.
Tasks
1. Elliot decides to call a team meeting to discuss the current situation. Develop an agenda for this
meeting to work through some of the challenges you are facing. Write a one- to two-page paper
with several alternatives for addressing these challenges. Be sure to address getting feedback and
suggestions from all project stakeholders. Assume the sponsor, the VP of marketing, will not be
at this meeting, but she is anxiously awaiting your team’s recommendations.
IT Project Management 3/e
ISBN: 0-619-15984-7
Copyright 2004, Kathy Schwalbe
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2. Your project manager, Elliot, must give a short presentation at a management review meeting
with the VP of marketing and several other top managers. Elliot asked you to help him prepare
the presentation. He needed to make it 5-10 minutes long. Since several managers did not know
much about this or other projects, the main intent of the meeting was to inform everyone about
the project and its progress. Prepare five to ten slides that Elliot could use as part of his
presentation. Be sure to address key issues in the presentation and not hide important information
from senior management.
3. Prepare a milestone report for the project based on information in your Gantt chart so far.
Assume you are three months into your project. Add additional milestones to address the
potential change to focus on educational/sports video games only and provide a go/no-go
decision in one month. Use the milestone report template in Appendix D and the sample from
Chapter 3.
4. After the management review meeting described in step 2 above, management has decided to
change the scope of the project. They want the market research study to focus only on
educational and sports-related game rentals. In addition to the big name gaming platforms, you
are to also address the market for providing monthly game rentals to pre-school and grade school
teachers and parents. Platforms can also include computers and learning systems geared toward
younger children. Develop a detailed list of assumptions and questions that the project team has
related to the new scope of the project. Document the information in a one- to two-page memo to
management.
Part 4: Controlling
Scenario
Since Michelle had no expertise in educational games and alternative game system platforms, Elliot
terminated her contract and hired a new consultant, Julie, a former teacher who now works for an
educational systems consulting firm. The project team has decided to pretty much start from scratch with
this revised market research project. The deliverables are basically the same, but now the target market
and focus for products and customers is narrower. Lori, the VP of marketing, is now insisting on weekly
review meetings, and she wants your market research report and a go/no decision in one month.
Tasks
1. Create a new Gantt chart based on the revised project and schedule.
2. Update/redo the project charter and scope statement. Briefly describe other plans you have
created so far that you think you should update.
3. Julie seems very knowledgeable and easy to work with, but you want to avoid any problems with
outside consultants, especially since Michelle’s contract included a hefty payment if she was
terminated early. Write a few paragraphs describing what information you want to see to make
sure the supplier is doing a good job. Also write a termination clause that is fair to both your
company and the consulting firm.
4. Update your list of prioritized risks. Write a one- to two-page paper explaining the new risk
information.
Part 5: Closing
Scenario
It’s almost a month later, and you can’t believe you’re almost done with this project! Julie was a
fantastic resource, making it a breeze to collect the information you needed for the market research. She
also had a lot of contacts and good ideas for setting up partnerships with other companies, non-profit
groups, and school organizations, should your company decide to get into this market. You did meet
IT Project Management 3/e
ISBN: 0-619-15984-7
Copyright 2004, Kathy Schwalbe
5
your schedule goal and stayed within your budget for the redirected project. You’ve also kept Lori well
informed on progress, and she’s already planning some new strategies for tapping this new market for
your company. Elliot is happy with the results, too, and he and other team members seemed much more
comfortable working on the revised project.
Tasks
1. Prepare a short presentation with ten to fifteen slides that Elliot could use at the final project
presentation to summarize the results of the project. Assume that he has fifteen to twenty minutes
to give the presentation. Describe the initial project goals and reasons for redirection. Highlight
results of the redirected projects and why it seemed to go much smoother than the initial project.
2. Prepare a lessons-learned report for the entire project. Include input from all stakeholders in
summarizing the lessons learned. Use the template provided in Appendix D, and be creative in
your response.
3.
Prepare a final project report, using information provided in the template for final project documentation in
Appendix D. Include information on the initial and revised project.