Jones and Shephard Accountants (Chapter 3, pp 138 - 140)
1. Provide a synopsis of the Jones and Shephard case.
Answer – Jones and Shephard (J&S) is an accounting firm in the US, and it had created an internal IT
organization called Information Services Division (ISD) to take care of its internal IT needs and help
support business growth. Over a period of time, ISD grew to be more than fifty people, and was
supporting multiple internal projects and also some external projects based on its capabilities and extra
capacity. However there are multiple problems in the way the ISD was organized and operated that was
leading to ineffectiveness, inefficiency, organizational conflicts and leading to not attainment of business
goals and strategy. Some of the issues included not having a proper project management structure and
dedicated personnel, personal power conflicts and non cooperation from operations managers, lack of
clarity and direction for employees. The current ISD director is planned to be replaced by a new director
who is expected to change the structure, processes and culture of the organization, while managing
expectations and relationships to help ISD and the company achieve goals and strategic objectives.
2. Highlight three enterprise management causes/considerations and three project management
causes/considerations for the situation. Include what seemed to be missing.
Answer – Enterprise management causes and considerations include having an alignment between
organizational and IT strategy, existing organizational structure that is not well defined and lack of skills
and knowledge on how to effectively manage and run IT projects. Project management causes and
considerations in this case include not having defined roles and responsibilities for people in projects, ad
hoc manner of selecting and implementing projects, there not being systems and processes in place to
identify, prioritize and implement projects and lack of project management skills and knowledge that
can be focused for effective implementation of projects.
3. Consider that you are the systems manager who is now responsible for redesigning the
organizational structure. What areas need to be addressed for the transition and how will
they benefit the company? How will you interact with the upper managers in the company?
How do you make this a transition with the least impact on the employees and the
customers?
Answer – The different areas that would need to be addressed are definition of a new organization
structure, roles and responsibilities and division of work, change management plan, employee
orientation and training in new skills needed, stakeholder communication and expectations
management. All these areas should be considered and addressed for ensuring that the transition to the
new structure is successful. In terms of interaction with the upper mangers of the company, the systems
manager should get the company leadership involved so that he has enough support and to ensure that
the upper managers are open to aligning with the changes that are taking place. In addition to that, the
systems manager must proactively communicate and build strong relationships with the upper
management of the company and create an environment of trust that would lead to a mutually value
creating working relationship. For ensuring that the transition has the least impact on the employees
and the customers and there is minimal business disruption, there would be a structured phase wise
change management plan implemented, where the program would be implemented with an initial pilot
to gain support and buy in and later implemented across the organization. Also, there would be a lot of
proactive and frequent communication that would ensure that stakeholders are actively involved, their
inputs taken so that they become active participants and contribute and support to making the
transition a success.
4. How should the transition to a new project management operation be accomplished?
Consider what the enterprise should need to know about project management and the new
structure. How much time do you recommend for the transition to the matrix organizations?
Be sure to include your rationale.
Answer – Given that the initiative being considered is one what would have a large impact on the ISD
and also on J&S operations, there must be a structured and well planned change management plan that
would detail how the transition would be performed. The change management plan should address
various stakeholders that would be impacted, processes that would be changes, how the change would
be communicated, how would the transition start and how it would be implemented. Proactive
communication, employee involvement and top management support and commitment would be key
prerequisite to ensuring that goals from the transition are accomplished. In terms of project
management, the enterprise should know about best practices in project and program management,
how a Project Management Office (PMO) works, the various skills and knowledge that the organization
can benefit from, process changes that are required and how the PMO interacts with the rest of the
organization. In terms of the new matrix organizational structure, the enterprise should know how the
matrix organization works, its dual reporting structure, the roles and responsibilities of operations and
project managers, and certain organizational dynamics that must be in place to make the matrix
structure work.
In my opinion, nine months to one year would be the ideal time for making an effective
transition to the new organizational structure. This is because there needs to be a lot of planning and
analysis on how it is to be achieved, various stakeholders engaged from a communication and enlisting
support perspective, trying out the structure probably on one of the projects in the organization,
continuously measuring and monitoring transition effectiveness and providing training, education and
support to the IT teams and organizational stakeholders. Due to the scope and scale of the change and
the impact that can bring, all the above things have to be planned, implemented and measured and
hence the time would be required.
5. What other organizational changes should be made? How do you work with the manager of
operations to gain his/her support for your organizational changes?
Answer – For the matrix structure to be successful, the organization should be ready from a knowledge,
infrastructure and readiness perspectives. There must be proper training courses that stakeholders must
attend that would orient and make them aware of project management practices and processes and
how they would be working in the new environment. In terms of infrastructure, the matrix organization
requires very high degree of communication and flexibility and hence there must be systems to track,
report and capture data about projects and resources who are working on projects. In terms of
organizational readiness, the company leadership should know about how project management can
help align IT goals with company strategy, and they should communicate about project management to
upper and middle level managers and ensure that they cooperate and support the move to a matrix
structure.
The operations manager would be a major stakeholder whose support and involvement would
be needed for making the matrix organization successful. However, given that the operations manager
may feel threatened due to loss of his power, he may not be a willing participant in the move to the
matrix structure. The new director should call for a meeting with the operations manager and try and
establish a case for moving to the new structure by explaining the various problems the company is
facing and how it is leading to non attainment of business goals. The director should seek and gain his
support for helping solve these problems, and if necessary involve the top management to make the
operations manager see the point. This should e followed by a discussion on how the matrix structure
would lead to solving these problems and optimizing organizational resources. The director should
assure the operations manager that his position is not threatened, and that both of them have to work
closely together in cooperation in making this organizational initiative a success.