MGMT 625 Week 2 DB Forum 1 Replies Example

Self-Reflection Blog and Discussion Board Forum 1 Replies

MGMT 625 Project Planning & Scheduling, Self-Reflection Blog and Discussion Board Forum 1: Replies (two)

Thread by [Student Name]

The blog's project, the two classmates and their threads are composites standing in for the student's own experience and the forum's posts; the research, Wilson's text and Scripture are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MGMT 625.

Self-Reflection Blog

Last year I helped launch a volunteer escort program at our hospital, pairing volunteers with patients who needed help getting from the lobby to appointments. Our director announced a start date in March before anyone had decided which units the program would serve. When the cardiology clinic asked to join in February, we had to recruit and train twelve more volunteers, and the schedule moved to April. Then oncology asked, and it moved again. We rebuilt the schedule three times because we had never written down the scope. What I learned is that a schedule can only be as stable as the scope beneath it. Now, before I put a date on anything, I write down what is in and what is out, and I ask the people affected to sign it.

Reply to Megan

Megan, your thread on the electronic health record upgrade at your clinic network was frustrating to read, in the best sense. The vendor promised six months, the project took nine, and the go-live slipped past the start of flu season. You concluded that the vendor had misled the clinics and should be penalized.

You may be right about the vendor, but the research suggests the problem is wider than one company. Flyvbjerg et al. (2002), studying 258 transportation infrastructure projects, found that the cost estimates used to approve projects were systematically and significantly too low, and that honest error could not explain the pattern; the best explanation was strategic misrepresentation by the people promoting the projects. A software vendor competing for a contract faces the same pressure to offer an attractive timeline. That does not excuse the vendor, but it means the clinic should expect optimistic estimates and plan around them.

Wilson (2014) treats the schedule as the baseline for controlling a project, which means a clinic network that accepts an unrealistic baseline will be measuring itself against a fiction from the first week. One practical step for the next upgrade would be to ask the vendor for the actual durations of its last five similar implementations, not just its standard estimate, and to ask two of those clients directly how long their go-live took. If the vendor's own history shows nine months, the contract can say nine months, and the clinics can plan around flu season accordingly.

Did your clinic network ask for references from other clients before signing, and did anyone ask those clients how long the upgrade really took?

Reply to Daniel

Daniel, congratulations on finishing your church's parking lot expansion on schedule. Your explanation was candid: you added 30 percent to every contractor's estimate, and the project finished almost exactly on the padded date.

I wonder whether the padding protected the schedule or simply got used. Gutierrez and Kouvelis (1991) modeled Parkinson's law, the tendency for work to expand to fill the time available, and showed how it affects project completion times and the deadlines a manager should set. Their model suggests that when each task is given generous time, the extra time tends to be consumed rather than saved, so the project finishes near the padded date regardless of how long the work really needed. The fact that your project finished almost exactly on the padded date, rather than early, fits that pattern.

Wilson (2014) treats scheduling as the basis for controlling cost as well as time. If the work could have been finished in less time, the padding may have cost the church in rental equipment, supervision or lost use of the lot. Paul's advice to make the best use of the time (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Ephesians 5:16) applies to schedules as much as to lives. An alternative for your next project would be to set realistic task estimates and hold a single shared buffer at the end of the schedule, which you can protect and draw on only when a task actually runs late.

Do you know whether any contractor finished early and then waited for the next crew, or did every task use its full padded time?

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Flyvbjerg, B., Holm, M. S., & Buhl, S. (2002). Underestimating costs in public works projects: Error or lie? Journal of the American Planning Association, 68(3), 279-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360208976273

Gutierrez, G. J., & Kouvelis, P. (1991). Parkinson's law and its implications for project management. Management Science, 37(8), 990-1001. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.37.8.990

Wilson, R. (2014). A comprehensive guide to project management schedule and cost control. Pearson FT Press.