Reference no: EM131074822

Contents

Case-1 -- Risk Management Case Study Assignment -- NASA/BP/Napoleon/Healthcare.gov
Assignment

Approach and Content

Format

Case-2 -- Quality Management Case Study Assignment -- Toyota/Healthcare.gov

Assignment
Approach and Content
Format

Case-3 -- Project Control Case Study Assignment -- Denver Airport
Assignment
Approach and Content
Format

Case-1 - Risk Management Case Study Assignment -- NASA/BP/Napoleon/Healthcare.gov

You have your choice of four scenarios:

1. Once upon a time, NASA was known for its safety record, ensured by things like double and triple redundant systems. They had backup systems in place, wouldn't take unnecessary risks, and so forth. However, as everyone is all too familiar with, two space shuttles have crashed with the loss of the entire crew. What happened? You may choose either space shuttle disaster (Columbia or Challenger), or may compare and contrast them and do a case study of both.

2. As everyone knows, the BP (AKA British Petroleum) "Maconda" deep drill rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank in Spring 2010 with loss of life. What happened?

3. Consider Napoleon's campaign in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars c.1812. Napoleon started out from France with a huge and supposedly "invincible" army, but after a brutal campaign in Russia, retreated, defeated. It was a turning point in the war. From a risk management point of view, what happened?

4. Consider the initial Healthcare.gov Web site and information system that went public on 1.October.2013, but that was so poorly designed and tested that essentially nobody could use it. Additionally, it had significant privacy and security issues.
In both the NASA and BP cases, as in the Toyota case below, operations ceased for a time after the disaster while an investigation and remedial action was taken. In the case of Healthcare.gov, they tried to investigate and fix the system on the fly without taking it down. Napoleon, of course, retreated. He must have wondered what had happened, too.

What happened in these cases and how does it relate to project risk management?

Assignment

Do a brief case study of any one of the above scenarios.

There is a plethora of information available online about each of these cases. You may also do physical bricks-and-mortar library research if you wish. (Make sure to properly quote, cite, and reference any material that you use. Make sure that your paper itself is written in your own words.)

This is intended to be a short case study not an extensive research paper. With so much information available, it would be easy to spend too much time on researching this and/or writing it up. Please don't do that. The important thing is to find and summarize NASA's, BP's, Napoleon's, or Healthcare.gov's risk management problems and their approach to the problem. Additionally, please do not digress into political issues. While they may or may not be relevant, this is not a political science course, but an IT project management course, so please concentrate on the IT project risk management issues.

Use risk management techniques discussed in the Readings that I attached to both explain your case's risk management processes and to discover, define, and analyze the problems they had with managing risk.

Explain what went wrong -- that is, both the proximate and underlying causes of the failures -- what they did about it, and how it relates to project risk management.

Note: If you elect to study the Healthcare.gov Web site, then please understand that the case is that of the Web site and the information system behind it. The case is not about the Affordable Care Act itself nor is the case about the politics of it. This is not a class in government and politics. So limit your focus to the risk, quality, and project management of the technical Web site and information system, not on health care financing and not on politics.

Approach and Content

There are many different kinds and purposes of case study (from marketing to business management to scientific research), each of which have their own approaches and formats. If you are familiar with a case study approach or format that is an appropriate fit for this case, you may use it. However, please do not attempt to shoehorn this case into an inappropriate approach or format. You are required to use the below appraoch for this Case Study.

They are just numbered. They are not to be answered like question and answer paper. Its a CASE STUDY. It just a guide to help you write the paper.

1. What is the apparent problem/issue? That is, what was the nature of the disaster as initially presented to the public by the media.

2. What are the facts?

a. Background:

(1) What was the situation that led up to the disaster?
(2) What had NASA, BP, Napoleon, or the Healthcare.gov team thought the risks were prior to the disaster?
(3) What had their risk management and safety processes been prior to the disaster?
b. What happened? What was the disaster?
c. What was NASA's, BP's, Napoleon's, or the Healthcare.gov team's response to its disaster?

3. What is the real problem? What did NASA / BP / Napoleon / Healthcare.gov and others find upon investigation?

a. What were the actual risks?
b. What was the actual cause of the disaster?
c. Had anyone discovered the actual risks prior to the disaster or were they completely unknown?
d. If the actual risks had been known, then what failure in the risk management process allowed the disaster to happen anyway?
e. What were the problems with their risk management processes?
f. Were the problems in-house problems, or were they problems with their suppliers or subcontractors (or mercenaries, if applicable; there may not have been any), or were they at both levels? Explain.

4. What did NASA, BP, Napoleon, or the Healthcare.gov team do about it?

a. What changes did they make in their technical designs or battle plans?

b. What changes did they make in their risk management and safety processes?
c. What changes did they make in their public relations and marketing to address the issue?
d. Beyond their own findings, what, if anything, would you recommend that they should have done differently and/or that they should do differently in the future?

5. What was the outcome?

a. As nearly as you can determine from your research, were the changes successful? Did they restore or reduce risks to acceptable levels in subsequent operations (if any)?
b. What is the public's reaction? Is the public convinced that NASA, BP, or Healthcare.gov now are of acceptable risk and good safety?
c. Alternatively, in the case of Napoleon, would the public now be convinced that invading Russia is of acceptable risk? Did they learn from history? Did Hitler learn from Napoleon? Explain.

6. Lessons learned:

a. What lessons (e.g., primarily about risk, but if relevant, also about production, marketing, customer relations, etc) can you derive and abstract from this that would be of general use in project management?

b. To what extent is an organization responsible for its suppliers' or subcontractors' (or mercenaries', if applicable; there may not have been any) problems? Where does the "buck" (the blame, the responsibility) stop?

Regardless of what approach or format you use, make sure that your analysis includes lessons learned and how the case relates to project risk issues.

Note: You may use qualitative analysis of risks and intangibles. Quantitative analysis is not required.

Format

The paper should be in APA format and 3 pages.

It should include a title page and reference page (in APA format). If you wish, it may include a table of contents and/or an executive summary (each on its own page). None of these count against the 3 page limit. It may be single or double spaced as you wish.

The content should be presented in an appropriate format with clear section headings relating to the approach taken for the case study and to the findings of the study. (This does not mean that your headings should repeat the questions above. Rather, let your headings follow your essay's outline structure.)

Also, please remember that your submission must be new work that you have originally written for this specific assignment and not written for any other course.

Case-2 - Quality Management Case Study Assignment -- Toyota/Healthcare.gov

You have your choice of two scenarios:

1. Once upon a time, Toyota used to be known for its quality. It was (and still is) famous for its Toyota Production System (TPS) which, among other things, used Japanese / Deming style quality management processes.

2. Consider the initial Healthcare.gov Web site and information system that went public on 1.October.2013, but that was so poorly designed and tested that essentially nobody could use it. Additionally, it had significant privacy and security issues.

However, as everyone is now familiar with, they both had serious quality issues. Toyota in 2009-2010 recalled millions of vehicles and stopped production entirely for several months while they used problem-solving techniques to diagnose and remedy their quality problems due to crashes and fatalities. The Healthcare.gov Web site was essentially inoperable and few people could use the site to sign up for health insurance.
What happened and how does it relate to project quality?

Assignment

Do a brief case study of Toyota's or the Healthcare.gov Web site's quality situation.

There is a plethora of information available about this online. Use a Web search to find relevant material.

(Make sure to properly quote, cite, and reference any material that you use. Make sure that your paper itself is written in your own words.)

This is intended to be a short case study not an extensive research paper. With so much information available, it would be easy to spend too much time on researching this and/or writing it up. Please don't do that.

The important thing is to find and summarize Toyota's /Healthcare.gov's quality problems and their approach to the problem. Additionally, please do not digress into political issues. While they may or may not be relevant, this is not a political science course, but an IT project management course, so please concentrate on the IT project quality management issues.

Use the Use Quality Management reading techniques discussed in the Readings that I attached to both explain Toyota's or Healthcare.gov's quality management processes and to discover, define, and analyze the problems they had with quality.

Explain what went wrong, how Toyota or the Healthcare.gov team discovered the problems, what they did about it, and how it relates to project quality considerations.

Note: If you elect to study the Healthcare.gov Web site, then please understand that the case is that of the Web site and the information system behind it. The case is not about the Affordable Care Act itself nor is the case about the politics of it. This is not a class in government and politics. So limit your focus to the risk, quality, and project management of the technical Web site and information system, not on health care financing and not on politics.

Approach and Content

There are many different kinds and purposes of case study (from marketing to business management to scientific research), each of which have their own approaches and formats. If you are familiar with a case study approach or format that is an appropriate fit for this case, you may use it. You are required to use the below appraoch for this Case Study.
They are just numbered. They are not to be answered like question and answer paper. Its a CASE STUDY. It just a guide to help you write the paper.

1. What is the apparent problem/issue? That is, what were the quality issues their customers were experiencing?

2. What are the facts?

a. Background: What was Toyota's production process (TPS - Toyota Production System) and what was its quality process? Alternatively, what were the Healthcare.gov team's development processes and quality processes?
b. How did Toyota or Healthcare.gov go about investigating its quality issues?

3. What is the real problem? What did Toyota, Healthcare.gov, and others find upon investigation?

a. What were the actual quality issues with their products or systems?
b. What were the problems with their quality management processes?
c. Were the problems in-house problems, or were they problems with their suppliers or subcontractors, or were they at both levels? Explain.

4. What did Toyota / Healthcare.gov do about it?

a. What changes did they make in their quality management processes?
b. What changes did they make in their public relations and marketing to address the issue?
c. Beyond their own findings, what, if anything, would you recommend that they should have done differently and/or that they should do differently in the future?

5. What was the outcome?

a. As nearly as you can determine from your research, were the changes successful? Did they restore (or exceed) previous quality levels?
b. What is the public's reaction? Is the public convinced that Toyota products or the Healthcare.gov system now are safe and of high quality?

6. Lessons learned:

a. What lessons (e.g., primarily about quality, but if relevant, also about production, marketing, customer relations, etc) can you derive and abstract from this that would be of general use in project management and project quality issues?

b. To what extent is an organization responsible for its suppliers' or subcontractors' problems? Where does the "buck" (the blame, the responsibility) stop?

Regardless of what approach or format you use, make sure that your analysis includes lessons learned and how the case relates to project quality issues.

Format

The paper should be in APA format and 3 pages

It should include a title page and reference page (in APA format). If you wish, it may include a table of contents and/or an executive summary (each on its own page). None of these count against the 3 page limit. It may be single or double spaced as you wish.

The content should be presented in an appropriate format with clear section headings relating to the approach taken for the case study and to the findings of the study. (This does not mean that your headings should repeat the questions above. Rather, let your headings follow your essay's outline structure.)

Also, please remember that your submission must be new work that you have originally written for this specific assignment and not written for any other course.

Case-3 - Project Control Case Study Assignment -- Denver Airport

Use a Web search to research the problems with the Denver International Airport (DIA) and/or with its computerized baggage handling system (CBHS).

The CBHS, for instance, had such serious problems that it blew all three legs of the triple constraint: It went billions of dollars over budget, was so late that it delayed opening of the entire airport, and did not meet either its original scope or its changed scope.

Assignment

Do a brief case study of DIA CBHS's project management and project change management situation.

There is a plethora of information available about this online. Use a Web search to find relevant material.

You may also do physical bricks-and-mortar library research if you wish. (Make sure to properly quote, cite, and reference any material that you use. Make sure that your paper itself is written in your own words.)

This is intended to be a short case study not an extensive research paper. With so much information available, it would be easy to spend too much time on researching this and/or writing it up. Please don't do that. The important thing is to find and summarize DIA CBHS's project management problems and their approach to the problems.

Use project change management techniques discussed in the Project Control readings to explain DIA CBHS's project management processes.

Explain from a project management and project change management point of view what went wrong, what they did about it, whether that was successful or not, what (if anything) they did about that, and so forth until the end of the project.

Approach and Content

There are many different kinds and purposes of case study (from marketing to business management to scientific research), each of which have their own approaches and formats. If you are familiar with a case study approach or format that is an appropriate fit for this case, you may use it. You are required to use the below appraoch for this Case Study.

They are just numbered. They are not to be answered like question and answer paper. Its a CASE STUDY. It just a guide to help you write the paper:

1. What is the apparent problem/issue? That is, what project management and project change management issues initially came to light?

2. What are the facts?

a. Background:

(1) What was the nature of the project?
(2) What was its initial scope?
(3) What led up to the problems?
(4) What was the changed scope?

b. What did DIA see as the initial problem?

c. How did DIA attempt to handle the project, its changes, and its issues?

3. What is the real problem?

a. What were the actual project management issues involved?
b. What were the problems with their project management and project change management processes?
c. Were the problems in-house problems, or were they problems with their suppliers or subcontractors, or were they at both levels? Explain.

4. What did DIA do about it?

a. What changes did they initially make in their project management and project change management processes?
b. Were they successful? Why or why not?
c. What other approaches did they subsequently try?
d. Were they successful? Why or why not?
e. What did they do in their public relations and marketing to try to address the issue?
f. What would you recommend that they should have done differently? How could this have been made a success?

5. What was the outcome?

a. Were DIA's changes successful?

(1) Did they eventually complete the original project scope (regardless of whether or not it was on schedule or within budget)?
(2) Did they eventually complete the changed project scope (regardless of whether or not it was on schedule or within budget)?
(3) At completion or termination of the project, what was the CBHS's final status?

b. What is the public's reaction?

(1) Does the public believe the DIA CBHS was a success and is a well-functioning system?
(2) If you have ever flown through DIA yourself, which airline did you use and what is your personal view and opinion of the current baggage handling system?

6. Lessons learned:

a. What lessons (e.g., primarily about project management and project change management, but if relevant, also about development, marketing, customer relations, etc) can you derive and abstract from this that would be of general use in project management?

b. What would you say was the primary project management problem area for this project? Change management? Project control? Risk management? Scope management? Schedule management? Or something else (and if so, then what)?

c. Why do you say so?

d. To what extent is an organization responsible for its suppliers' or subcontractors' problems? Where does the "buck" (the blame, the responsibility) stop?

Format

The paper should be in APA format and 3 pages

It should include a title page and reference page (in APA format). If you wish, it may include a table of contents and/or an executive summary (each on its own page). None of these count against the 3 page limit. It may be single or double spaced as you wish.
The content should be presented in an appropriate format with clear section headings relating to the approach taken for the case study and to the findings of the study. (This does not mean that your headings should repeat the questions above. Rather, let your headings follow your essay's outline structure.)

Also, please remember that your submission must be new work that you have originally written for this specific assignment and not written for any other course.