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1.6 Exercises

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.

  1. If you were planning to change the landscaping around the location where you or a friend lives and decided to approach it like a project, describe the start-up activities you would use. Refer to the elements of a project start-up as described in this chapter.
  2. Describe a project you have worked on where you experienced scope creep. Begin by defining scope creep in your own words. Describe the project, how the scope creep occurred, and the effect it had on the project cost, quality, and completion date.

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.

  1. Client satisfaction. Should the project manager go beyond the written requirements in the project scope statement to satisfy the client? Does the answer to this question depend on the role of the project in the organization? For example, does it matter if the organization is a consulting firm that sells project management or if the project is done for another department in the same organization? Form an opinion on this topic, and write a few paragraphs on it to organize your thoughts on the subject. Be prepared to share your thoughts with classmates. Submit the work as directed by your instructor.
  2. Organizational priorities. Consider that three different organizations are planning to construct a building for their own use. The organizations are a for-profit company, a religious group, and a local school district. Choose three project knowledge areas, and consider how the project might be affected in each of these areas by the different types of organizations behind the project. Write a few paragraphs on this topic to organize your thoughts on the subject, and be prepared to share your thoughts with classmates. Submit the work as directed by your instructor.