Student’s Name: Program & Year: BSBA Third Year

Course Title & Code: Project Management (Elec4) Section: BSBA 3

Class Schedule: 8:00-9:30 am MW Examination Type: Final Examination

Date & Time of Exam: May ____, 2021 Weight of Exam on Overall Course Grade:

Semester & Year: 2nd Semester, AY 2020-2021 Course Instructor: Dan Paolo E. Ramos, MSHM
Directions: Analyze the case studies given below and answer briefly and concisely the case questions
Use a whole yellow pad paper and write on top the details such as your name, subject title, subject
code and final examination.
CASE STUDY 1:
The Unpleasant Meeting of XYZ Company

Everyone in the room has the "feel" that this afternoon's meeting will not be a good one. The selling
price of XYZ Company's stock became dramatically low. Worse, in order to conserve cash, the firm
was forced to cut the dividend payment.

Unlike its competitors, the company does not possess the capability to create new products and sell
them in the market for affordable prices. Innovation is not part of its competency. The company is
more of a follower than a leader. In reality, new products for the company are just adding value to
existing products via product modifications. Still, the company is far from being competitive and now
is struggling to survive.

People in the room suddenly became silent when Ms. Gilda Ching, the President enters the room.
She looks disturbed but still is able to wear her signature smile. As the norm, everyone is pointing
finger and blaming each other for the bad situation they are now facing. Nobody even among the
talented senior staff wanted to volunteer in solving the company's problem.

So, Ms. Gilda Ching confronted the senior staff:

"From my analysis, I know that I have spotted the main problem and I want everyone to find solution
to this trouble. I have here two exhibits to lay down the facts. The first exhibit (see Exhibit 1) shows
the five projects that are totally failures. Out of the five, three projects have consumed most of our
talented people yet no new products were created. You will observe too in what phase of the project
life cycle we made the decision to prematurely terminate some of them. Others were already finished
when we found out that the projects have no productive results. In the second exhibit (see Exhibit 2)

ELEC 4- Project Management Page 1 of 4

I presented the money that was wasted for these projects. Actually these are millions of pesos. Most
of you are blaming our process of portfolio selection of projects. Well, we can always improve
gentlemen. We all agreed on the criteria for selection, right? Any executive in this room who thinks
that all projects would be a success is a fool. Though the rate of five failed projects out of ten is a
bad record and is really alarming."

As the second exhibit was being presented by Ms. Ching, hardly anyone is moving. There was a
serious dead silence. Nobody wanted to speak. No one has the idea of who might catch the furious
blame from Ms. President.

Ms. Ching continued:

"Of course some projects will fail. Why have we misspent so much money by waiting until we get to
the last two phases of the project life cycle before we admit that the project could probably be a
failure? Come on, project managers! You should have been braver to report project failures in the
earlier phase so we can cancel"

Exhibit 1 Identification of Failures per Phase in the Product Life Cycle:

RESOURCES
LIFE CYCLE PHASES

STRONG AVERAGE WEAK

1
2 A
3 E C
4 B D

Everyone after that stared at Mr. Aldo Ortiz, the Vice President for Engineering and R&D for his reply
to the challenge of Mr. President. Most of the project managers are engineers who report directly to
Mr. Ortiz and are loyal to him.

Exhibit 2 R&D Terminations Cost and Reasons for failure:

Project Original Budget Expenditure at Reason/s for Failure

Termination
A Php 2,200,00.00 Php 1,150,000.00 Too optimistic objective
B 3,125,000.00 3,000,000.00 Could not really make breakthrough
C 2,200,000.00 1,735,000.00 Vendors could not perform well
D 5,680,000.00 5,600,000.00 Product safety test failures
E 4,900,000.00 3,200,000.00 Specifications limit unreachable
TOTAL 18,105,000.00 13,685,000.00

ELEC 4- Project Management Page 2 of 4

Case questions:

1. Do you agree with Ms. Gilda Ching, the president that the rate of five failed projects out of
ten is a bad record and is really alarming? Why?
2. Is it really dangerous for a project manager to recommend for terminations a project in the
early phase of the project life cycle? Defend your answer.
3. Who if there is anyone, should the failure be attributed in this case? Explain.
4. Why do you think highly talented resources can over think certain project to the point of
searching for complex solution rather the simple one? Give details.
5. Do you think having majority of project managers being engineers has contribution to the
failure of some projects? Justify.
6. Is a follow-on meeting necessary? Should all project managers have to attend? Why?

CASE STUDY 2:
On Prioritizing Project

Ms. Norma Pascua is the owner and president of a midsize drug company. During their staff meeting,
she tells her managers that the company is expected to gain a profit of Php 2M more than estimated.
She informs them she would like to reinvest this extra profit through financing projects that will either
boost sales or trim down costs for the company. She asks her three managers to convene and
develop a list of projects for the intention mentioned. She requests them to meet with her to discuss
on their ideas. She stresses that the money may not be equally divided among the three of them.
She also adds her willingness to invest all the money in one project if that seems fitting.

Jillian, the product development manager has had a team of science experts currently discovering a
new prescription drug. This effort has been taking much time and she fears that larger firms working
on the same prescription drug may be the first to bring it to the market. No major breakthrough has
been attained by her team and some important tests are not generating the predictable outcomes.
She knows this is a risky project. However, she believes that the long-term growth of the company
relies on this new drug which can be marketed worldwide. Though she knows that Ms. Pascua is
getting impatient on this project every staff meeting. she is still very optimistic. Even her peers
consider that she should have terminated this project right after the initial tests were negative. In her
mind, Jillian wanted to use the extra fund to speed up this development project. She would employ
a high caliber scientist from a well-known firm and procure more technologically advanced
laboratory equipment.

Tino, production manager has been part of the company for only six months. He observes that the
production flow is inefficient. He supposes this could be the outcome of poor planning when

ELEC 4- Project Management Page 3 of 4

extension has been made to the plant few years back. He desires to apply a better layout of the
equipment in the plant by creating several employee teams. He knows this would raise plant capacity
and also trim down costs. When Tino mentions this idea to his supervisors, they remind him that Ms
Pascua was the previous production manager and she was the brain of the current design of the
plant layout. In addition she is not a fan of using employee. teams. Ms. Pascua deems that production
employees are compensated for doing their jobs and expects her managers to come up with and
apply novel ideas.

Joey, the operations manager is in charge of the company's computers, information systems and
accounting operations. Joey considers the computer systems of the company as out-of-date and as
the business grows is incapable to handle the growing quantity of transactions. He senses that the
new and latest version of computer system can improve tracking of customer orders, lessen customer
complaints and get better the cash flow via timely invoicing. Often, Joey's staff makes fun of their
outdated computers and place pressure to Joey to request for newer version of computers. However,
Ms. Pascua has already told Joey during their past conversation that she is not fascinated on the idea
of spending money for new computers since the current system is still working anyway. She even
suggested to Joey to outsource the accounting system and terminate some of his staff. Joey would
like to sue the extra profit to purchase new computers and to take on board a computer programmer
who shall upgrade the software to run the new computers.

Right after the staff meeting, Jay, the marketing manager drops by Ms. Pascua's office. Though he
has not been tasked to come up with project ideas for the extra Php2M profit, he still suggests for a
larger budget to hire more sales representatives. He considers additional salesforce as a way to
increase sales faster. Jay knows that disagreements are possible among the other three managers in
setting up project priorities. He just hopes that Ms. Pascua would consider his appeal for the added
sales representatives.

Case Questions:
1. What exact details must the managers submit to come up with a proposal?
2. Is the information given in the case complete to make a good decision? What additional
information is still needed?
3. How would Ms. Norma Pascua spend the Php2M extra profit? Consider different concerns of
each manager.
4. In what way should Ms. Pascua decide given this situation? Rationalize your answer.
5. Which among the requests of the different managers do you think would really offer increase
sales or reduce costs for the company? Justify your answer.

ELEC 4- Project Management Page 4 of 4