Simulations – Flashcards with Answers

In Week 5, aggressive recruiting from rival firm Primatech has led to several of your team members departing from the project. Other projects at Delphi are similarly impacted. Due to heavy competition for new hires, the HR departments tells you that it will be at least three weeks before you are able to bring anybody new on board.

Senior management expects you to release a new printer retaining rough parity with the competitor's new printer. The projected schedule allows you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing quickly enough to match the competitor's new printer profile with your own printer. The target budget supports a cost structure that will permit profit margins at a level roughly equivalent to those of the current printer. Market intelligence gathered on your competitor's plans is considered reliable, so the target specifications for your new printer, required to retain parity with their new printer, are clearly defined, well understood, and expected to remain stable throughout the project. Management has indicated that scope, schedule and cost are of equal importance in a successful launch, and they have committed to providing stable access to resources during the project.

Senior management expects you to release a new printer which will upstage the competitor's expected new printer announcement. The target schedule is shortened to allow you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing soon enough to pre-empt the competitor announcement with an announcement of your own. The budget will support a cost structure that permits a profit margin which is slightly better than the current printer's margin. Your own analysis of the work required and subsequent work breakdown structure has lead to you conclude that these targets are difficult but achievable. Market intelligence gathered on the competitor's plans is considered reliable, so the target specs for your new printer, required to upstage your competitor's new printer, are reasonably well defined/understood, and expected to remain stable throughout the project. Comparatively, you are pleased that your project is reasonably staffed because other Project Managers are struggling to complete their work with limited resources.

Senior management expects you to release a new printer which will allow you to upstage the competitor's expected new printer announcement. The target schedule is shortened to allow you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing soon enough to pre-empt the competitor announcement with an announcement of your own. The budget will support a cost structure that permits a printer profit margin which is slightly better than that of the current printer. Your own analysis of the work required and subsequent work breakdown structure has led you to conclude that these targets are difficult but achievable. You're concerned, however, that the market intelligence gathered about your competitor's plans might not be reliable. Management has committed to providing stable access to resources during the project.

In Week 5, your primary competitor has just announced they will be moving up their launch date by five weeks. In order to achieve competitive parity, management has informed you that you will also need to release the product five weeks ahead of the initial management target date. Due to the increased importance of meeting the schedule, you will receive 50 additional points for on-time delivery.

Senior management expects you to release a new printer which will allow you to leapfrog the competitor's expected new printer announcement and capture market share early. The schedule is highly aggressive, allowing you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing soon enough to dramatically pre-empt the competitor's announcement and seize a market leadership position. Management has indicated that releasing the new printer ahead of the competition is critical to success. Consequently the points available for meeting or exceeding schedule goals are much higher than for scope. Target specs, required to be sure of far exceeding your competitor's new printer, are clearly defined, well understood, and expected to remain stable throughout the project. Management has committed to providing stable access to resources during the project.

1. Target Scope: Multifunction This will allow you to leapfrog the competitor's expected new product announcement and become the market leader. You will receive 300 points for delivering a printer with the scope requested and up to 100 points for delivering a printer with a more sophisticated scope. 2. Target Schedule: Week 12 This schedule will allow you to ramp up manufacturing and marketing soon enough to pre-empt the competitor announcement with one of your own. You will receive 125 points for meeting your schedule goals and up to 75 points for completing ahead of schedule. 3. Target Cost: $40,000 This will support a lean cost structure that will enable you to release the new product product with a good profit margin. You will receive 200 points for meeting your budget/resources goals and up to 100 points for completing under budget.

Target Scope: Multifunction Up to 300 pts Target Schedule: Week 15 Up to 200 pts Target Cost: $50,000 Up to 400 pts Morale: Between 85 - 95% Up to 100 pts

In Week 7, key members of your team have been injured in a car accident. There were no serious injuries, but these team members will not be at work for a few weeks while they recuperate. Management plans to substitute these members with other individuals, but they will be entirely new to your project. Since these employees are inexperienced productivity may be lower and error rates may be higher.

In Week 8, the new technology that your team had been counting on for breakthrough features has proven a disappointment in testing. As a consequence, you will now need to devote additional effort to further develop the technology, or perhaps even substitute with an alternative technology. This will increase the number of tasks you need to complete. However, work you did on the first prototype allowed you to identify the issue early.

In Week 11, more reliable information has suddenly become available about your main competitor's plans for a new printer. The new information suggests that your competitor's plans are more ambitious than previously assumed. This revelation has generated new pressure on the team to include as many new and innovative features in the printer as possible. Incorporating the new features means that the project will require 30 extra tasks.

In Week 14, manufacturing difficulties at one of your key vendors has led to a delay in the provision of a key component for your new printer. Consequently, your team will now need to find alternative suppliers for this vital component.

In Week 15, manufacturing difficulties at your vendor continue for a second week, reducing the productivity of your team. You have located an alternate supplier and plan to resume normal operations the following week.