EMGT 5220

ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SECTION 1
ASSIGNMENT 8
DUE DATE 04/07/2016

SHASHANK ASHOK MUMMIGATTI

N.U.I.D 001790691
1). Discuss the impact, both positive and negative, of termination
on the project team members. How might the negative impact be
lessened?
The call is taken by senior management and on terminating a project. Even though
the decision will look a tough and harsh, it will be a step better for the organization
as a whole. The decision to terminate a project will have a lasting impact to the PM
and its team members.
Positive Impacts of Termination:

If it looks like the cost and resource allocation seems unjustifiable compared
to the ROI of the project then terminating such project can save the
organization from incurring heavy losses.
Many Organizations benefit more by investing, the same resources and
money in a more successful in-house project, instead draining them on a
project which are starving to death or with negligible ROI.
When Terminating a projects which is obsolete in the current market
dynamics helps save investment and resources of a company.
A terminated project can be learning curve for the upper level management
and project managers, it gives them an opportunity to reflect on their
strategies and policies.

Negative Impacts of Termination:

When there is a pure project organization the termination of the projects can
lead to lay off of team members and highly skilled professional, which effects
the image of the company in the corporate world.
When the word of termination goes around, the employees loose interest in
the project and may not even bother to complete the given tasks effectively.
The team members usually start feel dejected and cheated after the
termination. They feel that their hard work was all in vain, could make them
laid back and way too casual in future projects.

These negative impacts can be ameliorated by taking following steps.

Reasons for termination of the project must be communicated to the team

effectively and in sensitive manner.

Team members should be insured that their value to the organization has not
been degraded due to the termination.
They should be acknowledged for the hard work they have put in the project.
Before terminating a project, a plan should be made to allocating team
members in other projects.

2). If the actual termination of a project becomes a project in itself,

what are the characteristics of this project? How is it different from
other projects?
When a massive project is on its way to termination, the process of termination in
itself becomes a project which requires careful planning and execution, scheduling
and budgeting just as is done for any other phase of the project life cycle. All the
termination process should follow an extensive checklist of items covering the
closeout of both the administrative and substantive parts of the project
Even though the process of termination may seem as project, it varies in all aspects
from the regular projects.

There is no project team associated with the process and will include only PM
or few officials.
Associated tasks are generally routine and same process is usually followed
for any project termination.
The goals and objective of a terminated project is the same throughout and
only one terminating the project by company standards.
It is sort of an administrative project compared to goal- driven projects.

3) Discuss some reasons why a Project Final Report, when

completed, should be permanently retained by the firm.
The major task in terminating a project is writing the Project Final Report. This
report is the main concern for a company or organization is which has a history of
life and phases of the project. Following are the reasons a company should retain
the Final Report.

The report can serve as a disclosure of how and why the project failed and
can detect the errors in project planning, which can help the company for
future projects.
The aggregate sum of resources, timeline and cost can be documented in a
report which can set as a baseline for the future projects.
The efforts of the team members can evaluated in future based on such
reports
For critical projects like Banks, healthcare, defense there is federal regulation
to maintain records and reports for the failed projects.
Final report can smoothen the final closures and settlements with the
investors and clients.

4) What elements of the termination process may be responsible for

making a project unsuccessful?
Factors responsible for making a project unsuccessful
1. Technology: When the project manager does not understand the technological
track. And does not keep abreast with the teams progress and funds a failing
project.
2. Organization: Organizational factors that can influence the viability of a project
include internal competition, management support, and the company's market
strategy. The presence of internal competition, especially for access to important
resources or funding, will affect the project team's motivation. Also, as the number
of projects in a firm's portfolio increases, the more likely it is that one of them will
end in failure.
3. Market Forces: The competition a firm faces in the market has a strong influence
on the viability of new or ongoing projects. The value of a project can be diminished
by the sudden availability of alternative or competing technological innovations.
Continuing to fund an obsolete project can be avoided by maintaining
communication between the marketing, manufacturing, and R&D departments.
4. Planning: The firm's ability to manage a project will have a significant impact on
its eventual success or failure. Central to this, of course, is the project plan, which
should be exceptionally detailed. Obstacles that could threaten the schedule must
be identified so that workable alternatives can be developed ahead of time.
5. The Project Team: the team plays an important role, the quality and level of
planning for a project is frequently related to the level of experience of the project
team.
6. Economic Factors: When firms fail to achieve their desired level of profitability,
they always have the option to reevaluate ongoing projects and terminate those
that are less viable or overly expensive

5) How is discriminant analysis used in project management?

Project Termination decision is based on the Project Management Discriminant

Analysis. A combination of variables are used in this analysis to determine a project
should be terminated or not. The implementation of the analysis can be explained in
the following example.
A company is developing a software technology which took considerably longer time
and now it is many players are present in the market for same technology. So the
management has to make the decision to terminate or continue with the project.
They defined 5 critical success factors or failure of the factors and categorize the
results into TERMINATE or DO NOT TERMINATE.

Degree of completion of the project.

Amount of more resources and investment required for the completion.
Estimated ROI in the current market dynamics.
Urgency to complete the project.
Probability of the technical success.

Large projects are have too many variables and factors are considered into are
rated on the metrics scaled according to the company policies and vision.

6) What are some characteristics of a good termination manager?

The termination of a manager might be most dreaded person in an organization. But
they have the biggest tasks of the terminating a project and monitoring the process
is smooth and hassle free. Some of the characteristics of a good termination
manager.

Most important responsible of the termination manager is to take care of the

team members of the project and assign them to other projects or
departments before the process of termination even is started.
Effectively and sensitively inform team members the reasons for the project
termination before the official announcement.
Make sure pending tasks are completed.
Settles all the pending bills or claims
Sent proper invoices to the clients and stakeholders mentioning why the
project was terminated.
Co-ordinates with legal consulate and consultant to ensure that legal
complications are handled properly.

7) How might one choose which termination method to use?

They are four method a project terminated in an organization.

Termination by Extinction: occurs in one of the following scenarios when

project is successful, unsuccessful, taking too long to complete or changes in
the market or environment. It has failed to achieve its goals and lost support
from the Senior Management.
Termination by Addition: occurs when a project is successful and
institutionalized formal part of the parent organization where the Project
personnel, property, and equipment are often simply transferred from the
project to the new functional department.
Termination by Integration: The project comes into business and successful
absorbed by the organization and integrated into their day-to day operations.
The team members are further absorbed as the assets for the same project.
Termination by Starvation: A project is terminated by using this method by
continuous cutting budgets to the point that working on the project becomes
impossible.

8) Why might a failing project not be terminated?

Since a large amount of money and resources have been invested in the
project.
PM and team members have a strong belief or stubbornness that project will
be a success at the end.
When the project manager runs on the basis of convictions rather than
factual data he believes that the project will be successful.
The fear of PM and team members that they will be fired or sent back to
functional departments delays the termination process.
For the PM terminating a project is like admitting his failure also other people
in organization perceive them to be a failure so the PM will not be okay with
termination.

9) How can termination for reasons other than achievement of

project goals be avoided?

To avoid the project termination - Project manager convinces senior

management that the project can still be a success and its time, cost and
schedule are justifiable.
Show previous success of the PM in projects that were falling apart and
convince that still the project is doable.
Use of proper planning based on a well-constructed set of deliverables avoids
project failure.
Regular monitoring and auditing projects to identify the problems.
The PM must have an ad hoc recovery plan and should be able to convince
senior management.
Hire a professional recovery manager to minimize the recovery time and cost.

10) What must the project manager do in planning, scheduling,

monitoring, and closing out the project?

PLANNING
Key to a successful project here the PM should develop a foolproof project
plan, define goals and critical success factors of the project. Identify the
stakeholders, WBS structure and allocating resources.
SCHEDULING
In the scheduling phase the PM must define project teams, assign resources
optimally and execute task assignments. Identifying critical tasks and task
dependencies.
MONITORING:
The purpose of project monitoring and controlling is to provide an
understanding of the projects progress and also successfully communicating
that status. The manager, can then identify when the projects performance
deviates significantly from the plan so that appropriate corrective actions
and preventive actions will be taken.
CLOSING PROJECT
PM must complete the following tasks
1. Project Sponsor Acceptance: Meeting up with the project sponsor to
discuss closure of acceptance
2. Conduct Project Assessment
PM should get feedback from all project stakeholders, including your project
team members, to enable opportunities for improvement in future projects.
3. Complete Project History / Archive
PM should manage the project files which involve the project right from the t
and provide project team members with guidelines for handling project
documents as the project progresses. Then this step becomes more of a final
check to ensure its complete.
4. Celebrate Success
PM should celebrate success to make future projects go well. It helps the
stakeholders to look forward to the next project and help the project to
perform better.