I’m working on a management discussion question and need a sample draft to help me learn.

1. Describe a potential timing issue that can occur early in a project and a potential timing issue that can occur at the end of a project. How would you address each of these issues in your project?
2. Describe a few normal causes and special causes of variation on a project you have worked on. How did you address these variations?

1. Describe a potential timing issue that can occur early in a project and a potential timing issue that can occur at the end of a project. How would you address each of these issues in your project?

Early in a project, a potential timing issue is to find the correct time to bring team members on board. According to Kloppenborg: “Bringing them on before they are needed can be costly.” (Kloppenborg et al., 2022) On the other hand, bringing them on too late may delay the project progress. The impact is especially devastating if that project member is in charge of the critical path of the project. In terms of the solution, Kloppenborg suggests “…assign key players as quickly as possible.” (Kloppenborg et al., 2022) to facilitate the early planning of the project. From my perspective, the assignment of project member relates to the schedule. When the project is on planning stage, the core team members must participate in the planning process, as they will be motivated to complete the project later. During this stage, it is critical that core team members are assigned as quickly as possible. The rest of the team member might be assigned later than core team members do, but they also need to receive their assignments in a timely manner, in order to prevent any delay to the project.

By the end of a project, a potential issue is when to release the team member from the old project. The way to address this issue is by reaching to an agreement with project sponsor about project deliverables, and the circumstances that permit the release of project members. Well-defined project deliverables clarify the goals and reduce confusions for project team and sponsor to confirm the project completion. If the project deliverables include transitioning knowledge to the local management, the project team should draft a manual for the project deliverables. The manual will save time on project transition and helps the counterpart to get familiar with the project without taking too much time from the current project members. As a result, the release happens more quickly, which benefits the upcoming project.

2. Describe a few normal causes and special causes of variation on a project you have worked on. How did you address these variations?

“Dealing with variation is challenging because, many times, you don’t know if you should act. Also, adjusting every variation is a never-ending process.” (Usmani, 2022) Among the projects I have worked on in the past, there were countless variations that I have acted on, and more of them fell out of the range that I could address directly by myself. One of my past projects was about troubleshooting the Manufacture system implemented in a plant. During routine production, I received and responded to support requests from the operation supervisor. Afterwards, I documented the types of issues I encountered during that day and submit it to the management team. The normal causes of variation are: weekly meetings, irrelative phone calls, and casual conversations with colleagues. To minimize the interruptions from meetings, my employer has reduced the number of weekly meetings to one, and it was subject to cancel in case all the attendants were busy. During work hours, I turn down my phone and block strange numbers; also, I finished all daily tasks before I conduct any casual conversations with my colleagues.

The special causes of variation are: Thunderstorm, and Overheating Server. Once there was a thunderstorm happening outside the plant, and at a sudden a few computers at the production line lost internet connection, which caused to manufacture system to crash out. For a decent amount of time, I had to confirm the internet connection on the affected computers, and then relaunch the software that was running on them. The way I addressed it was to put this event on my daily note to share with the management team, so they can discuss out a solution. On another case, the air conditioner in the server room lost power, which made the server go down due to overheating. As a result, the manufacture system stopped responding on hundreds of computers across the plant, which had not only stopped the production for over two hours, but also cost me the same amount of time to get assistance from IT Engineer to diagnose the issue and reboot the manufacture program on every computer in the plant. I reported the incident to my project manager, who then alerted the rest of management to follow up with the issue investigation.

1. Describe a potential timing issue that can occur early in a project and a potential timing issue that can occur at the end of a project. How would you address each of these issues in your project?

During the early stage of a precast concrete construction project, the project manager needs to identify the number of concrete pieces to be shipped to the job site. Precast concrete building usually contains very big structural elements. If these concrete pieces arrive too early and are not placed in the right location immediately, it will cause storage issues and even delay the whole schedule. Thus the project manager should coordinate with the engineers and determine how many pieces are required in the early stage and discuss with the client to make sure the job site has enough space to store these pieces if needed.

A timing issue at the end of a project could be the delay of payment. The precast concrete project often involves several subcontractors and a main general contractor. Once the project has been checked and delivered, the project manager needs to make sure all the payments to the subcontractors have been issued and the payments from clients have been received. It will affect the reputation of the company, or even get a lawsuit if the payment cannot be fulfilled on time. The project manager should have a checking list when the job is about to deliver and inform the client if bills are not been paid.

2. Describe a few normal causes and special causes of variation on a project you have worked on. How did you address these variations?

– Normal cause of variation:

1. The experienced drafter makes several mistakes when he is drawing the blueprint for the project. The project manager should ask for a second-level review and make sure there are no major mistakes to cause the project’s failure.

2. During the precast concrete panel erection stage, small versions appear when to plumb and line the wall panels or columns. It is acceptable If the variation is less than 1/8” per 12” height, however, the erector needs to move and align the vertical element if the variations are greater than the tolerances.

3. Small delay caused by several raining days when welding the connections of the building in an unsheltered job site. An experienced project manager should consider these variations beforehand and include the potential raining days into the milestone schedule.

-Special cause of variation:

1. Several engineers were unable to work due to the Covid-19 virus, and the project can not deliver on time due to lacking manpower. The project manager should allocate more engineers or ask the team to work overtime if needed.

The client wants to change the design and try to increase the size of the pool on top of the building. The project manager should check with the engineering team and determine if the new design is acceptable and how long it needs to modify the design. The Project manager also needs to discuss with the president or client if the budget needs to be increased due to the modification.