Case Studies in Project Management: Theory Versus Practice

1. Case Studies in Project Management: Theory Versus Practice by Kathy Schwalbe, Ph.D., PMP August 28, 2001 PDSWest’01 www.augsburg.edu/ppages/~schwalbe schwalbe@augsburg.edu

2. Think roosters are cool? Beware! They can turn on you, and you on them!

3. What’s My Point? • Experiential learning is very important; you can’t learn most things just by reading or talking about them • People in all disciplines, including project management, need to develop higher order cognitive skills to be effective

4. Presentation Outline • Background on learning using case studies • Brief summary of a few theories, tools, and techniques common to project management • Form teams to work on sample case studies to apply some of these theories • Review “answers” and discuss applicability in the real world • Summarize results of student projects analyzing real companies’ projects

5. Case Studies as a Learning Tool • Case studies help develop higher levels of cognitive development (Bloom’s taxonomy) • Case studies help people make meaning out new concepts (Kolb’s experiential learning model) • Three basic types of case studies • Fictitious cases • Past projects as cases • “Real, real-time” projects as cases

6. Bloom’s Taxonomy ofCognitive Development • Knowledge (learn terminology) • Comprehension (explain terms in own words) • Application (apply concepts to problems) • Analysis (break down and examine information) • Synthesis (creatively apply various concepts to new situations) • Evaluation (judge the value of material) Case Studies

7. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model Concrete Experience Case studies Active Experimentation Reflective Observation Transformation (making meaning) Prehension (pre- senting material Abstract Conceptualization

8. Need for More Project Management Case Studies • Harvard Business Review and other sources have many case studies, but most are very long and not directly related to project management • It’s hard to find shorter, focused case studies related to project management • Let’s test out a few examples using short, fictitious case studies

9. A Few Popular Project Management Theories, Tools, and Techniques • Project Selection Tools (weighted decision matrix, NPV, etc.) • Work Breakdown Structures • Resource Histograms • Pareto Analysis

10. Form Teams to Work onCase Studies • Break into groups of 4-6 people • See handout with “mini” case studies (from my new book and old tests) • Take 10-15 minutes to create team solutions to the case studies • Use your best PM skills to complete this short project!

11. Solutions to Case Studies • Review “answers” to each case study • Feedback on using fictitious cases to learn PM theories, tools, and techniques • How many of you are using any of these tools in the real world? Why or why not?

12. Theory Versus Practice of PM: Past Projects As Case Studies • In fall of 2000, I had 3 classes (100 students, 20 group projects) analyze past projects and Microsoft Project files from real companies • Students documented the projects and either analyzed or created charters, WBSs, Gantt charts, lessons learned, etc. for the projects. They also used these tools to manage their class projects • We found that many companies did not apply common PM theories, tools or techniques • Students used several skills in doing these projects and really could analyze and evaluate past projects

13. Samples of Past Projects Used for Students’ Case Studies • Sun Server Prototype Project • IBM Software Development Project • Boston Scientific, Scimed Stent Development Project • Carlson Companies “Best Companies to Work For” Project • Godfather Pizza Colossal Crust Marketing Campaign Project • Mentor Corp. L. Catheter Pilot Line Process Development/Lean Manufacturing Project

14. Sample Results of Real Case Studies • One task was to collect and analyze one or more Microsoft Project files • Few of the real case studies used Microsoft Project or any type of PM software • Only a couple of the 20 or more Project files students collected used any of the the cost or human resource management features, and if they did, they were used improperly • Many Project files had terrible WBSs – often had no hierarchy at all • Most files did not have tasks linked properly, include milestones, or use tracking features • Only one project used critical path analysis properly

15. Sample Project File for a Conference

16. Resource Histogram from Project File

17. More Results from Analyzing Real Cases Studies • Few companies had a project charter • Few companies used a WBS, but most had “lists” of what needed to be done • Some companies had some form of a schedule, but few used true Gantt charts • Few mentioned using resource histograms, Pareto diagrams, or other common tools taught in most PM courses

18. Best Approach To Learning PM Is Using Real, Real-time Projects, But Short Cases Help • Ideally it’s best to apply what you are learning about project management to a real project • Students prefer real projects, and you can usually find lots of them, especially from students themselves (see examples on my personal web site, first bullet) • Students can select real projects, create charters, WBSs, schedules, cost estimates, deliver products, write lessons learned, etc. • Short fictitious case studies, however, help people practice skills in a safe environment

19. Paper On Using Case Studies Available • I’ll be giving a variation of this presentation at the PMI National Conference in Nashville • Conference proceedings include a paper comparing advantages and disadvantages of using various types of case studies in teaching project management

20. Final thought: Remember that we all influence our future leaders… Scott Schwalbe – Future Governor?