| CASE 1 |
A project organization was established to develop a new design concept for marketing materials for study programmes at a university. The project scope was clearly defined and the project was managed very professionally and in line with common project management practices.
During the project process, it was decided that the marketing materials should be produced using an alternative type of software from the originally planned in order to enable a more distinctive design. This did not influence the main task of the project team which was to develop a new design concept as well as to seek approval for the concept from various decision makers. However, the project manager realized that no decisions had been made on who would use the new software or how to train them. While these decisions were clearly outside the defined project scope, it was imperative for project success that decisions were made and action taken by someone to address this oversight. If not it would be impossible to generate the stipulated benefits since no one at the university would be able to use the software. The project manager discussed the situation with the project owner who was also in charge of HR development at the university. They agreed that the university should appoint a team to operate the software on a permanent basis while the HR department should develop and offer a training course in the software. The tasks were still seen as outside the responsibilities of the project team. But the project scope was extended to include a dialogue with these stakeholders about operating the software and training the users so that the stakeholders were able to undertake these new tasks. The project owner acted as a spokesperson in this situation as she had best access to the HR development department and the heads of the faculties.
CASE ANALYSIS
The case example illustrates a situation in which the project manager and the project team successfully managed the project – meaning that they delivered the agreed deliverable, a new design concept approved by the relevant decision makers, on time and within budget. However, they overlooked in their planning the fact that choosing software that was not familiar to the employees who were going to work with the marketing materials had implications for the project product success. The employees would not be able to use the design concept without proper training in the new software and, as a result, the stipulated benefits would not be generated. It also became clear that new project stakeholders, for example the HR department, needed to be involved in order to obtain the benefits. Some of the additional tasks were best taken care of by organizational units outside the project organization, for example the head of the faculties and the HR department.