ISYS90050 – IT Project and Change Management Semester 2, 2021 School of Computing and Information Systems Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology P a g e | 1 Assignment 2 Managing Conflict Challenges Assignment Aims: This assignment is aimed at: gaining a practical understanding of the issues involved in project management, including the handling of conflict situations; and developing the ability to resolve project management issues under pressure and within a short time frame, as project conditions change. This assignment is worth 25% towards your final assessment for this subject. This is an individual assignment. Requirement: There are five questions in this assignment. You are required to address each question separately. The entire assignment should be not more than 2000 words (around 3 to 4 pages), excluding the references. Assignment Release date: 30th September 2021, 17:30 AEST Submission Date: 11th October 2021, 17:30 AEDT Submit all your queries for the assignment on the discussion forum in CANVAS and one of us will answer them. Assessment (learning outcomes): Assessment is based on the quality of your: analysis of the information provided; depth of understanding of the scenarios involved; ability to assess a situation and suggest different strategies and; reasoning as to how and why you will use one or more strategies to resolve situations ability to write up a solution strategy systematically While you may discuss the problems with your classmates, you must not show written solutions to another student or use written solutions from another student. Failure to reference sources or using the work of another student are examples of plagiarism, and may result in zero marks for this assignment, and you will be reported to the Faculty of Engineering and IT misconduct disciplinary committee. You are reminded that your submission for this project is to be your own individual work (University of Melbourne library guide to referencing: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite). For most people, collaboration will form a natural part of the undertaking of this project. However, it is still an individual task, and so re-use of others’ information will be considered misconduct. We will check submissions for originality and will invoke the University’s Academic Misconduct policy (http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au/policy.html) where inappropriate levels of collusion or plagiarism appear to have taken place. A cover sheet is provided. You are required to sign and submit the cover sheet as part of the assignment. Late submissions: A 10% penalty will be applied for each ‘late’ day and no late submissions will be accepted 5 days after the deadline. ISYS90050 – IT Project and Change Management Semester 2, 2021 School of Computing and Information Systems Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology P a g e | 2 Case Study Scenario: (25 Marks) Imagine that you are the Project Manager for a software company in Australia. Your company wins a contract with the Victorian Government to design and develop a ‘QR Code Access’ system that allows people to (1) scan a QR Code when entering a venue/location; (2) track and maintain the records in a database that is used for contact tracing by Government authorities to limit COVID-19 spread in the community. The project timeline is 12 months. This project is on a tight budget and schedule. As a part of gathering requirements for the project, you are introduced to Jill, who is one of the stakeholders from the Victorian Government. You are told that Jill will help with the requirements gathering for this project, and be a liaison with other important stakeholders. Jill simply provides you with a list of 30 concepts on what she thinks is required to develop the QR Code Access system – a list she believes is accurate. The list is vague and does not clearly identify the functional and non-functional requirements. You realize that the requirements provided to you do not capture a holistic view of the project objectives and stakeholder needs. When Jill actually emails or makes a Zoom contact to discuss the project, she provides you with a new list of requirements every time. This behavior has been happening for the past four months. You are now five months into the project. You still have not been able to talk to the other stakeholders except for Jill. She repeatedly says that she has spoken to all the clients/stakeholders and produces a new list of requirements every time you meet or via email. You are concerned that the stakeholders’ changing requirements for the new application is leading to ‘scope creep’, schedule and budget blow out. You try to dismiss some of the changing new requirements by saying “Jill, we are not sure we can provide this functionality”. Jill says, “I understand you. Do what you can”. But it does not seem to stop Jill from adding new and vague requirements every time you meet her. Based on some of her requirements, your team designs a prototype and presents it during a stakeholder steering committee meeting. During the presentation, some of the stakeholders are unhappy. It gets worse when Jill and one of her co-workers suggest another design based on a webpage, which they have simply downloaded off the Internet. The entire presentation and discussion get side tracked. You and your team members are confused. The frequently changing requirements, request for change in design, and unhappy stakeholders is putting pressure on the budget and timelines for task completions among your team members. To make matters worse, your supervisor Glen has the reputation of being a “yes man”. At meetings with senior management in the company, he always agrees to take on new projects. Due to Glen’s unconditional ‘willingness to take on new projects, he has a good reputation with senior management in your company. As a project manager, you know that whatever the “yes man” agrees to do, never actually gets accomplished. The only reason why Glen’s projects / additional responsibilities are completed is because of the considerable work done by your team members (who work over-time with no compensation). You start to observe that the team is resentful. You and your team members are putting in extra hours with no pay to meet deadlines and please Glen. You are starting to feel the pressure, and there are too many fires to put out. One of your team members, Cathy, has had enough of this “yes man” Glen’s new projects/tasks, and the changing requirements from Jill. She comes to you for help. Cathy communicates her issues about working long hours and not being paid for the extra work. She also indicates that the pressures to complete the tasks are starting to affect her mental health. She is also upset with you and the team contacting her on weekends and before / after work hours. She says she’s had enough with the changing requirements, and new tasks thrown to her and the team. She asks you to address the matter with Glen, and also with Jill. While you contemplate the matter for days and provide no response to Cathy, the weekly scheduled team meeting comes up. You chair the meeting. During this meeting, Cathy, in a fit of rage raises her concerns. She says, “This is ridiculous! We can’t possibly have the new product ready in time! What do the rest of you think Is everyone else stupid enough to think we’ll be ready Especially when we seem to be losing direction on this project, while trying to work on Glen’s requests to develop a Sensor Monitoring System, which is not a part of our tasks; And Jill coming up with new requirements all the time; ISYS90050 – IT Project and Change Management Semester 2, 2021 School of Computing and Information Systems Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology P a g e | 3 I’m starting to get stressed and sick with all this over-time; I feel anxious when I see messages and emails come to me on weekends about work; this has to stop”. Others in the team agree with Cathy, voices are raised, and the meeting is not happening as per the agenda. The following day, you meet Cathy in the corridor. You say, “Cathy, you should not have raised your concerns at the meeting. You were unreasonable”. Cathy is furious and starts to argue with you. There is now a conflict between you and Cathy. Cathy decides to call in sick for the next two days. Some of Cathy’s work is unfinished, which means the other team members can’t complete their tasks as per the schedule because, their tasks are dependent on Cathy’s task. When Cathy returns, she avoids communicating with you. Instead, she meets with your supervisor Glen and complains about you, stating that you don’t have control on the project and the team. At one of the senior management meetings in your company the following week, Glen says to you, “What’s going on with the Sensor Monitoring System and QR Code Access projects It seems you have problems managing your team. Cathy has complained to me about the way the project is heading and your incompetence in managing the project to a successful on-time and on-budget completion”. Hearing this from Glen, you are taken aback and your mind is racing wondering, “Why has Cathy complained about me to Glen Why could she not talk to me How am I going to tell Glen that he is the problem ”. It seems there are some problems for you to resolve: (1) Jill and her changing requirements and new ideas for the design of the system; (2) Cathy being unhappy and flaring up during the meeting, which in turn impacting on the entire team; (3) Cathy complaining about you to Glen and (4) Glen questioning your competence. Address these questions: 1. As the Project manager, what could you have done to avoid Jill’s changing requirements and the scope creep that has affected the budget and schedule of the project (5 marks) 2. Now that things are in a mess with the project, as the Project Manager, how will you move forward in the project Will you re-design the prototype based on Jill’s new design idea, which she showed at the presentation Why/Why not Explain how you will convince or provide some value proposition to your stakeholders (3+ 3 marks) 3. While you can’t always prevent conflict in meetings or between team members, on hindsight, how could you have handled matters better to avoid Cathy’s outburst at the meeting (4 marks). 4. Now that matters have flared up, how will you resolve this conflict and manage Cathy and the team effectively Be systematic in the way you explain how you will deal with Cathy and the team members. (6 marks) 5. While you agree with Cathy about Glen being the ‘yes man’, explain how you would handle Glen, keeping in mind that he is your supervisor (4 marks) [Hint: Use the five-step process of conflict resolution that is provided in your lecture notes to guide you through these questions. While answering the above questions, always ask yourself the “what”; “why”; “when” and “how” questions as a guide to help you explain or justify]
