organizational behavior and planning the project 1

Organizational Behavior

1

1. You have been hired as the manager of a casual dining restaurant. After a few days on the job, you notice that one server, Graham, seems to be unhappy and his attitude might be spreading. Please articulate what plan of action you would take to address Graham’s attitude. What is the reasoning for your actions?

The assignment is to answer the question provided above in essay form. This is to be in narrative form. Bullet points should not to be used. The paper should be at least 1.5 – 2 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and utilizing at least one outside scholarly or professional source related to organizational behavior. This does not mean blogs or websites. This source should be a published artifcle in a scholarly journal. This source should provide substance and not just be mentioned briefly to fulfill this criteria. The textbook should also be utilized. Do not use quotes. Do not insert excess line spacing. APA formatting and citation should be used.

Planning the Project

2

  1. Software project decision point.
    1. You need to determine an interest rate to use—select an interest rate and explain why you think this number should be used. Use it in your calculations in item 1.2.
    2. Given the information below on options 1 and 2, carry out three forms of analysis: breakeven, ROI, and NPV.
    3. Make a recommendation on which way to proceed, based on the TCO for each option.
  • Option 1: Purchase the FunSoft package: Cost $200,000 for software and $85,000 for hardware in year one; with $50,000 to customize it and a $40,000 annual licensing fee for the life of the contract. There will be an annual saving of $61,000 due to the layoff of a clerk.
  • Option 2: Purchase the SoftComm package, which will operate on the vendor’s hardware: Cost $250,000 for a five-year license, payable half up front and half during the first year of implementation. The maintenance contract, at $75,000 a year, includes all currently identified modifications to the software for the first three years. The clerk’s hours will be cut by half, for a saving of $25,000 a year.

In both cases, sales are expected to increase from the current $1 million a year, by 10% per year each year (over each year’s previous year’s sales) after full implementation.

Assume a five-year life for the software.

The assignment is to answer the question provided above in essay form. This is to be in narrative form. Bullet points should not to be used. The paper should be at least 1.5 – 2 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and utilizing at least one outside scholarly or professional source related to Planning the Project.2-3 references and no plagiarism.

3

Question 1

1. Go online and find at least two sites with definitions of fast tracking and crashing a project schedule.

  1. Prepare proper reference citations for the sites you located, using APA style.
  2. In your own words, write definitions for project fast tracking and project crashing.
  3. Consider the plan you prepared for the software system testing project in question 1 above. If you were informed by management that you must reduce the planned duration of the project by five days, describe how you, as a project manager, could crash or fast track this project. Be specific in identifying exactly what could be changed in the project plan for each option.
  4. (continuation of question 2.3) If the request to speed up the project occurs after day 25 of the original schedule, what is the only option available?

Question 2

2. Go online and research the difference between total slack and free slack.

  1. Prepare proper reference citations for the sites you located, using APA style.
  2. Write definitions of total slack and free slack in your own words.
  3. Why would the distinction between different forms of slack be important to a project manager?

Question 3

A project to put on a major international sporting competition has the following major deliverables: Sports Venues, Athlete Accommodation, Volunteer Organization, Security, Events, and Publicity (which has already been broken down into pre-event publicity and post-event publicity.) Prepare a WBS for any single major deliverable on the list. Remember the 100 percent rule, and number your objectives.

The assignment is to answer the question provided above in essay form. This is to be in narrative form. Bullet points should not to be used. The paper should be at least 1.5 – 2 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and utilizing at least one outside scholarly or professional source related to Planning the Project. 2-3 references and no plagiarism.