1. Analyze the five proposals and make recommendations based on expected costs.
The project manager received a total of five proposals at the end of the week. Reviewing the above proposals, and considering the existing conditions, it is easy to see that the first three proposals are the most promising. The last two take assume too much, and if used, they could lead to delays, and unnecessary, costly penalties. Because there is a high probability that the project might be delayed by the strike and the adverse weather in December, the company can do with a lot of extra time. Therefore, proposal one and three seems more promising in this context; but proposal one costs 20, 000 dollars more. Proposal three, on the other hand, only costs 9, 000 dollars; it would be advisable to pick proposal three as it will deliver more time at a lesser cost.
2. What other basis might be used to make a decision besides expected costs? What then might the decision be?
There are several bases on which project mangers can use to come to decisions. According to the project management triangle these are time, scope, cost and quality (‘Project Management Triangle’). If the project manager, in this case, was basing his decisions on the time allocated to finish a project. Activities in a project can either take longer or shorter period of time to be completed. In this case, the project manager needs his project to be completed in a year. Without the highlighted challenges, it would have been possible to finish the project in time. However, since several issues are available that have the ability to elongate the allocated period of time, the manager has to make a decision that will ensure that the time remains unaffected. The manager can a make a decision to increase the number of people working on the project, he can also decide to choose only the experienced workers to work on his project, or he might even decide to pick only the skilled workers (‘Project Management Triangle’). Each one of these decisions would considerably decrease the amount of time the project takes to be completed.
3. What other factors might enter into the decision such as behavioral, political or organizational?
Decision making is based on three cornerstones; the decision maker, the process of making the decision, and the decision itself. These three cornerstones can be affected by other factors some of which include behavior, the culture of an organization, and politics (Bocquet, Cardinal and Mekhilef 1175- 1183). For example, the behavior of the employees working on the project can affect the decisions the manager makes of increasing workers and shifts. If the behavior of the workers fosters such behaviors as working hard and skillfully, then the manager might just decide to add more shifts and retain the number of workers on the site. However, if the workers are not hard working or skilful enough, the manager might decide to add more workers who are skilful and hardworking. Politics can also affect the decisions the manger makes. For example, the type of workers a company gets, skilful, experienced, or hard working might be determined by politics of the union. In the same way, politics can affect the duration of the project, and, therefore, the decisions made through such things as strike. Organizational culture can also affect decisions. It can affect the number of shifts assigned for the project as well as the number of employees appointed to work on the project.
4. What decisions would you make as the president?
If I were the company president, my focus would be solely on finishing the project in time, by fifteenth of February the next year. As it follows, I would increase the number of shifts to three so as to increase the amount of time I have for the project. I would also increase the number of workers to include other skilled and experienced workers who would ensure that the project gets completed within time, and to make sure that the quality of the project is high. I would invest a little more on these decisions, as they are the best options to expedite the project.
Works cited
Bocquet, Jean-Claude, Cardinal, Julie Stal-Le and Mounib Mekhilef. ‘A systematic decision
approach for capitalizing dysfunctions in design processes.’ Proceedings of DETC ’99 in
Las Vegas, Nevada (1999):1175–1183.
‘Project Management Triangle.’ Tutorials Point. Com. Web. 12 August 2011.
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_management_triangle.htm
