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This case deals with several types of uncertainties faced by project team in an oil company north east in India. These challenges and uncertainties are in the areas drawing approval, supply chain, critical equipment availability, soll type, control room, soil type, employee availability, environmental clearances, safety and wildlife clearances. This project demonstrates the ownership issues, why it is difficult to complete a project on time in the Northeast of India or why public sector project gets delayed.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

1) illustrate the project management failures that contributed to the fire accident at Grenfell using a fishbone diagram;

2) identify and classify the power and influence of various stakeholders involved in a brownfield project using a relevant framework; and

3) elaborate the need for following effective stakeholder management processes and project leadership, especially in the context of a refurbishment/renovation project.

On 14th June 2017, the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London, UK, caught fire. The fire raged for 60 h and around 72 people lost their lives. Many criticized the response of the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and their lack of preparedness to respond to such an emergency. There were calls for Dany Cotton, the Chief of LFB, to resign. However, there had been a major cladding-related refurbishment at Grenfell, and subsequent investigations revealed that the use of combustible materials, a lack of compliance with the fire-safety norms and a blatant disregard for resident safety had contributed to the fire. The tragedy was a cumulative outcome of failure on two counts: effective project management and stakeholder management during the process of refurbishment, especially in the context of a low-cost housing project. Given this situation, this case considers whether Dany Cotton should own up to her responsibility and resign from her position. In the process, the case considers Grenfell refurbishment from the theoretical lens of project management in the construction management scenario to understand the factors that could have led to an “avoidable” tragedy.

Postgraduate students of construction management; final year undergraduate engineering students who have a foundational course on project management; and architects.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 2: Built environment.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to explore the challenges associated with Information System Project Management; to explore how to navigate certain Information System Project Management challenges and make recommendations on how to address them; and to evaluate the application of user-centred design.

This case looks at the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) Digitisation project that was initiated by Dr Ndiege, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, and a team of faculty at the School of Science and Technology, United States International University – Africa in Kenya. Dr Ndiege is considering the project in September 2020 and its future viability. The project called for computer science students to voluntarily assist in developing an online presence for local SMEs. The idea is to help cushion them against the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Ndiege looks at the details of the project through the eyes of team leader Sylvie Sarabwe and her encounters on the project. She leads a team of four students in a user-centered design to develop a website for social enterprise Kraft Therapy Foundation (KTF), located in Kibera slums within Nairobi County, Kenya. Sylvie must navigate the client relationship with KTF. But she soon starts to experience the difficulties involved with navigating this process. For Sylvie, it quickly dawns on her that a user-centred design project requires both hard and the soft skills to successfully deliver the final project. By the conclusion of the case, Dr Ndiege recognises the multitude of issues that this project ultimately faces.

The primary target audience for this teaching case is undergraduate information technology students, especially students in software application design and project management with little or no work experience. The case is clearly structured and the length of the case lends itself to the audience. It does not contain excessive or irrelevant information. Hence, learners have more time to focus on the application questions presented.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The case focuses on issues concerning infrastructure development by Jaypee Infratech Ltd. (JIL) in the context of emerging market of India. This is undertaken by employing the usage of strength weakness opportunity and threat analysis (SWOT) analysis, political, economical, sociological and technological analysis (PEST) analysis and Porter's Five Forces Model and competitor analysis. It also outlines the importance of financing model adopted with respect to Concessionaire Agreement drafted and executed towards making an infrastructure project financially viable so as to reduce the risk associated with infrastructure projects which requires huge investments and long gestation period. Further, it also highlights the importance of how future projects can be undertaken on the basis of public private partnership (PPP) model.

This case can be used as a teaching tool in the following courses: MBA/Post Graduate Program in Management in Management Accounting, Management Control Systems and Strategic Cost Management. It can be used to explain concepts of SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces Model analysis. Students are also introduced to the technique of financial analysis. Executive training programs for Middle- and Senior-level employees to explain the Infrastructure Financing and Concessionaire Agreement for infrastructure projects. Under-graduate/Post-graduate programs in Entrepreneurship.

JIL was established as a Special Purpose Vehicle in 2007 to execute the Yamuna Expressway project. Originally the contract was awarded to parent company Jai Prakash Associates Ltd. in 2003. The project entails financing, construction, operation, maintenance and collection of toll for 36 years and then transferring it back to Government of Uttar Pradesh of 165.5 km Yamuna Expressway, and subsequently development of 530-million square feet of area from five parcels of land earmarked along the expressway. The project highlights how a PPP infrastructure project can be made financially viable.

SWOT analysis was used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to a company. Also, application of Porter's Five Forces Model was done to analyze an industry. Determining quantitative terms like Long-Term Return on equity, Return on Capital Employed, Book Value vs Market value, Net Margins, Income Tax benefits enjoyed under section 80-IA and Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT); determining financial viability of an infrastructure project over its entire life cycle.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes

The Ariba Implementation at MED-X case is designed to teach students how to analyze a program that is experiencing problems and recommend solutions. Specifically, the case introduces students to earned value analysis and program oversight for an e-procurement technology program. The case centers on MED-X's need to quickly discover why the company's e-procurement implementation project was not going according to plan. Once a cause has been discovered, students will need to make a recommendation to fix the problem. Data for the simplified program, consisting of two concurrent projects, is given to students, who should in turn analyze the project using earned value analysis. The case is an easy introduction to program management and oversight for executives and MBA students, and teaches the essentials of earned value project management.

Students will learn how to control and act in oversight of large complex programs, as well as how to apply earned value metrics to analyze a simplified program consisting of two projects. Analyzing the project enables students to learn the strengths and pitfalls of the earned value approach. From a management decision perspective, the case gives students the tools to succinctly answer the questions: How much will the project cost? How long will it take? What is wrong with the project?

In January 1993, the senior management committee of this company has to decide which major projects the company should fund for immediate implementation. The board of directors arbitrarily set a limit of European currency units (ECU) at 80 million to spend on capital projects in 1993. But various managers have proposed projects totaling ECU208 million. Students must evaluate the completed discounted cash flow (DCF) analyses presented along with qualitative factors (mainly the strategic considerations and the internal politics of the company) and choose the projects to be approved.

The case examines one of the most significant infrastructure projects in southeastern Europe during a time when the legal and financial environment for project financing was in its infancy (early to mid-1990s). Athens needed a ring road to support its bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games. The road was technically—as well as logistically—complex, involving 33 municipalities and construction that involved a major metropolitan area (Athens) populated by more than 3.5 million inhabitants. The case examines the economics of the project, how private-public partnerships (PPPs) are structured, and the broader field of infrastructure finance.

International management control and organisational behaviour.

This case is suitable for final year undergraduate and Master's students as well as for the general practitioner. It is suitable for the university course program and for in-company training seminars. For company training seminars, the human resources department and finance would most probably benefit from the discussion of the case.

This case was about a company that was eager to expand its business internationally as it gains success in the home market. Having being entrusted by the company CEO to lead the project, the enthusiastic “project champion” lavishly spent the company investments with minimal control from the parent company.

After carrying out this exercise, students are expected to be able to: first, decide a firm mode of entry, scale of entry and strategic commitment; second, determine the market potential of a particular business venture; third, suggest the management structure and control for international subsidiaries; fourth, decide the possible exit strategy of a business venture.

Teaching notes.

The case concerns a real $25 million program consisting of nine concurrent projects to deliver and implement a custom-built in-store customer relationship management (CRM) system and a new point-of-sale system in 400 stores of a national retail chain. The name of the company has been disguised for confidentiality reasons. Once deployed, the new system should give Clothes ‘R’ Us a significant strategic advantage over competitors in the marketplace; it will increase in-store manager productivity, cut costs, and ultimately drive increased sales for the retail chain. The program is in crisis, however, because the product managers have just left to join a competitor. The explicit details of the program are given, including examples of best practice program governance and the real activity network diagram for the program. Detailed Excel spreadsheets are also provided with the actual earned value data for the program. Students analyze the spreadsheets and the data given in the case to diagnose the impact of the most recent risk event and past risk events that occurred in the program. Ultimately students must answer the essential executive questions: What is wrong with the program? How should it be fixed, and what is the impact in time and money to the program? In addition, qualitative warning signs are given throughout the case—these warning signs are red flags to executives for early proactive intervention in troubled projects.

The goal of the case is to teach complex program oversight. Students analyze actual earned value data for a real $25 million program consisting of nine concurrent programs and assess the impact of risk events as they occur in the program. A key takeaway of the case is that relatively simple tools (Excel spreadsheets and time tracking) combined with good project planning can be used to effectively control very complex projects. Students also learn the qualitative warning signs within programs that can serve as early indicators of problems.

This case deals with steps taken by NTPC in construction and project management in 500 MW power plant. The project have several innovative ways of managing challenges, in land acquisition, design, implementation, contract worker management, enforcement of safety rules, managing regulation iand in team building in leadership. A suitable case for site management, it shows in spite of being a public sector undertaking, how the project was constructed in record time of 42 months.