Discussion 2

 for 2 students 

Reflection and Discussion Forum Week 2

Reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Identify what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding.

450 words plus 

Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

1. Consider a medium-sized company that has decided to begin using project management in a wide variety of its operations.  As part of their operational shift, they are going to adopt a project management office somewhere within the organization.  Make an argument for the type of PMO it should adopt (weather station, control tower, or resource pool).  What are some of the key decision criteria that will help it determine which model makes most sense?


2. Compare and contrast the organizational cultures at Amazon and Google.  Imagine if you were in charge of a project team at both companies.  How might your approach to managing a project, developing your team, and coordinating with different functional departments differ at the two firms?

Activity 2

You are a member of the senior management staff at XYZ Corporation.  You have historically been using a functional structure set up with five departments: finance, human resources, marketing, production, and engineering. 

1. Create a drawing of your simplified functional structure, identifying the five departments.


2. Assume you have decided to move to a project structure.  What might be some of the environmental pressures that would contribute to your belief that it is necessary to alter the structure?


3. With the project structure, you have four projects currently ongoing: stereo equipment, instrumentation and testing equipment, optical scanners, and defense communications.


4. Draw the new structure that creates these four projects as part of the organizational chart.