Diary of an IT Project Leader

A Case Study on Project Management

Leadership
Case study
Reference no 909-002-1
This case was written by Pradeep Hari Pendse, Welingkar Institute of
Management Development and Research. It is intended to be used as the basis
for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective
handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published
sources.
2009, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research.
No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted, reproduced
or distributed in any form or medium whatsoever without the permission
of the copyright owner.
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Diary of an IT Project Leader
a Case Study on Project Management Leadership
Developed by Pradeep H Pendse


About the author : Pradeep Pendse is a Professor and Dean for IT, ebusiness and Business Design at the
Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai, India. Welingkar is among the
top 20 B-Schools in India. Prof Pradeep Pendse has over 25 yeas experience which includes as a CIO, IT
Consultant, founder director of a software company and a prolific trainer and academician. He is the author
of a unique book on Business Analysis (Prentice Hall India, 2008) and was awarded the Dewang Mehta
Award for Best IT Teacher in B-Schools (2008). He is well known for 2 unique training programs viz
Project Leadership and Business Analysis. This case forms part of these workshops and has been
conducted for over 2000 IT Project leaders, Project Managers, CIOs, Business Analysts, Pre Sales and
Account managers in IT industry in India. He has also used this case extensively while teaching his MBA,
MCA and other masters level programs.

Introduction and Objectives of this Case :

This case is about the development of a MRPII solution for Major Insulators Ltd a leading Insulator in
India.

The purpose of the case is to
Highlight and sensitize participants to various issues and challenges faced in managing the
development of an enterprise application.
To highlight key issues in managing customer needs and expectations
To bring in perspectives from the point of view of a Software development company.
create awareness about project management and leadership behaviours required at each stage of a
project lifecycle to succeeed in projects
sensitise participants to the business and monetary implications of project related decisions
expose participants to the challenge of planning a project and emphasise the sheer breadth and
depth of thought required to plan a project

Target audience :

The case has been successfully used for workshops conducted by the author for project leaders, project
managers, Transition Managers CIOs, Business Analysts and Functional Consultants, Presales and senior
developers making a transition to project management roles.

At the time of writing the author has used the case for over 2000 IT professionals from Indian IT industry
plus several thousand students of the MBA, MCA, BSc and MSc programmes.

Using the Case :

The case has been presented in the form of a Diary of a Project Manager. It captures the flow of events
over the lifecycle of a project on a week by week basis.

Participants should read the case to understand the overall facts of the case. They can then read the
questions for case discussion and read the case once again. This time they should make a note of significant
points in the case which may help them form an opinion in response to the discussion questions . They
would also need these points to serve as illustration/evidence of to support their claim.

The case would involved two parts :
Case Discussion
Group Exercise on Project Planning based on the facts of the case and the learnings during the
discussion.


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Basic Facts of the Case :

Major Insulators Ltd (herein after referred to as MIL) is one of the leading manufacturer of insulators
in India. It supplies insulators to Electrical Companies, OEMs and Power Boards. It exports a large
percentage of its output across all continents. MIL has a Group corporate office in Mumbai and factory
in interior Rajasthan. Travel and communication is a bit of a problem. Hence the factory is head by an
Executive Director who has sufficient authority and is self sufficient for all operational issues at the
factory. Interaction with the Group HO is for strategy, policy and certain functions such as Marketing
and Sales, Corporate Communications, Finance, Group HR and for MIS for the MD/Chairman.

MIL has hired Expert Infotech to develop a comprehensive Integrated software covering all aspects of
manufacturing at its factory. Expert Infotech has had extensive experience in developing software
particularly in manufacturing. Most of these were developed in conventional client server technologies
using Visual Basic, Oracle Developer 2000 etc. For the past few years. Expert Infotech has done
several intranet/web based projects using primarily Active Server Pages/Microsoft platform. Expert
Infotech views MIL as a client who will help create a generic MRPII product suitable to atleast the
ceramic industry. It also hopes that individual modules of this product can be sold separately for
smaller clients.

The Software is being developed using Java Server Pages (JSP) considering that JSP will work both
under Linux as well as Microsoft technologies making the product more generic.

Expert has 3 Project Leaders with sufficient experience in Manufacturing industry and web
applications.

Sachin is the senior most among them with nearly 10 years of development experience and past 5
years as a Project leader almost reaching the level of a project Manager. The company therefore
entrusts Sachin with the responsibility of managing the project while taking care of the Planning &
Production modules which are his area of expertise. PHP, the GM of Expert has seen Sachin and the
other PLs over the past several years and has no doubt about their commitment and loyalty to the
organisation. He is quite sure that they will not leave the organisation mid way in the project and
perform to the best of their abilities. However he knows their limitations but hopes that given the
challenge and excitement of the new project they will rise above these limitations.
GM hands over the commercial proposals and the initial scope documents written to explain to the
client the broad scope , the various modules and the effort , costs and roles and responsibilities at each
end.

The assignment of Modules is as follows :
Sachin is asked to care of Planning and Production Modules + Manage the overall project
Arnav is asked to take care of Marketing and Finished Goods Despatch Modules
Gurudas is asked to take up Maintenance Module
Purchase and Stores Modules do not have a Project Leader to begin with Perhaps Gurudas can
handle it later
Sandeep is asked to learn JSP and work on generic tools and beans
Allocation of programmers to be based on effort estimate and a 4 months timeframe for coding.
Programmers to be hired as and when required.

The project had to be managed within the following Constraints :
Physical space at Dev Centre in Central Mumbai can accommodate 8 developers
Physical space at Dev Centre in suburban Mumbai can accommodate a team of 8
Hardware to be hired as and when required
GM, PM/PLs were permanent employees of the company.
The rest of the project team to be hired as and when required.
There is a cash flow constraint of around Rs. 4.5 Lakhs per month
The project is a fixed price contract worth Rs. 50 Lakhs which includes technical support for
during implementation phase.

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A few Technical Terms :

MRP II this is Manufacturing Resources Planning the solution integrates all aspects of
manufacturing including planning and forecasting, scheduling, production, Material and finished
products stores, dispatch and factory invoicing etc. This is a precursor to ERP i.e. Enterprise
Resource Planning which integrates many other functional aspects such as Finance, HR,
Marketing etc
Beans generalized software components which can be used in multiple programs within the
same application or across many application eg a Bean for calculating Interest in a Banking
application could be used in many situations. Beans can be developed for technical tasks such
accessing databases etc or for business functions such as interest calculation described earlier. By
developing such generic software components one can reuse them for several application
programs thereby reducing software development effort.
MCA trainees : Students of Masters Degree in Computer Applications who work as interns.
Students could from other programs such as MBA, MCM etc are also represented here.

The Project Begins :

With great fanfare Sachin kicks of the project by meeting the Head of the clients factory. The factory
is located in a remote location in Rajasthan. The Factory head calls a meeting of all the departmental
heads and briefs them about the project. Sachin outlines the steps that they would follow during the
project lifecycle. The users are ok with the concept of a lifecycle. Despite Sachins request for a
defined specification the users insist that some changes may come and it may not be possible to
identify everything during specification stage. The meeting ends with out a definite conclusion.
However Sachin has conveyed to them that there is a need for a defined specification. He has also
conveyed that he and his other PLs would study various modules and prepare a document which could
be jointly signed off. They would also prepare Screen designs and show them for approvals. The
modules would be ready for delivery in about 6-8 months from the date of the kickoff meeting. The
users are satisfied and await the next step.

The details of modules, effort estimates etc is enclosed in Annexure.

The various events that follow during the execution of the project are :
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May PHP Receives verbal go ahead from client as early as mid-April.
PHP Receives formal Contract on 15
th
May
PHP calculates 6 months from May -> Oct end as the deadline for delivery of all modules
keeps a buffer of 2 months in case some module requires it.
PHP asks all PLs to work out Requirements Specs by End May
PHP/ PM decide not to install hardware nor hire people till specs are cleared
A rough working suggests that an average strength of 10 developers would be required over
the 6 month period and it may peak to 15/16 people during coding phase.
PHP visualises the need for generic libraries Identifies them asks Sachin to take it further
Sandeep learns JSP and tries out and demonstrates various approaches to development viz
applets & beans - PHP asks Sachin to use Sandeep to experiment with these technologies and
develop suitable reuseable code.
June Week 1
Sachin is busy studying requirements for Planning and Production None of the specs are yet
signed off.
Sandeep is a proven Developer who has learnt Java & JSP demonstrates use of Beans and
suggests that we write generalised beans so as to boost productivity of other programmers.
PHP assigns Sandeep the task to lead all activities relating to development of beans.
PHP assigns one new programmer to Sandeep to help develop beans. Allows him to work at
the Suburban Mumbai office since he has always worked here and can concentrate better.

Week 2 :
PM/PLs decide to write specs based on the desired solution to reduce time required. i.e. a
requirement cum functional specs
Sachin goes on Leave (15
th
June to 25th June) Urgent personal emergency
Sandeep continues work on Beans

Week 3 :
Gurudas goes on Leave (20
th
June scheduled to return by 25
th
June) Personal reasons
Arnav works on Specs for Marketing
Sandeep continues work on general Beans

Week 4 :
Sachin Resumes and continues work on requirements specs
PHP finds that there is considerable delay in freezing specs decides on a formal plan
requirement & functional specs signoffs to be over by end June
Coding to begin by 1
st
July
PHP reiterates commitment to Deliver by End Oct
User Managers on leave or not available during the week discussion & signoff postponed
by two weeks.

July Week 1 :
Requirement Cum Functional Specs ready - awaiting signoff
PHP suggests that Sachin and Arnav begin with Design work while awaiting formal signoffs.
Sandeep continues work on general beans

Week 2 :
Sachin visits factory and gets specs signed off , Arnav gets his specs okayed but not signed
off
PHP writes note to Client Factory Head to get specs certified quickly.
Specs signed and sent by users a few items still to be defined to be sent later
PHP realises that Sachin is still working as per the conventional style of design. Personally
Identifies application specific beans/business objects such as Item, Insulator etc and writes a
top level definition to help improve as well as speed up the process of design.
Sachin and Arnav complete part of low level Design


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Week 3 :
PHP Creates capacity to seat 8 developers + 2 PLs at Central mumbai office.
6 programmers Join need some orientation on JSP & beans Join on 15
th
July
Gurudas Extends leave but Returns around 15
th
July assigned the work of Maintenance
Specs and Purchase & Stores
Corp Office of Client company insist on review of specs Suggest changes mainly from the
point of view of meeting the real purpose of developing such an integrated solution ie
improving MIS, response to customer needs, trace of Quality parameters of each Insulator etc
Specs go back and forth between HO and plant Sachin cannot decide what to do since part
of low level design is completed

Week 4 :
Sachin, Arnav decide to roll out Design & program specs on a weekly basis for the coming
week Release program specs to new programmers for Master Maintenance.
PHP asks for a week wise plan for coding .
Writes to Users to Send Live Sample Transactions for preparing Test Cases
Sandeep completes most beans except Report writer which is left incomplete
PHP Transfers Sandeep to work with Sachin on application specific beans w.e.f 1
st
Aug.

Aug Week 1 :
PLs prepare weekly plans Formats of each PL differ PHP reconciles the same. Insists on a
format which he wishes to see hence forth.
Programmers slow during the previous 2 weeks. But complete almost all masters
Sachin & Arnav discover that programmers have not used the beans while developing the
masters ask them to do so
Sandeep trains new programmers on the use of his beans & libraries.
Programmers begin recoding masters
Gurudas Gets User signoff on Specs for the Maintenance Module. Begins work on
Stores/Purchase Specs.
Gurudas Assigned 1 programmer. Begins roll out of programme specs to 1 programmer

Week 2 :
PHP conducts a detailed review of complete design and looks for opportunities to generalise
the design to accommodate changes from MIL Management as well as for other prospective
clients- fortunately no major changes are involved Sachin, Arnav & Gurudas accommodate
these changes in their design
PHP realises the challenge ahead in terms of coding asks all PLs to rework all their effort
and size estimates for their modules to validate the possibility of completing by Oct end.
One Programmer found unsatisfactory asked to leave

Week 3
PHP conducts a detailed review of the progress of the project based on reworked estimates by
project leaders verifies the following refer annexure
o Whether initial estimates were OK vis a vis final estimates after low level design
o Cross Checks effort already put in i.e. manmonths vis-a-vis output delivered
o Assesses the amount of backlog of work in each module
o Checks what is the balance work in each module and whether it is feasible to
complete the same in the available time.
Review takes the entire Saturday.
PHP discovers that programming specs for Purchase & Stores are still pending since Gurudas
is still working on Maintenance Module with 1 programmer assigned to him.
PHP is waiting for Gurudas to complete specs so that he can ramp up a team of 8 developers
for the Maintenance and Stores/Purchase Modules at the new development center.
PHP Insists on third party of review of software developed till date Appoints Ravi a very
senior PM to conduct these reviews. Asks PLs and Ravi to plan the review.



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Week 4 :
Ravi conducts software reviews rework required
Major hardware crash at the Central mumbai office. Entire team loses 1 weeks work.
PHP reschedules review to 1
st
week of Sept when Sachin would resume
PHP insists on Functional Testing writes to users for sending sample transaction data
Bugs/changes detected in components coded by Sandeep - takes 1 week to correct
generates rework for other developers
PHP Hires 8 machines at new development centre at Suburban mumbai Office
PHP decides to take fresh MCAs MCAs need around 15 days to learn JSP very cost
effective and may be useful for future
Hires 1 programmer as replacement for the one who was sacked For Sachins Team

Sept Week 1
PHP Conducts Detailed Review refer annexure
Spends slightly more than half a day helps Sachin and Arnav to compute work done, backlog
& balance remaining to be done
Sachin (Planning & Production) still lags Sachin lags in giving programming specs.
Maintenance Module progressing as per plan Gurudas completes entire program specs for
Maintenance Module - To begin with design & Prog specs for Purchase/Stores in following
week
Asks PLs to identify any hidden factors by the next meeting since there are 6 more weeks to
correct the situation.
Purchase Stores Design /Programme Specs not ready yet
No programmers available yet for Purchase/ Stores
PHP Decides to postpone delivery of Purchase/Stores modules by 2 months i.e End Dec
still within client requirement
No buy in from Gurudas on fresh MCAs does not devote time to develop them
PHP gives dummy assignment fresh MCAs show promise

Week 2 :
PHP conducts detailed review of project status :- refer annexure
Spends slightly more than half a day helps Sachin and Arnav to compute work done, backlog
& balance remaining to be done Insists that they come prepare with these three figures for
subsequent meetings.
Marketing (Arnav) still has a backlog but sees possibility of completion by Oct 15
Planning & Production (Sachin) has the same backlog as last whole month however based
on the amount of pending work still confident of completing by 3
rd
week of Oct
Asks PLs to share any suppressed issues.
o Arnav mentions that users have still to define specs on module for computing
packing material requirements.
o Sachin mentions that he is not clear whether Ball Mill module is to be handled by
him or would be covered under Raw Material system.
o Gurudas points out that the presales modules are quite similar to pre-purchase. Since
Arnav has not developed application beans he has lost the opportunity to reuse part
that portion of the code.
o PHP agrees to take Ball Mill in Stores System. Gets users to write the specs for
Packing Material module.
PHP notes the relative productivity of the 3 teams sets a target for productivity and asks PLs
to use all time buffers such as Sundays, late evenings etc to complete the modules earlier
Only Purchase/Stores Module has to be targetted for Dec.
Arnav feels his team may not agree to work on Sunday or late evenings. PHP asks all PLs to
share the project status with the team and emphasises the need for stretching and ensuring that
weekly plans are met without exception. Arnav expresses concern and suggests that PHP
directly speak to his team PHP asks Arnav to first try at his level.
PHP asks all PLs to display prominently the weekly schedules on the Pinup Board
Gurudas gets 3 new senior programmers Join on 15
th
Sept.
PHP is contemplating to relocate 2 programmers from Planning and Production to
Purchase & Stores considering that both these modules seem to be within delivery schedule
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and also to boost up Gurudass team
PHP realises that most modules viz Marketing/FG Warehousing, Planning/Production &
Maintenance are reaching report coding stage Realises that Report Writer Bean has not been
completed
Diverts Sandeep for 1 week for completing report writer
PHP asks Gurudas to give live assignment to the new MCAs Gurudas satisfied with
outcome.

Week 3 :
Spends about 2 hours to review
Gurudas has a team of 2 MCAs + 3 Sr Programmers. He also has a Jr programmer working
on Maintenance
Productivity increases but not as much as expected. Output Increases Gurudass team
generates some output though well below average.
Productivity is expected to increase new programmers have past experience of JSP and are
very confident - MCAs have done well during the past 2 weeks and can be relied on
PHP asks PLs whether they have been able to stretch the team. Is dissappointed. Insists on
atleast two hours extra work (no overtime) per day and compulsory work on 2 forthcoming
Sundays Addresses the teams directly and explains the need and evokes their support to the
project.
PHP asks PLs to Display on the notice Board the productivity of each team member and
overall for their team. All boards are placed adjoining each other the difference in
performance of each team is glaring. PHP asks them to achieve the targetted productivity.

Week 4 :
Spends around 2 hours to Review the project .
Reviews the work completed, backlog and balance remaining. Is quite satisfied. Feels that if
this pace is continued or increased further all modules except Stores and Purchase should be
ready by mid Oct. Also Contemplates shifting 2 programmers from Sachin by mid Oct and
shifting them to Gurudas.
With Just 4 weeks to go for the deadline reviews the project from the point of view of the
basic purpose
o to provide a consolidate view of an Order right through the manufacturing process,
o To help dynamically plan material requirements based on changing Order priorities,
o to get a consolidate view of all the stages , quality data etc of each insulator made in
the plant.
Sachin agrees that that Insulator view has not been taken care of while Arnav agrees that
he needs to integrate some of his work with Sachins to create the Order Status View for the
Executive Director at the factory.
PHP asks PLs to add these additional Views to their task list and re-asses whether they can
complete their modules by mid Oct.

Oct > ???




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Exercise Based on Project Diary


Case Discussion : Broad Areas for Discussion

(Suggested Time : 2 Hours)

What seems to have gone wrong in the project and the way it was managed ?
What seems to have gone right ?
What were the risks faced during the project ?
Comment on the role played by Arnav, Gurudas, Sandeep, Sachin and PHP
What is the present status of the Project ?
When is it likely to get over ?
Summarise the Learnings from the above Case Study

Exercise on Planning :

(Suggested time : 3 House)

The discussion would have lead to identification of several issues faced in managing a large project. With
the benefit of the learnings from this discussion and your own experience of projects in general, work out
a project plan de novo. Use the following data from the case as is :
The date of verbal go ahead for the project
The date of formal contract
The end date as indicated by the customer
The scope of the project and the effort required for the project as a whole as well as for each
module as indicated in the project tracking chart
The Fixed Price of the project
The constraints such as location of offices, cash flow limit etc
The Key resources viz, Sachin, Girish, Arnav , Sandeep and PHP

The cost of the resources (primarily monthly salary) was as follows :
MCA Trainees - Rs 10,000 per month
Developers - Rs 20,000 per month
Sr Developers / JSP Expert Rs 30,000/- per month
Project Leaders Rs 50,000 per month
Project Manager (Supervises Multiple Projects) Rs 1,00,000 per month
Cost of hired computer Rs 2000 per machine per month


Make suitable assumptions and work out a completely new plan and present the same in the following
manner :

Assumptions made
Schedule in the form of a Gantt Chart
Resource chart
Computation of Contribution from the project (i.e. project profit/loss statement)

You can make any realistic assumptions for example you could decide on a particular software lifecycle
model or decide to hire a JSP expert since the project team is new to this technology or you could have one
more Project leader . However ensure that these assumptions are then stated clearly and their impact in
terms of the schedule and cost is completed reflected.

Annexure to Project Diary


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Client : MIL Phase I
Project Tracking
System



Manmonths - By Module
and Month

As on : 30-Sep-01


Month


Module Cumm May June July Aug
Sept
Oct Nov Dec



Masters Proposal 6


& Beans PLs estimate 7.5


Actual Effort 9.5 2 4 3
0.5

Work Completed 8 0 5 2.5
0.5




Marketing Proposal 15


& W/H PLs estimate 14


Actual Effort 11 1 1 3 3
3

Work Completed 9 0 0 2 3
4




Planning/Production Proposal 15


PLs estimate 16


Actual Effort 14.5 1 1 3 5
4.5

Work Completed 12 0 0 2 3.5
6.5




Maintenance Proposal 8.5


PLs estimate 8.5


Actual Effort 9 0 1 1.5 1.5
5

Work Completed 5 0 0 0.5 1.5
3




Stores Proposal 26


PLs estimate 24.5


Actual Effort 1.5 0 0.5 0.5
0.5

Work Completed 0





Total Proposal 75.5


PLs estimate 70.5


Actual Effort 45.5 4 7 11 10
13.5
0 0

Work
Completed 34 0 5 7 8

14 0 0