discussion

 
Read chapters 5, 6, and 7 before starting the discussions. Discuss the following questions:
Q1. Your company is considering switching from a top-down budgeting process to a bottom-up process. As a project manager in the company’s new product development group, you are in favor of a being able to create budgets utilizing a bottom-up method and have been asked to share the reasons for your preference at the next senior management planning meeting. What benefits of bottom-up budgeting will you highlight to senior management? How might you respond to upper management’s concerns that bottom-up budgets are often more costly than top-down budgets?
Q2. You’re managing your first project — the creation of a company brochure for trade shows, announcing a new line of pet toys. Your team is small (one designer, onewriter), as is your organization. What form of network diagram should you choose for your project and why?
Q3. You create person loading charts for the three members of a research team you’re managing for the next month. For this project, a full-time commitment is 40 hours a week. But you find that Team Member #1 is committed 40, 45, 60, and 30 hours per week; Team Member #2 is committed 40, 40, 20, and 20 hours per week; and Team Member #3 is committed 60, 40, 60, and 20 hours per week. Assuming your team members are similarly qualified, what are some options you have for resource leveling to avoid over-committing resources?