BU121 : BU121 MIDTERM GUIDE
Winter 2020 BU121 Midterm Guide
Grewal 1
BU121 MIDTERM GUIDE
LAB MANUAL READINGS
LAB 1
8 Common Project Management Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them
• 1. Not meeting with the whole team and setting goals upfront
o Kickoff meeting defines and sets expectations, makes the team self-dependent and
organized, instills higher level of accountability
• 2. Not breaking down projects into smaller pieces
o Makes team feel more comfortable and confident in project success
o Assign each task to a team member
• 3. Not prioritizing projects and/or tasks
o Manager needs to let team members know what tasks should take priority and
when priorities have changed
• 4. Project Management is People Management
o Make sure everyone understands how and why their role is important, schedule
time for periodic check-ins
• 5. Not regularly communicating with team members
o Right number of people, who and when will the meetings be
• 6. Letting changes get out of hand
o Clearly define product goals and identify success factors to help ensure that added
features or changes don’t threaten identified objectives so they don’t threaten
timelines
• 7. Not using a project management tool
o Can help manage progress and visualize
• 8. Failure to adjust course when things go wrong
o provide executive stakeholders with information that allows for good, timely
decision making
Work Breakdown Structure and Logic Network
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
o Identify and break down the deliverables in the project
o Arrange each activity into major area
o Purpose: decompose project deliverables into easily manageable packages
• Logic Network (Time Chart)
o Use the activities from the WBS to create a logical sequence from left to right
o Identify the estimated duration for each activity to calculate total project time
o Purpose: help understand dependencies in your project (what activities depend on
another), timescale and workflow
• Milestones
o Control project by defining a concrete deliverable for each milestone
o Concrete deliverable: see or touch; design specification, prototype, model,
software module
• Use Project Management Software
Winter 2020 BU121 Midterm Guide
Grewal 2
o Enter tasks, predecessors, resources, and time estimates to help plan or manage to
project
• Checklist
o Define what needs to be done using WBS
o Best approach using Logic Network
o Develop time estimates and how long each team member needs
o Calculate project duration and milestones using Logic Network
o Chart number of people needed and percentage of each team’s time for each
phase
o Adjust and refine project plan
o Optimise trade-offs to deliver best results in shortest time
o Use joint planning process to intensify team commitment and ownership
The 5 Students You Meet in Group Projects
• The Invisible Student
o Recognize: never in class, vaguely responds, absent
o Handle: speak to professor to remove person from group
• The Silent Student
o Recognize: won’t contribute to discussion or volunteer to do anything,
disinterested and lazy
o Handle: promote group discussion by going around in circle, ask direct open-
ended questions, remain positive
• The Procrastinator
o Recognize: offer to take on tasks, wait until last minute
o Handle: create group deadlines and talk to the person, continues to persist talk to
prof
• The Over-Promiser and Under-Deliverer
o Recognize: promises made with good intentions but delivery will fall short
o Handle: make sure to collaborate and see work before the day of the presentation,
provide positive feedback and constructive criticism
• The Control Freak
o Recognize: constant contact, overly concerned with the project, overly detailed,
take bulk of work
o Handle: Let them know you appreciate them but are capable of doing your own
work, become friends with them and let them know you care about the project too
LAB 3
Marketing Remix: Introducing the 4 A’s
• Why marketing needs a makeover
o Kellogg, Breakfast Mates
▪ Awareness: Targeted at working parents with small children; Positioned
as a product that children could use themselves and parents could eat on
the go
▪ Acceptability: Packaging was too difficult to open for children; product
had too many parts and required effort to eat; lots of packaging equates to
negative environmental impact; warm, vacuum sealed milk is gross
Winter 2020 BU121 Midterm Guide
Grewal 3
▪ Accessibility: when it was refrigerated it was a low accessible area
because consumers aren’t looking there
▪ Affordability: only a little bit cheaper, not worth the cons
o Ford Thunderbird
▪ Awareness: one of the most hyped rollouts in history; two years of
appearances in auto shows, magazine, and tv shows
▪ Acceptability: initially accepted psychologically; discovery that 65% of
the car is borrowed from other cheaper Ford vehicles brought down the
functionality and psychological acceptability as it contradicts the luxury
vehicle the car claims to be
▪ Accessibility: initial production issues and delayed shipment making it
frustrate for potential customers; after discovery of lack of functionality
the production was fixed but people did not want the car
▪ Affordability: Production issues caused it to be overpriced, ultimately the
car lost demand and became below sticker price
• Three Primary Forces Accounting for Marketing Troubles...
o 1. Misguided Resource Allocation
▪ Many companies respond reflexively to disappointing sales by increasing
advertising and promotions and/or lowering prices
o 2. Faulty Metrics
▪ Many companies lack reliable metrics for measuring the factors and
variables that matter most
o 3. Lack of Customer Focus
▪ Very few are customer driven, most remain product, profit-driven
▪ This is usually detrimental to the company’s wellbeing and to its
customers
• Marginalization of Marketing
o Marketing can no longer be the sole responsibility of a few specialists
o Marketing departments have become reactive and tactical rather than proactive
and strategic
o Other parts of the organization control such important functions such as pricing
and decisions about new products
• Marketing by Objectives
o 4A framework eliminates much of the guess work with marketing, because it lets
managers leverage a set of objectives rather than rely on intuition
o Management by Objectives (MBO) allows detailed set of goals, communication
to organization, and work done in a resource-efficient manner
o Objectives should be focused on results and be consistent, specific, measurable,
related to time, and attainable
o 4A framework allows managers to predict success of products/services before
launch
• The 4A Framework
o Acceptability
▪ Total product offering meets and exceeds customer expectations
▪ Functional acceptability and psychological acceptability
Document Summary
8 common project management mistakes and how to avoid them: 1. Not meeting with the whole team and setting goals upfront: kickoff meeting defines and sets expectations, makes the team self-dependent and organized, instills higher level of accountability, 2. Not breaking down projects into smaller pieces: makes team feel more comfortable and confident in project success, assign each task to a team member, 3. Not prioritizing projects and/or tasks: manager needs to let team members know what tasks should take priority and when priorities have changed, 4. Project management is people management: make sure everyone understands how and why their role is important, schedule time for periodic check-ins, 5. Not regularly communicating with team members: right number of people, who and when will the meetings be, 6. Letting changes get out of hand: clearly define product goals and identify success factors to help ensure that added features or changes don"t threaten identified objectives so they don"t threaten timelines, 7.
