Academic Project Management Case Studies

Students need to understand how theory and practice work together to solve real world problems. The project management case studies listed below place the students in the position of the project manager, sponsor, and other stakeholders. Students develop problem solving skills by critically analyzing the various scenarios. The case studies are broken down to allow for easy integration with the various lecture topics of PM-1.

Case Study: The Merck Innovation Center

The management of relationships has been acknowledged as a crucial element of project success. However, agency-related issues such as goal conflict, information asymmetry, or opportunistic behavior can make this a real challenge. This case study, winner of the 2019 Decision Sciences Institute Case Competition, looks at dealing with these challenges in a complex and uncertain environment.

The author of this case has also presented a webinar on the case, and the use of teaching cases, at ProjectManagement.com. 

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Case Study: Tata HIsarna Project

A consortium of European steel manufacturers, universities, and research organizations chose India-based steelmaker Tata Steel to execute a project to develop new steelmaking technology that was more efficient and reduced emissions. This case, runner-up in the 2019 Decision Sciences Institute Case Competition, describes the way in which the project was developed and executed.

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Mini Case 1: Project Management at Global Green Books Publishing

Global Green Books Publishing is a mini-case study that introduces students to project management (PM), the advantages of PM, and PM processes such as estimating costs, identifying risks, and the importance of stakeholder management and communication.

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Mini Case 2: The Back to School Crunch at Global Green Books

Students are introduced to core concepts such as risk, the importance of risk identification and risk analysis and planning to deal with risks.

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Mini Case 3: Defining Standard Projects at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as stakeholders, tasks, the Work Breakdown Structure and communications about work.

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Mini Case 4: Cost Estimation at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as cost estimation, various types and forms of project costs, and challenges that can impact project cost estimation.

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Mini Case 5: Managing Change at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as stakeholders, changes, and challenges from dealing with change that can impact projects.

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Mini Case 6: Developing Project Managers at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as leadership and people skills, the role of a project manager as both leader and manager, and challenges from dealing with team-building issues in projects.

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Mini Case 7: Closing Projects at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as closing projects, capturing and using lessons learned, and holding a project close-out meeting.

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Mini Case 8: Team Building at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as team building, project kick-off meetings, and team charters.

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Mini Case 9: Quality Management at Global Green Books Publishing

Students are introduced to core concepts such as cost of quality, various quality roles, typical quality challenges, and integrating quality into the project.

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Mini Case 10: Leadership Implications in Complex Projects: The Boeing Dreamliner and Jim McNerney

Students are introduced to core concepts such as leadership, risk tolerance, organizational structure, complexity, change management, trust, motivation, communication, radical and incremental innovation.

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Instructor's notes are designed for faculty to guide a class on the Mini Case titled "Leadership Implications in Complex Projects: The Boeing Dreamliner and Jim McNerney.

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Case 11: Dealing With Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Complex Projects

This case tells the story of a real-life complex project during its very first stages with a high level of uncertainty and ambiguity. It focuses on the organizational transformation that is often overlooked in major construction projects.

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Instructor's notes are designed for faculty to guide a class on the Case titled "Dealing With Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Complex Projects"

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Case 12: Protecting American Soldiers with the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH)

This Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH) case study encourages critical analysis of a U. S. Defense Department project at two key decision points: project start and production. The case focuses on the development, testing, and procurement (also referred to as acquisition) of a combat helmet for U. S. Army soldiers.

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The instructor's notes are designed for faculty to guide a class on the Case titled "Protecting American Soldiers with the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH)".

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Important Notice:

By clicking to download this material, you agree to use this PMI Content under the terms granted by the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license. You may request permission to use all or a portion of this PMI Content owned by PMI for any other nonpersonal or commercial purposes not covered in the Creative Commons license via the Permissions section of PMI.org.