Chapter Exercises

Exercise 1

In this exercise, you will create an opening statement for a presentation to management. Recall that an opening statement should start at the end of the project ”focusing on the project deliverables instead of the process to get there.

You are a network administrator for TriStar Manufacturing. Your network currently consists of two Windows NT 4.0 servers and 287 Windows 95 workstations. Most of the workstations are Pentium 433 MHz machines with 64MB of RAM. Users are constantly complaining that the network, their computers, and new applications are very slow and often crash.

Management has asked for your opinion on the technology and what can be done to improve the situation. You ve decided it s past time for the company to upgrade. You have done some initial research and would like to recommend the following hardware and software upgrade for your company:

Hardware	Features
3 Windows 2003 Servers	Each server equipped with two 2.7 GHz processors, 1GB of RAM, and 200GB of disk space
300 Windows XP workstations	Each workstation equipped with a 2.0 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, and CD-RW drives
3 network switches	Used to segment the network
3 network storage utilities	600GB storage each

Based on this information, create an opening statement for your presentation. Your opening statement should be snappy, captivating, and focused on how this upgrade will increase productivity.

Exercise 2

Congratulations! Your opening statement and presentation to upgrade the company s hardware is a hit, and management wants you to proceed. They ve agreed that you will be the project manager for the rollout, and you ve handpicked 15 people to be on your project team.

You ve completed the feasibility study and are now ready for your project kickoff meeting. The following table will help you create an event for your kickoff. Management has allotted a whopping $500 for the event. Have fun, and make it exciting and inspiring !

Questions	Action
Who should attend this meeting?
When will the meeting take place?
What is the theme of the project?
What type of project- related handouts will you have?
What fun things do you have planned?
How will you inspire the team?
Who will speak first?
What are your opening remarks to the team?
What are some of the topics you ll cover in your team presentation?
How long will your presentation take?
What will you spend the $500 on?

Exercise 3

Excellent kickoff party, er, meeting. The project team and your project sponsor had a good time ”everyone thought it was great. Well, everyone but Peter Abbot, the company crank and, unfortunately , your immediate manager. Peter is less than thrilled about your new project and thinks technology generally gets in the way of any real work getting done. He would be happier with a chisel, a cave wall, and maybe an abacus.

Your assignment in this exercise is to record how you would react to different scenarios old Peter Abbot brings up. Enjoy.

Scenario	Your Response
Peter Abbot is getting increasingly cranky about the time you ll need to be spending on your pet project. He s insisting that you focus less on that technology stuff and help more users clean their workstations mouse, monitor, and keyboard.
Now you need Peter s help. He has to make a decision about when you can have the testing lab for the new PCs and operating systems. You need to create rollout scripts, test software compatibility, and work with servers. The equipment has arrived but Peter just doesn t want to make a decision on when you can use the testing lab for your project.
Today is Frank s turn to be in Peter s doghouse. It was your turn last week, and next week it ll be Mary s. Every week someone on your team is in trouble with Peter. This whole cycle of Peter being angry with someone every week is demoralizing to your team, prohibiting progress, and generally frustrating.
Now guess what? Peter Abbot has relapsed to his early Neanderthal days when he actually did draw on cave walls. He s yelling at anyone who comes into his office, threatening to write you up, and acting very unhappy with any task you try to do. Yesterday he embarrassed Sam and made Jane cry.