Case Study Project: Future Workplace
Now that you have explored effective project management practices, you have an opportunity to step into the project manager role. Review the case study below and then proceed on to the next step in your Create project.
Case Study: Future Workplace
In response to the global pandemic, COVID-19, your employer’s offices in six cities across the U.S. have been closed and all 3000 employees have been working remotely. You have been tapped to serve as a project manager for a working group being formed to reimagine your company’s future workplace.
Questions that have surfaced on this topic include:
- Should employees remain 100% virtual? Should everyone be required to return to the office? Or should there be a hybrid model implemented?
- What support do employees need longer term?
- How can employees maintain social distancing recommendations if returning to the office?
- How comfortable are employees taking public transportation to and from work? Do you need to assess the company’s benefits for parking?
- How will you monitor the health of your employees if they return to the workplace?
Your project team has three months to develop and present the team’s recommendations for the company’s future workplace. The executive team holds the final decision-making authority after hearing your team’s recommendations.
Assignment details:
As project manager, you will need to create the following in response to the case study that you just reviewed:
- Scope of work: this should include deliverables, timeline, milestones and report.
- Project plan
- Kick-off team meeting agenda
Keep in mind that you and the working group are not completing the project, but rather you are tasked with determining how the project will be completed. Leverage your learning from the Research phase of this track along with the templates and resources referenced.
Final presentation:
For your final capstone presentation for this track, we are asking that you prepare a short presentation for your executive decision makers outlining your proposed project plan for your company’s future workplace — note that you are NOT presenting recommendations for the workplace but rather the project steps that you believe as project manager will lead the company to making the best decision for its future workplace. Be sure to incorporate the knowledge that you have gained in the Research phase and the feedback that you have collected from your work in the Create phase of this track.
In your final presentation, we are looking for three core things:
- Confidence – demonstrate your confidence in your ability to teach and your knowledge of the subject being addressed.
- Content – organize your content in a way that is easy to follow and understand, prioritizing the most important details versus sharing too much information and risking overwhelming your audience and/or surpassing your time allocated for the presentation.
- Delivery – capture your audience’s attention and maintain it throughout your presentation by being mindful of your voice tone, speaking speed, use of visuals, creative expression, and audience engagement techniques.
- Additional Information, please have the five stages of project management in mind:
- Initiation – defining the project and creating the scope of work.
- Planning – developing the project plan – roadmap – for project teams to follow from start to finish.
- Executing – project team is launched, and deliverables are created.
- Monitoring – tracking and measuring performance plus troubleshooting.
- Closing – wrapping up a project and ensuring all deliverables have been met.