module handbook (project stakeholder management)

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  COMSATS Insti tut e of Infor mation Technol ogy Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan  MODULE HA NDB OOK Pro ject Stakehold er Management Faculty of Business Administration De partm ent of Management Sciences Master of Project Management (MPM) Program & Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) Program Weekl y o n Mo nd ays, 6.00 P. M - 9.0 0 P.M Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan Class: MPM-I ( Core Mod ul e) / MSPM – I I ( Elect iv e Modu le) Current Version: Spring Semester 2012

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  • COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    MODULE HANDBOOK Project Stakeholder Management Faculty of Business Administration Department of Management Sciences Master of Project Management (MPM) Program & Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) Program Weekly on Mondays, 6.00 P.M - 9.00 P.M Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan Class: MPM-I (Core Module) / MSPM II (Elective Module) Current Version: Spring Semester 2012

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    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Course Instructors Welcome Message 02

    About the Course Instructor ... ... 03

    Course Background .. 05

    Course Objectives and Expected Outcomes . 06

    Course Prerequisites .. Course Duration and Presentation Style

    06 06

    Student Assessment: Written Examinations .

    07

    Student Assessment: The Project Assignment

    10

    Student Grading System

    16

    Course Quality Improvement

    17

    Library and Information Services ..

    18

    Student Discipl ine .

    18

    Ethics and Honesty ..

    19

    Student Support .

    20

    Course Literature ..

    21

    Course Syllabus .

    23

    Appendix

    29

    Appendix 1: Subject Examination Papers

    Appendix 2: PowerPoint Slides (to be e-Mailed weekly)

    Appendix 3: Article Collection (to be distributed separately in class)

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    Course Instructors Welcome Message Dear MPM/MSPM Course Participants,

    On behalf of the Department of Management Sciences at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and our MPM/MSPM program it is my pleasure to welcome you all to my course module Project Stakeholder Management.

    Together we are about to embark on an exciting fifteen-week journey during which you will be acquainted with many novel concepts, processes and tools, and practical examples of stakeholder management and engagement drawn from numerous projects, large and small, some which have been undertaken and others which presently are being undertaken across our globe. For many, if not all of you, much of the material you will be exposed to may seem somewhat un-conventional or exotic. Let me assure you, though, that you will find the know-ledge acquired in this course immensely useful and practical for managing your own projects provided that you make the best use of it. The Essence of Know-ledge is Having It to Apply It a timeless saying so eloquently formulated more than two thousand years ago by the great Chinese Philosopher Confucius and as much true today as it was back then in ancient times.

    We are the university which pioneered the MPM and the MPSM degree pro-grams in Pakistan. My colleagues and I have worked very hard on developing our course modules and attaining a standard which not only sets a benchmark in project management education in this country, but also rivals the standards set by long established project management degree programs offered at universities in North America, Europe and Australia. Hard work is, off course, not a one-way road. From nothing comes nothing! We expect all of you to start working very hard in all our modules from day one. Even the most intellectually able and pro-fessionally experienced among you will find all modules highly demanding, at times quite stressful, even intimidating perhaps. It is up to you to make the most of what our flagship MPM/MSPM offers and I hope that you will not hesitate to seize this golden opportunity.

    So lets commence our journey then! Carefully read through this handbook for starters and then well proceed on to the exciting world of project stakeholder management!

    Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan Islamabad, January 2012

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    About the Course Instructor

    Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Sciences at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan. A product of the German university system, he holds a PhD and masters degree in public administration from the Ger-man University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer, and a Diplom (masters) in business administration from the University of Trier.

    Dr. Khan started his professional career in 1992 as Executive Assistant in Hilal Consultants, a small Pakistani consulting firm specializing in infrastructure pro-jects. He subsequently joined the Hanns-Seidel Foundation of Germany as Pro-gramme Coordinator at its Pakistan country office in Islamabad. There he worked closely with the Foundations partner organizations in government, academia and the non-governmental sector on various joint projects, primarily in institutional capacity building and event management. After leaving the Foundation he work-ed as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, a policy think tank operating under Pakistans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During his tenure at the Institute and Hanns-Seidel Foundation, he extensively researched the possibilities for economic confidence-building measures in South Asia, auth-oring two pioneering and acclaimed papers on the subject, in which he proposed the creation of an integrated hydro-power based electrical grid system for South and Central Asia, expansion in trade, joint ventures and investment between South Asian countries, and a regional program of collaborative science and tech-nology projects.

    Interesting in joining academia, he returned to Germany in 1998, where he en-rolled in the masters program and, on its successful completion in April 2000, subsequently in the doctoral program in public administration at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer from where he graduated in 2004 after his dissertation on application of information and communication technology in Germanys federal police agency, the Bundeskriminalamt, was accepted and later published.

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    On the faculty of the young and rapidly expanding Pakistani public-sector univer-sity COMSATS since March 2005, Dr. Khan taught project management and other management subjects to hundreds of students. In September 2008 he launched his universitys and Pakistans first professional masters degree pro-gram in project management, the MPM, which he headed for its first year of ope-ration. He taught three of the MPM programs core modules - Fundamentals of Project Management, Project Stakeholder and Communication Management, and Project Controlling - in addition to hosting the elective module Seminar in Project Management. His main area of interest is project stakeholder manage-ment, which he introduced for the first time as a subject taught at a university in Pakistan and which, through his teaching and intensive research, he is vigorously attempting to bring into mainstream project management.

    Dr. Khan is winner of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistans coveted national Best University Teacher Award for the year 2007. In acknowledgement of the outstanding quality of his teaching and research, with more than a dozen publications in the United States, Germany and Pakistan, CIIT nominated him from the universitys entire faculty body in 2008 for the Pakistan presidential award Izaz-i-Fazeelat.

    As a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Dr. Khan spent eleven months in 2010-11 under-taking research at the University of Maryland in College Park, USA. In the spring semester 2011 taught two specialized project management courses (one for undergraduates, the other for graduates) at the Universitys prestigious A. James Clark School of Engineering. He is presently writing a book on project stake-holder management.

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    Course Background

    Stakeholders are central to all projects in all categories and levels of complexity. They exist across space and time: No project in history has been stakeholder-less. Projects are conceived, initiated, planned, executed, controlled and evalua-ted by stakeholders for stakeholders. Yet, surprisingly, in project management degree programs at colleges and universities across the globe, the subject of stakeholder management is largely ignored as project management teaching focuses primarily on a projects technical areas such as scheduling, cost, risk, scope and quality management and their myriad processes, tools and delivera-bles. Though numerous projects performance surveys undertaken over time consistently attribute project success or project failure in large measure to stake-holder influences, many project owners, planners, managers and implementers still are seemingly ignorant of the potential impact of their project stakeholders or simply take them for granted and fail to invest the time, resources and effort needed to ensure attainment of the requisite level of stakeholder support and goodwill which is so essential for the success of their projects.

    This innovative and unique course, which has been developed through years of research, seeks to address this deficiency by spreading awareness of the impor-tance of stakeholders on projects and providing guidance on how best to manage and engage them in a professional and ethical manner so that a project achieves its goal and objectives more effectively and efficiently, encounters less risk caused by ignoring the concerns and power of its stakeholders, and adds value to its stakeholder community resulting hopefully in a win-win situation for all the stakeholders.

    This course is the only one on project stakeholder management being offered at a Pakistani university and is currently one of a handful of modules being taught at universities across the globe which give a deep insight into this exciting, challen-ging and fast evolving though fragmented and still rather overlooked area of project management.

    The course has been developed independently by Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan. Some of the concepts, ideas and suggestions contained therein are his own and based on his on-going comprehensive and in-depth research on the subject.

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    Course Objectives and Expected Outcomes

    The course aims to provide students with a comprehensive and rigorous expo-sure to all important areas of project stakeholder management and engagement. The class presentations and student assessment system have been carefully designed with a view to encourage students to apply their classroom-acquired knowledge prudently to practical situations involving stakeholders which they can be expected to encounter when performing managerial roles and responsibilities in projects undertaken in their professional environment.

    The bottom line is to equip students with the knowledge and instill in them the confidence needed to manage and engage their project stakeholders effectively and efficiently, with a very high standard of ethics and in an innovative manner which seeks to attain a win-win situation for all or for as many stakeholders as possible.

    Course Prerequisites

    Students are required to have attended a foundation semester-long course in project management as prerequisite for attending this course. Students who in addition have attended related specialized courses such as project management law, project human resource management, and project communications will be at an advantage.

    Course Duration and Presentation Style

    The course comprises fifteen taught classes over the semester. Each class is of three hours duration, which includes a fifteen minute break for light refreshments. Student attendance will be taken twice in each class.

    The course will be delivered in lecture mode using approximately seven hundred MS PowerPoint slides developed by the instructor. Several subject-related videos produced by corporate, government and non-governmental organizations, as well as videos made by the instructor with Camtasia screen capture software, will be

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    presented over the semester using the installed ceiling-mounted digital projectors. Occasional use will also be made of the class-room whiteboard. Considerable emphasis is placed on interaction: Throughout the course students will be invited to ask questions, discuss topics, make comments and suggestions, and share their personal experiences.

    The PowerPoint slides and subject course material for each semester week will be e-mailed by the instructor to the MPM/MPSM Program Coordinator Mr. Zahid Malik who in turn will e-mail them to the class representative. He/she is expected to promptly forward them to all the course participants. Students are requested to refrain from approaching the instructor directly with requests for slides or any other material.

    Student Assessment: Written Examinations

    The student assessment system is based on the standards prescribed by the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) for all course modules offered by its Department of Management Sciences undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The assessment system followed for this module comprises: (A) the Written Examinations for which 75% of the total course marks are allocated and (B) the Project Assignment (see section Student Assessment: The Project Assignment) for which the remaining 25% of total course marks is allocated.

    The written examinations will be conducted at different points in time over the semester. There are three written examinations (two sessionals and the terminal) for the MPM program and two examinations (midterm, terminal) for the MPSM program. The examination dates are fixed by the CIIT Examinations Office and will be communicated to the students in the MPM/MSPM semester schedule which they will receive at the beginning of each of their program semesters. The examinations (with marks allocation and duration) are:

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    Program Examination Marks Duration

    MPM First Sessional Examination 10% 1 Hour

    MPM Second Sessional Examination 15% 1 Hour

    MPM Terminal Examination 50% 3 Hours

    Program Examination Marks Duration

    MPSM Mid-Term Examination 25% 2 Hours

    MPSM Terminal Examination 50% 3 Hours

    One or two questions will be asked in each MPM sessional examination covering material presented and discussed in class from the beginning of the semester until the examination date. Two or three questions will be asked in the MPSM midterm examination which will likewise cover material presented and discussed in class from the beginning of the semester until the examination date. The final examination will cover the entire course syllabus material and will contain three to five questions, some or possibly all comprising sub-questions. All questions in all MPM/MPSM examinations are mandatory. No Multiple Choice Questions will be asked in any examination all questions are exclusively essay-type. Students who in the examinations reproduce con-tents of slides presented in class or passages from documents verbatim can expect to be heavily penalized. High achievers are typically those who can understand and carefully and critically analyze the questions and sub-questions in a holistic perspective, demonstrate good analytical skill, are systematic, can communicate convincingly in writing and propose realistic and creative solutions. As mature, academically well qualified and professionally experienced adults, a very high standard of work from MPM/MSPM students is expected much higher

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    in fact than the standard we would expect from our universitys BBA or even MBA students. The marked answer booklets of the sessional and midterm examinations will be shown to the students in class in the week following the respective examination and must be returned to the instructor by the end of that class. The answer book-lets of the terminal examination will not be shown to students as these must be submitted for archival to the examinations office with immediate effect on completion of the evaluation process. The sessional, midterm and final examination papers from previous semesters have been included in this handbooks appendix for the information of the students. The examinations for the current semester will be structured accor-dingly. No arguing over marks will be entertained in connection with the examinations and the project assignment! The instructor makes every attempt to evaluate the students work fairly and, in fact, spends considerable time carefully reading through each submitted work line by line and making comments in red ink where deemed necessary. Students are expected to read these comments and act accordingly. Students may note that the quality of their work not the quantity - is the sole criteria on which their evaluation is based. It is far better to write one page which shows insight, analytical ability, sound reasoning and creativity than to write ten pages at the end of which the instructor is none the wiser about what is intended to be communicated by the student and whether the student has actually benefited from his/her participation in the course. In attempting their examination papers students should to spend some time very carefully reading and re-reading the set questions, especially in their terminal examination, consider what is being asked from different angles, and then make rough notes before starting to formu-late their answers. In most cases the examination questions are such that there is no single correct answer but, depending on the perspective from which they are viewed, possibly multiple correct answers and the students are challenged to apply their class-acquired knowledge and professional experience to come up

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    with good realistic and innovative solutions in the allotted examination time which is quite sufficient for the purpose. Important Please Note: Retakes of missed terminal examinations are prohi-bited under the CIIT Statutes, Regulations and Rules. Students who miss their terminal examination must register again (with full payment!) for the course in the following semester and attend all classes. Retakes of MPSM midterm examina-tions are also prohibited. An attendance rate of 80% or above is mandatory for students in each core and elective MPM/MPSM course module. Students with a course attendance level less than 80% by the end of the semester will automatically be barred by the CIIT examinations office from participating in the terminal examination for that course. They must register for the course again, attend all classes and attend all exami-nations. Student Assessment: The Project Assignment (A) General Information & Objectives While 75% of the total course marks are allocated for the examinations, the re-maining 25% are discretionary marks, i.e. they are allocated for work chosen at the instructors discretion. Some MPM/MSPM instructors prefer to split the 25% marks among several quizzes and mini-assignments distributed over the semes-ter. For this module, students are required to submit only one assignment, the topics of which will be selected and communicated by the instructor to the stu-dents within four to six weeks of course commencement. Students are NOT per-mitted to choose their own assignment topics. If the number of students exceeds fifteen, group assignments may, at the instruc-tors discretion, be submitted in place of individual assignments. In this case, the instructors expectations and evaluation standard will be higher. If the number of students enrolled in the course is less than fifteen, individual assignments may be required to be submitted. Depending on the availability of time, students may be required to present and defend their work in class at the end of the semester.

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    Students are expected to read and closely follow the guidelines given below (see sections B1-B3) before attempting their assignments. From experience, students are advised to commence work on their assignments as early as possible. Pro-crastination can lead to serious complications later on if students encounter diffi-culties in gathering information or writing their assignments. The project assignments principal objective is to determine the students ability to independently (individual assignment) or collectively (group assignment) scien-tifically research, report and present their work on a given subject-related topic to a standard which is normally expected from students with high academic stand-ing and professional experience. Another principal objective of the assignment is to ascertain how and to what extent concepts, ideas and tools presented and discussed in class can be applied effectively to situations in the field. The stronger the link between theory and practice, the higher is the assignments value. Great emphasis is placed on originality. Do not recycle parts of assignments from your other MPM/MPSM course modules. This should be an original work. The ease of comprehension will be considered when evaluating your assign-ment. Time to read them is limited and if the assignments gist can be understood immediately from its Executive Summary then that may be a good guide as to its readability. Some assignments reveal little about what the project is about even halfway through reading them. Put yourself in the place of an ignorant reader and make it easy for him or her to understand what you are trying to communi-cate. Students often opt for assignments that are thematically simple and leave few issues to discuss. Students working on more complex assignments will be given credit for the additional degree of difficulty. All assignments must be submitted in writing and electronically by the submis-sion deadline which is one week before the departmental deadline for entry of all course instructors marks into the student on-line database system COMSIS. This date will be communicated to students well in advance. The assignment

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    must be bound (soft cover) with the title, course module, instructor, group members and the semester imprinted on it. Submission of one copy is sufficient. (B1) Assignment Guidelines: The Form Assignments must be submitted in printed and electronic form. The printed

    version should be spiral or tape bound. No loose sheets will be accepted.

    The assignment should ideally be between 12-15 pages (for an individual assignment) or 20-30 pages (for a group assignment) in length. This page count does not include the assignment appendix which can be significantly larger.

    Assignments must by computer-typed and printed on A4 sized sheets using Arial font size 12 with a spacing gap of 1.2 lines in the body of text. Para-graphs must be separated from each other and from section headings by gaps of reasonable size. Adequate space (1.2 - 1.5 inches) should be left for the four margins on each page (left, right, top and bottom).

    Every section must have an emboldened heading. Tables, figures and dia-grams etc. must have emboldened captions.

    All pages from the introduction onwards must be numbered. Start each major

    section on a fresh page. Assignments must be free as much as possible from misspellings and poor

    grammar and improper formatting. It is not the instructors responsibility to correct such errors.

    Students should refrain as much as possible from using I, my, you, we, us, our etc. in the assignment text.

    Proper referencing is extremely important! Use an internationally accepted referencing system such as for e.g. the Harvard AGPS Referencing Guide. Any quotations from written documents, for example, must be placed in

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    quotations marks and the source (author(s) or editor(s), document title, journal name/volume number/publication month (if applicable), year of public-ation, publisher, page number(s) etc.) clearly indicated in the assignment.

    (B2) Assignment Guidelines: The Structure The assignment must be structured as follows:

    Cover Sheet Executive Summary Table of Contents Lists of Tables, Illustrations, Abbreviations and Acronyms Introduction Analysis Conclusion Recommendations (if any) Bibliography (if any) Webliography (if any) Appendix (if any)

    (B3) Assignment Guidelines: The Content The Cover Sheet contains the title of the assignment and the course module,

    the semester, date of submission, and the names of the student or students who have worked on it and the instructor Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan. The words: Master of Project Management (MPM), Department of Management Scien-ces, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad or Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM), < > must also be mentioned on it.

    The Executive Summary is a maximum one-page document that clearly

    indicates at a glance the purpose of the assignment, its scope, and a sum-mary of its conclusions and recommendations.

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    The Table of Contents is a requirement for every document (including very short ones). It lists the numbered headings and subheadings of all assign-ment sections along with their corresponding page numbers for easy look-up.

    The Lists of Tables, Figures or Illustrations, Abbreviations and Acron-

    yms are necessary if the assignment contains one or more of such elements. Each must be listed on a separate page. Tables and Figures/Illustrations must be sequentially numbered according to a standardized system, for e.g.: Table 1, Table 2 Table N, or Table 1.1, Table 1.2, Table 1.N, Table 2.1, Table 2.2, Table 2.N etc.. The List of Abbreviations and Acronyms must be in alphabetical order.

    The Introduction comes before the assignment analysis, conclusions and

    recommendations. Its purpose is to introduce the assignment in context, explain the intent behind it, the fundamental questions it addresses and why it does so, how the assignment is structured, what methodology it follows and what limitations it has, and how it can contribute to a better understanding of the subject theme. It is comparatively short, usually not exceeding three pages.

    The Analysis constitutes the core of the assignment. It combines the ele-

    ments of description and analysis whereby students are expected to accord as much emphasis on the analytical component as possible. In particular, they must relate the concepts and ideas, processes and tools they learned in class to their assigned topic. Reproduction of material from other sources is inadequate students must attempt to come up with context-sensitive in-sights and inputs of their own and, where and when appropriate, make value judgments about situations, events and approaches relevant to their assign-ment. Care must be taken to operationalise definitions used as many defini-tions for the same concept usually exist in management and social sciences and it is important that students and the instructor work with the same definitions. Students should also refrain from making sweeping statements and generalizations and try to be objective and dispassionate when under-taking their work.

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    Students usually collect data and information for their work from primary and secondary sources. In collecting data and information students must keep in mind that these may be colored by the mission, objectives, interests and ideological or political leanings of their respective sources. For instance, a corporation undertaking a high-profile project would tend to highlight the benefits accruing from that project while a critical NGO may tend to highlight the projects more negative aspects. Taking both sources into consideration gives a more balanced picture which would be closer to the projects true position. Also (important!) remember to separate fact from opinion. Qualitative and/or quantitative techniques may be applied to analyze data collected through surveys etc. However, such techniques (especially quanti-tative ones) must be used prudently to prevent the assignment from degene-rating into a pool of statistical tables, equations and coefficients. Explanations and interpretations of numerical material must be included and the method-ology used must be outlined. Remember to start each new main section on a new page. Also feel free to use diagrams, illustrations and tables if they can communicate information more effectively. For example, a stakeholder analysis may be much more clearly understood if presented in a tabular or diagrammatic format. Tables and figures must be numbered sequentially and using a standardized format, for example: Table X.1: , X.2 , etc., where X represents the assignments chapter or section number. Note that tables should not start at the bottom of a page. Start them on a new page. If there are multi-page tables consider placing them in the appendix.

    The Conclusion sums up the major findings of the assignment. It should be succinct, not exceeding two pages in length. Try to restrict it to one page.

    The Recommendations are the students own input and suggest one or

    more courses of action which may lead to a situational, process or methodo-logical improvement or effectiveness and/or efficiency enhancement over the short, medium and/or long-term. Like the conclusion, the recommendations should not exceed two pages in length. Recommendations must be as specific, realistic and practical as possible.

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    The Bibliography is an alphabetical listing of all the secondary information sources used in making the assignment. These could be, for instance, books, chapters or sections in books, articles in research journals or newspapers and magazines, official reports and corporate documents etc.. Websites which were consulted should also be listed separately in a Webliography along with the URL-addresses of the specific webpages and the dates they were consulted. If interviews and/or surveys were conducted to gather information, these should be indicated on a separate sheet with indication of the date, time and place of the interview/ survey, and the name, designation and organiza-tion of the interview partner(s)/persons surveyed and interviewer(s)/sur-veyors.

    The Appendix contains material which normally would not be included in the assignments major text sections (introduction, analysis, conclusion and re-commendations). This could include, for instance, relevant official documents and important correspondence, contracts and legal documents, technical illustrations, survey questionnaires, templates, checklists and so forth. Only material relevant for the assignment must be included. The appendices must not become a document dumping ground or be filled in the mistaken belief that including more material necessarily means getting higher marks or impresses the instructor.

    Student Grading System For the MPM program the following grading system applies: Letter Grade Grade Points A (Superior / Excellent) 4.0 = 90% or above A- 3.7 = 85-89% B+ 3.3 = 80-84% B (Good/ Better than Average) 3.0 = 75-79% B- 2.7 = 70-74% C+ 2.3 = 65-69% C (Competent / Average) 2.0 = 60-64%

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    C- 1.7 = 55-59% D (Fair/Passing) 1.3 = 50-54% F (Fail) 0 = Below 50% For the MSPM program the following grading system applies: Letter Grade Grade Points A (Superior / Excellent) 4.0 = 90% or above A- 3.7 = 85-89% B+ 3.3 = 80-84% B (Good/ Better than Average) 3.0 = 75-79% B- 2.7 = 70-74% C+ 2.3 = 65-69% C (Competent / Average) 2.0 = 60-64% F (Fail) 0 = Below 60% Course Quality Improvement CIITs Department of Management Sciences accords tremendous importance to ensuring that all its courses offered are of a high quality comparable to interna-tional standard. This applies especially to all its MPM/MPSM modules. Student feedback in the form of suggestions and constructive criticism constitutes an effective tool which can help the instructor improve this course module in terms of content and content delivery style. At the end of the semester, an anonymous written survey will be conducted by the Department of Management Sciences where students will have the oppor-tunity, by accessing CIITs COMSIS, to assess the course and instructor on the basis of several pre-defined evaluation criteria.

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    Library and Information Services All students are entitled to full access of CIIT Islamabads library. CIIT has a well-stocked newly-constructed library comprising tens of thousands of books, inclu-ding a dedicated section on project management with many current contributions. CIIT provides all its students with access to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistans highly-acclaimed digital library system through which articles from around 25,000 research journals, including project management journals, and approximately 60,000 eBooks can be accessed free of cost. The library has set up special cubicles for researchers where they can peacefully undertake their work. The whole library is covered by a wireless broadband system. MPM/MSPM students are encouraged to visit the library. In case of queries, assistance can be provided by the library staff and the Head Librarian Raja Ibrahim. Student Discipline Students are expected to come to class on time, i.e., they should all be quietly seated and prepared to take notes latest by the time the class commences at 6 P.M. Students are also expected to behave in a manner which facilitates the instructor and other students and is conducive to an overall productive and comfortable learning environment. During the classes, all attention must be focused on watching, carefully listening to and trying to understand the instructors presentation, taking notes when necessary, and asking questions or making comments. All mobile phones must be switched off prior to entering the classroom. No calls may be taken or made at any time when classes are in session and no SMS messages written, sent or received. No misbehavior will be tolerated in class! The instructor will promptly bring such occurrences to the attention of the MPM/MSPM Program Incharge, and/or the Head of Department of Management Sciences who may, in certain circum-

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    stances, refer the cases to the CIIT Campus Disciplinary Committee for decision which in more serious ones may lead to the suspension or termination of the student or students from the program. Ethics and Honesty For group assignments all members are required to contribute equitably towards planning, researching, writing, editing and formatting, and (if required) presenting the assignment. Past experience shows that free-riding tends to be a common problem in groups and such behavior, besides being unethical, prevents the group from realizing its full work and creative potential. All students are warned that there are ways to detect free-riding and those engaging in it will be penalized by having marks deducted. CIIT takes very serious note of any cases of cheating or use of fraudulent and unfair means during the examinations. In the event that any student is caught indulging in such acts, he/she faces punitive action which can range from a written reprimand or the imposition of a fine or deduction of a percentage of the examination marks to expulsion from the program or university. CIIT has a zero tolerance approach to the menace of plagiarism, i.e., passing off someone elses writings and ideas as your own. Whether unintentional or on purpose, all incidents of plagiarism will be dealt with severely. Project assign-ments submitted electronically will be subjected by him to a plagiarism check using the anti-plagiarism software Turnitin provided to CIIT by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Any individual or group assignment which is discovered to have been willfully plagiarized will be graded with zero marks! Students are advised to read the Higher Education Commission of Pakistans 13-page publication The Little Book of Plagiarism: What It Is And How To Avoid It which can be downloaded free of cost from the Commissions website at www.hec.gov.pk.

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    All material used ad verbatim in assignments must be wrapped in quotation marks along with indication of the source used. Proper referencing is required even if students are using material which they themselves have written and published previously. When using information obtained through interviews, discussions or other forms of interaction with respondents sure that your sources know why you are asking them for information and how you intend to use the information they provide. Do not deceive them into thinking otherwise and do not include material in your report or examinations for which permission to disclose has been explicitly refused or which is highly confidential in nature. Such disclosures can, at best, cause considerable embarrassment for the persons concerned and at worst may create serious complications for them, possibly even dismissal from service. Student Support Students are welcome, individually, in groups, or collectively, to approach their instructor for any subject-related queries, problems or issues they encounter over the course of the semester. Class breaks and visits to the instructors office provide good opportunities for this form of interaction. Visiting and consultation hours are Fridays from 10 A.M to 4.30 P.M at the instructors office on the ground floor of Academic Block II. Visits during Mondays to Thursdays are possible but by appointment only. Support can also be provided by e-Mail at [email protected] and telephonically at 0300 5546815. For administrative enquiries and issues MPM/MPSM Program Assistant Mr. Zahid Malik ([email protected]; cell phone 0322 8524592) should be approached first for guidance. Guidance and support can, if desired, also be sought from the MPM/MSPM Program Incharge Mrs. Ghazala Amin (ghazala_ [email protected]; cell phone 0322 5065421) or the Head of the Department of Management Sciences Professor Dr. Khalid Riaz ([email protected]).

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    Course Literature

    Recommended Reading (Books):

    Dow, William & Taylor, Bruce (2008), Project Management Communications Bible, Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

    Chinyio, Ezekiel & Olomolaiye, Paul (eds.) (2010), Construction Stakeholder Management, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

    Friedman, Andrew L. & Miles, Samantha (2006), Stakeholders: Theory and Practice, New York: Oxford University Press, 1. Edition.

    McManus, John, (2005), Managing Stakeholders in Software Development Projects, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 1. Edition.

    Recommended Reading (Chapters & Sections in Books):

    Brown, James T. (2008), The Handbook of Program Management. How to Facilitate Project Success with Optimal Program Management, McGraw-Hill, pp. 53-74 (Chapter 3: Stakeholder Management).

    Calvert, Stuart, Managing Stakeholders, in: J.R. Turner (ed.) (1995), The Com-mercial Project Manager, London: McGraw-Hill, pp. 214-222.

    Cleland, David I. & Ireland, Lewis R. (2002), Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation, McGraw-Hill, 4. Edition, pp. 161-190 (Chapter 6: Project Stakeholder Management).

    Cleland, David, Stakeholder Management, in: Jeffrey K. Pinto (ed.) (1998), Project Management Handbook, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 55-72.

    Gardiner, Paul (2005), Project Management. A Strategic Planning Approach, Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 106-125 (Chapter 5: The Project Manager, Sponsor and Other Stakeholders).

    Tuman Jr., John, Studies in Communication Management: Achieving Project Success Through Team-Building and Stakeholder Management, in: Paul. C.

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    Dinsmore & Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin (eds.) (2006), The AMA Handbook of Project Management, 2. Edition, pp. 174 183.

    Wideman, R. Max, How to Motivate all Stakeholders to Work Together, in: D.I. Cleland (ed.) (2004), Field Guide to Project Management, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2. Edition, pp. 288 304.

    Winch, Graham M., & Bonke, Sten, Project Stakeholder Mapping Analyzing the Interests of Project Stakeholders, in: Pinto, Jeffrey K. / Cleland, David I. / Slevin, Dennis P. (eds.) (2003), The Frontiers of Project Management Research, Project Management Institute, (Chapter 23).

    Miscellaneous Material:

    Over the semester several articles from research journals, case studies, reports and other printed and electronic documents from diverse sources will be e-Mailed through the MPM/MPSM program administration to the students in Adobe pdf and MS Word/ Excel formats for the purpose of reference and study for each of the module sections covered.

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    Course Syllabus

    Section 1 Introduction to Project Stakeholder Management

    Weeks 1 & 2 Relevance of Stakeholders for Projects

    Personal Introductions by the Course Instructor and the Students Class Rules for Students (Dos & Donts) Course Objectives and Literature, and Assessment Methodology Tips on Attempting Sessional/Midterm and Terminal Examinations Definitions: Project Stakeholders, Project Stakeholder Manage-

    ment/Engagement Project Stakeholders Categorizations Project Stakeholder Management as a Specialized Field of Project

    Management Fundamental Principles of Project Stakeholder Management and

    Engagement Project Stakeholders in Relation to the PMBOKs Knowledge

    Areas Cost of Project Stakeholder Management and Engagement Project Stakeholders in Cross-Disciplinary Subject Perspective

    (i.e. their connection to Ethics, Law, Public Administration and Policy, Sociology and Psychology etc.)

    Course Instructors Ten Best Practice Suggestions for Project Stakeholder Management

    Section 2 Project Stakeholders: Interests/Stakes, Roles, Major Responsibilities or Relationship to Projects Weeks 3 & 4 Internal and External Project Stakeholders

    Internal Project Stakeholders:

    - Senior Management - The Project / Program Management Office - Project Steering Committees - The Project Sponsor - The Project Client - The Project Manager and Team - Project Consultants - Project Contractors & Subcontractors

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    - Project Suppliers - Project Financers - Government Agencies - etc.

    External Project Stakeholders:

    - Business Competitors - Families - Local Communities - Non-Governmental Organizations - The Media - Academics and Researchers - Professional and Civic Organizations - Government Agencies - etc.

    Stakeholders on Projects with Transboundary Relevance (e.g. energy, water, transportation) Several examples will be presented and discussed for internal, external and transboundary project stakeholders.

    Section 3 The Drivers of Project Stakeholder Management and Engagement

    Week 5 A Brief Overview of the Nine Principal Drivers behind the Emergent Global Interest in Project Stakeholder Manage-ment and Engagement

    Awareness and Knowledge Increasing Complexity of the Project Environment Stakeholder Theory Corporations, Society and the Environment Transformation of Legal, Policy and Governance Frameworks Development Financing and Implementing Organizations Non-Governmental Organizations The Media Information and Communication Technology

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    Section 4 Professional Project Stakeholder Management: The 5-Step Project Stakeholder Governance Model Week 5 Introduction to the Governance Model; Stakeholder Processes and Understanding the Project Context

    Introduction to the 5 Steps of the Project Stakeholder Governance Model

    Step 3: The Project Stakeholder Management Process Framework Strengths and Limitations of the Framework The Role of Processes in Project Stakeholder Management The Context of Projects Overview of Project Categorization and Classification Systems Russel Archibalds Project Categorization System Varying Complexity of Project Categories and Implications for Pro-

    ject Stakeholder Management Week 6 Project Stakeholder Identification Processes and Tools

    Identifying Project Stakeholders Examination of Powerful Project Stakeholder Identification Tools Strengths and Limitations of the Identification Tools The Project Stakeholder Register / Directory Project Stakeholder Identification Examples / Case Studies

    Week 7 Project Stakeholder Analysis

    Criticality of Analyzing Project Stakeholders Overview of the Stakeholder Analysis Process Strengths and Limitations of Project Stakeholder Analysis Key Attributes of Project Stakeholders: Power, Interest, Concerns,

    Attitude and Behaviour Social Network Analysis, Social Capital, Stakeholder Coalitions

    and Implications for Stakeholder Management Week 8 Information in the Stakeholder Analysis Process

    Information as the Key Input in Project Stakeholder Analysis The Concept of Quality Information Sources of Information on Project Stakeholders Strengths and Limitations of Stakeholder Information Sources Tools for Collecting Information on Project Stakeholders Strengths and Limitations of the Tools Mediums of Storing Information on Project Stakeholders: Human

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    Memory, Paper Files and Computerized Information Systems and their Respective Strengths and Limitations

    Week 9 Complex Processes for Analyzing Internal & External Project Stakeholders

    Specific Project Stakeholder Analyses: (1) Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats Analysis (2) Causes, Complications and Impact Assessments Analysis (3) Scenario Analysis.

    Case Study: SWOT-Analysis and (Qualitative, Quantitative) Assessment for Suppliers for an Airport Construction Project

    Modeling Tools (e.g. AHP)

    Week 10 Supportive and Adversarial External Project Stakeholders

    Motives of Supportive Project Stakeholders (e.g. Employment Cre-ation, Business and Investment Opportunities, Tourism, Support for Change and Recognition of Project Need)

    Motives of Adversarial Stakeholders (e.g. Property Expropriation, Loss of Property Value and Rents, Pollution, Lack of Consultation, Use of Strong-Arm Tactics)

    Presentation of three Videos Depicting Supportive and Adversarial External Stakeholder Positions on the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project: (1) the International Finance Corporation, (2) EssoChad, (3) Friends of the Earth International

    Week 11 Options of External Project Stakeholders

    Influencing Projects: External Stakeholder Options Options Used by Supportive External Stakeholders (e.g. Provision

    of Inputs and Services, Declaration of Support) Options Used by Adversarial External Stakeholders (e.g. Boycotts,

    Petitions, Networking, Rallies, Litigation, Terrorism) Case Studies Organization Profile: Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger

    Delta (MEND) Week 12 Project Stakeholder Analysis Tools, Templates & Software

    Spectrum of Project Stakeholder Analysis Tools Including: Visual Mapping Tools

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    Responsibility Assignment Matrices Quadrant Diagrams (Two-Dimensional, Three-Dimensional) Force-Field Diagrams, Influence Diagrams and Bubble Charts Complex Diagrammatic Models For Tracking Changes in the Di-

    verse Attributes of Multiple Stakeholders Over Time Software Programs Used in Project Stakeholder Management

    (e.g.: Stakeholder Circle, sMAP) Week 13 Project Stakeholder Engagement

    Purpose and Benefits of Project Stakeholder Engagement Goals and Principles, and Indicators/Criteria of Effectiveness of

    Project Stakeholder Engagement Ethics in Project Stakeholder Engagement Video Documentary: Lyari Highway Project in Karachi, Pakistan

    (shows lack of stakeholder engagement) Overview of Stakeholder Engagement Strategies Stakeholder Engagement Strategies and Plans on Projects Project Stakeholder Engagement Examples & Case Studies Video: Project Stakeholder Engagement at PetroCanada Corp.

    (shows good stakeholder engagement)

    Section 5 Project Communication Management

    Week 14 Project Communication: Relevance, Challenges, Tools

    Communication between Stakeholders: Central Role in Projects Forms of Communication in Projects (Speaking, Reading, Writing,

    Listening, Non-Verbal) The Basic Communication Model Process and Intent of Communication in Projects Challenges to Communication Between Stakeholders in Projects

    (e.g. Miscommunication, Lack of Communication) Cultural Issues and Constraints in Project Communication Communication in the Context of the PMBOK The Project Stakeholder Communication Net Sample Project Stakeholder Communication Strategies, Guide-

    lines and Plans Complexity of Stakeholder Communication in International

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    Projects Week 15 Project Communication: Advanced Topics and Role of ICT

    Verbal and Non-Verbal Mediums of Communication and their Strengths and Limitations

    Analog and Digital Technology in Project Communication The Project Management Information System (PMIS) PMIS: Benefits and Limitations Video: PMIS System Case Study (Nokia-Siemens) Web Collaboration and Documentation Software Project Teams (e.g. Cross-Functional and Virtual) and Communi-

    cation Project Meetings Case Studies: Managing Communication Challenges and Issues

    in Project Teams

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    APPENDIX I

    Project Stakeholder Management Final, Midterm & Sessional Examinations (2008-2012)

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    COMSATS University (Fall Semester 2011)

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    COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Department of Management Sciences

    MIDTERM EXAMINATION Course: Project Stakeholder Management Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan Class: MSPM II Date: 15 November 2011 Duration: 2 Hours Marks: 25% of Total Course Marks Both questions are mandatory. Try to be specific in answering and focus more on delivering quality answers. Both questions consist of sub-questions which must be answered. Question 1 (15 Marks): Reflect on your past and/or present professional work experience with programs or projects. Identify and rank in order of perceived im-portance (a) the ten biggest issues or problems you faced/are facing in dealing with internal project or program stakeholders and (b) the ten biggest issues you faced/are facing in dealing with external project or program stakeholders. Give examples if possible. How would you mitigate or eliminate such issues or problems? Note: If you dont have any professional experience - in which case you shouldnt have been admitted to the MSPM program! - then state what you think could be the biggest issues for (a) & (b) and justify your answers. Question 2 (10 Marks): You were acquainted in class with several methods for identifying project stakeholders. State five identification methods and discuss the limitations of each method. Can you suggest two methods for identifying project stakeholders which were not discussed in class? Also state their potential limitations.

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    TTEERRMMIINNAALL EEXXAAMMIINNAATTIIOONN -- FFAALLLL 22001111 Course: PROJECT STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

    Program: MSPM Total Marks: 50 Semester: II Time Allowed: 3 Hours Date: 11-01-2012 Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Note to Students: All four questions must be attempted! Do not rush into answering them. Read them and their embedded sub-questions very carefully first and think hard before you start to write. Consider making rough notes before attempting your answers. Keep in mind that each question carries different marks and you should allocate your time and effort accordingly. Marks will not be as easy to get as they were in the midterm examination so you will really have to exert yourselves this time.

    Avoid answering too generally be as specific as you can possibly be. Refrain from writing irrelevant details. If you have professional work experience feel free to use examples from your work on projects, past or present, in your respective organizations. Also feel free to be creative where and when you have to but do be realistic and practical also. Keep in mind the holistic character of project stakeholder management and that in answering these questions you may have to look to other areas of project management (and hopefully you are already knowledgeable in several of these areas now at this stage of your MSPM program) for assistance should the need arise. If you think you need to make assumptions in answering some or all questions, you may feel free to do so but remember to state these assumptions. Use graphical means (tables, diagrams, illustrations etc.) if you think they can convey your point better than text only but make sure they are clear to read and understand. Write legibly and avoid clumping too much text together this makes it difficult to read and evaluate! There should be some space between each paragraph. Good luck and remember the often quoted saying of the great Chinese philoso-pher Confucius: The Essence of Knowledge is Having It to Apply It! ___________________________________________________________________________________

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    Question 1 (10 Marks) You learned this past semester in your course on project stakeholder manage-ment that every stakeholder entity has some interest/interests (i.e. stakes) in a project. You also learned that there are numerous entities which collectively normally constitute the stakeholder community of a (complex) project. For simplicitys sake it was assumed that stakeholder interests are clearly defined and largely self-evident, and that they drive the attitudes and behaviors of stakeholders towards the project. Take the case now of a public-sector federal or provincial agency in Pakistan - or anywhere else for that matter - which maintains a portfolio comprising several projects in its assigned field of work. What specific information about the agency would you need in order to determine the type of projects it considers for inclusion in its project portfolio? (5 Marks) Are the agencys institutional interests always necessarily identical to the pro-fessional and personal interests of the individuals who are managing or control-ling the agency? Discuss and give examples where appropriate. What are the possible implications for stakeholder analysis by project planners? (5 Marks) Question 2 (10 Marks) You are, or should be, aware of the existence of Project Management Offices. Countless organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors across the globe, and in Pakistan, have set up such offices. These may possess varying degrees of authority and responsibility. In the context of project stakeholder management and engagement, list five specific services a Project Management Office could possibly provide for organiz-ations, irrespective of whether these organizations are based in the public, private or not for-profit sectors. (5 Marks) List five possible hurdles or difficulties that the Project Management Office could encounter in attempting to introduce stakeholder management and engagement processes in organizations. (5 Marks)

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    Question 3 (10 Marks) Refer to the illustration below. (a) Discuss the possible positive and negative impacts on project activities which may come about as a result of primary and secondary stakeholder actions. Be specific and use examples if necessary. (5 Marks) (b) What actions by primary stakeholders can have a significant tangible or perceivable negative impact on project activities? Give specific examples. (5 Marks)

    Question 4 (20 Marks) Change. Its the fundamental purpose behind every project undertaken anywhere and at any time across our globe. It is also conceived, planned, executed, monitored and evaluated by stakeholders. Change is not always welcomed by all entities. The following article discusses ten reasons why people oppose change. Read the article carefully. Taking any organization undertaking various types of in-house projects propose for each of the ten stated reasons one effective measure which can reduce or, if possible, eliminate the resistance to change. The measures you propose (which are ten in total) must be practical, realistic and specific and they must be different from the mitigation or elimination measures the articles author proposed for each reason.

    Project Primary Stakeholders (Positive & Negative Impact)

    Project Activities X, Y, Z

    Project Secondary Stakeholders (Positive & Negative Impact)

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    Overcoming Resistance to Change: Top Ten Reasons for Change Resis-tance by A. J. Schuler, Psy. D.

    Top Ten Reasons People Resist Change:

    1. The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing still.

    Making a change requires a kind of leap of faith: you decide to move in the direction of the unknown on the promise that something will be better for you. But you have no proof. Taking that leap of faith is risky, and people will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe and perhaps more importantly, feel that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction. Making a change is all about managing risk. If you are making the case for change, be sure to set out in stark, truthful terms why you believe the risk situation favors change. Use numbers whenever you can, because we in the West pay attention to numbers. At the very least, they get our attention, and then when the rational mind is engaged, the emotional mind (which is typically most decisive) can begin to grapple with the prospect of change. But if you only sell your idea of change based on idealistic, unseen promises of reward, you wont be nearly as effective in moving people to action. The power of the human fight-or-flight response can be activated to fight for change, but that begins with the perception of risk.

    2. People feel connected to other people who are identified with the old way.

    We are a social species. We become and like to remains connected to those we know, those who have taught us, those with whom we are familiar even at times to our own detriment. Loyalty certainly helped our ancestors hunt antelope and defend against the aggressions of hostile tribes, and so we are hard wired, I believe, to form emotional bonds of loyalty, generally speaking. If you ask people in an organization to do things in a new way, as rational as that new way may seem to you, you will be setting yourself up against all that hard wiring, all those emotional connections to those who taught your audience the old way - and thats not trivial. At the very least, as you craft your change message, you should make statements that honor the work and contributions of those who brought such success to the organization in the past, because on a very human but seldom articulated level, your audience will feel asked to betray their former mentors (whether those people remain in the organization or not). A little good diplomacy at the outset can stave off a lot of resistance.

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    3. People have no role models for the new activity.

    Never underestimate the power of observational learning. If you see yourself as a change agent, you probably are something of a dreamer, someone who uses the imagination to create new possibilities that do not currently exist. Well, most people dont operate that way. Its great to be a visionary, but communicating a vision is not enough. Get some people on board with your idea, so that you or they can demonstrate how the new way can work. Operationally, this can mean setting up effective pilot programs that model a change and work out the kinks before taking your innovation on the road. For most people, seeing is believing. Less rhetoric and more demonstration can go a long way toward overcoming resistance, changing peoples objections from the It cant be done! variety to the How can we get it done? category.

    4. People fear they lack the competence to change.

    This is a fear people will seldom admit. But sometimes, change in organizations necessitates changes in skills, and some people will feel that they wont be able to make the transition very well. They dont think they, as individuals, can do it. The hard part is that some of them may be right. But in many cases, their fears will be unfounded, and thats why part of moving people toward change requires you to be an effective motivator. Even more, a successful change campaign includes effective new training programs, typically staged from the broad to the specific. By this I mean that initial events should be town-hall type information events, presenting the rationale and plan for change, specifying the next steps, outlining future communications channels for questions, etc., and specifying how people will learn the specifics of what will be required of them, from whom, and when. Then, training programs must be implemented and evaluated over time. In this way, you can minimize the initial fear of a lack of personal competence for change by showing how people will be brought to competence throughout the change process. Then you have to deliver.

    5. People feel overloaded and overwhelmed.

    Fatigue can really kill a change effort, for an individual or for an organization. If, for example, you believe you should quit smoking, but youve got ten projects going and four kids to keep up with, it can be easy to put off your personal health improvement project (until your first heart attack or cancer scare, when suddenly the risks of standing still seem greater than the risks of change!). When youre introducing a change effort, be aware of fatigue as a factor in keeping people from moving forward, even if they are telling you they believe in the wisdom of your idea. If an organization has been through a lot of upheaval, people may resist change just because they are tired and overwhelmed, perhaps at precisely the time when more radical change is most needed! Thats when you need to do two things: re-emphasize the risk

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    scenario that forms the rationale for change (as in my cancer scare example), and also be very generous and continuously attentive with praise, and with understanding for peoples complaints, throughout the change process. When you reemphasize the risk scenario, youre activating peoples fears, the basic fight-or-flight response we all possess. But thats not enough, and fear can produce its own fatigue. Youve got to motivate and praise accomplishments as well, and be patient enough to let people vent (without getting too caught up in attending to unproductive negativity).

    6. People have a healthy skepticism and want to be sure new ideas are sound.

    Its important to remember that few worthwhile changes are conceived in their final, best form at the outset. Healthy skeptics perform an important social function: to vet the change idea or process so that it can be improved upon along the road to becoming reality. So listen to your skeptics, and pay attention, because some percentage of what they have to say will prompt genuine improvements to your change idea (even if some of the criticism you will hear will be based more on fear and anger than substance).

    7. People fear hidden agendas among would-be reformers.

    Lets face it, reformers can be a motley lot. Not all are to be trusted. Perhaps even more frightening, some of the worst atrocities modern history has known were begun by earnest people who really believed they knew what was best for everyone else. Reformers, as a group, share a blemished past . . . And so, you can hardly blame those you might seek to move toward change for mistrusting your motives, or for thinking you have another agenda to follow shortly. If you seek to promote change in an organization, not only can you expect to encounter resentment for upsetting the established order and for thinking you know better than everyone else, but you may also be suspected of wanted to increase your own power, or even eliminate potential opposition through later stages of change.

    I saw this in a recent change management project for which I consulted, when management faced a lingering and inextinguishable suspicion in some quarters that the whole affair was a prelude to far-reaching layoffs. It was not the case, but no amount of reason or reassurance sufficed to quell the fears of some people. Whats the solution? Well, youd better be interested in change for the right reasons, and not for personal or factional advantage, if you want to minimize and overcome resistance. And youd better be as open with information and communication as you possibly can be, without reacting unduly to accusations and provocations, in order to show your good faith, and your genuine interest in the greater good of the organization. And if your change project will imply reductions in workforce, then be open about that and create an orderly process for outplacement and in-house retraining. Avoid the drip-drip-drip of bad news coming out in stages, or through indirect

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    communication or rumor. Get as much information out there as fast as you can and create a process to allow everyone to move on and stay focused on the change effort.

    8. People feel the proposed change threatens their notions of themselves.

    Sometimes change on the job gets right to a persons sense of identity. When a factory worker begins to do less with her hands and more with the monitoring of automated instruments, she may lose her sense of herself as a craftsperson, and may genuinely feel that the very things that attracted her to the work in the first place have been lost. I saw this among many medical people and psychologists during my graduate training, as the structures of medical reimbursement in this country changed in favor of the insurance companies, HMOs and managed care organizations. Medical professionals felt they had less say in the treatment of their patients, and felt answerable to less well trained people in the insurance companies to approve treatments the doctors felt were necessary. And so, the doctors felt they had lost control of their profession, and lost the ability to do what they thought best for patients.

    My point is not to take sides in that argument, but to point out how change can get right to a persons sense of identity, the sense of self as a professional. As a result, people may feel that the intrinsic rewards that brought them to a particular line of work will be lost with the change. And in some cases, they may be absolutely right. The only answer is to help people see and understand the new rewards that may come with a new work process, or to see how their own underlying sense of mission and values can still be realized under the new way of operating. When resistance springs from these identity-related roots, it is deep and powerful, and to minimize its force, change leaders must be able to understand it and then address it, acknowledging that change does have costs, but also, (hopefully) larger benefits.

    9. People anticipate a loss of status or quality of life.

    Real change reshuffles the deck a bit. Reshuffling the deck can bring winners . . . and losers. Some people, most likely, will gain in status, job security, quality of life, etc. with the proposed change, and some will likely lose a bit. Change does not have to be a zero sum game, and change can (and should) bring more advantage to more people than disadvantage. But we all live in the real world, and lets face it if there were no obstacles (read: people and their interests) aligned against change, then special efforts to promote change would be unnecessary.

    Some people will, in part, be aligned against change because they will clearly, and in some cases correctly, view the change as being contrary to their interests. There are various strategies for minimizing this, and for dealing with

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    steadfast obstacles to change in the form of people and their interests, but the short answer for dealing with this problem is to do what you can to present the inevitability of the change given the risk landscape, and offer to help people to adjust. Having said that, Ive never seen a real organizational change effort that did not result in some people choosing to leave the organization, and sometimes thats best for all concerned. When the organization changes, it wont be to everyones liking, and in that case, its best for everyone to be adult about it and move on.

    10. People genuinely believe that the proposed change is a bad idea.

    Ill never forget what a supervisor of mine said to be, during the year after I had graduated from college, secure as I was in the knowledge of my well earned, pedigreed wisdom at age twenty-two. We were in a meeting, and I made the comment, in response to some piece of information, Oh, I didnt know that! Ricky, my boss, looked at me sideways, and commented dryly, Things you dont know . . . fill libraries. The truth is, sometimes someones (even gasp! my) idea of change is just not a good idea. Sometimes people are not being recalcitrant, or afraid, or muddle-headed, or nasty, or foolish when they resist. They just see that were wrong. And even if were not all wrong, but only half wrong, or even if were right, its important not to ignore when people have genuine, rational reservations or objections. Not all resistance is about emotion, in spite of this list Ive assembled here. To win peoples commitment for change, you must engage them on both a rational level and an emotional level. Ive emphasized the emotional side of the equation for this list because I find, in my experience, that this is the area would-be change agents understand least well. But Im also mindful that a failure to listen to and respond to peoples rational objections and beliefs is ultimately disrespectful to them, and to assume arrogantly that we innovative, change agent types really do know best. A word to the wise: were just as fallible as anyone.

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    The University of Maryland (Spring Semester 2011)

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    Offered Spring 2011 Only! ENCE 688Z Project Stakeholder & Communications Management

    Stakeholders are central to all projects in all categories and levels of complexity. Pro-jects are conceived, initiated, planned, executed, controlled and evaluated by stake-holders for stakeholders. Numerous project performance surveys consistently attribute project success or project failure primarily to stakeholder influences. However, project management education has largely ignored the subject of stakeholder management, focusing on hardcore technical themes such as scheduling, cost, risk, scope and quality management and their myriad processes, tools and techniques. This innovative course aims to spread awareness of the importance of stakeholders on projects and provide practical guidance on how best to manage and engage them in a professional and ethical manner which helps the project achieve its goal and objectives more effectively and efficiently, reduces risk caused by ignoring the concerns and power of project stakeholders, and seeks to attain a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

    Monday 6:00 8:30 EGR 2103 - Dr. Aurangzeb Khan

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    ENCE 688Z PROJECT STAKEHOLDER

    MANAGEMENT SPRING 2011

    MID-TERM EXAMINATION

    (On-Line)

    March 19, 2011 March 28, 2011

    Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan

    NOTE TO STUDENTS - PLEASE READ: This essay-style midterm examination carries 25% of your total course marks and runs for two hours. It is easily attemptable in this time duration. All four questions MUST be attempted. Each question carries 6% of your course marks. An additional 1% will be awarded automatically to all students. Please do NOT reproduce any of my PowerPoint slides! In formulating your answers use your insights, (if applicable) your past experience and apply the knowledge you gained since the beginning of this semester by studying my PowerPoint slides and the texts you may have read which I uploaded onto our course Blackboard. And do keep in mind that quantity is NO substitute for quality. Feel free to be creative when and where you feel you must (this is much appreciated on my side). Read each question very carefully before attempting. You may consider making rough notes before you formulate your answers. It may be a good idea to print out the paper first and foremost.

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    NO paper written notes, laptops, digital diaries and other electronic appliances may be used in attempting this midterm examination. Please do not communicate with each other in any shape, manner or form while attempting the examination. Question 1: As you all (hopefully) know at this stage of the course, project stakeholders are those entities who have by definition some interest in a project. They also have concerns and apprehensions, expectations and perceptions etc. which are important considerations and mustnt be overlooked by project planners and implementers. Assume that you work for a medium-sized commercial organization which is seeking to adjust itself to changing external environmental conditions, i.e., globalization and intensity of competition, changing consumer preferences, appearance of new technologies and so forth. The organizations top management is cognizant of the fact that in order to stay afloat things have to change in our organization. Specifically, management is thinking of substantive changes in both the organizations structure as well as its system of processes. These changes should be completed within a time period of 18 months. As an employee of this organization for the past five years and with a background in project management - and some good insight into stakeholder management and engagement - the management assigns you the task of advising them with regard to the stakeholder aspect of its intended organizational restructuring and transformation project. Specifically, the management wants to know how receptive or unreceptive the organizations employees (your colleagues) would be to the project and what methods/tools could be used to determine their receptiveness, and what approach management should adopt in order to try and reduce or eliminate resistance by its employees to the project. Note: You may need to make some assumptions in order to answer this question. Feel free to make any (realistic) assumptions you want but remember to state them clearly. Question 2: Managing and engaging project stakeholders has a cost attached to it. The cost can be categorized in overheads (i.e. attributable to all or multiple projects) and specific (i.e. directly attributable to a single project). Assume you are working on the team of a civil engineering project which will commence in the near future. Your project manager has developed an interest in project stakeholder management and engagement after hearing about it from you and wants to document all the costs which are specifically attributable to stakeholder management and engagement on this project throughout its life-cycle. The projects traditional accounting system (obviously) cannot provide this information. After getting this cost information he will try to assess whether the benefits of stakeholder management/engagement outweigh the costs or vice versa.

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    Design a project stakeholder management and engagement cost accounting system, listing the headings/sub-headings etc you think should be included. The system is NOT intended to replace the traditional project cost accounting system, but serves just as an informational tool to supplement it. Information contained in the traditional cost accounting system can be used in the stakeholder cost accounting system. Note: You may need to make some assumptions in order to answer this question. Feel free to make any (realistic) assumptions you want but remember to state them clearly. Question 3: Ethics is a theme which is of crucial importance in project stakeholder management and engagement. Assume you are an engineer on the team of a large building construction project which is now in its execution phase in a fast-growing Middle Eastern country. Your organization is the projects Lead Contractor and your work involves interacting frequently with many primary stakeholders working on the project, providing it with construction labor and other resources and services. In the course of your inspection rounds you observe that the projects construction workers are performing their tasks under conditions which both surprise and shock you: Long hours with irregular pauses in summer temperatures sometimes reaching 50 degrees Celsius, cramped living quarters where beds are used in shifts, lack of hygiene and lack of sanitation facilities, inadequate observance of safety measures at the construction site and inadequate training for accidents among other things. Moreover, the construction workers who are migrants from developing Asian countries tell you that the pay they get is low (barely above the wage level they would get for construction work in their own countries) and that their passports are kept in the custody of their employing organization. You also find out that strikes are prohibited by law and complaints are dealt with by threatening employees with immediate dismissal and prompt expulsion from the country. What, if anything, would you do in response to this situation? Note: You may need to make some assumptions in order to answer this question. Feel free to make any (realistic) assumptions you want but remember to state them clearly. Question 4: In one of your classes you were acquainted with the project stakeholder governance model developed by your course instructor. Enthusiastic about this model, you propose it to your organizations top management for consideration. You hope that ultimately it will be adopted and serve as a framework for all your organizations programs and projects. Your management invites you to give them a 10 minute briefing on the subject in their conference room and after listening to you patiently and with obvious interest it asks you to provide a brief proposal (max. 2 pages) outlining the steps you want the organization to take to introduce the model, the preconditions which must be met for it to work in the

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    organization and the envisaged costs, benefits and risks to the organization which may result from its application. Write such a proposal. Try to be specific. Note: You may need to make some assumptions in order to answer this question. Feel free to make any (realistic) assumptions you want but remember to state them clearly.

    END OF EXAMINATION

    The Essence of Knowledge is Having It to Apply It (Confucius)

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    ENCE 688Z PROJECT STAKEHOLDER

    MANAGEMENT

    SPRING SEMESTER 2011

    FINAL EXAMINATION (On-Line)

    May 12, 2011 May 18, 2011

    Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan NOTE TO STUDENTS - PLEASE READ: This essay-style final examination carries 50% of your total course marks and runs for three hours. It is easily attemptable in this time. All four questions with sub-questions MUST be attempted. Two questions each carry 15% of your course marks while the other two each carry 10%. Keep in mind that quantity is NO substitute for quality. Feel free to be creative when and where you think you must. Read each question very carefully before attempting. Consider making rough notes prior to formulating your answers. It may be a good idea to print out this paper first. Note: In case you need to make assumptions in order to answer any or all questions feel free to do so but be realistic and remember to state your assumptions clearly.

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    Question 1: As you are (hopefully) aware, a large number of tools have been developed over time which find application in the project stakeholder analysis phase. Name three such tools. Discuss the respective strengths and limitations of using your three chosen tools in analyzing project stakeholders (15 Marks). Question 2: Does technology (meaning here any technology other than information & communication technology) have a role to play in helping project planners address and eliminate or mitigate the concerns of (external/secondary) project stakeholders? Discuss. Give specific examples, if possible preferably from your experience working on projects or programs (10 Marks). Question 3: Good project stakeholder management and engagement means searching for practical win-win solutions, i.e., solutions which benefit both the project in terms of reducing negative stakeholder risk to its goal, cost and schedule, as well as which result in a net gain for all project stakeholders, regardless of whether they are internal or external. Develop a general methodology or process specifically for determining win-win solu-tions for either internal or external project stakeholders, briefly outlining each step in your proposed methodology or process (15 Marks). Question 4: Looking back at your entire course and the wealth of information which is available on project stakeholder management and engagement, discuss how in your professional work environment you intend to apply (or how you intend to try to apply) the knowledge you gained in this course. What opportunities and limitations for applying professional project stakeholder management/engagement do you anticipate in this connection and how will you address them? (10 Marks)

    END OF EXAMINATION

    THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND PARTICIPATION IN THIS COURSE

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    COMSATS University

    (Spring Semester 2010)

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    COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Department of Management Sciences

    FIRST SESSIONAL EXAMINATION

    Course Subject: (Project Stakeholder Management) Marks: 10 Date: 15th March 2010 Time: 6 PM 7 PM Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan i. Please attempt the question / subquestions below. ii. Do not write unnecessary details, it will be considered as negative point. iii. Books, notes, mobile phones, laptops, calculators, digital diaries and other

    electronic devices are not permitted in the examination hall.

    * * * *

    Question: You are familiar with several project stakeholders in the two stake-holder categorization categories (primary, secondary) proposed by David Cleland and Lewis Ireland. Select five stakeholders from any one - or, if you want, from both - of these cate-gories and for each of the five stakeholders you have chosen identify and briefly discuss their five most important expectations which they normally would have on a project. Note: Do not confuse the stakeholder roles which we discussed in class with stakeholder expectations. Roles and expectations are not the same thing.

    Good Luck!

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    COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Department of Management Sciences

    SECOND SESSIONAL EXAMINATION

    Course Subject: (Project Stakeholder Management) Marks: 15 Date: 26th April 2010 Time: 8.30 PM 9.30 PM Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan i. Please attempt the question / subquestions below. iv. Do not write unnecessary details, it will be considered as negative point. v. Books, notes, mobile phones, laptops, calculators, digital diaries and other

    electronic devices are not permitted in the examination hall.

    * * * *

    Question: In one of your classes earlier this semester your Course Instructor suggested the creation of a Project Stakeholder Management Handbook as a useful reference document for assisting program and project planners and imple-menters working for the public sector, corporations and non-governmental organizations to manage their programs and projects more effectively and efficiently. Assume you have been tasked with compiling this handbook for your organiza-tion. What information would you include in it? Outline the documents structure and thematic headings and subheadings. Suggest two more stakeholder management best practices which organizations could adopt on all their programs and projects.

    Good Luck!

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    COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Park Road, Chak Shehzad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Department of Management Sciences

    FINAL EXAMINATION Course Subject: Project Stakeholder Management Date: 11th June 2010 Marks: 50 Course Instructor: Dr. Aurangzeb Z. Khan Time: 6.30 9.30 PM Please attempt all questions / subquestions below. Do Not write unnecessary details, it will be considered as a negative point. Books, cell phones, laptops, calculators, digital diaries and other electronic devices are not permitted in the examination hall. Note to Students: Do not rush into answering the three questions! Read all questions and their embedded sub-questions very carefully first and think hard before you start to write. Consider making rough notes before attempting your answers. Keep in mind that each question carries different marks and you should allocate your time and effort accordingly. Marks will not be as easy to get as they were in the first and second sessional examinations and you will really have to exert yourselves this time. Try to avoid answering too generally be as specific as you can possibly be. Refrain from writing irrelevant details. If you have professional work experience feel free to use examples from your personal experience working on projects, past or present, in your respective organizations. Also feel free to be creative where and when you have to but do be realistic also. Keep in mind the holistic character of project stakeholder management and that in answering these questions you may have to look to other areas of project management (and hopefully you are already knowledgeable in several of these areas now at this stage of your MPM) for assistance should the need arise. If you think you need to make assumptions in an-swering some or all questions, you may feel free to do so but remember to state these assumptions. Use graphical means (tables, diagrams, illustrations etc.) if you think they can convey your point better than text only but make sure they are clear to

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    read and understand. Write legibly and avoid clumping too much text together this makes it difficult to read and evaluate! There should be some space between each paragraph. Good luck and remember the often quoted saying of the great Chinese philosopher Confucius: The Essence of Knowledge is Having It to Apply It! Question 1 (15 Marks): You have learned in your course on project stakeholder management that one of the biggest challenges on projects is attaining a win-win solution for its stakeholders, i.e., trying to ensure that preferably all stakeholders benefit from the project and that the benefits for each stakeholder exceed their incurred cost. Sadly this is often ignored in practice by project plan-ners and implementers who traditionally tend to focus primarily on attain-ment of the projects cost, schedule and scope and quality objectives and do not go the extra mile to satisfy their stakeholders. Can technology and innovative ideas help project planners and implemen-ters attain win-win solutions for their projects? Discuss. Give at least five examples in this regard.

    (Note: Technology is a broad notion which includes, but is not confined to, the field of Information & Communication Technology. Innovation does not mean technological innovation only but extends to any form of innovation which, when applied in the context of project stakeholder management, can help in achieving win-win solutions for stakeholders). Question 2 (15 Marks): Project management, as it is being taught in degree programs in colleges and universities, and in training courses throughout the world, is essentially about best practices documented over years of observation on projects of all categories undertaken across the globe. Is there a discernible relationship between the intensity of application of these project management best practices and the overall satisfacti