Case Study for Quiz 3 and Midterm Exam
Over the past four years, the LSS organization, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, has become renowned nationally for its Camp Noah project. Camp Noah is one of the smallest departments in the LSS organization; to organization also administers over 100 group homes for disabled adults in Minnesota and provides resettlement services to refugees relocating to Minnesota.
Camp Noah was a summer program developed for children who were impacted by spring flooding in their local area. Following floods, tornadoes or other weather emergencies, children lose their daily routine, their schools and oftentimes their homes. Parents are often stressed and unavailable during emergencies, and children have few resources to help them understand their situation. In Camp Noah, volunteers with skills in child psychology and counseling meet in a two day summer camp support group environment with children in flood ravaged areas. They encourage the children to share their stories and develop important resiliency skills and learn how to cope emotionally with the disaster. Due to the need for such services, LSS has developed a training system that lets them partner with resource organizations located near flood or tornado areas. They have partnered with many local organizations around the U.S. to train, equip and empower volunteers to staff local camps. LSS also provides pre-packaged Camp Noah supplies, that range from workbooks, crayons and puppets to a quilt for each child.
Recently, powerful rainstorms in southeastern France triggered flash flooding that displaced more than 1000 families, and left 200,000 people without electricity for more than two weeks. City officials in France called the LSS Director of Camp Noah Services, Chris Walker, and asked if she could provide training and equip 20 volunteers in southeastern France to deliver the Camp Noah curriculum to up to 500 children in France this summer. The French officials have asked that a decision to proceed be made within 2 weeks, and that the training and equipment be delivered 6 weeks after the decision is made. Chris Walker wants to help but isn't sure how to start. Currently, Camp Noah supplies are all written in English, and the counselor training documents are only written in English as well. The floods occurred in an area of France that has few English speakers.
You are a contract employee who has been engaged to help LSS because you speak French fluently and because you are an expert, experienced project manager with great interpersonal skills. Your job is to assist the director, Chris Walker, during project initiation. If the project is approved, you may be asked to lead the remainder of the project as well. You and Chris have been in meetings together all day discussing the opportunity for a French Camp Noah. You've been listening very carefully and asking dozens of questions about the potential project. Now, you're ready to get started and put your considerable project management skills and knowledge to work.
Instructions: Based on this case study, please answer each question briefly, but use critical thinking to support your answers. Your answers should have accuracy, clarity, depth and significance and support and questioning. A critical thinking grading rubric is provided for you.
1. Is this (or will this be) a project or operations? Justify your choice. (7 points)
Type your answer here
2. What process group is this project currently in? How do you know? (8 points)
Type your answer here
3. As an experienced project manager, you are aware that analyzing the environment in which a project operates is critically important. Select two (2) OPA and two (2) EEF that you believe are important to understand for this project. Apply these to the case study and justify why the four items you selected are important. (10 points)