Horizon Consulting Patti Smith looked up at the bright blue Carolina sky before she entered the…

Horizon Consulting

Patti Smith looked up at the bright blue Carolina sky before
she entered the offices of Horizon Consulting. Today was Friday, which meant
she needed to prepare for the weekly status report meeting. Horizon Consulting
is a custom software development company that offers fully integrated mobile
application services for iPhoneTM, AndroidTM, Windows Mobile® and BlackBerry®
platforms. Horizon was founded by James Thrasher, a former marketing executive,
who quickly saw the potential for digital marketing via smartphones. Horizon
enjoyed initial success in sports marketing, but
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Horizon Consulting

Patti Smith looked up at the bright blue Carolina sky before
she entered the offices of Horizon Consulting. Today was Friday, which meant
she needed to prepare for the weekly status report meeting. Horizon Consulting
is a custom software development company that offers fully integrated mobile
application services for iPhoneTM, AndroidTM, Windows Mobile® and BlackBerry®
platforms. Horizon was founded by James Thrasher, a former marketing executive,
who quickly saw the potential for digital marketing via smartphones. Horizon
enjoyed initial success in sports marketing, but quickly expanded to other
industries. A key to their success was the decline in cost for developing
smartphone applications, which expanded the client base. The decline in cost
was primarily due to learning curve and ability to build customized solutions
on established platforms.

Patti Smith was a late bloomer who went back to college
after working in the restaurant business for nine years. She and her former
husband had tried unsuccessfully to operate a vegetarian restaurant in Golden,
Colorado. After her divorce, she returned to University of Colorado where she
majored in Management Information Systems with a minor in Marketing. While she
enjoyed her marketing classes much more than her MIS classes, she felt the IT
know-how acquired would give her an advantage in the job market. This turned
out to be true as Horizon hired her to be an Account Manager soon after
graduation

Patti Smith was hired to replace Stephen Stills who had
started the restaurant side of the business at Horizon. Stephen was “let go”
according to one Account Manager for being a prima donna and hoarding
resources. Patti’s clients ranged from high-end restaurants to hole-in-wall mom
and pop shops. She helped develop smartphone apps that let users make
reservations, browse menus, receive alerts on daily specials, provide customer
feedback, order take-out, and in some cases order delivery. As an Account
Manager she worked with clients to assess their needs, develop a plan, and
create customized smartphone apps.

Horizon appeared to be a good fit for Patti. She had enough
technical training to be able to work with software engineers and help guide
them to produce client-ready products. At the same time she could relate to the
restaurateurs and enjoyed working with them on web design and digital
marketing.

Horizon was organized into three departments: Sales,
Software Development, and Graphics, with Account Managers acting as project
managers. Account Managers generally came from Sales, and would divide their
time between projects and making sales pitches to potential new clients.
Horizon employed a core group of software engineers and designers, supplemented
by contracted programmers when needed.

The first step in developing a smartphone application
involved the Account Manager meeting with the client to define the requirements
and vision for the application. The Account Manager would then work with a
Graphic User Interface (GUI) designer to come up with a preliminary story board
of how the application would function and look. Once the initial concept and
requirements were approved the Account Manager was assigned two pairs of
software engineers. The first pair (app engineers) would work on the smartphone
side of the application while the second pair would work on the client side of
the application. Horizon preferred to have software engineers work in tandem so
they could check each other’s work. The two app engineers would typically work
full time on the application until it was completed while the other engineers
would work on multiple projects as needed. Likewise, GUI designers would work
on the project at certain key stages in the product development cycle when
their expertise was needed.

The head of Graphics managed the GUI designers’ schedule
while the head of Software managed the software engineer assignments. At the
end of each project Account Managers submitted performance reviews of their
team. The Director of Sales was responsible for the Account Managers’
performance reviews based on customer satisfaction, generation of sales, and
project performance.

Horizon believed in iterative development, and every two to
three weeks Account Managers were expected to demonstrate the latest version of
applications to clients. This led to useful feedback and in many cases
redefining the scope of the project. Often clients wanted to add more
functionality to their application once they realized what the software could
do. Depending upon the complexity of the application and changes introduced
once the project was under way, it typically took Horizon two to four months to
deliver a finished product to a client.

Patti was currently working on three projects. One was for
Shanghai Wok, a busy Chinese mom and pop restaurant located in downtown
Charlotte, North Carolina. The owners of Shanghai Wok wanted Horizon to create
a smartphone app that would allow customers to order and pay in advance for
meals they would simply pick up at a walk-up window. The second project was for
Taste of India that operated in Kannapolis, North Carolina. They wanted Horizon
to create a phone app that would allow staff at the nearby bio-tech firms to
order food that would be delivered on-site during lunch and dinner hours. The
last project was for Nearly Normal, a vegetarian restaurant which wanted to
send out e-mail alerts to subscribers that would describe in detail their daily
fresh specials.

James Thrasher was an admirer of Google and encouraged a
playful but focused environment at work. Employees were allowed to decorate
their work spaces, bring pets to work, and play ping-pong or pool when they
needed a break. Horizon paid its employees well but the big payoff was the
annual Christmas bonus. This bonus was based on overall company profits, which
were distributed proportionately based on pay grade and performance reviews. It
was not uncommon for employees to receive a 10–15 percent boost in pay at the
end of the year.

STATUS REPORT MEETING

As was her habit Patti entered the status report meeting
room early. David Briggs was in the midst of describing the game-winning catch
John Lorsch had made in last night’s softball game. Horizon sponsored a co-ed
city league softball team which most of the Account Managers played on. Patti
had been coaxed to play to ensure that the requisite number of “females” were
on the field. She balked at the idea at first; softball wasn’t really her
sport, but she was glad she did. Not only was it fun, but it gave her a chance
to get to know the other managers.

James Thrasher entered the room and everyone settled down to
business. He started off as he always did by asking if anybody had important
news to bring to everyone’s attention. Jackson Browne slowly raised his hand
and said, “I am afraid I do. I just received notification from Apple IOS that
they have rejected our TAT app.” TAT was a phone app that Jackson was the
project lead on that allowed subscribers to reserve and see in real time what
swimming lanes were available at a prestigious athletic club. This announcement
was followed by a collective groan. Before an Apple app could go operational it
had to be submitted and approved by Apple. Usually this was not a problem, but
lately Apple had been rejecting apps for a variety of reasons. Jackson went on
to circulate the list of changes that had to be made before Apple would approve
the app. The group studied the list, and in some cases ridiculed the new
requirements.

Ultimately, James Thrasher asked Jackson how long it would
take to make the necessary changes and resubmit the app for approval. Jackson
felt it would probably take two to three weeks at most. Thrasher asked who the
engineers that worked on this project were. Patti’s heart fell. One of the app
engineers who had developed the TAT app was working on her Shanghai Wok
project. She knew what was going to happen next. Thrasher announced, “OK
everyone, it only makes sense that these engineers are the best ones to finish
what they had started so they are all going to have to be reassigned back to
the TAT project. Those affected are going to have to get together after this
meeting and figure how you are going to replace them.” The meeting then
proceeded as planned with all the account managers reporting the status of
their projects, and sharing relevant issues with the group.

POST-MEETING

As everyone filed out, Patti looked around to see who else
was in her same boat. There were three other Account Managers as well as
Jackson Browne. Resource assignments were a reoccurring issue at Horizon given
the nature of their work. Horizon had developed a policy where decisions were
made based on project priority. Each project was assigned a Green, Blue or
Purple designation based on the company priority. Priority status was based on
the extent the project contributed to the mission of the firm. The Shanghai Wok
project given its limited size and scope was a Purple project, which was the
lowest ranking. The list of available software engineers was displayed on the
big screen. Patti was only familiar with a few of the names.

Leigh Taylor who had the only Green project immediately
selected Jason Wheeler from the list. She had used him before and was confident
in his work. Tom Watson and Samantha Stewart both had Blue Projects and both
needed to replace a mobile app engineer. They both immediately jumped on the
name of Prem Mathew, claiming he was the best person for their project. After
some friendly jousting, Tom said, “OK, Sam, you can have him; I remember when
you helped me out on the Argos project; besides my project is just beginning.
I’ll take Shin Chen.” Everyone looked at Patti; she started by saying, “You
know, I am only familiar with a few of these names; I guess I’ll go with Mike
Thu.” Jackson interjected, “Hey everyone, I am really sorry this happened, and
I am sure Mike is a good programmer, but I recommend you work with Axel
Gerthoff. I have used him before, and he is a very quick study and a joy to
work with.” This was a relief to Patti and she quickly took his advice. They
left to submit a report to Thrasher detailing the decisions they each had made
and the impact on their projects.

1. How successful was the post-meeting?

2. What factors contributed to the success or failure of
this meeting?

3. What kind of project management structure does Horizon
use? Is it the right structure? Explain.

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