Project Management: Analysis of Amazon's Domestic Robot Project

This discussion board post analyzes Amazon's project management approach, specifically focusing on a domestic robot project. The student discusses the project's staffing, recruitment processes, and potential benefits. The post also includes responses to colleagues' posts, addressing topics such as team chemistry, commitment, and the advantages and disadvantages of different team structures. The student reflects on the module, highlighting the challenges faced and the insights gained from analyzing Amazon's projects and engaging in discussions with peers. The assignment covers various project management aspects, including team selection, planning, and the importance of both technical and non-technical skills in achieving project success. Furthermore, the student addresses the importance of proper project planning and simultaneous task execution to avoid delays and errors.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Initial Post
Hi All,
This week, I have been asked to reflect on and discuss about a company of my choice and the
projects it has undertaken or is currently undertaking. Now, there are thousands of companies to
choose from around the world but for convenience and everyone’s knowledge, I am choosing
Amazon as it is a very well-known company to all and it is also a company with global presence.
Since its inception, Amazon has undertaken numerous projects as a part of its continuous
improvement process that helped it to become a global brand within a very short period of time.
In this post, I will discuss about one of the projects Amazon is currently undertaking with the
expected delivery date to come within 2 or 3 years. This project of Amazon is based on the
development of a robot that will be used for domestic purposes. This new robot will benefit the
people as it will be able to perform various activities at home. For staffing in this particular
project, Amazon has deployed some of the most qualified scientists through a detailed
recruitment process and screening. Amazon always expects some best quality outcomes from the
staff and hence, detailed screening process is undertaken. The screening process includes a
number of examinations as well as interviews for selection of very few but bright scientists who
will be able to fulfill the Research and Development output requirements of Amazon. The
advantage of this recruitment process is that only the best of the best are chosen and one
disadvantage is that too much time is wasted on recruitment while only a few are recruited.
Regards,
PLEASE FILL

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List of References
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Responses to Colleagues’ Posts
Post 1
Hi Vanya,
I have read your post and I agree with most of the points you have stated but there are also some
points that I do not agree with. Firstly, you stated that it would have been better if the Project
Manager was allowed to choose the team in order to form better team chemistry within a shorter
team but I think even if the PM was allowed to recruit, same time would have been consumed for
developing team chemistry. What I mean to say is that it does not matter who chooses the team;
it is always the duty of the team manager to develop team chemistry while working on the
project. Again, you stated that it is the responsibility of the PM to ensure all the team members
are committed to the project. However, as per my opinion, this is not absolutely correct – the
idea of commitment is mainly personal and the PM cannot make commitment grow out of
somebody at any point of time. The PM can only encourage the members to grow their sense of
commitment towards the project they are currently working on.

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Thanks,
PLEASE FILL
Bibliography
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Larson, E.W. and Gray, C.F., 2017. Project management: The managerial process. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Post 2
Hi Bilal,
I have just read your entire post and I completely agree with the viewpoints you presented. I
think you have identified the right points in the matter and have figured out the advantages and
disadvantages of the approach appropriately. You stated at the beginning that a project was
initiated with the PM recruited internally and other team members recruited externally. You have
presented a clear set of teams along with the members and their duties in the project. I feel you
have presented a clear idea of who is doing what in the project. However, I would like to raise a
question in this matter – do you really think, considering the scope of the project, that may teams
and team members are actually necessary? With that number of team members selected for the
project with such a small scope of work, it was almost inevitable that problems and issues will
occur during the course of the project.
Thanks,
PLEASE FILL

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Bibliography
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
Post 3
Hi Lynda,
I agree with the points you stated at the last of your post. Contrary to the previous posts I have
reviewed, in this post, I found that the team was recruited internally who were already working
in association with the chosen PM. I agree to your point that the benefit of having a team that
was already in place previously is that the team chemistry is already there without any need for
further development. I also agree with the point you placed for the disadvantage of such a set up
as the team members may have certain degree of overconfidence while working in the project.
However, you probably have forgotten to add another disadvantage of this kind of setup – poor
work output from some or all of the team members over the course of the project. This occurs as
the team is already working together for a long time and as a result, the team members develop
casual approach towards work thinking there will not be any future consequences for failing to
provide sufficient work output in the project. Hence, considering this situation, instead of an
inheriting a team, it is also a good option to develop a team from scratch especially if it is not a
top priority best outcome type of the project.
Thanks,
PLEASE FILL
Bibliography

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Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Post 4
Hi John,
I have just about read your post and I am about to disagree with most of the points presented by
you. Firstly, in most of your post, you have emphasized about the need for technical skill for
working in a project but you choose to discuss about the person in the project whose role does
not even require any technical skill or any skill set as such. Secondly, you have two contradictory
statements side by side – once you said that the team member remains tired due to a lot of
different responsibilities at the same time and in the next sentence, you deduced that her
emotional intelligence is low. According to my own opinion, only one of the other is true as
people may get stressed due to workload or if there is no emotional stability. The activities you
specified about the person are not signs of lack of emotional intelligence but stress due to long
work hours and probably other personal factors. I agree with your point that the person should be
replaced from the project but I do not agree with the justification you presented. You have stated
that the person should be removed solely because of the mentality or lack of emotional
intelligence, which is not a correct way. She can be removed if the management feels she is
overstressed and is unable to complete all the duties in time.
Thanks.
Bibliography
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across
borders. Routledge.

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Milosevic, D.Z. and Martinelli, R.J., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the
practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Post 5
Hello Judith,
Just now, I have read your post and overall liked the simple approach that you have utilized in
order to present your case. According to my opinion, each and every point you have presented is
correct. At the end of your post, I can see that you have asked a question about a faster approach
to the project as there has been some delays and errors in the project. In order to solve these
problems, it is important to emphasize upon the development of a proper project plan. Moreover,
the project can be scheduled in such a way that some of the tasks can be conducted
simultaneously in order to save valuable amount of time from the project.
Thanks,
PLEASE FILL
Bibliography
Heldman, K., 2018. PMP: project management professional exam study guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and
monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Summary Post
This particular module has helped me a lot in the development of my knowledge base and skill in
project management. Throughout this module, I have been allowed to face challenging project
management related problems and take appropriate actions to solve them. I have also come

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across the need for selecting a project and describe various factors related to the project. For the
purpose of this module, I choose to study the company Amazon and its future and current
projects. In addition to presenting my case in the form of a discussion post, I was also asked to
study similar responses submitted by my colleagues and make suitable comments or reply to the
posts in the discussion forum. I did the same and learnt a lot about the personal viewpoints of my
colleagues on selecting and presenting a suitable case and I learnt to identify the issues or strong
points of the posts so that I will be able to gain strong insight on the topic along with my
colleagues.