Project Brief

Project Details
This team works within Wifi Kettles LTd, a large global company that was originally set up to manufacture, sell and distribute wifi kettles. Wifi Kettles’ main
competitors are Apple, Dyson, Sharp, Panasonic and Bosch.
The company was originally solely owned by Jimmy Davies, but now has five shareholders including Jimmy, who is now the Managing Director with a controlling interest of
51 percent. There are two other directors who have invested their money into the business with particular expertise in their respective fields: Teresa Wojda
(household appliances) who is now Innovations Director and Jane Jones (information communication technology) who is the Sales Director. Michael Williams and John Doe
are minority shareholders and have no role within the business. There are three other directors (in title only): the Legal Director, Rebecca Smith, Production
Director, Dai O’Brien, and Finance Director Mike Daniels.
The organisation structure can be found in Figure 1.
In the past, the company has operated with a traditional authoritarian management style, but it is endeavouring to alter this to a more commercial and empowered style
of management through its change management program. All managers are expected to develop, coach, and mentor their staff so that they adopt the competencies required
by the new commercial organisation.
The IT department is headed up by a new head, ArtilFarzal, who has been brought in from a software company to update the organisation’s IT systems so that operations
become more efficient and profitable.
Project Leader
In this scenario, you have been with the organisation for five years and witnessed its evolution from a wifi kettles manufacturer, seller and distributor to a global
innovative products leader. You are currently a team leader and have just been given the responsibility of managing a key IT project for the next twelve months. You
are responsible for ensuring that the project is delivered on time and within budget.
Project Objective
Your objective is to develop a suite of software programs to enable the company to monitor quality throughout its global operations. This will be a web-based IT system
that allows quality data collected from remote locations (such as the company’s three manufacturing plants in China) to be entered into a central database where it can
be analysed by the quality department.
Figure 1
Composition of Team
The members of this team are all university graduates, their ages vary between 25 and 45 years, and they are all consider themselves relatively well paid. Five of the
team members work directly for the company and three are freelance contractors.

As you can see from the organisational chart above:
• The team has eight members excluding yourself;
• Two have been seconded to the project from the quality department;
• One member, the database analyst, is only available to the team on a part-time basis; and
• Three of the team are external contractors.
The first thing to notice about this particular team is that it is operating under what is known as a Matrix Management Environment. The expert users belong to the
quality department and the analysts and the DBA belong to the IT department. They are only assigned to you for the duration of the project, and when it is completed
they will return to their respective departments. You do not have any direct control over them outside of the day-to-day running of the project. They still report to
their own line managers, who are responsible for their appraisals, remuneration, promotions, etc.
The freelance contractors are all independent workers who have contracts with the company for the expected duration of the project. They have all worked for the
company on previous projects and are keen to add another successful project to their resumes.
Challenges you are most likely to encounter
The composition of this development team highlights certain issues you could face as a project manager of this team. The high-level challenges are evident when you
apply each of the principles of team building to this scenario.
Define Success Criteria
Arguably, the success criteria have already been defined as:
To develop web-based software that enables the company to centrally monitor water quality within twelve months.

Project Issues
2 Risk Management
2.1 Law of Torts
In each of the following situations consider both whether there is a legal duty of care and whether there should be:
(i) Iris, a 2-year old child, falls into two feet of water as she walks past the Wifi Kettles’ head office in Cardiff. Jimmy walks out of the building at the end
of the working day and offers no assistance. Iris drowns.
(ii) In (i), what if Jimmywas Iris’s father?
(iii) While out shopping, Teresa’s 7-year-old daughter slips out of her hand and runs into the road causing a serious accident.
(iv) Helen negligently leaves the door of Wifi Kettles’ factory in Cardiff unlocked one night, some boys enter the factory and steal a large quantity of metal
sheets (used to make the wifi kettles), which they assemble in thenearby park to resemble a staircase. This causes seriously injures Ben who is walking his dog in the
park as he mistakenly attempts to walk up the makeshift staircase.
2.2 Health and Safety
Issue 1
It has recently come to light that guards have been removed from electric saws that are used to cut metal sheets and that workers have been continuously exposed to
high temperatures in the workplace at Wifi Kettles.
The office typist has developed a bad back after typing while sitting on a dining room chair provided by the company.
No risk assessment has ever been carried out and individual workers in the dispatch area are expected to lift large boxes of wifi kettles onto the lorries without any
assistance.
Explain the criminal offences which might have been committed and the powers of health and safety inspectors to investigate and make Wifi Kettles’ premises safe.
Issue 2
Wifi Kettles have this year sponsored the funfair at Barry, as part of a marketing drive to sell wifi kettles in the Barry area, which has traditionally seen low
sales.
Anna works as a performer at a funfair based in a seaside resort. One of her roles involves standing with her back against a wooden board, blindfolded, while a
colleague known as Blackdagger throws 12 knives at her. These land at various points around her body and between her legs, after which, to tremendous applause from
the audience, she steps forward, removes the blindfold and takes a bow.
One day, having successfully performed this act with Blackdagger several times a day for a number of months, a terrible accident occurs. Just as Blackdagger is taking
aim with a knife which is supposed to land in the area beneath Anna’s left arm, there is an almighty explosion some distance away which is strong enough to cause the
ground to shake under everyone’s feet. Blackdagger momentarily loses his concentration and the knife lands in Anna’s chest, causing her a very serious injury.
Her doctor tells her that she is lucky to be alive, but after two operations and a long period of rest she makes a full recovery. During this time she resigns from
her job at the funfair and takes her former employer to court seeking substantial damages. Blackdagger decides to take early retirement as he is too stressed to
contemplate throwing knives at another assistant.
Answer the following questions:-
1. What would Anna have to prove in order to win her case?
2. What possible defences might the funfair use in order to reduce the amount of damages or to avoid paying her damages altogether?
3. What chances would Blackdagger have of gaining any compensation for the stress he suffers as a result of this activity?
2.3 Data Protection
Issue 1
Wifi Kettles is a data controller which engages Data Processing Ltd to process personal data on Wifi Kettles’ behalf. Laurence is an employee of Data Processing Ltd
who actually processes the personal data. Wifi Kettles discloses the personal data to Innovate! another data controller.
Which one of the following is not correct in respect of the personal data for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998?
a) Data Processing is a recipient but not a third party;
b) Innvoate! is a recipient but not a third party;
c) Laurence is a recipient but not a third party; or
d) Data Processing is also a data processor.
Issue 2
Jake applied for employment at Wifi Kettles. He was interviewed but failed to secure the position. Jake’s previous employer, Dyson, had sent a handwritten
confidential reference in the form of a letter to Wifi Kettles which said that Jake was dishonest. This was not true but Wifi Kettles received the information from a
third party in good faith and took reasonable steps to ensure its accuracy.
Since then, Jake has been unable to obtain work. Eventually, he obtained a copy of the reference following a subject access request made to Wifi Kettles. Jake was
very distressed when he read the reference and is threatening to sue Dyson.
Which of the following statements is correct in relation to any remedy Jake may have under the Data Protection Act 1998?
a) Jake has a claim for compensation under section 13 for the distress he suffered;
b) Jake has a claim for compensation under section 14 as, though Dyson took reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of the data, the fact is the data is
inaccurate;
c) Jake has no remedy under the Data Protection Act 1998 as the reference does not contain data within the meaning of section 1(1) of the Act.
d) Jake would have had a claim to compensation under section 13 had not the reference been exempt from the subject access provision under Schedule 7, being a
confidential reference.

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