Creating a Methodology: culture behind the EPM delay
The question is diagnostic: a fact about timing is given, and you have to reason backwards to the culture that produced it. That is inference, not description of the case.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 15, 2026
The delay is the evidence — read the culture from it
This question is doing something more specific than asking about the case. It hands you a single fact — that the company waited this long before considering an enterprise project management system — and asks what you can determine about the corporate culture from it. That is an inference task. A post that summarises the case has answered a question nobody asked. The reasoning to run is: what would have to be true about how this organisation operates for that delay to make sense? Several answers are defensible and the strongest posts offer more than one. A culture where project management is treated as administrative overhead rather than a discipline; where individual heroics are rewarded and consistency is not; where functional silos each own their own way of working and no one has authority across them. Offering two or three of these readings is stronger than committing hard to one.
Push the inference toward what the delay implies about power rather than only about attitude, because that is the more interesting reading. A standard methodology constrains how managers run their own projects, so resistance to one is frequently resistance to losing discretion rather than scepticism about the tool. If nobody senior sponsored the change for years, that itself says something about where authority sits and what the executive team pays attention to. It is also worth asking what finally changed, since organisations rarely adopt methodology because someone read a book about it — a lost bid, a failed project, a client demanding evidence of process maturity. Name the mechanism you think triggered it. And note the brief's own warning that a missing or badly formatted citation costs five points, which makes the APA reference a graded component rather than a courtesy, and the cheapest five points in the assignment to protect.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Infer organisational culture from an observable decision rather than describing a case.
- 02Connect resistance to standard methodology with the distribution of managerial discretion.
- 03Identify the trigger that typically precedes methodology adoption.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Discussion: Development of an EPM system Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. Discussion: Development of an EPM system
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A primary post of at least 300 words.
- 02An inference about culture supported by reasoning from the delay.
- 03At least one alternative reading acknowledged.
- 04At least one correctly formatted APA citation.
From the symptom to what the culture must have valued
State the inference task
Make clear you are reasoning from the delay to the culture, not describing the case.
Culture as attitude to process
Argue that methodology was seen as overhead rather than as a capability.
Culture as distribution of discretion
Argue that a standard methodology constrains managers, so resistance protects autonomy.
What finally changed
Identify a plausible trigger — a lost bid, a failure, a client requirement.
Cite properly
Support at least one claim with a correctly formatted APA source.
Methodology and maturity vocabulary
Recommended databases
- Project Management Institute
- Harvard Business Review
- Your course textbook's methodology chapter
- Business Source Complete
- The attached case document
Search sequence
- 1.Read the attached case fully; the question refers to a specific page and its details matter.
- 2.Use PMI material for the maturity and methodology vocabulary so the inference has technical language.
- 3.Search for organisational resistance to standardisation, which supports the discretion argument.
- 4.Format the citation carefully before posting, since the brief attaches a specific penalty to it.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
What is Project Management?
Project Management Institute · 2024
Defines the methodology and maturity vocabulary the Creating a Methodology case turns on, so the answer can name what the company lacked.
- 02
Implementing Electronic Health Records in Primary Care Using the Theory of Change: Nigerian Case Study
JMIR Medical Informatics · 2022
A documented case of methodology adoption where organisational readiness, not the tool, determined the outcome.
- 03
Hospitals' adoption of intra-system information exchange is negatively associated with inter-system information exchange
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association · 2018
Evidence that organisations standardise internally while resisting external standardisation, which is a culture reading with data behind it.
- 04
About CAHPS
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality · 2024
An example of a standardised method adopted across organisations, useful as a contrast case for what drives standardisation.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Summarising the case instead of inferring from the single fact given.
- Offering one reading when several are defensible.
- Treating resistance as ignorance rather than as protection of discretion.
- Omitting or misformatting the citation, which the brief penalises explicitly.
Submission checklist
- Does the post reason from the delay rather than retell the case?
- Is more than one cultural explanation considered?
- Have you addressed what finally triggered the change?
- Is the post 300 words with a correctly formatted APA citation?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.