MB0049 Second Sem - Set 2 Final.rtf

7/29/2019 MB0049 Second Sem - Set 2 Final.rtf

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Q1. What are the various phases of project management life cycle?

Explain.

A.1 The various phases in project management life cycle are Analysis and evaluation

Marketing

Design

Inspecting, testing and delivery

Post completion analysis

Figure shows the phases in a sequence.

Analysis and Evaluation Phase

It starts with receiving a request to analyse the problem from the customer. The project manager

conducts the analysis of the problem and submits a detailed report to the top management. The

report should consist of what the problem is, ways of solving the problem, the objectives to be

achieved, and the success rate of achieving the goal.

Marketing Phase

A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the project manager. This proposal

has to contain the strategies adopted to market the product to the customers.

Design Phase

Based on the inputs received in the form of project feasibility study, preliminary project

evaluation, project proposal and customer interviews, following outputs are produced:

System design specification

Program functional specification

Program design specification

Project plan


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Inspecting, Testing and Delivery Phase

During this phase, the project team works under the guidance of the project manager. The project

manager has to ensure that the team working under him implements the project designs

accurately. The project has to be tracked or monitored through its cost, manpower and schedule.

The tasks involved in these phases are:

Managing the customer

Marketing the future work

Performing quality control work

Post Completion Analysis Phase

After delivery or completion of the project, the staff performance has to be evaluated. The tasks

involved in this phase are:

Documenting the lessons learnt from the project

Analysing project feedback

Preparing project execution report

Analysing the problems encountered during the project

Q2. Write brief note on Project planning and scoping.

A.2 The purpose of Project planning and scoping is to first identify the areas of the project workand the forces affecting the project and then to define the boundaries of the project. In addition,

the scoping has to be explicitly stated on the line of the project objectives. It also has to

implicitly provide directions to the project. The planning and scoping should be such that the

project manager is able to assess every stage of the project and also enabling the assessment of

the quality of the deliverable of the project at every stage.

First, let us list the steps involved in project scoping. These steps include:

i) Identifying the various parametric forces relevant to the project and its stages

ii) Enabling the team members to work on tools to keep track of the stages and thereby proceed

in the planned manner

iii) Avoiding areas of problems which may affect the progress of the project

iv) Eliminating the factors responsible for inducing the problems


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v) Analysing the financial implications and cost factor at various stages of the project

vi) Understanding and developing the various designs required at various stages of the project

vii) Identifying the key areas to be included in the scope through various meetings, discussion,

and interviews with the clients

viii) Providing a base and track to enable alignment of project with the organisation and its

business objectives

ix) Finding out the dimensions applicable to the project and also the ones not applicable to the

project

x) Listing out all the limitations, boundary values and constra ints in the project

xi) Understanding the assumptions made in defining the scope

After completing the project scoping, you can start your project plan. Project planning

involves

Three processes as shown in the figure

a) The Identification processThe main steps in the identification process of any project are:

i) Identifying initial requirements

ii) Validating them against the project objective

iii) Identifying the criteria such as quality objectives and quantitative requirements for assessing

the success of both the final product and the process used to create it

iv) Identifying the framework of the solution

v) Preparing a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility

vi) Preparing relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and its

different stages


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vii) Preparing a proper project scheme of achieving the defined business requirements for the

project.

viii) Identifying training requirement

ix) Making a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project

x) Identifying the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsible in

the project

xi) Preparing a training plan and a training calendar

xii) Assessing the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the project organisation

b) The Review ProcessThe main steps in the review process of any project are:

i) Establishing a training plan to acquaint the project team members with the methodologies,technologies and business areas under study

ii) Updating the project schedule to accommodate scheduled training activities

iii) Identifying the needs for review and reviewing the project scope

iv) Reviewing a project with respect to its stages and progress by preparing a plan for the review,

fixing an agenda to review the project progress and keeping the reports ready for discussion

about stage performance

v) Reviewing the project scope, the objective statement, the non conformances in the project

stages and identifying the need to use the project plan

vi) Preparing a proper project plan indicating all the requirements from start to finish of the

project and also at every stage of the project

vii) Preparing a checklist of items to be monitored and controlled during the course of execution

of the project

c) The Analysis processThe main steps in the analysis process of any project are:

i) Comparing the actual details with that in the plan with reference to project stages.

ii) Measuring various components of the project and its stages frequently to control the project

from deviating and also monitor the performance.

iii) Deciding how the task, the effort and the defects are to be tracked, what tools to be used,

what reporting structure and frequency will be followed at various stages.

iv) Identifying the preventive and corrective steps to be taken in case of any variance


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v) Performing root cause analysis for all problems encountered.

If all the above steps are performed, scoping and planning become effective

and the ideal outcome are achieved.

Q3. What is Return on Investment (ROI)? Explain its importance

A.3 Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculated benefit that an organisation is projected to

receive in return for investing money, time and resources in a project. Within the context of t he

review process, the investment would be in an information system development or enhancement

project.ROI information is used to assess the status of the business viability of the project at key

checkpoints throughout the projects life-cycle. ROI may include the benefits associated withimproved mission performance, reduced cost, increased quality, speed, or flexibility, and

increased customer and employee satisfaction.

ROI should reflect such risk factors as the projects technical complexity, the agenc ys

management capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the consequences of under or non-

performance. Where appropriate, ROI should reflect actual returns observed through pilot

projects and prototypes.

ROI should be quantified in terms of money and should include a calculation of the break-even

point (BEP), which is the time (point in time) when the investment begins to generate a positive

return. ROI should be re-calculated at every major checkpoint of a project to see if the BEP isstill on schedule, based on project spending and accomplishments to date.

If the project is behind schedule or over budget, the BEP may move out in time; if the project is

ahead of schedule or under budget the BEP may occur earlier. In either case, the information is

important for decision- making based on the value of the investment throughout the project life-

cycle.

Any project that has developed a business case is expected to refresh the ROI at each key project

decision point (that is, stage exit) or at least yearly.

Q4. Discuss the role of effective data management in the success of project management.

A.4 Data management consists of conducting activities which facilitate acquiring data,

processing it and distributing it. Acquisition of data is the primary function.

To be useful, data should have three important characteristics timeliness, sufficiency

and

relevancy (as shown in figure). Management of acquisition lies in ensuring that these are

satisfied before they are stored for processing and decisions taken on the analysis.


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There should be data about customers, suppliers, market conditions, new technology,

opportunities, human resources, economic activities, government regulations, political

upheavals, all of which affect the way you function. Most of the data go on changing because the

aforesaid sources have uncertainty inherent in them. So updating data is a very important aspect

of their management.Storing what is relevant in a form that is available to concerned persons is

also important. When a project is underway dataflow from all members of the team will be

flowing with the progress of activities. The data may be about some shortfalls for which the

member is seeking instructions. A project manager will have to analyse them, discover further

data from other sources and see how he can use them and take decisions. Many times he will

have to inform and seek sanction from top management.

The management will have to study the impact on the overall organisational goals and strategies

and convey their decisions to the manager for implementation. For example, Bill of Materials is

a very important document in Project Management. It contains details about all materials that go

into the project at various stages and has to be continuously updated as all members of the

project depend upon it for providing materials for their apportioned areas of execution. Since

information is shared by all members, there is an opportunity for utilising some of them when

others do not need them. To ascertain availability at some future point of time, information about

orders placed, backlogs, lead times are important for all the members. A proper MIS will take

care of all these aspects. ERP packages too help in integrating data from all sources and present

them to individual members in the way they require. When all these are done efficiently the

project will have no hold ups an assure success.

Q5. What is Project risk management? Explain its significance.

A.5 Project risk management is all about the systematic process of identifying, analysing,

prioritising and responding to risk by applying risk management principles and controlling the

probability and/or impact of unfortunate events at the project level. It attempts to maximise the

probability and consequences of positive events and to minimise the probability and


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consequences of adverse events. The goal is to prevent or reduce risk in a cost-effective manner

without compromising quality or harming the mission or timeline.

The benefits of proper risk management in projects are huge. Organisations can generate a lot of

profit if they deal with uncertain project events in a proactive manner. The result will be that they

minimise the impact of project threats and seize the opportunities that exists.

Proper risk management enables you to deliver the project on time, on budget and with the

quality results ones project sponsor/client demands. In addition to this, other project team

members can be also happy and motivated enough to perform better and better. All this would

essentially boil down to increase in the productivity of team members and in the efficiency and

effectiveness of the resources. In this unit you will learn more about project risk management.

Q6. Write brief note on project management application software.

A.6 The Microsoft Project family of products offers tools to work on a project from management

point of view. Microsoft Project is designed for people who manage projects independently and

dont require the capability to manage resources from a central repository. Microsoft has a team

project management solution that enables project managers and their teams to collaborate on

projects.

After creating a fairly complete final project plan it is a good idea to create a baseline version to

compare the original project plan with actual events and achievements.

The following is the typical process followed for project management through this software as

shown in figure


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1 Reviewing the Baseline

The Baseline created can be used to compare the original project plan with actual events and

achievements. This will display the days required for each task and project phase. For actual

operating instructions please refer the Microsoft Project User Handbook.

2 Tracking Progress

After creating a baseline, if the project has begun, it is necessary to enter actual dates for the

tasks that are being completed and the resource utilisation used to complete them.

Again review different views and the cost and summary tables before proceeding to the next

section. Return to the Entry view of the Gantt chart before proceeding.

3 Balancing Workloads

At times people and equipment may be assigned more work than they can complete in normal

working hours. This is called over allocation. Project can test for this condition and reschedule

(or level) their workload to accommodate completing tasks during a normal day.

4 Monitoring Variances


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After a baseline has been established and the project has begun, it is desirable to determine if

tasks are being accomplished on time and /or if cost over runs are occurring. We also need to

keep monitoring the performance to detect early deviations.

5 Creating Reports

Project has many different built- in reports and has the capability building custom reports and

exporting data to other MS Office applications for integration into other reporting venues. These

are often intelligent reports.

MB0049 Second Sem - Set 2 Final.rtf

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