MB0049

Q1. Define project management. Discuss the need for project management. Ans. Project Management: It is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and hardware and software resources involved in a project. Need for Project Management: Project management is necessary because it helps an organisation execute a project successfully by

Preventing Project Failure: A project requires huge investments which should not go waste. A loss in any project would have direct or indirect impact on the society. Project management helps an organisation prevent failures in projects.

Controlling Project Scope: Scope of the project activity may undergo a change. management helps an organisation define and control project scope.

Project

Improving understanding: Lack of understanding of the project among the participants leads to failure. Project management helps participants understand the project and its purpose.

Managing Risks: A project is vulnerable to various risks. A project is affected if the technology used is changed during the course of project execution. Similarly changes in economic conditions may affect a project. Project management is very useful in assessing and mitigating such risks.

 Managing Project Problems: Consequences of ignoring project related problems can be very serious. Project management helps in identification and communication of problem areas.

Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping. Ans: The purpose of project planning and scoping is to first identify the areas of the project work and 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: Identifying the various parametric forces relevant to the project and its stages Enabling the team members to work on tools to keep track of the stages and thereby proceed in the planned manner Avoiding areas of problems which may affect the progress of the project Eliminating the factors responsible for inducing the problems Analysing the financial implications and cost factor at various stages of the project Understanding and developing the various designs required at various stages of the project Identifying the key areas to be included in the scope through various meetings, discussion, and interviews with the clients Providing a base and track to enable alignment of project with the organisation and its business objectives Finding out the dimensions applicable to the project and also the ones not applicable to the project Listing out all the limitations, boundary values and constraints in the project 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 as under: The identification process:

The main steps in the identification process of any project are:

 Identifying initial requirements Validating them against the project objective 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 Identifying the framework of the solution Preparing a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility Preparing relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and its different stages Preparing a proper project schema of achieving the defined business requirements for the project Identifying training requirement Making a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project Identifying the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsible in the project Preparing a training plan and a training calendar Assessing the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the project organisation The review Process: The main steps in the review process of any project are: Establishing a training plan to acquaint the project team members with the methodologies, technologies and business areas under study Updating the project schedule to accommodate scheduled training activities Identifying the needs for review and reviewing the project scope 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 Reviewing the project scope, the objective statement, the non conformances in the project stages and identifying the need to use the project plan Preparing a proper project plan indicating all the requirements from

start to finish of the project and also at every stage of the project Preparing a checklist of items to be monitored and controlled during the course of execution of the project

 The analysis process: The main steps in the analysis process of any project are: Comparing the actual details with that in the plan with reference to project stages. Measuring various components of the project and its stages frequently to control the project from deviating and also monitor the performance. 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. Identifying the preventive and corrective steps to be taken in case of any variance 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. Discuss the various steps in project monitoring and control. Ans: Project monitoring and control steps:

Preliminary work:

The team members understand the project plans, project stage schedule, progress controls, tracking schedules, summary of the stage cost and related worksheets. All the members have to understand the tolerances in any change and maintain a change control log. They must realise the need and importance of quality for which they have to strictly follow a quality review schedule and frequently discuss the quality agendas. They must understand the stage status reports, stage end reports, stage end approval reports.

Project Progress:

The members must keep a track of the project progress and communicate the same to other related members of the project. They must

monitor and control project progress, through the use of regular check points, quality charts, and statistical tables; control the quality factors which are likely to deviate from expected values as any deviation may result in changes to the stage schedule.

The project manager ensures that these changes are made smoothly and organises review meeting with the project management group. Thus all the members are aware about the progress of the project at all times. This helps them to plan well in advance for any exigency arising due to deviation from planned schedule.

Stage Control:

The manager must establish a project check point cycle. For this, a suitable stage version control procedures may be followed. The details are to be documented stage wise. Project files have to be timely updated with appropriate version control number and revision status should be maintained for each change. Team members are identified who will exercise controls at various points of the project.

Resources:

Plan the resources required for various stage of the project well in advance. Communication is the key. Brief both the project team and the key resources about the objectives of every stage, planned activities, products, organisation, metrics and the project controls. This increases the visibility into the project performance and hence a quality control can be achieved. Allocating a right resource at the right place and the right time will significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the resource.

Quality Control:

This is very important in any project. It is a tool which helps in tracking the progress of various parameters at any stage of the project. A project manager may use a standard quality control or customise according to the requirements. Quality control is possible if the project members follow the quality charts and norms very strictly. It is also important for all the project team members to know the importance of such quality checks and should have a good visibility into project performance.

Schedule Quality Review:

Conduct quality reviews at regular intervals. It is recommended that quality review be scheduled at the beginning of the stage and also at the ending of every stage. This helps the project manager and team members to

plan well in advance for any unforeseen deviation.

Agenda for Quality Review:

Create and distribute a quality review agenda specifying the objective, products, logistics, roles, responsibilities and time frame. This increases the effectiveness of the review and also reduces the time gap.

Conduct Quality Review:

Conduct the quality review in a structured and formal manner. Quality review should focus on product development and its quality factors. Focus on whether it meets the prescribed quality standard.

Follow Up:

Revise the complete quality review product status from In-progress to QR Complete. Follow up the actions planned in strict manner which ensures conformity to the standards.

Review Quality Control Procedure:

Verify that the quality objectives for each product are appropriate and that all participants are satisfied both with the process and its outcome. This is to ensure that all the stakeholders of the project are in conformity of control procedures.

Q4. What is Project Management Information System (PMIS)? What are the major aspects of PMIS? Ans: Project Management Information System (PMIS): An information system is mainly aimed at providing the management at different levels with information related to the system of the organisation. It helps in maintaining discipline in the system. An information system dealing with project management tasks is the

project management information system. It helps in decision making in arriving at optimum allocation of resources. The information system is based on a database of the organisation.

A project management information system also holds schedule, scope changes, risk assessment and actual results. The information is communicated to managers at different levels of the organisation depending upon the need. Let us find how a project management information system is used by different stakeholders.

The major aspects of a PMIS are as under: Providing information to the major stakeholders. Assisting the team members, stakeholders, managers with necessary information and summary of the information shared to the higher level managers. Assisting the managers in doing what if analyses about project staffing, proposed staffing changes and total allocation of resources.
Helping organisational learning by helping the members of the organisation learn about project management.

Q5. What is PERT chart? What are the advantages of PERT chart? Ans: PERT Chart: A number of activities make a project. Due to technological necessities, some activities can be performed only after some others have been completed. Some activities are independent of some other set of activities. Different activities have different duration for their completion. Some projects are big and a number of clearly distinguishable stages or milestones are identified. Since some activities run concurrently, there are possibilities that one set of activities end up early and have to wait for some other activities to proceed further. This means that there are more paths from the

beginning to the end, and one of them takes more time than the others.

We call that critical path. A PERT chart helps us to follow the critical path. Let us become familiar with the PERT chart. PERT stands for Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique. It is a popular project management model designed to analyse and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. It also helps in identifying the minimum time required for completing the total project. A PERT chart is a graphic representation of a projects schedule, showing the sequence of tasks. It also shows the tasks that can be performed parallely, and the critical path of tasks which has direct impact on the project schedule. The tasks in the critical path must be completed as per schedule in order for the project to meet its completion deadline.

Advantages of PERT chart: Avoid unrealistic timetables and schedule expectations Understand the dependencies Identify and shorten tasks that are bottlenecks Focus attention on most critical tasks

Q6. Write brief notes on Re-structuring.

Ans:

Restructuring: This is attempted with change in authority and task relationships of managers. The move from the functional form or a standard division structure to combine or divide areas of control and authority to facilitate better coordination and/or workflow can be described as restructuring. In the process, a few jobs may not be there. Few people may have multi-functional activities. The main purpose is to reduce bureaucratic costs. This is because of a change in strategy. Downsizing is also a way of restructuring