PROJECT Management - MBO049 SET 2

Q1 : Write a short note on the following: a. Work Breakdown Structur b. Estimation Approach Answer: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The entire process of a project may be considered to be made up on number of sub process placed in different stage called the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). WBS is the technique to analyses the content of work and cost by breaking it down into its component parts. Project key stages form the highest level of the WBS, which is then used to show the details at the lower levels of the project. Each key stage comprises many tasks identified at the start of planning and later this list will have to be validated. WBS is produced by identifying the key elements, breaking each element down into component parts and continuing to breakdown until manageable work packages have been identified. These can then be allocated to the appropriate person. The WBS does not show dependencies other than a grouping under the key stages. It is not time based there is no timescale on the drawing. The work breakdown structure has a number of benefits in addition to defining and organizing the project work. A project budget can be allocated to the top levels of the work breakdown structure, and department budgets can be quickly calculated based on the each projects work breakdown structure. By allocating time and cost estimates to specific sections of the work breakdown structure, a project schedule and budget can be quickly developed. As the project executes, specific sections of the work breakdown structure can be tracked to identify project cost performance and identify issues and problem areas in the project organization. Project work breakdown structures can also be used to identify potential risks in a given project. If a work breakdown structure has a branch that is not well defined then it represents a scope definition risk. These risks should be tracked in a project log and reviewed as the project executes. By integrating the work breakdown structure with an organization breakdown structure, the project manager can also identify communication points and formulate a communication plan across the project organization. When a project is falling behind, referring the work breakdown structure will quickly identify the major deliverables impacted by a failing work package or late sub- deliverable. The work breakdown structure can also be color coded to represent sub- deliverable status. Assigning

colors of red for late, yellow for at risk, green for on-target, and blue for completed deliverables is an effective way to produce a heat-map of project progress and draw managements attention to key areas of the work breakdown structure. The following guidelines should be considered when creating a work breakdown structure:

The top level represents the final deliverable or project Sub-deliverables contain work packages that are assigned to a organizations department or unit All elements of the work breakdown structure dont need to be defined to the same level The work package defines the work, duration, and costs for the tasks required to produce the sub-deliverable Work packages should not exceed 10 days of duration Work packages should be independent of other work packages in the work breakdown structure Work packages are unique and should not be duplicated across the work breakdown structure

Estimation Approach Estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain projects based on incomplete, uncertain and/or noisy input. Effort estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans, budgets, and investment analyses, pricing processes and bidding rounds. There are two types of estimation approaches:1. Bottom up approach The bottom up approach consists of the following steps. i) Project manager first divides the product under development into major modules. ii) Each module is subdivided into smaller units. iii) Project manager defines a standard for manufacturing and self-testing by Identifying modules in the system and classifying them as simple, medium or complex Using either the provided standard definitions or definitions from past projects as much as possible

 Getting the average build effort for simple/medium/complex (S/M/C) programs from the baseline if a project specific baseline exists

1.Top down Approach The top down approach consists of the following steps. i) Getting the estimate of the total size of the product in function points ii) Fixing the productivity level for the project using the productivity data from the project specific capability baseline from the general process capability baseline, or from similar projects iii) Obtaining the overall effort estimate from the productivity and size estimates iv) Using effort distribution data from the process capability baselines or similar projects to estimate the effort for the various phases v) Refining the estimates taking project specific factors into consideration Estimation Tools a. Algorithmic model It consists of one or more algorithms that produce an effort estimate as a function of a number of variables or cost drivers. b. Expert judgment It relies on one or more people who are considered experts in some Endeavour related to the problem at hand. For example, it can be a software application or effort estimation. c. Analogy It refers to the comparison of the proposed project to completed projects of a similar nature whose costs are known. The organizations process database is a source for historical cost data. d. Top down An overall cost estimate for the project is derived from global properties of the product. This estimate will usually be based on the previous projects and will include the costs of all functions in a project like integration, documentation, and quality assurance and configuration management. e. Bottom-up Each component of the software product is separately estimated and the results aggregated to produce an estimate for the overall job.

f. Automated estimation models A number of computerized models are available which estimate cost and schedule from user inputs of size and environmental cost factors. Most of these are algorithmic models that use components as the measure of size.

Q2 : List and define in Brief all the tools for Post Implementation Review. Answer: Tools for Post Implementation Review Completing a project is not the same thing as ending the project management process. Simply finishing doesnt ensure that the organization benefits from the projects outcome. For example, after completing a yearlong project to establish a new quality management process for your organization, you want to make sure that what you set out to do was actually achieved. Your objective wasnt to simply deliver a process but rather, to deliver the process that addresses the specific business need you intended to meet. This is the real measure of success. To make the most of the benefits that the project can deliver, however, you also need to check to see if further improvements will deliver still greater benefit. You also need to ensure that the lessons learned during the project are not forgotten. You can more effectively design and execute future projects when you take advantage of lessons learned through experience of previous projects. So how can you properly measure a projects success, and work toward continuous improvement? This is where the process of Post-Implementation Review (PIR) is helpful. It helps you answer the following key questions:

Did the project fully solve the problem that it was designed to address? Can we take things further, and deliver even bigger benefits? What lessons did we learn that we can apply to future projects?

The key to a successful PIR is recognizing that the time spent on the project is just a small part of an ongoing time-line. For people and organizations that will be working on similar projects in the future, it makes sense to learn as many lessons as possible, so that mistakes are not repeated in future projects. And for organizations benefiting from the project, it makes sense to ensure that all desired benefits have been realized, and to understand what additional benefits can be achieved. A good time to start thinking about the Post Implementation Review is when members of the project team remember the most shortly after the project has been delivered, and when most

of the problems have been ironed-out. Start to list ideas and observations while they are still fresh in peoples minds. However, to adequately assess the quality of the implementation and complete this process, youll need to wait long enough for the changes caused by the project to truly take effect. Here are some tips for conducting the PIR:

Ask for openness Emphasize the importance of being open and honest in your assessment, and make sure that people arent in any way punished for being open. Be objective Describe what has happened in objective terms, and then focus on improvements. Document success Document practices and procedures that led to project successes, and make recommendations for applying them to similar future projects. Look with hindsight Pay attention to the unknowns (now known!) that may have increased implementation risks. Develop a way of looking out for these in future projects. Be future-focused Remember, the purpose is to focus on the future, not to assign blame for what happened in the past. This is not the time to focus on any one person or team. Look at both positives and negatives Identify positive as well as negative lessons.

There are various tools for post project implementation review that may be considered for improving and developing processes of the project. Reports are prepared on the same which becomes the basis for all future discussion. Some of the tools that may be considered for post implementation review are a) Final Product Evaluation: This may be done through regularly organized meetings and quality reviews. b) Outstanding Project Work Evaluation: All outstanding works of a project can be reviewed to check its output quality, its performance compared to planned and evaluate the same. c) Project Review: Review questionnaire may become important if the reviews are to be structured and group discussion may be initiated depending upon the points to be discussed. d) Process Evaluation: Evaluation of any process is one of the key issues of the project

Q3 : Define the Basic categories of performance management. Answer: Performance Management categories

The professional manager not only ensures that his performance is at peak all times, but motivates his entire team to perform the same. This comes by appreciation and encouragement. In case of shortfalls, he arranges training for them so that their performance improves. Thus the team members know that they are expected to perform, that they get help to do so and their effort is recognized and rewarded too. This is the simple path of performance management. Managers can follow a seven step performance management model are:1. Set Objectives/Performance Standards 2. Communicate these to the employees 3. Review/monitor 4. Check actual performance Vs. Standards set 5. Identify gaps 6. Jointly decide on corrective action, if needed 7. Reset objectives for next period h) Identification with the organization i) Empowering employees j) Coping with changes Basic categories of performance measurements include measures of efforts, measures of accomplishments and measures that relate efforts to accomplishments Basic categories of performance management are a) Measures of efforts: Efforts are the amount of financial and non-financial resources (in terms of money, material) that are put into a program or process. b) Measures of accomplishments: Accomplishments measures report what was provided and achieved with the resources used. There are two types of measures of accomplishments outputs and outcomes. Outputs measure the quantity of services provided; outcomes measure the results of providing those outputs.

c) Measures that relate efforts to accomplishments: These are efficiency measures that relate efforts to outputs of products or services. They also measure the resources used or cost (for example, in rupees, employee-hours, or equipment used) per unit of output. They provide information about the production of an output at a given level of resource used and demonstrate an entitys relative efficiency when compared with previous results, internally established goals and objectives

Q4 : Write a short note on the following: a. Professional Responsibility b. Business Orientation c. Personnel Productivity d. Conflict Management Answer: -a. Professional Responsibility With increasing competition, organizations have to finds new ways of customer retention and adopt innovative measures to increase their customer base. However, one common requirement is productivity improvement. Professional responsibility is very much expected by customers. They want to ensure that the project managers and executives take the baseline responsibility and follow all the codes of conduct. Managerial and executive productivity are measured with respect to zero defects and overall team performance. Installing Development Methodologies and Quality Systems is the responsibility of managers. Another area of Professional Responsibility for managers is reduction in process cycle time. This is defined as the total time taken to complete an entire single process. It is also termed as turnaround time. A few examples of high cycle time activities are: a) Procurement Time: This is for outsourced software and hardware. There are multiple factors which go into a procurement process. Activities like identification of the requirements, their details, verification and authorization, inputs from the company, the start of the activities by the vendors are all parts of this process. Due to extreme dependencies on various parties, procurement cycle has a high turnaround time b) Processing Time: This refers to the time lag which goes into and between each of the processes mentioned above.

c) Order Confirmation Time: This refers to the time taken by the company as well as the vendors to take a final call on a particular discussion.

b. Business Orientation Business Orientations is a term used by Jaroslav Tyc in his book Business Orientations published at www.LuLu.com. Business Orientation is the basic offer addressed by a business to its customers. The author affirms that there can only be four basic forms of such an offer: 1) The Expert (who provides individual solution for his clients) 2) The Product (product makers invention sold on the general market) 3) The Self-Service (an access to the self-satisfaction of customers needs) 4) The Commodity (the basic resources) The main point is that any other Business Orientation is just a mix of these 4 basic forms. Likewise all the mathematical calculations are based on only four basic mathematical operations. The author compares the 4 Business Orientations from many various standpoints and shows how the 4 Business Orientations are revealed in economic history, business competition, development of economy sectors and management decisions. He also shows how the quartet of Business Orientations corresponds to other basic category quartets like 4 mathematical operations, 4 types of markets, 4 forms of business environment protection etc. c. Personnel Productivity Personnel productivity is an important parameter which determines project performance. Personnel productivity can be at various levels right from top management to a project team member. Productivity at the junior level can be assumed and controlled only if all other supporting elements of business are well balanced. Higher productivity cannot be expected if they are not motivated enough. The ways in which you can boost their productivity is given below. They can be motivated through:

a) Sufficient content of development activities. The work should be interesting and challenging enough. It should bring a sense of satisfaction and achievement. b) Favorable working condition. Productivity decreases if the environment is not supportive. The environmental conditions should make one feel comfortable to stay at the workplace c) Proper delegation of activities. It is important to have a clear line of authority and balanced delegation of work. d) Timely reward and recognition. Acknowledging a good task or work always boost morale of the resource. e) Adequate availability of resources. If adequate resources are not present, it would lead to frustration and finally loss of focus and commitment. f) Properly planned system of quality control and process control. If the process is not supportive and flexible, even the best efforts will not be enough to get tolerable quality. g) Adequate maintenance support for hardware and software. These ensure that no work gets held up on this account efficiencies bring in productivity and time lag decreases it. As far as productivity as well as quality is concerned, especially where projects are concerned, it is good to follow Demings philosophy, which states create conditions for performance, do not use rhetoric, pay him well and give the pride of working. d. Conflict Management Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspects of conflict and to increase the positive aspects of conflict at a level equal to or higher than where the conflict is taking place. It is possible to manage conflicts in one of the following ways a. Avoid the issue b. Approach the problem in such a way as to obtain the solution quickly c. Discuss and share the problem d. Resolve any misunderstanding by means of a discussion among project members e. Work on a common solution technique that will lead to a win win situation f. Emphasize on collaboration

Q5 : Comment on the following a. Importance of DMAIS in project management cycle b. Knowledge areas of project management Answer: Importance of DMAIS in a Project Management Cycle Project managers consider the five steps DMAIS as generic for any system of a journey towards excellence. Figure 9.2 lists the five steps hidden in the acronym DMAIS. DMAIS is highly relevant in Project Management for the simple reason that each step gives out in detail the actions to be taken to ensure readiness for the next step. Verification of DMAIS implementation is possible with checklists which can be prepared and used by employees at all levels. The team members can be given training to follow them. Five steps of DMAIS. 1. Define This step requires that what is sought to be achieved is identified in all its detail. The following are the inputs which will define what we are going to make: a. Benchmark: It refers to the standards achieved by the best in the industry. A companys product is set to meet them. b. Customer Requirement: It refers to the documentation of customer requirements. Proper understanding of customer requirement is of utmost importance. You should deliver what a customer requires. c. Process Flow Map: It shows the activities that take place to result in the product at the end of them. d. Quality Function Deployment This tool compares the quality characteristics in a companys product with those in their competitors and their relative importance to the customer. To achieve them, you find the technical specifications you have to incorporate in our product. e. Project Management Plan This includes the materials, men, activities, schedules, milestones and so on. 2. Measure In this step, we measure the outcomes of the activities. This is done using the following methods. a. Data collection You need to collect the data about the work that is done and compare as to how it corresponds with what is required

b. Defect Metrics You need to capture the deviations that are in the effective potion of the work in defect metrics. Then you need to decide whether they are acceptable or need rectification. c. Sampling If the volumes are high, you need to select a few of them and inspect them to see whether the entire batch is acceptable 3. Analyze In this step, you have to analyze the data received from the preceding step by using the following tools: a. Cause and Effect Diagrams also called Fishbone Diagrams b. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis FMEA c. Root Cause Analysis d. Reliability Analysis 4. Improve In this step, you have to implement the measures to remove the defects found earlier for improving the process. This can be done using the following measures. a. Design of Experiments The effect of changing values of parameters is done in a controlled way. This allows you to experimentally determine the effect of variations determined. You can use the results for optimizing the process b. Robust Design The equipment design is made robust to reduce the variations. c. Tolerances The permitted deviations are made closer, so that the capability of process is increased 5. Standardize When improvements have become consistent, the methods adopted are standardized. Knowledge areas of project management There are nine knowledge areas consisting of integration, scope, time, cost, quality, risk, human resources, communications, and procurement. These areas group 44 Project Management Processes. All of the knowledge areas are interrelated and each should be taken care of during project planning Following are 9 project management knowledge areas. 1. Project Integration Management: Deals with processes that integrate different aspects of project management.

2. Project Scope Management: Deals with processes that are responsible for controlling project scope. 3. Project Time Management: Deals with processes concerning the time constraints of the project. 4. Project Cost Management: Deals with processes concerning the cost constrains of the project. 5. Project Quality Management: Deals with the processes that assure that the project meets its quality obligations. 6. Project Human Resources Management: Deals with the processes related to obtaining and managing the project team. 7. Project Communication Management: Deals with the processes concerning communication mechanisms of a project. 8. Project Risk Management: Deals with the processes concerned with project risk management. 9. Project Procurement Management: Deals with processes related to obtaining products and services needed to complete a project. In total, there are 44 processes involved in Project Management. These are mapped to one of nine Project Management Knowledge Areas.

Q.6 What are the various SCMo soft wares available in project management? Explain each in brief. The process documentation system is intranet based to provide immediate access to current, up-to-date process documentation. The system allows users to navigate through graphical structures to relevant documentation and processes which were created with the ARIS-Toolset. The content of the process documentation system includes the area supply chain management from the Odette Supply Chain Management Group. The system includes graphical process documentation, in the form of process chains, as well as the entire range of documentation related to the processes. The Process Documentation System gives, according to its objectives, an overview and a detailed view of the relevant processes for SCMo.

The entry point in the documentations system is the model Process Overview SCMo. This model is the starting point for the navigation to other models. The navigation between models is done via the assignment symbol. The assignment symbol of a function / process Interface indicates that there is a link to another model. The linked / assigned models can be opened by double-clicking on the assignment symbol. This can be classified into two different navigations as shown in figure.

a) Vertical Navigation: The vertical navigation is the navigation on different levels. Starting on the work package level and going downwards into more detail, the first models of processes are found on the sub-process level. In the model Process Overview SCMo those processes are assigned to the functions on Level 2. In the models there can be assignments for some functions, e.g. for a Function Allocation Diagram or a sub-process that describes that function. These two examples are currently the models on the lowest level. b) Horizontal Navigation: The horizontal navigation is on the same level. Some processes have a link to other processes, which can be at the start or end or even in the process itself, when another process is imbedded in the process. Those links are represented by Process Interfaces. Microsoft has a team project management solution that enables project managers and their teams to collaborate on projects. The Microsoft Project 2002 products in these solutions are: 1. Microsoft Project Standard 2002 2. Microsoft Project Server 2002 3. Microsoft Project Server Client Access License (CAL) 2002. Support Software

Having learnt the basics of application software, you would have a fair idea of how and to what extent project management processes could be automated. However, the challenge of making things work remains unchanged. While software vendors are confident of making it work, two yawning gaps still remain: 1. Business processes which are not covered in such software 2. Integration of multi vendor supported software applications The enterprise is normally in a dilemma whether to look at the same vendors to support such customisation or not. This normally works out too expensive for their comfort or within their tight budgets. Several software vendors have seized the opportunity with offerings that substantially fill these gaps effectively at a fraction of the costs quoted by the major vendors. The other carrot which these vendors offer is a unilateral transfer of the facility to customise themselves which is seen as a huge advantage. The various support software that may be used for managing projects are: 1. ARROW 2. FEDORA 3. VITAL 4. PILIN 5. MS EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 The ARROW Project It is a consortia of institutional repository solution, combining open source and proprietary Software .Arrow is preferred support software because it: Provides a platform for promoting research output in the ARROW context Safeguards digital information Gathers an institutions research output into one place Provides consistent ways of finding similar objects Allows information to be preserved over the long term Allows information from many repositories to be gathered and searched in one step

 Enables resources to be shared, while respecting access constraints Enables effective communication and collaboration between researchers The vision of project ARROW: The ARROW project will identify and test software or solutions to support best practice institutional digital repositories comprising e-prints, digital theses and electronic publishing. ARROW project wanted to be a solution for storing any digital output. Their initial focus was on print equivalents such as thesis and journal articles among others. It provided solution that could offer on-going technical support and development past the end of the funding period of the project. Fedora ARROW wanted a robust, well architected underlying platform and a flexible object-oriented data model to be able to have persistent identifiers down to the level of individual data streams. It accommodates the content model to be able to be version independent. Since the beginning of the project ARROW has worked actively and closely with Fedora and the Fedora Community. The ARROW projects Technical Architect is a member of Fedora Advisory Board and sits on Fedora Development Group. This association is reinforced by VTLS Inc. VTLS President is a member of Fedora Advisory Board and VITAL Lead Developer sits on Fedora Development Group VITAL VITAL refers to ARROW specified software created and fully supported by VTLS Inc. built on top of Fedora. It currently provides: 1. VITAL Manager 2. VITAL Portal 3. VITAL Access Portal 4. VALET Web Self-Submission Tool 5. Batch Loader Tool 6. Handles Server (CNRI) 7. Google Indexing and Exposure 8. SRU / SRW Support

9. VITAL architecture overview VITAL is part of creative development of ARROW institutional repositories. VITAL has the following features: 1. Inclusion of multimedia and creative works produced in Australian universities 2. Limited exposure nationally or internationally 3. Addition of annotation capability 4. Inclusion of datasets and other research output not easily provided in any other publishing channel 5. Being developed in conjunction with the DART (ARCHER) Project 6. Exploration of the research-teaching nexus tools that will allow value added services for repositories 7. Integration with or development of new tools that will allow value added services for repositories (for instance the creation of e-portfolios or CVs of research output of individual academics) PILIN Persistent Identifiers and Linking Infrastructure There has been a growing realisation that sustainable identifier infrastructure is required to deal with the vast amount of digital assets being produced and stored within universities. PILIN is a particular challenge for e-research communities where massive amounts of data are being generated without any means of managing this data over any length of time. The broad objectives are to: 1. Support adoption and use of persistent identifiers and shared persistent identifier management services by the project stakeholders 2. Plan for a sustainable, shared identifier management infrastructure that enables persistence of identifiers and associated services over archival lengths of time 3. Deploy a Worldwide Site Consolidation Solution for Exchange Server 2003 at Microsoft 4. Add Picture 5. Use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to consolidate more than 70 messaging sites worldwide into seven physical locations

In this context, let us look at Microsoft Model Enterprises (MME). Microsoft Model Enterprises (MME) Objectives Maximising the number of management tasks performed centrally Decreasing the number of sites through the consolidation of the smaller locations into a smaller number of RDCs Reducing the total number of infrastructure and application servers Standardising infrastructure and devices worldwide Solution Consolidation of 75 tail sites into 6 regional data centers (RDCs) using local storage area networks (SANs) Key Focus Areas Proactive, detailed monitoring and analysis of WAN bandwidth utilisation and latency Effective but flexible approach to project planning, scheduling, and cross-group coordination Coordination and control of deployment of successive pre-release versions of Office System 2003 (including Outlook 2003) Business Benefits Four percent overall direct cost savings Key enabler of the Microsoft ME initiative which through fiscal year 2003 has produced millions in overall consolidation savings including USE IT Benefits Improved server utilisation Improved server management Strengthened security Increased reliability