output: communications management plan

Transcription

1 Q1. (50 MARKS) A. List the nine PMBOK knowledge areas and give a one sentence description of the purpose of each knowledge area along with at least one output (document etc.) and its purpose. 1.Project Integration Management: Project Integration Management involves coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout the project s life cycle. It ensures the timely delivery and integration of all elements of the project for successful completion. output: project charter is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project, and provides direction on the project s objectives and management. 2.Project Scope Management: It ensures that all stakeholders have the same understanding of what the products of the project will produce and what processes the project team will use to produce them. output: the scope management plan is a document that includes descriptions of how the team will prepare the project scope definition, create the WBS, verify the completion of project deliverables and control changes to the project scope. 3.Project Time Management: project time management can improve performance, it involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of the project. output: The key output of a Time Management Plan is the project schedule, which includes the table of activities and the associated schedule dates when activities and milestones are to take place. 4.Project Cost Management: It ensure that the project is completed within an approved budget. output: a cost management plan is a document that describes how the organisation will manage cost variances on the project. 5.Project Quality Management: It ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken, in accordance with specified quality standards. output: 6.Project Communications Management: It ensures timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information.

2 output: communications management plan 7.Project Risk Management: The purpose is to minimize potential negative risks while maximizing potential positive risks. output: risk management plan, which identifies and documents the procedures for managing risk throughout a project. 8.Project Human Resource Management: Making the most effective use of the people involved with a project. output: project organisation charts used to present the people responsible for performing the work. 9.Project Procurement Management: Acquiring goods and services from an outside source. It to reduce both fixed and recurrent costs. output: statement of work is a description of the work required for the procurement. gives bidders a better understanding of the buyer s expectations. B. List in the correct order and briefly describe each of the five processes that should occur during any project or phase of a project. processall 1.Initiation: determining/assigning a project manager identifying stakeholders preparing a business case and a project charter 2.Planning: hold kickoff meeting prepare team contract, scope management, work breakdown structure, schedule and cost baseline identify procurement requirement identify/discuss/prioritize risks produce design 3.Executing: direct and management project execution acquire and development project team perform scope, time, cost, communication, risk and procurement management perform coding and document determine and perform testing for quality assurance

3 4.Monitoring and Controlling: prepare performance metrics and production of status reports 5.Closing: prepare final project report final project presentation lessons learned C. List and justify five (5) skills you consider critical for a project manager to possess. Communication: This is an important skill as it ensures that all components of the project are communicated effectively to other team members. Leadership: This is also important because every project requires someone to take the lead and coordinate all areas of the project. Organisational: Ensures that the project is undertaken according to plan. Also distributing the workload effectively. Team-building: Setting the culture and building confidence within the team Technology: Ability to operate a variety of different software e.g. Microsoft Project D. Do you think everyone can easily be a team player? What types of people have more difficulty being team players? What helps promote good team player behaviour? I think that everyone can be team players with the right mindset. People who are not proactive will find it more difficult to be a team player. Reward programs can help promote good team behaviour. Q2 (50 marks) A. One definition of a project states that a project has a unique purpose, is temporary, requires resources, often from various areas, should have a primary sponsor and/or customer, and involves uncertainty. Explain in what ways a project involves uncertainty. In your answer refer to any of

4 the nine PMBOK knowledge areas. A project involves uncertainty with risk, which can either have a negative or positive effect on meeting project objectives. Project Risk Management is one area that explains how to minimise negative risks why increasing positive risks. Negative risks involve understanding potential problems and how they might impede of the success of the project. Uncertainty can arise from any of the PMBOK knowledge area, because most area are related to each other. For example, in the project time management if a certain task takes longer than expected, it might affect the overall schedule of the project. Uncertainty can be if the project will be completed on time, or if some tasks in the project scope needs to be removed or reduce time for it. B. Describe how the project your team has just completed during the past semester involved uncertainty, and what the team did to manage this uncertainty. Our team came across a few uncertainties. We were uncertain if the all the project requirements were manageable with our current skill sets. We have one experienced coder, while the others had little knowledge in that area. To manage this uncertainty we took the initiative to learn about the programming language as we went. We also distributed the workload based on what skills each team member had. C. Explain the relationship between project management and software project development. How do they differ and how do they relate to one another? Project management is concerned with managing a project and software project development is about developing the product. Project management coordinates the software project development and ensures that the software is complete. Project management is concerned with documenting and coordinating a project as a whole. They go through the various PMBOK knowledge areas such as defining the project, identifying the scope etc. Project management would use human resources to

5 acquire and manage software developers, and to also distribute work between them based on their skills. Software developers are concerned with developing the software product according to specification. They are skilled in designing and coding, rather than managing various project components. Essentially, they differ from the skills that they have. For example, a project manager will need to have both hard (knowledge and technical) and soft skills (people), and the following, Communicational Organisational Team-building Leadership Coping Technology Software developers will not require all the skills mentioned above, but rather just the knowledge and technical skills. D. What is the triple constraint? As a project manager what does this mean when managing a project? In your answer, give examples of activities that relate to each constraint. The triple constraint refers to the scope, time and cost which can impose difficulties on the project. As a project manager these constraints are what can significantly impact the end product and therefore the success fo the project. Usually it means that there is a trade-off between the, e.g. if time is limited then the scope needs to be adjusted. In the cost constraint, it could mean to reduce the hardware costs for a server as an example. Q3. (50 MARKS) A. Time Management is one of the nine PMBOK knowledge areas. Time Management involves a number of processes along with their associated outputs. List and briefly describe the six (6) processes along with their associated outputs. processtime 1.Activity definition: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables. The main outputs include: an activity list, activity attributes, milestone list.

6 2.Activity sequencing: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities. The main outputs include: project schedule network diagram, activity list and attribute list updates. 3.Activity resource estimating: estimating how many resources(i.e. people, equipment, and materials) a project team should use to perform project activities. The main outputs include: activity resource requirements, resource breakdown structure, and resource calendar. 4.Activity duration estimating: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities. The main outputs include: activity duration estimates, activity attribute updates. 5.Schedule development: involves analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. The main outputs include: project schedule, schedule model data and baseline, and updates to resource requirements, activity attributes, and project calendar. 6.Schedule control: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule. The main outputs include: performances measurements, recommended corrective actions, and updates to project schedule, schedule model data and baseline, resource requirements, activity attributes, project calendar. B. Describe the time schedule that your project team produced and used during your project. My team used a gantt chart to schedule the project. This consisted of individual tasks and the required time to complete them. For example, some tasks that we listed in the gantt chart were PMP, R&A document, and Design document. We set the start and end for each task, and at the end of each one, a milestone was achieved.

7 C. In reference to the time schedule that your project team produced, answer the following: 1. Describe how you applied the schedule to help with the management of the project. We applied the schedule to help allocate time effectively between various components in the project. It also showed us what needed to be completed and when it needed to be completed by. 2. How useful was the schedule in helping the team complete the project? The time schedule helped with allocating sufficient amount of time for each task to be completed. Although some tasks needed more attention such as the R&A document which was frequently updated as requirements changed. This document relied on meeting with the clients, which also affected our time schedule as their meeting time was limited. 3. Considering your recent experience with Time Management what would you do differently in future projects? In future, time could be distributed more evenly between various project components. As this project had a short duration, the planning phase was constantly updated throughout development as project requirements and constraints changed. Q1. (30 MARKS) A. Name and explain each of the five(5) main processes involved in Project Scope Management. processscope 1.Scope planning: involves deciding how the scope will be defined, verified, and controlled; also how the WBS will be created. The scope management plan is the main output for this process. The SMP is a document that includes descriptions of how the team will prepare the project scope definition, create the WBS, verify the completion of project deliverables, and control changes to the project scope. 2.Scope definition: the output of scope definition is the project scope statement. A description of the project including: overall objectives and justifications, detailed description of project requirements, characteristics and requirements of the product,

8 specific success criteria, scope boundaries, constraints, assumptions, milestones. 3.Work Breakdown Structure(WBS): involoves subdividing the major project requirements into smaller, more manageable components. All requirements identified in the R&A document are hierarchically decomposed until only atomic tasks remain. It is important to organise and divide the tasks involved in meeting the requirements into logical subdivisions based on how the work will be performed. 4.Scope Verification: is the formal acceptance of the PROJECT SCOPE and ensuring that work outside the SCOPE is not performed. 5.Scope Control: involves putting in place formal processes for controlling changes to PROJECT SCOPE, and for correctly controlling scope throughout the life of the project. B.In Project Time Management it is necessary to determine the dependencies of project activities. Name and briefly describe each of the three (3) basic reasons for creating dependencies among project activities. Mandatory Dependency Mandatory dependencies are those that are contractually required or determined by the nature of the tasks themselves. The order in which they are performed flows from the activities definitions. Discretionary Dependency Discretionary dependencies are defined by the project manager or team. These are the types of dependencies we like because it gives us the ability to move tasks or schedule activities based on our discretion thus the name. It lets us decide the order or timing of task implementation. External Dependency External dependencies describe those tasks dependent on outside influences such as vendors, parties outside of the project such as internal departments supplying information or parts

9 necessary for the project work, etc. These dependencies are outside of the project team s control. They represent risk to the project schedule. C.What is meant by the term Critical Path, and why is it important? Did your project team use a critical path when managing your project? Why or why not? A Critical Path for a project is the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed. The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float. Our team used a critical path activity-on-arrow network diagram to show the duration of each task. Q2. (30 MARKS) A. List and briefly describe each of the five main processes in Project Communication Management. processcom Identify stakeholders: A part of the Initiating process group, this is the process of recognizing all the people and organizations affected by the project and documenting specific information concerning their interests, level of involvement and impact on the success of the project. Plan communications: Part of the Planning process group, this involves identifying stakeholder information needs and approach to project communications. Distribute information: (Executing process group) The process of making relevant information available to project stakeholders as planned. Manage stakeholder expectations: Its about working with the stakeholders to meet their communication needs and dealing with issues as they occur. This forms a part of the Monitoring and Controlling process group. Report performance: This involves collecting and distributing performance data, such as status reports, progress measurements, and forecasts. The process group is Monitoring and Controlling.

10 B. Describe what a communications management plan is and list the 8 items that a communications management plan should address. Communications Management Plan (CMP) defines the project s structure and methods of information collection, screening, formatting, and distribution and outline understanding among project teams regarding the actions and processes necessary to facilitate the critical links among people, ideas, and information that are necessary for project success. 1. Stakeholder communication requirements 2. Information to be communicated, including format, content, and level of detail 3. Who will receive the information and who will produce it 4. Suggested methods or technologies for conveying the information 5. Frequency of communication 6. Escalation procedures for resolving issues 7. Revision procedures for updating the communications management plan 8. A glossary of common terminology

11 C. The concept of a communications management plan makes logical sense, yet many projects do not create or follow this type of plan. Why do you think this is the case? Sheer number of stakeholders If you're managing a large project, you could be faced with up to 20 or so stakeholders. That is a LOT of people to disseminate news, project updates and risks to. You won't have time to walk around and meet each stakeholder in person (although that's ideal) and if you make do with sending out updates, people may not read them. So trying to communicate to a large number of stakeholders is inherently difficult to do. Tight project schedules The other thing that derails our project management communication plans? Tight project schedules. As a project manager, you're constantly assailed with tasks that require your attention. It is tough sometimes to clear your head and think about who needs to be updated, who should you discuss a project issue with, and so forth. There's so much chaos, you don't scan the horizon to see what is coming up and who to update. Character of the project manager The truth is, many project managers (myself included) are not outgoing, flamboyant types. Many of us keep to ourselves and do not explicitly approach stakeholders to and update them on what's going on in projects. Does it mean an introverted person cannot be a PM? Not really. You can do an introverted but make an excellent project manager if you install the correct methodologies and have requisite domain knowledge. However, an introverted PM may slightly disadvantaged in terms of charisma and being able grab the attention of stakeholders. Communications do not come so naturally to them - hence the need for structured communication plans to ensure updates get delivered to key stakeholders. Q3. (30 MARKS) A. Name and briefly explain the three major processes and their outputs of project quality management. processquality 1. Planning quality: identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them. 2. Performing quality assurance: periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.

12 3. Performing quality control: monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards. The main outputs of quality control are: acceptance decision, Re-work (if quality is not acceptable or requires updating) and Process adjustments. B. Explain what is meant by the term Cost of Quality. The Cost of Quality is the cost of conformance plus the cost of non-conformance. Conformance means delivering products that meet requirements and fitness for use. Non-conformance means not meeting quality expectations OR taking responsibility for failures. C. Chose five areas of the PMBOK and describe how these areas impacted on your project this teaching period. Project Integration Management. Project Scope Management. Project Time Management. Project Quality Management. Project Communications Management. D. Testing software is an important activity to detect defects. Name and briefly describe the four types of testing that would normally be carried out on software. Unit testing tests each individual component (often a program) to ensure it is as defect-free as possible Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test the functionally of grouped components System testing tests the entire system as one entity User acceptance testing is an independent test performed by end users prior to accepting the delivered system Q2. (20 MARKS) A. Name and briefly explain the five major cost categories related to quality. Prevention cost: cost of planning and executing a project so it is error-free or within an acceptable error range. Appraisal cost: cost of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure quality.

13 Internal failure cost: cost incurred to correct an identified defect before the customer receives the product. External failure cost: cost that relates to all errors that are not detected and corrected until after delivery to the customer. Measurement and test equipment costs: capital cost of equipment used to perform prevention and appraisal.