ASSIGNMENT-02

Name: Registration No: Learning Centre: Learning Centre Code: Course: Subject: Semester: Module No: Date of Submission: Marks Awarded: MBA

Project Management
2ND Semester

MB0049

Director of Distance Education Sikkim Manipal University II Floor, Syndicate House Manipal-576 104

Signature of Coordinator Signature of Center Signature of Evaluator

Q1. What are the various phases of project management life cycle? Explain Answer:Projects too have to chore through their life-cycles adhering to a system. Every project irrespective of its size, scope has to adapt a system. A system in the project management refers to the existence of interrelationship of activities in a project. The absence of a system makes a project die. No matter what project it is that youre preparing for, the project management life cycle can assist you in narrowing your focus, keeping your objectives in order and finishing said project on time, on budget and with a minimum of headaches. Every project management life cycle contains five steps: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring/Control and Closure. No one step is more important than the other and each step plays a crucial role in getting your project off the ground, through the race, down the stretch and across the finish line. Phases of Project management life cycle 1) Initiation In this first step you provide an over-view of the project in addition to the strategy you plan on using in order to achieve the desired results. During the Initiation phase youll appoint a project manager who in turn will -- based on their experience and skills -- select his team members. And lest you think you need to be a Bill Gates or Donald Trump in order to see your project take on a life of its own, fear not: there are some great technological tools available to get you through the Initiation phase of the project management life cycle. 2) Planning The all-important second step of any successful project management life cycle is planning and should include a detailed breakdown and assignment of each task of your project from beginning to end. The Planning Phase will also include a risk assessment in addition to defining the criteria needed for the successful completion of each task. In short, the working process is defined, stake holders are identified and reporting frequency and channels explained. 3 & 4) Execution and Control Steps Three and Four take you into deeper water. When it comes to the project management cycle, execution and control just may be the most important of the five steps in that it ensures project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the Execution and Control phases, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the Execution and Control phases progress, groups across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support.

5) Closure By the time you reach Step Five -- Closure -- the project manager should be tweaking the little things to ensure that the project is brought to its proper conclusion. The Closure phase is typically highlighted by a written formal project review report which contains the following elements: a formal acceptance of the final product (by the client), Weighted Critical Measurements (a match between the initial requirements laid out by the client against the final delivered product), lessons learned, project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. The Project Management Cycle saves time and keeps everyone on the team focused. Fortunately, modern technology provides a variety of templates that will take you from A-to-Z (or in this case from Start-to-Finish) making the Project Management Cycle user friendly no matter what your level of management experience! Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping. Answer:Project Planning Scoping The main objective of scoping is to: Define the project boundaries State the objectives that the project will cover Provide directions to the project and to enable assessment of the final products quality Scoping of project will enable the manager to prepare an outline of the project plan. Outline of the project plan For any project work to be undertaken, it is a good practice to prepare an outline of the project. The outline is the template of the project preparation. It comprises the following aspects. Context for the project: Describe the relevant economic, technological, and political aspects of the business context, as well as business strategy, objectives, issues or problems, and a listing of the past events pertaining to the project. Purpose and objectives of the project: The purpose of the project indicates the reasons for undertaking the project, its benefits, goals, and other aspects of the project deal. The objectives of the project are the mean things that will be done to achieve the purpose. Tasks, Milestones, and Deliverables: The project manager decides the tasks, milestones, and deliverables of the project. He/she would make a list of all the tasks pertaining to the project, identify the person in charge for each, duration for each task, along with the target time of completing each such listed task. A typical outline of the task is: Development of plan and approval of the plans Literature survey Data collection Data analysis Findings

 Interpretation and conclusions Recommendation on the project and presentation Documentation of report Uncertainties, Risks and Opportunities, and Planned Responses: Prepare a list of all such events occurred in past and their chances of occurrences in future, which may have negative or positive impact on completion of the project Critical Success Factors: Identify at least four to five factors which must go right for the project to succeed Use GANTT Chart of tasks to monitor and control the project deliverables Tasks involved in scoping The tasks involved for the project manager while scoping of project are listed below. He/she has to: Establish project objectives which could be identified from clients through workshops and interviews. This will ensure project alignment with the business direction of the organisation. Project objectives may be formulated as S.M.A.R.T: - S Specific - M Measurable - A Achievable (recently Acceptable is used regularly as well) - R Relevant - T Time terminated (bounded) Establish scope of investigation in order to determine the dimension that applies to the project and to identify the constraints, specific limitation or exclusions pertaining to the project. Record any assumptions made in defining the scope. Identify initial requirement and validate them against the project objective(s). Identify the criteria for assessing the success of both the final project and the process used to create it. Outline the solution to illustrate the feasibility of achieving the defined business requirements for the project Identify training requirement to determine the probable client training and technical writing. Review project scope by first reviewing the objectives, statements and scope definition documents and then verify whether it has met the standards. Using the project plan A project plan is a preliminary document that guides the execution of a project. The key stages work plans and the actual performance should be compared with the project plan prepared for a particular stage. The project plan should be tracked throughout for which various checklists could be used. The value of certain key parameters must be measured. Issues such as how the task, the effort and the defects will be tracked, what tools will be used, what reporting structure and frequency will be followed are decided at various stages. In case of differences, the reasons behind the changes are analysed and the deliverable in terms of cost, schedule, and effort are altered accordingly.

Q3. What is Return on Investment (ROI)? Explain its importance Answer: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 the 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 with improved 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 agencys management capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the consequences of under or nonperformance. 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 is still 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 lifecycle. 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. Answer: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 below figure). Management of acquisition lies in ensuring that these are satisfied before they are stored for processing and decisions taken on the analysis.

Characteristics of useful data 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 analyze 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 organizational 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 utilizing 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. Answer:Risk is an inherent part of any project. Irrespective of how much you have planned, your project (software product or process improvement effort) is plagued with uncertainties. Hence you cannot sideline or dilute the importance of risk management and needs to have an effective risk management system in place. Risk management involves identifying potential problems (risks), analyzing those risks, planning to manage them, and reviewing them. Many development groups run project without any consideration for the problems that might occur. Risk management works as an insurance for projects, and can help reduce project costs

and efforts when trouble strikes. It can also help in preventing problems even before they take a bigger shape. When risk management techniques are used, you can prevent problems and anticipate others to make the project run smoothly. Risk management as a process has evolved rigorously. Later in this unit, you will see the famous four steps to deal and manage the risk in a project. However, before discussing risk management, let us have a look at the various types of risks. You have already seen some classic examples of sources of risks in the introduction. Each of these risks can be classified in the four types of risks listed in figure below and explained later:

Types of project risks As discussed earlier, there are different types of risks involved in a project. They can be broadly classified as: a) Project Risks: This is the risk pertaining to pure project related parameters and activities. They may arise from changes in the scope of the project, in the work quantities, and in the resource requirements. Risk may also originate from estimation error or unexpected developments in a project. As you have already studied, project success depends on three major parameters including Cost, Resources and Timelines. The below figure shows the interdependency between the three elements. If any of these elements are altered, the entire project is exposed to risk.

Source of project risks

b) Market Risk: This is the risk which is external to project but related to it. It is the risk arising out of a change in any of the following market parameters price change, changes in market regulations, economic changes, competition, and competitors product changes. c) Industry Risk: This is an industry specific risk. It is the risk arising out of a change in scientific instruments used in a business activity or changes in company policies because of changes in the industry. d) Social and Political Risk: These are the risks pertaining to society at large. Although the probability is very low but it may have a big impact on the project. These risks may arise out of changes in labour situation, labour laws, environmental laws, and so on. The following table shows examples of common project level risks: Sample project level risk checklist Category Scope Scope statement not agreed to by all stakeholders Unrealistic or incomplete schedule development Schedule Unrealistic or incomplete activity estimates Inadequate skills and ability of the project manager Inadequate skills and ability of business users or subject matter experts Inadequate skills and ability of vendors Project Poor project management processes in place Management Lack of or poorly designed change management processes Lack of or poorly designed risk management processes Inadequate tracking of goals/objectives throughout the implementation process Lack of legal authority to implement project Legal Failure to comply with all applicable laws and regulations Loss of key employees Personnel Low availability of qualified personnel Inadequate skills and training Inadequate project budgets Risk Unrealistic or incomplete scope definition

Financial

 Cost overruns Funding cuts Unrealistic or inaccurate cost estimates Lack of stakeholder consensus Changes in key stakeholders Lack of involvement by project sponsor Organizational Loss of project sponsor during project Changes in agency/office leadership Organizational structure Poor timing of product releases Business Unavailability of resources and materials Poor brand image Congressional input or interest Changes in related systems, programs Labor strikes or work stoppages External Seasonal or cyclical events Lack of vendor and supply availability Financial instability of vendors and suppliers Contractor or grantee mismanagement Unavailability of business or technical experts Complex technology New or unproven technology Unavailability of technology Unrealistic performance goals Performance Cultural Immeasurable performance standards Resistance to change

Internal

Technical

 Cultural barriers or diversity issues Unrealistic quality objectives Quality Quality standards unmet

Q6. Write brief note on project management application software. Answer:The ODETTE project was started in June 2000 as part of the IST framework programme 5 financed by the European Commission. The main goal of the project was to develop objectoriented hardware design methodology. This new design methodology was combined with a class library of basic building blocks and a tool-set that provides synthesis and simulation support The prime deliverable of the ODETTE is a system for object-oriented hardware design based on SystemC(TM) system description language, which provides a migration path from objectoriented system specifications to efficient hardware implementations. Introduction to Supply Chain Monitoring (SCMo) The intent of this document is to define the structure of the Documentation System, its content, the method of content generation and to attain common documentation of all standard processes of ODETTE. The documentation is valid for the SCM group of ODETTE. The 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.There are various advantages of using such a documentation system. The process documentation system serves the following objectives as shown in below figure.

Objectives of process documentation system a) Standard / Best Practices: Documentation system stores and presents standards and best processes to be adhered to across the industry. This also helps the organisation to secure their correct applications. b) Central Repository: It also offers a central location of all processes and system related information. This includes customising documentation to working guidelines. c) Adaptation: Adaptation is another unique objective achieved through documentation system. They allow flexible and quick adaptation in case of process changes or enhancement and provide the updated information immediately. d) Reference: It also provides easy and quick reference to the documents. They present the standard processes in the intranet, where users can look up the current processes whenever necessary. e) Availability: Process documentation system is available at every working location. Defining the Process Documentation System 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. Related information is attached to each documentation level, where it can be in the form of a single document or a link to further documents or other process chains. The process documentation system gives, according to its objectives, an overview and a detailed view of the relevant processes for Supply Chain Monitoring (SCMo). The processes give the information as to which activities are done and by whom, when the activities are done and which systems and information support those activities. Easy system operation is achieved through the use of top-down navigation and the availability of a search index. Model, Object and Symbol Specifications This section covers details and specification including models and model types used. ARIS offers a wide variety of model types to enable modelling customised to individual specifications. The models and model types used in the documentation system are listed in the following table Models and model types Model Identification Work Package Process Model Type Function Tree Function Tree

Sub Process

Process Chain (eEPC)