solution for software project management · solution for software project management december 2015...

Mumbai University I.T (Semester -VII)

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Solution for Software Project Management

December 2015

Index

Q.1)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. 2

b) …………………………………………………………………………. 3

c) …………………………………………………………………………. 3-4

d) …………………………………………………………………………. 4-5

e) …………………………………………………………………………. 6-8

Q.2)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. N.A

b) …………………………………………………………………………. 8-12

Q.3)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. 13-15

b) …………………………………………………………………………. 16-18

Q.4)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. 18-21

b) …………………………………………………………………………. 22

Q.5)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. 23-25

b) …………………………………………………………………………. 25-27

Q.6)

a) …………………………………………………………………………. 27-28

b) ………………………………………………………………………….28-29

c) ………………………………………………………………………….29

d) ………………………………………………………………………….30

e) …………………………………………………………………………. N.A



Q1)

(a) Define project management.

Ans: Project management is the application of processes, methods,

knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. General.

A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned

objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits.

The core components of project management are:

defining the reason why a project is necessary;

capturing project requirements, specifying quality of the deliverables,

estimating resources and timescales;

preparing a business case to justify the investment;

securing corporate agreement and funding;

developing and implementing a management plan for the project;

leading and motivating the project delivery team;

managing the risks, issues and changes on the project;

monitoring progress against plan;

managing the project budget;

maintaining communications with stakeholders and the project organisation;

provider management;

closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate

Project management is concerned with managing discrete packages of work to

achieve objectives. The way the work is managed depends upon a wide variety

of factors.

The scale, significance and complexity of the work are obvious factors:

relocating a small office and organising the Olympics share many basic

principles but offer very different managerial challenges.

A good distinguishing factor is often to look at the nature of the objectives.



(b) Explain the need of project management.

Ans:

(c) Explain Business Case.

Ans:



(d) Explain formal and informal organization.

Ans: Formal organization



Informal organization



(e) What is project? What are the attributes of a project?

Ans: A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to accomplish a

unique product, services or result. Project management is the application

of knowledge ,skills ,tools and techniques to project activities to meet

project requirements.



Q2)

(a) Explain four P’s with respect to project management.

(i)Product (ii) People (iii) Process (iv) Project

Ans: N.A

(b) Explain various project scheduling techniques .Explain the difference

between CPM and PERT.

Ans: Project Scheduling

Project scheduling is concerned with the techniques that can be employed to

manage the activities that need to be undertaken during the development of a

project.

Scheduling is carried out in advance of the project commencing and involves:

• identifying the tasks that need to be carried out;

• estimating how long they will take;

• allocating resources (mainly personnel);

• scheduling when the tasks will occur.

Once the project is underway control needs to be exerted to ensure that the plan

continues to represent the best prediction of what will occur in the future:



• based on what occurs during the development;

• often necessitates revision of the plan.

Effective project planning will help to ensure that the systems are delivered:

• within cost;

• within the time constraint;

• to a specific standard of quality.

Two project scheduling techniques will be presented, the Milestone Chart (or

Gantt Chart) and the Activity Network.

Milestone Charts

Milestones mark significant events in the life of a project, usually critical

activities which must be achieved on time to avoid delay in the project.

Milestones should be truly significant and be reasonable in terms of deadlines

(avoid using intermediate stages).

Examples include:

• installation of equipment;

• completion of phases;

• file conversion;

• cutover to the new system

Gantt Charts

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar or line chart which will commonly include the

following features:

• activities identified on the left hand side;

• time scale is drawn on the top (or bottom) of the chart;



• a horizontal open oblong or a line is drawn against each activity indicating

estimated duration;

• dependencies between activities are shown;

• at a review point the oblongs are shaded to represent the actual time spent

(an alternative is to represent actual and estimated by 2 separate lines);

• a vertical cursor (such as a transparent ruler) placed at the review point

makes it possible to establish activities which are behind or ahead of schedule.

Activity Networks

The foundation of the approach came from the Special Projects Office of the US

Navy in 1958. It developed a technique for evaluating the performance of large

development projects, which became known as PERT - Project Evaluation and

Review Technique. Other variations of the same approach are known as the

critical path method (CPM) or critical path analysis (CPA).

The heart of any PERT chart is a network of tasks needed to complete a project,

showing the order in which the tasks need to be completed and the

dependencies between them. This is represented graphically:

EXAMPLE OF ACTIVITY NETWORK

The diagram consists of a number of circles, representing events within the

development lifecycle, such as the start or completion of a task, and lines, which

represent the tasks themselves. Each task is additionally labelled by its time

duration. Thus the task between events 4 & 5 is planned to take 3 time units.

The primary benefit is the identification of the critical path.

The critical path = total time for activities on this path is greater than any other

path through the network (delay in any task on the critical path leads to a delay

in the project).

Tasks on the critical path therefore need to be monitored carefully.

The technique can be broken down into 3 stages:

1. Planning:



• identify tasks and estimate duration of times;

• arrange in feasible sequence;

• draw diagram.

2. Scheduling:

• establish timetable of start and finish times.

3. Analysis:

• establish float;

• evaluate and revise as necessary

BASIS FOR COMPARISON

PERT CPM

Meaning PERT is a project management technique, used to manage uncertain activities of a project.

CPM is a statistical technique of project management that manages well defined activities of a project.

What is it? A technique of planning and control of time.

A method to control cost and time.

Focus on Event Activity

Model Probabilistic Model Deterministic Model

Estimates Three time estimates One time estimate



BASIS FOR COMPARISON

PERT CPM

Appropriate for High precision time

estimate

Reasonable time estimate

Management of Unpredictable Activities Predictable activities

Nature of jobs Non-repetitive nature Repetitive nature

Critical and Non-

critical activities

No differentiation Differentiated

Suitable for Research and Development

Project

Non-research projects like

civil construction, ship

building etc.

Crashing concept Not Applicable Applicable



Q3)

(a) Describe the five phases of IT project methodology.

Ans:

Phase 1: Conceptualize and Initialize

Phase 2: Develop the project Charter and detailed project plan



Phase 3: Execute and control the project



Phase 4: Close project

Phase 5: Evaluate project success



(b) Describe the five scope management processes.

Ans: Scope planning:

Project scope definition:

Create work break down structure:

The decomposition or dividing of the major project deliverables

into smaller and more manageable components.



Project scope verification

Scope change control:



Q4)

(a) Explain project leadership and ethics.

Ans:



Some modern approaches to leadership



Ethics in project

More practical view that can help you understand and apply several

principles of ethics in a project setting



(b) List and explain the steps involved in terminating a project.

Ans: Regardless whether a successful project is completed by inclusion,

integration, or extinction, a plan must be developed to terminate it. An

organization that is project-oriented may have a "termination manager" whose

primary responsibility is to effectively and efficiently end projects. The steps

involved for termination of the project that a termination manager may include

the following :

* Ensure the project is complete.

* Ensure delivery and client acceptance.

* Prepare a final report.

* Ensure that all bills have been paid and that the final invoice has been sent to

the client.

* Redistribute personnel, materials, equipment, and any other resources.

* Determine what records (manuals, reports, and other paperwork) are to be

kept and place them in storage.

* Assign responsibility for product support, if necessary.

* Oversee the closing of the project's books.

It is equally as important that team members not be penalized for participating

in what may turn out to be an unsuccessful project. If team members are

penalized, they will be less willing to end a project or will become risk averse.

This brings us to the human side of the termination process. Senior management

and the team leader must recognize and reward the accomplishments of the

project team. Doing so creates a corporate culture that encourages success and

the motivation to do well. Acknowledging the dedication and achievements of

the project team will enable team members to proceed to their next assignment

with a more loyal and positive attitude (Stevens, 1992). Unfortunately, near the

end of a project it is easy to neglect these kinds of important details because

most of the team is looking forward to the next project, or worse, do not want

the project to end..



Q5)

(a) What is project risk management? What are the RM processes?

Ans:

Process risk management includes the processes concerned with conducting

risk management planning, identification analysis Reponses and

monitoring and control of a project ;most of these processes are updated

throughout the project .The objectives of project risk management are to

increase the probability and impact of positive events, and decrease the

probability and impacts of events to the projects

Risk Planning

Project risk management process



Risk identification

Risk assessment

Risk strategies

In addition ,triggers or flags in the form of metrics should be

identified to draw attention to a particular risk when it occurs



.This system requires that each risk have an owner to monitor

the risk appropriately .

Risk monitoring and control

Risk response

Risk evaluation

(b) Distinguish resource loading from resource levelling .Why is levelling

of resources preferred to large fluctuations?

Ans:

Resource Loading

Resource loading mainly involves your manpower or employees. In resource

loading, each employee is assigned a task or a percentage of a project (X

percent of the whole). Usually, it's 25 percent of the whole. Then the employee

is assigned other tasks until he or she reaches 100 percent booked. This would

then mean that the employees cannot take on any additional work.

http://www.iaresearch.com/jcvganttpro/manual/ResourceLoading.html



With resource loading, a project manager can predict an employee's hours for

the year and see how tasks can be assigned. This also allows the project

manager to decide whether or not additional employees or contractors are

needed to complete the scheduled projects.

The downside to resource loading is that employees cannot be 100 percent

booked. Other things may arise to take away their time, such as unexpected

problems that need to be fixed. An employee should always be under 100

percent booked. Resource loading increases the chance that a project will not be

completed on time because employees are overloaded with projects.

Resource Levelling

While resource loading mainly deals with manpower, resource levelling deals

with both time (project starting and ending date) and resources, including

manpower and budget. Resource levelling tries to balance the conflicting

interests of projects with the available resources.

Resource levelling generally breaks things down into two categories: time and

available resources. Some projects need to be finished within a certain time

frame. These projects will use all the available resources (money and

manpower) to complete the project by a certain date. For a complete overview

of resource levelling, read my article "What is Resource Levelling?"

Projects that aren't as pressing can be spread out for an indefinite period of time

until resources do become available. These projects are usually ones that are not

on the critical path and will not affect the project completion date.

Like resource loading, resource levelling also has its problems. It is hard to

determine in the beginning which tasks will be on the critical path. Also,

delaying a task could cause the entire project to fall behind schedule.

Fluctuation in demand is a real world phenomenon and when the demand of

goods vary, the demand of resources required to produce these items also vary.

But fluctuation in demand of resources comes at a cost. Fluctuation in demand

of resources is undesirable because the resources are utilized in some time

periods and in others its underutilized which means we have idle costs in some

time periods. Thus, fluctuation in demand for any resource either result in over

stocking or capital lock or stock out or loss of business resources. So Resource

levelling is a technique in project management that overlooks resource

allocation and resolves possible conflict arising from over-allocation. When

project managers undertake a project, they need to plan their resources

accordingly.

http://www.brighthubpm.com/resource-management/14644-what-is-resource-leveling/



This will benefit the organization without having to face conflicts and not

being able to deliver on time. Resource levelling is considered one of the

key elements to resource management in the organization. Resource

levelling helps an organization to make use of the available resources to the

maximum. The idea behind resource levelling is to reduce wastage of

resources i.e., to stop over-allocation of resources.

Q6)

(a) What is a milestone? Why are they useful

Ans:



(b) What is projectitis? How can an organization minimize its likelihood

of its occurrence?

Ans: In project management context, projectitis is kind of behaviour or feeling

that an individual suffers from due to deep attachment with a project.

For example, a project team member work on a project for reasonably long and

enjoyed working a lot. Now project comes to an end and the team has to be

dismantled, the psychological depression this member goes through is called

projectitis. rojectitis is just another manifestation of fragmentation. And

fragmentation is the enemy of high performance; it’s the essence of anti-

synergy, where the whole is less than the sum of the parts.Process is the

antidote to fragmentation. A well designed and executed process links

disconnected bits of work into a coherent whole, where the result is of higher

value than the inputs. Process brings discipline to chaos, order to anarchy, and

method to madness.So, in practical terms how do organizations tame



Projectititis? The answer for many companies is a Project Optimization Process.

More than a Project Management Office (PMO), more than just a prioritization

pool, and more than a chartering protocol, a Project Optimization Process is a

set of activities that link together to create the right result. And for this

particular governing process, the perfect outcome is optimally balanced

portfolio of process improvement projects.

(c) Explain the difference between –AON and PERT.

Ans:

Activity on the Node (AON) is a project network diagramming tool that

graphically represents all of the project activities and tasks, as well as

their logical sequence and dependencies. Using AON, activities are

represented as boxes (i.e. nodes) and arrows indicate precedence and

flow. AON uses the activities defined in the WBS at its nodes. The time

estimate for these activities may be obtained from estimation techniques

like PERT or CPM.

PERT uses the project networking diagramming tools to create a visual

representation of the scheduled activities that expresses both their logical

sequence and interrelationships. PERT is a method to analyse the

involved tasks in completing a given project, especially the time needed

to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to

complete the total project. PERT also uses a statistical distribution that

provides probability for estimating when the project and its associated

activities will be completed. This probabilistic estimate is derived by

using three estimates for each activity: optimistic, most likely, and

pessimistic.

An optimistic estimate is the minimum time in which an activity or task

can be completed. This is a best-case scenario where everything goes well

and there is little or no chance of finishing earlier. A most likely estimate,

as the name implies, is the normally expected time required to complete

the task or activity. A pessimistic estimate is a worse- case scenario and

indicates the maximum time the activity can take.

Thus, while AON is a network diagramming tool, PERT is a time

estimation tool. Both tools are used to together to find the critical path

and estimate the maximum time required to complete the project in

project scheduling.



(d) Why is effective and efficient communication vital to a project?

Ans:

(e) How can a system be a technical success but an organization failure?

Ans: N.A

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