Assignment On Project Management

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT BY RAHUL GUPTA Q 1: What are the various characteristics of a project? What is the importance of each characteristic? Give examples? Answer: It is well known to all that the organizations continue to grow year by year. As there is a need to grow it becomes necessary for a growing organization to resort to proper growth plan. The plan needs to be properly prepared. It is possible to prepare proper plans only if the manager has sufficient knowledge of the various process of the project envisage for growth. The manager has to work on the various life cycle stages and apply necessary planning tools to come out with a proper growth plan of the company. The various techniques of identifying the project items, work break down structure of the project, task duration, estimation etc are to be done meticulously. Characteristics Any project may be considered to have the following characteristics:

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 1

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT a) Resource requirement - During the course of executing the project, it is seen that the resource requirement increases from start to an intermediate stage of the project. It further increases at rapid rate and becomes constant while the project is during its 80 to 95% progress stage. Thereafter the resources requirement decreases to zero i.e. when the project comes to a finish. b) Funds - The requirement of funds for the completes execution of the project also follows the same trend as that of the resources. The two are more or less proportional. c) Probability of completion - The probability of completing the project can be estimated based upon the normal distribution curve. In the initial stage of the project the probability of completing the project is low though not zero. It gradually increases and as the project approaches finish the probability of completing the project tends to become 100%. d) Risk - The risks involved in the project affecting its completion time is high at the initial stages and low at the later stages of the project. e) Design changes - The project during the course of its progress may be subjected to changes because of some external factors. The influence of such external factors on the project may result in changes in the design f the project though not very often. It is observed that such changes if any are normally high during the initial stages of the project and decreases as the project approaches finish.

Q 2: State the principles of Deming’s Philosophy relevant to Project Management. Explain how each one is applicable in management? Answer: Dr. Deming's teachings and philosophy can be seen through the results they produced when they were adopted by the Japanese, as the following example shows: Ford Motor Company was simultaneously manufacturing a car model with transmissions made in Japan and the United States. Soon after the car model was on the market, Ford customers were requesting the model with Japanese transmission over the USA-made transmission, and they were willing to wait for the Japanese model. As both transmissions were made to the same specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer preference for the model with Japanese transmission. It delivered smoother performance with a lower defect rate. Finally, Ford engineers decided to take apart the two different transmissions. The RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 2

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT American-made car parts were all within specified tolerance levels. On the other hand, the Japanese car parts had much closer tolerances than the USA-made parts - i.e. if a part was supposed to be one foot long, plus or minus 1/8 of an inch - then the Japanese parts were within 1/16 of an inch. This made the Japanese cars run more smoothly and customers experienced fewer problems. Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved products and services. "Longterm commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks Transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment." Deming philosophy synopsis The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:

"Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces." In the 1970s, Dr. Deming's philosophy was summarized by some of his Japanese proponents with the following 'a'-versus-'b' comparison:

• When people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined by the following ratio, quality tends to increase and costs fall over time. • However, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs, costs tend to rise and quality declines over time. • Deming offered fourteen key principles for management for transforming business effectiveness.



Deming’s 14 Points for Management:

 Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.  Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.  Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 3

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT  End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long term relationship of loyalty and trust.  Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease cost.  Institute training on the job.  Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.  Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.  Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.  Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.  Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute workmanship.  Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.  Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.  Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everyone's work.

Q 3: Explain the concept of concurrency in High Technology Development? Answer:

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 4

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

Concurrency Development:

in

High

Technology

As the application of technology has become critical for the survival of organization it has become imperative for organizations to initiate measures for the development of high technology to be ahead of competition. No doubt, there are many specialized Research and Development firms which offer their expertise to their clients’ problems. However, their services are available to the competitors and many technologies developed by the company’s own research personnel cannot be shared with outsiders. So the strategy would be utilize the services of external resource to the extent they are suitable for our purpose, but with a strong base of R and D of our own. This will really differentiate the best companies from other ordinary ones. The following give some guidelines in the form of rules which would help organization to be strong in this area. Building concurrency into every activity is essential to reduce the development cycle time and to counter the technology obsolescence. Many of the tasks that are normally done in a serial fashion can be done in parallel by synchronizing the flow of information. The practices of the concurrent engineering where the design of the product and all its associated processes are carried out simultaneously based on team work and participation. Would not only help in reducing the development cycle time, but also improves the product functionality with regard to requirements. Concurrency can be accomplished in many ways both for product development as well as technology transfer, user evaluation and production. Example - Tactical Aircraft: Concurrency in Development and Production of F-22 Aircraft Should Be Reduced (Letter Report, 04/19/95, GAO/NSIAD-95-59). Because the F-22 fighter plane is not urgently needed and the Defense Department (DOD) has discovered engine and software problems with the aircraft, GAO urges that the F-22 be thoroughly tested before large numbers of these expensive aircraft are acquired. Concurrency between the development and production phases of F-22 means that independent testing of hightech features of the aircraft will not be completed before the Air Force makes a significant commitment to producing the F-22. Among other things, the F-22 boast an advanced architecture for the integrated avionics system, a propulsion system that will allow cruising a supersonic speeds without the afterburners that current fighters needs, and low observable technologies. The military has already disclosed engine and stealth ness problems, and the potential for avionics and software problems underscore the need to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities before committing to production.

Q 4: Explain in detail the project management review process. What is the various post review activates? Answer: RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 5

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT



Project Management Review Process:

There is mutual benefit for corporate and major information systems project teams and many of the programs as a result of the information exchange generated by the Project Management Reviews. Throughout the project lifecycle, project staff should collaborate and communicate with staff responsible for capital planning, information architecture, standards, information security, safety, configuration management, risk management, quality management and assurance. The information exchange may address status, issued, process, requests, requirements, approvals, and assistance in the areas of project plans, schedule, budget, functional content, scope, staffing, infrastructure and operations. Corporate and major information systems are reviewed from their inception to retirement, i.e., throughout the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) phases of Identification, Selection, Control, and Evaluation. The Project Management Review Process includes the following steps:  Identification of projects that will participate in the Reviews.  Development and adherence to a quarterly reporting schedule.  Compilation of standard project management data into a presentation data.  Collection of detailed project files that support the information reported during the project Management Reviews and may be requested for inspection during a formal audit  Participation in the Review meetings with any required follow-up activities. 

Post Review Activities:

Once the Project Management Review has been conducted, follow up with program/project managers on any issues or concerns requiring attention, the status of open items from the review, and CIO reporting actions, e.g., reports to the CIO Council. The CIO may also recommend quality assurance analysis be conducted. •

Issues or Concerns Requiring Attention:

The project manager is responsible for raising issues or concerns that require assistance or guidance to the attention of the CIO. These items should be communicated whenever they become known, and not held to the next Project Management Review. The CIO will assign appropriate OCIO staff available to help resolve open items. The program / project manager should communicate the status of these items in each quarterly review until the items are resolved / closed.

•

Status of Open Items from Review:

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 6

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT The program/project manager is responsible for tracking the open items from the review and communicating the status in each quarterly review until the items are closed. The supporting the scheduling of reviews will coordinate with the program/project manager after the quarterly reviews to help ensure that new items have been captured for tracking and action by the program/project manager. •

CIO Reports:

The staff supporting the CIO Quarterly Reviews will prepare a summary report after each Project Management Review. The summary report will include the following information:  Summary Status.  Open Issues/Items.  Status Performance Objectives/Measures.  Status of Schedule/Cost The summary report will be provided to the program/project manager to gain concurrence on the content. The summary report will be used by the CIO when reporting status to the CIO Council.

Q 5: Explain the structure of the documentation systems as required by supply chain monitoring. What is the significance of documentation? How does it help a manager? Answer: 

Requirement of Documented systems in Supply Chain Monitoring (SCMo):

It is possible today to establish a system aligned with an organizations supply chain. It can be an add-on to existing ERP-systems. The main objectives are  Prevention of stock-out and over supply.  Early warnings, elimination of bullwhip effect.  Optimized allocation in bottleneck situations due to network-wide inventory and

demand transparency.

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 7

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT The main Principles behind is the Integration of supply chain participants, Exchange of demand And inventory information, transparency & Visibility of inventories and demands for multilevel supply chains. It also eliminates time lags in the information flow and ensures synchronization of demand information. SCMo set up (Initialization) the main steps for the set up are:  Determination of the potentially critical part of the supply network Criteria:  Mapping of Structures.  High shortage risk and effect, long lead and reaction times, high total inventory cost, frequent engineering changes. 

Main Features:

The main features of such system are –  Releases and Iterations planning – It is a simple way to create project plan.  Dashboard – It is a quick project status reporting tool.  To-Do lists – Identify and list the integrated assignments.  Integrated QA - Bug Tracking, Test Cases management, user story-to-bugs  Trace-ability, QA stats and charts.  Time Tracking - Create more accurate estimates of time. 

Significance of Documentation:

It might sometimes be difficult for an organization to straightaway launch into a Project Management exercise, even if they are well equipped, particularly if the project is too large – for e.g., development of a new product, expansion of capacity, modernization of facilities, diversification into a totally new business area, getting into a Joint venture etc. In this case, the core project team itself might feel the need to have some major inputs before even a tentative plan could be drawn up. A well-drafted Business Plan would ideally serve this purpose, provided it is handled systematically & professionally. 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. 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, as overview and a detailed view of the relevant processes for SCMo. The entry point in the documentation system is the model. “Process Overview SCMo”. This model is the starting point for the navigation to other models. The vertical navigation is the navigation on different levels. The RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 8

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT horizontal navigation is the navigation on one level. Microsoft has a team project management solution that enables project managers and their teams to collaborate on projects. The Microsoft Project 2002 products in this solution are Microsoft Project Standard 2002, Microsoft Project Server 2002, and Microsoft Project Server Client Access License (CAL) 2002.

Q 6: Write down a brief outline on any assumed project management plan? Answer: Various sections and subsections of this unit would cover as part of Project Management Plan, the following key aspects: 

a)

Project Management Plan – Sample Project: Project SummaryProject Overview – Consider a firm XYZ as a Stock Broker/ Dealer firm. Any re will have applications supporting the following components: First, a Brokerage Account Opening application on XYZ’s Web site that will allow any internet user to open a brokerage account with XYZ. Second, an account opening and maintenance application, which is primarily for XYZ’s representatives to open accounts for the applications received in paper format.

b)

Project Scope• • • •

To provide an effective, efficient means of amount maintenance activities. To allow representatives to provide information. To provide a complete picture to the client representatives for account status, valuation, order status, and trade activity. To increase the intelligence of the update process.



Project’s Value-add to the Customer:

a)

Objectives-

Strengthen relationship with XYZ by delivered high quality software on time. Become preferred vendor by developing expensive on XYZ product and systems. RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 9

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT · b)

Commitment made to customers.



Assumptions made While Planning

Intelligent update to business partners will be incorporated in only the maintenance part of the application and not in the Account opening engine. Qualified people will approve Rational Unified Process methodology for implementing this project. XYZ reviewers will take seven days to approve a milestone documents. If no comments are received within this time period, it will be considered as approved.



a.

Standard Process Followed Deviation from standard process:

and

Tailoring Notes-

Requirement trace ability will be done through the requisite pro-tool. Physical data base design may be refined | later iterations. · b.

Change request tracking-

Changes requested by customer will be logged in change request and analyzed for impact of project Major change usually has an effort/delivery-on-time impact on the project. The customer needs to formally approve these changes. c.

Requirement Trace Ability-

Requisite tool will be used along with estimated size and effort. This is the estimation criteria to check everything is in place. d.

Automated Estimation Process-

Estimate the total effort with respect to each activity and effort for each phase of a project expressed as of percentage of man days. e.

Scheduling and Estimation of Resources-

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 10

ASSIGNMENT ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT · People · Hardware, software and Tools · Training Plan

f.

Quality Plan – Quality Goals-

 Project Goals: Prepare a strategy for meeting quality goals indicating the expected benefits. ·

 Estimation of Defects to be defected  Reviews. g.

Project Tracking-

Prepare the reports to be given to the customer which indicates – • Milestone reports & weekly status reports. • Issue requiring clarification. • Plus other reports which needs to be given to Business Managers h.

Defect Control System Performance Summary-

Prepare a list probable defects & defect distribution table to find out deviation for the same. There were very few large deviations in the process performance; the actual performance was close to what is expected. This will give a chance to improve the poor performance. i.

System Driver Risk Management-

Prepare a table on risk management indicating the type of risk, actual elapsed time, estimated time, percentage slippage and reasons for slippage. j.

Global Delivery Model the Latest Trend in Project Management-

· Standardization.

· Modularization. · Minimum Cutomerization. · Maximum Micro Structure.

RAHUL GUPTA, MBAHCS (2ND SEM), SUBUJECT CODE- MBOO33, SET-1

Page 11