ASSIGNMENT

Subject code: MB0033

(3 credits)
Set 2
SUBJECT NAME: PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

NAME: PRANAY SRIVASTAVA

MBA 2ND SEM
ROLL NO:510933855
L C CODE: 02782
SIKKIM MANIPAL
UNIVERSITY
DDE
 MBOO33 – PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SET – 2
ASSIGNMENT

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:

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.

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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 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. "Long-term
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:

(a) When people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined by the following
ratio,
quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.

(b) 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.

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with

the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to
improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease cost.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. 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.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers,
numerical goals. Substitute workmanship.
12. a. 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.
b. 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.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The
transformation is everyone's work.

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

Answer:

Concurrency in High Technology Development

As the application of technology has become critical for the survival of

organisation 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 organisation 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 high-tech 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.

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Q 4: Explain in detail the project management review process. What are the various
post review activates?
Answer:

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.

1. 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 reviews until the items are
resolved / closed.

2. Status of Open Items from Review

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.

3. 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:

i) Summary Status
ii) Open Issues/Items
iii) Status Performance Objectives/Measures
iv) 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.

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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

i) Prevention of stock-out and over supply

ii) Early warnings, elimination of bullwhip effect

iii) Optimized allocation in bottleneck situations due to network-wide

inventory and demand transparency

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 :

a) Determination of the potentially critical part of the supply network Criteria:

b) Mapping of Structures a) 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 –

i) Releases and Iterations planning – It is a simple way to create project plan.

ii) Dashboard – It is a quick project status reporting tool.
iii) To-Do lists – Identify and list the Integrated assignments.
iv) Integrated QA - Bug Tracking, Test Cases management, user story-to-bugs
Trace-ability, QA stats and charts.
v) 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

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.

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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:

1. · Project Management Plan – Sample Project

• Project Summary

Project 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.

• Project Scope

i. · To provide an effective, efficient means of amount

maintenance activities
ii. · To allow representatives to provide information
iii. · To provide a complete picture to the client
representatives for account status, valuation, order
status, and trade activity
iv. · To increase the intelligence of the update process

2. · Project’s Value-add to the Customer

• Objectives

Strengthen relationship with XYZ by delivered high quality

software on time
Become preferred vendor by developing expensive on XYZ
product and systems.

• Commitment made to customers

3. · 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.

4. · Standard Process Followed and Deviation from standard

Process

• Tailoring Notes

Requirement trace ability will be done through the requisite

pro-tool.

Physical data base design may be refined | later iterations.

• 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.

5. · 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.

6. · Automated Estimation Process

Estimate the total effort wrt each activity and effort for each
phase of a project expressed as of percentage of man days.

7. · Scheduling and Estimation of Resources

• People
• Hardware, software and Tools
• Training Plan

8. · Quality Plan – Quality Goals

• Project Goals

Prepare a strategy for meeting quality goals indicating the

expected benefits

• Estimation of Defects to be defected

• Reviews

9. · 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

10. · 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.

11. · 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.
 12. · Global Delivery Model the Latest Trend in Project
Management

• Standardization
• Modularization
• Minimum Cutomerization
• Maximum Micro Structure

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