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Q1. What are the various phases of project management life cycle? Explain

A:

The various phases in project management life cycle are:

Analysis and Evaluation Phase:

It starts with receiving a request to analyse the problem from the customer.

The project manager conducts the analysis of the problem and submits a detailed

report to the top management. The report should consist of what the problem is,

ways of solving the problem, the objectives to be achieved, and the success rate of

achieving the goal.

Marketing Phase:

A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the project

manager. This proposal has to contain the strategies adopted to market the product

to the customers.

Design Phase:

Based on the inputs received in the form of project feasibility study,

preliminary project evaluation, project proposal and customer interviews, following

outputs are produced:

System design specification

Program functional specification Program design specification

Project plan

Inspecting, Testing and Delivery Phase:

During this phase, the project team works under the guidance of the project

manager. The project manager has to ensure that the team working under him

implements the project designs accurately. The project has to be tracked or

monitored through its cost, manpower and schedule. The tasks involved in these

phases are: Managing the customer

Marketing the future work

Performing quality control work

Post Completion Analysis Phase:

After delivery or completion of the project, the staff performance has to be

evaluated. The tasks involved in this phase are:

Documenting the lessons learnt from the project

Analysing project feedback Preparing project execution report

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Analysing the problems encountered during the project

Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping.

A:

The purpose of project planning and scoping is to first identify the areas of the

project work and the forces affecting the project and then to define the boundaries of

the project. In addition, the scoping has to be explicitly stated on the line of the

project objectives. It also has to implicitly provide directions to the project. The

planning and scoping should be such that the project manager is able to assess

every stage of the project and also enabling the assessment of the quality of the

deliverable of the project at every stage.

First, let us list the steps involved in project scoping. These steps include:

Identifying the various parametric forces relevant to the project and its stages

Enabling the team members to work on tools to keep track of the stages and

thereby proceed in the planned manner

Avoiding areas of problems which may affect the progress of the project

Eliminating the factors responsible for inducing the problems

Analysing the financial implications and cost factor at various stages of the

project

Understanding and developing the various designs required at various stages

of the project

Identifying the key areas to be included in the scope through various

meetings, discussion, and interviews with the clients

Providing a base and track to enable alignment of project with the

organisation and its business objectives

Finding out the dimensions applicable to the project and also the ones not

applicable to the project Listing out all the limitations, boundary values and constraints in the project

Understanding the assumptions made in defining the scope

After completing the project scoping, you can start your project plan. Project planning

involves three processes as shown as under:

The identification process:

The main steps in the identification process of any project are: Identifying initial requirements

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Validating them against the project objective

Identifying the criteria such as quality objectives and quantitative requirements

for assessing the success of both the final product and the process used to

create it

Identifying the framework of the solution

Preparing a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project

feasibility

Preparing relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the

project and its different stages

Preparing a proper project schema of achieving the defined business

requirements for the project

Identifying training requirement

Making a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on

the project

Identifying the training needs of the individuals working in various functions

responsible in the project

Preparing a training plan and a training calendar

Assessing the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the

project organisation

The review Process:

The main steps in the review process of any project are:

Establishing a training plan to acquaint the project team members with the

methodologies, technologies and business areas under study

Updating the project schedule to accommodate scheduled training activities

Identifying the needs for review and reviewing the project scope

Reviewing a project with respect to its stages and progress by preparing a

plan for the review, fixing an agenda to review the project progress and

keeping the reports ready for discussion about stage performance

Reviewing the project scope, the objective statement, the non conformancesin the project stages and identifying the need to use the project plan

Preparing a proper project plan indicating all the requirements from start to

finish of the project and also at every stage of the project

Preparing a checklist of items to be monitored and controlled during the

course of execution of the project

The analysis process:

The main steps in the analysis process of any project are:

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Comparing the actual details with that in the plan with reference to project

stages.

Measuring various components of the project and its stages frequently to

control the project from deviating and also monitor the performance.

Deciding how the task, the effort and the defects are to be tracked, what toolsto be used, what reporting structure and frequency will be followed at various

stages.

Identifying the preventive and corrective steps to be taken in case of any

variance

Performing root cause analysis for all problems encountered.

If all the above steps are performed, scoping and planning become effective

and the ideal outcome are achieved.

Q3. What is Return on Investment (ROI)? Explain its importance

A:

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 non-performance. Where appropriate, ROI should reflectactual 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.

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In either case, the information is important for decision-making based on the value of

the investment throughout the project life-cycle.

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.

A:

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 figure 9.3). Management of acquisition lies in

ensuring that these are satisfied before they are stored for processing and decisions

taken on the analysis.

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 inthem. 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 analyse 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 organisational

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 utilising 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

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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.

A: Project risk management is all about the systematic process of identifying, analysing,

prioritising and responding to risk by applying risk management principles and controlling the

probability and /or impact of unfortunate events at the project level. It attempts to maximise the

probability and consequences of positive events and to minimise the probability and

consequences of adverse events. The goal is to prevent or reduce risk in a cost-effective manner

without compromising quality or harming the mission or timeline.

The benefits of proper risk management in projects are huge. Organisations can generate a lot

of profit if they deal with uncertain project events in a proactive manner. The result will be that they

minimise the impact of project threats and seize the opportunities that exists.

Proper risk management enables you to deliver the project on time, on budget and with the

quality results ones project sponsor/client demands. In addition to this, other project

team members can be also happy and motivated enough to perform better and better. All this

would essentially boil down to increase in the productivity of team members and in the efficiency

and effectiveness of the resources. In this unit you will learn more about project risk management

Q6. Write brief note on project management application software.

A:

The Microsoft Project family of products offers tools to work on a project from

management point of view. Microsoft Project is designed for people who manage

projects independently and dont require the capability to manage resources from a

central repository. Microsoft has a team project management solution that enables

project managers and their teams to collaborate on projects.

After creating a fairly complete final project plan it is a good idea to create a

baseline version to compare the original project plan with actual events and

achievements.

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The following is the typical process followed for project management through

this software as shown as under:

Reviewing the Baseline:

The Baseline created can be used to compare the original project plan with

actual events and achievements. This will display the days required for each task

and project phase. For actual operating instructions please refer the Microsoft

Project User Handbook.

Tracking Progress:

After creating a baseline, if the project has begun, it is necessary to enter

actual dates for the tasks that are being completed and the resource utilisation used

to complete them.

Again review different views and the cost and summary tables before

proceeding to the next section. Return to the Entry view of the Gantt chart before

proceeding.

Balancing Workloads:

ReviewBaseline

TrackingProgress

BalancingWorkload

MonitoringVariances

CreatingReports

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At times people and equipment may be assigned more work than they can

complete in normal working hours. This is called over allocation. Project can test for

this condition and reschedule (or level) their workload to accommodate completing

tasks during a normal day.

Monitoring Variances:

After a baseline has been established and the project has begun, it is

desirable to determine if tasks are being accomplished on time and /or if cost over

runs are occurring. We also need to keep monitoring the performance to detect early

deviations.

Creating Reports:

Project has many different built-in reports and has the capability building

custom reports and exporting data to other MS Office applications for integration into

other reporting venues. These are often intelligent reports.