NAME: MEENAKSHI

ASSIGNMENT

MBA – II Semester

PROJECT MANAGEMENT - MB0033

 Set 1 – (60 Marks)

1. Define project management, resource, process and project cycle. Explain the life-cycle of
a project.

Ans.: A project is a set of activities which are networked in and order and aimed towards
achieving the goals of a project. Upon the completion of all the activities the goals of the
project would have been achieved. A project is undertaken to achieve a purpose.

Management is the technique of understanding the problems, needs and controlling the use of
resources, such as cost, time, manpower, materials, etc.

 Project management is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and hardware
and software resources involved in a project.

 Resource refers to manpower, machinery, money and materials required in the project.

 A process is part of the project which consists of simple and routine instructions to
achieve a desired result of any activity of the project. A process is responsible to bring
about the changes in the input fed to the process and gives out desired outputs as
results of the process.

 A project cycle basically consists of the various activities of operations, resources and
the limitations imposed on them.

The life cycle means the important phases that are required by any project from
start to end of the project. Normally this process of project will go through the preparation
which constitutes formulation and modeling, planning, control, execution, monitoring,
completion and review.

Understanding the project life cycle – In the preparation stage, the project manager along with
the associates and team members draft the outline of the project. They identify the various
factors required to be taken care of in the project. Based on their discussion they formulate the
plans and model the activities for execution. Budgets are prepared. Once the model is approved it
is then recommended for implementation.

During this stage roles and responsibilities of the various members involved
in the project are listed out. Also the team works on the feasibility report to assess the project
feasibility with respect to time, economics and technicalities. The factors which are arrived at
based on risk analysis and uncertainties are used to establish the control factors to be exercised
during the execution of the project. Various monitoring tools are set to monitor the project
progress.

The implementation stage involves the execution of the project as agreed, while carefully
monitoring progress and managing changes. The completion stage involves the satisfactory
delivery to the customer the products or services. This is followed by project review to look into
the various issues which affected the project during the course of its execution.

Any project is undertaken to deliver either a service or a product. Project deliverables could be a
set of outputs that are expected during various stages of the project. It could be as simple as a
new product or modification to an existing product.
A life cycle of a project consists of -

a)    Understanding the scope of the project,

b)    Objectives of the project,

c)    Formulation and planning various activities,

d)    Project execution and

e)    Project monitoring and control the project resources.

Input
Input Process Output
Process

Project Management Process

Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five process groups,
and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, the same basic project
management processes will be used.

The project development stages

Major process groups generally include:
 Initiation
 Planning or development
 Production or execution
 Monitoring and controlling
 Closing

Initiation

The initiation processes determine the nature and scope of the project. If this stage is not
performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’ needs.
The key project controls needed here are an understanding of the business environment and
making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project. Any deficiencies should
be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.
The initiation stage should include a plan that encompasses the following areas:
  Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals
 Reviewing of the current operations
 Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget
 Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project
 Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule

Planning and design

Planning Process Group Activities

After the initiation stage, the project is planned to an appropriate level of detail. The main
purpose is to plan time, cost and resources adequately to estimate the work needed and to
effectively manage risk during project execution. As with the Initiation process group, a failure to
adequately plan greatly reduces the project's chances of successfully accomplishing its goals.
Project planning generally consists of
 determining how to plan (e.g. by level of detail or rolling wave);
 developing the scope statement;
 selecting the planning team;
 identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure;
 identifying the activities needed to complete those deliverables and networking the
activities in their logical sequence;

Executing

Executing Process Group Processes

Executing consists of the processes used to complete the work defined in the project
management plan to accomplish the project's requirements. Execution process involves
coordinating people and resources, as well as integrating and performing the activities of the
project in accordance with the project management plan. The deliverables are produced as
outputs from the processes performed as defined in the project management plan.

Monitoring and controlling

Monitoring and controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project execution
so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be
taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project. The key benefit is that project
performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the project
management plan.

Monitoring and Controlling includes:

 Measuring the ongoing project activities (where we are);
 Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project management
plan and the project performance baseline (where we should be);
 Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get on track
again);
 Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved
changes are implemented

In multi-phase projects, the monitoring and controlling process also provides feedback between
project phases, in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into
compliance with the project management plan.

Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:

 Continuing support of end users
 Correction of errors
 Updates of the software over time

Monitoring and controlling cycle

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are
resolved.
Over the course of any construction project, the work scope may change. Change is a normal and
expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design
modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value
engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the
field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually constructed. This
is referred to as Change Management. Hence, the owner usually requires a final record to show
all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the finished
work.

Closing
Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative
activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.
This phase consists of:
 Project close: Finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the
project or a project phase
 Contract closure: Complete and settle each contract (including the resolution of any open
items) and close each contract applicable to the project or project phase

Resources: In project management terminology, resources are required to carry out the project
tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition
(usually other than labour) required for the completion of a project activity. The lack of a
resource will therefore be a constraint on the completion of the project activity. Resources may
be storable or non storable. Storable resources remain available unless depleted by usage, and
may be replenished by project tasks which produce them. Non-storable resources must be
renewed for each time period, even if not utilised in previous time periods.

2. What are the roles and responsibilities of a project manager?

Title Role
Project Manager The person responsible for developing, in
conjunction with the Project Sponsor, a definition of
the project. The Project Manager then ensures that
the project is delivered on time, to budget and to
the required quality standard (within agreed
specifications). He/she ensures the project is
effectively resourced and manages relationships
with a wide range of groups (including all project
contributors).
The Project Manager is also responsible for
managing the work of consultants, allocating and
utilising resources in an efficient manner and
maintaining a co-operative, motivated and
successful team.

Responsibilities
 Budgeting and cost control
 Scheduling tasks
 Allocating resources
 Tracking project expenditures
 Ensuring technical quality
 Manage relations with the customer and company
 Managing and leading the project team.
 Recruiting project staff and consultants.
  Managing co-ordination of the partners and working groups engaged in
project work.
 Detailed project planning and control including:
 Developing and maintaining a detailed project plan.
 Managing project deliverables in line with the project plan..
 Recording and managing project issues and escalating where necessary

 Resolving cross-functional issues at project level.

 Managing project scope and change control and escalating issues where
necessary.

 Monitoring project progress and performance.

 Providing status reports to the project sponsor.
 Managing project training within the defined budget.

 Liaison with, and updates progress to, project steering board/senior

management.

 Managing project evaluation and dissemination activities.

 Managing consultancy input within the defined budget.
 Final approval of the design specification.
 Working closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs.

 Definition and management of the User Acceptance Testing programme.

 Identifying user training needs and devising and managing user training
programmes.

A project manager is a person who manages the project. The project manager is
responsible to carry out all the tasks of a project. Responsibilities of the project manager include -

Life cycle of a project manager overlaps with the development life cycle in the middle.
Duties of a project manager start before the development and continue after delivery of the
product.

3. Explain the various steps in the identification process of a project. What are the tools used
in project planning?
Ans.: The main steps in the identification process of any project are :

i. Identify initial requirements.

ii. Validate them against the project objective.

iii. Identify the criteria for assessing the success of both the final project product and the process
used to create it. Ex: quality objectives, quantitative requirements for the project.

iv. Identify the framework of the solution

v. Prepare a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility.

vi. Prepare relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and its
different stages.

vii. Prepare a proper project schema of achieving the defined business requirements for the
project.

viii. Identify training requirement

ix. Make a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project.

x. Identify the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsible in the
project.

xi. Prepare a training plan and a training calendar.

xii. Assess the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the project organization

The tools that are used in project planning are

1. Project organization

Process Skills and activities

 Prepare an outline project justification, plan and project budget
 Selection and briefing of the project team, assigning roles and
Initiation organization
 Feasibility study- risk and key success factors

 Project definition and project plan

Planning  Communicate to the team

 Allocating and monitoring the work and cost

 Ensuring work and team cohesion
Execution
 Reporting progress

 Monitoring progress and managing changes

Control  Helping the team to solve project problems

Close  Satisfactory delivery

  Compiling lessons from project experience

2. Project structure

  Development plan, project tracking and oversight. 

3. Project Key personnel – Identify those business areas that are within the scope or directly
interface with the scope boundary and list them in the “Business area” column of the
project assignment worksheet

Identify the key personnel for each area and list them in the “Person” column of the project
assignment worksheet.

4. Project management team

It is a senior management team, which will be accountable for the project.

 Identify project sponsor, client representative and technical representative.

 Stage managers- who will plan and manage the project on a day-to-day basis for this stage
 Project coordinators- client coordinator and technical coordinator
 Clearly define these coordination, control activities and identify the brief suitable
personnel to carry them out

5. Key stakeholders

Identify management level personnel who are critical to the success of the project.

Document the responsibilities of stakeholders

 6. Stage teams

Identify appropriate personnel required for the stage, define the team structure and appoint
team leaders

Document the time commitment and responsibilities to be performed by the team members.

7. Key resources

Individuals assigned to a key resource role may work towards gathering “Business key
resources” and “Technical key resources”. They are project coordinators and team invitees.

8. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The entire process of a project may be considered to be made up on number of sub process
placed in different stage called the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

A typical example of a work breakdown structure of a recruitment process is indicated below :

This is the technique to analyze the content of work and cost by breaking it down into its
component parts.

Project key stages form the highest level of the WBS, which is then used to show the details at
the lower levels of the project. Each key stage comprises many tasks identified at the start of
planning and later this list will have to be validated.

WBS is produced by identifying the key elements, breaking each element down into component
parts and continuing to breakdown until manageable work packages have been identified. These
can then be allocated to the appropriate person. The WBS does not show dependencies other
than a grouping under the key stages. It is not time based- there is no timescale o the drawing.

Task duration
Identifying lead and lag times helps in working out task duration.

Lead time: An amount of time, which a successor task can overlap with its predecessor task, i.e.
the time before the completion of the predecessor at which the successor can start.

Lag time: An amount of time, between a predecessor and a successor task, i.e. the time after the
completion of the predecessor that the start of the successor is delayed

4. What is Risk Management? How can risks be prioritized?

Ans.: Risk is the effect of uncertainty on objectives (whether positive or negative). Risks are those
events or conditions that may occur and whose occurrence has a harmful or negative impact on a
project. Risk management aims to identify the risks and then take actions to minimize their effect
on the project. Risk management entails additional cost. Hence risk management can be
considered cost-effective only if the cost of risk management is considerably less than the cost
incurred if the risk materializes.
Risk management can therefore be considered the identification, assessment, and prioritization
of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor,
and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events [1] or to maximize the realization
of opportunities. Risks can come from uncertainty in financial markets, project failures, legal
liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters as well as deliberate attacks from an
adversary.

There are four steps to manage a risk:

1. Risk identification,
2. Risk analysis,
3. Risk management planning, and
4. Risk review.

Risk Identification

To identify risks, we must first define risk. Risks are potential problems, ones that are not
guaranteed to occur. When people begin performing risk identification they often start by listing
known problems. Known problems are not risks. During risk identification, you might notice some
known problems. If so, just move them to a problem list and concentrate on future potential
problems.

Risk identification can be done using a brainstorming session. The brainstorm typically takes 15-
30 minutes. Be sure to invite anyone who can help you think of risks. Invite the project team,
customer, people who have been on similar projects, and experts in the subject area of the
project. Limit the group size to nine people. In the brainstorming session, people call out
potential problems that they think could hurt the project. New ideas are generated based on the
items on the brainstorm list. A project manager can also use the process to refer to a database of
risk obtained from past.

The information obtained from such databases can help the project manager to
evaluate and assess the nature of the risk and its impact on the project. Also to a great extent the
judgment of the project manager based upon his past experience comes very handy in dealing
with risks. Another important method is to generate alternative solution or methodology to deal
with risk. Generate solution by means of group review meetings or a brainstorm session.

During the brainstorm, consider the following items:

Selection of weak areas in a project: Such as unknown technology being used or to be used.

Things, that is critical or extremely important to the effort, such as the timely delivery of a
vendor’s database software, creation of translators, or a user interface that meets the customer’s
needs.

Things that have caused problems in the past are loss of key staff, missed deadlines, or error-
prone software.

Example of risks is: “We may not have the requirements right,” “The technology is untested,”
“Key people might leave,” “The server won’t restart in situation X,” and “People might resist the
change.” Any potential problem, or critical project feature, is a good candidate for the risk list.

Once you have created a list, work with the group to clarity each item. Duplicate items can be
removed. 

Risk Analysis

The first step in risk analysis is to make each risk item more specific. Risks such as, “Lack of
Management buy-in,” and “people might leave,” are a little ambiguous. In these cases the group
might decide to split the risk into smaller specific risks, such as, “manager Jane decides that the
project is not beneficial,” “Database expert might leave,” and “Webmaster might get pulled off
the project.”

The next step is to set priorities and determine where to focus risk mitigation efforts. Some of the
identified risks are unlikely to occur, and others might not be serious enough to worry about.
During the analysis, discuss with the team members, each risk item to understand how
devastating it would be if it did occur, and how likely it is to occur. For example, if you had a risk
of a key person leaving, you might decide that it would have a large impact on the project, but
that it is not very likely.

In the process below, we have the group agree on how likely it thinks each risk item is to occur,
using a simple scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is very unlikely and 10 is very likely). The group then
rates how serious the impact would be if the risk did occur, using a simple scale from 1 to 10
(where 1 is little impact and 10 is very large). To use this numbering scheme, first pick out the
items that rate 1 and 10, respectively. Then rate the other items relative to these boundaries. To
determine the priority of each risk item, calculate the product of the two values, likelihood and
impact. This priority scheme helps push the big risks to the top of the list, and the small risks to
the bottom. It is a usual practice to analyze risk either by sensitivity analysis or by probabilistic
analysis.

In sensitivity analysis a study is done to analyze the changes in the variable values because of a
change in one or more of the decision criteria.
In the probability analysis, the frequency of a particular event occurring is determined, based on
which it average weighted average value is calculated.

Each outcome of an event resulting in a risk situation in a risk analysis process is expressed as a
probability. Risk analysis can be performed by calculating the expected value of each alternative
and selecting the best alternative.

Ex. : Now that the group has assigned a priority to each risk, it is ready to select the items to
mange. Some projects select a subset to take action upon, while others choose to work on all of
the items. To get started, you might select the top 3 risks, or the top 20%, based on the priority
calculation.

Risk Management Planning

There are two things one can do to manage risk. The first is to take action to reduce (or partially
reduce) the likelihood of the risk occurring. For example, some project that work on process
improvement make their deadlines earlier and increases their efforts to minimize the likelihood
of team members being pulled off the project due to changing organizational priorities. In a
software product, a critical feature might be developed first and tested early.

Second, we can take action to reduce the impact if the risk does occur. Sometimes this is an
action taken prior to the crisis, such as the creation of a simulator to use for testing if the
hardware is late. At other times, it is a simple backup plan, such as running a night shift to share
hardware.

For the potential loss of a key person, for example, we might do two things:

Plan to reduce the impact by making sure other people become familiar with that person’s work,
or reduce the likelihood of attrition by giving the person a raise, or by providing day-care.

 Review Risks

You want to review your risks periodically so you can check how well mitigation is progressing.
You can also see if the risk priorities need to change, or if new risks have been discovered, you
might decide to rerun the complete risk process if significant changes have occurred on the
project. Significant changes might include the addition of new features, the changing of the target
platform, or a change in project team members. Many people incorporate risk review into other
regularly scheduled project reviews.

  In short, risk management is the planning to potential problems, and the management
of actions taken related to those problems.

Prioritization of risks:

In ideal risk management, a prioritization process is followed whereby the risks with
the greatest loss and the greatest probability of occurring are handled first, and risks with lower
probability of occurrence and lower loss are handled in descending order. In practice the process
can be very difficult, and balancing between risks with a high probability of occurrence but lower
loss versus a risk with high loss but lower probability of occurrence can often be mishandled.
 Intangible risk management identifies a new type of a risk that has a 100% probability
of occurring but is ignored by the organization due to a lack of identification ability. For example,
when deficient knowledge is applied to a situation, a knowledge risk materializes. Relationship
risk appears when ineffective collaboration occurs. Process-engagement risk may be an issue
when ineffective operational procedures are applied. These risks directly reduce the productivity
of knowledge workers, decrease cost effectiveness, profitability, service, quality, reputation,
brand value, and earnings quality. Intangible risk management allows risk management to create
immediate value from the identification and reduction of risks that reduce productivity.

Risk management also faces difficulties in allocating resources. This is the idea of
opportunity cost. Resources spent on risk management could have been spent on more
profitable activities. Again, ideal risk management minimizes spending and minimizes the
negative effects of risks.

6. What is Project Management Knowledge Areas? Explain briefly PMIS.

Ans.: It comprises of various techniques needed to manage projects, the practical

methodologies adopted in formulating a project and managing the resources which would affect
the project completion.

PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the
various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It consists of:
 
 Project plan development—integrating and coordinating all project plans to create a
consistent, coherent document.
 Project plan execution—carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included
therein.
 Integrated change control—coordinating changes across the entire project.
 
 
PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT
 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the
project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project
successfully. It consists of:
 
 Initiation—authorizing the project or phase.
 Scope planning—developing a written scope statement as the basis for future project
decisions.
 Scope definition—subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more
manageable components.

 
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT
 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure timely
completion of the project. It consists of:
 
 Activity definition—identifying the specific activities that must be performed to produce
the various project deliverables.
 Activity sequencing—identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies.
 Activity duration estimating—estimating the number of work periods that will be needed
to complete individual activities.
 
 
PROJECT COST MANAGEMENT
 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the
project is completed within the approved budget. It consists of:
 
 Resource planning—determining what resources (people, equipment, materials) and what
quantities of each should be used to perform project activities.
 Cost estimating—developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs of the resources
needed to complete project activities.
 Cost budgeting—allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work activities.

 
PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to make the most
effective use of the people involved with the project. It consists of:
 

 Organizational planning—identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles,

responsibilities, and reporting relationships.
 Staff acquisition—getting the needed human resources assigned to and working on the
project.
 Team development—developing individual and group skills to enhance project
performance.

  
PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT
 
Risk management is the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to
project risks. It includes maximizing the probability and consequences of positive events and
minimizing the probability and consequences of adverse events to project objectives. It
includes:
 
 Risk management planning—deciding how to approach and plan the risk management
activities for a project.
 Risk identification—determining which risks might affect the project and document their
characteristics.
 Qualitative risk analysis—performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to
prioritize their effects on project objectives.
 
PROJECT PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT
 
A subset of project management that includes the processes required to acquire goods and
services to attain project scope from outside the performing organization. It consists of:
  Procurement planning—determining what to procure and when.
 Solicitation planning—documenting product requirements and identifying potential
sources.
 Solicitation—obtaining quotations, bids, offers, or proposals, as appropriate.

Project Management Information System (PMIS) is an information system consisting of the

tools and techniques used to gather, integrate, and disseminate the outputs of project
management processes. It is used to support all aspects of the project from initiating through
closing, and can include both manual and automated systems.

The project management information system (PMIS) is a Tool and Technique in Direct and
Manage Project Execution of the Execution Process Group, part of the enterprise
environmental factors, provides access to an automated tool, such as a scheduling software
tool, a configuration management system, an information collection and distribution system,
or web interfaces to other online automated systems used during the Direct and Manage
Project Execution effort.

We all know that accurate, timely, and relevant information is essential

to the decision-making process of a project and that relying on an inadequate information
system puts a project at risk. We all know that information is a valuable resource for project
managers. Despite the fact that we all know these things, project managers often fail to
deliver the types of information needed to ensure project success. Implementing a project
management information system (PMIS) is one way to address critical project information
needs.

One of my major clients, an international engineering firm, decided to break

the cycle of miscommunication and derailed projects by ordering the development and
implementation of a PMIS that is able to provide upper management with adequate
information about all the projects in the organization’s portfolio. Traditionally, engineers and
project managers do not communicate project status adequately with upper management
and functional departments. They believe that projects are their responsibility and they have
the authority to deliver them. Furthermore, functional departments are often reluctant or do
not have time to provide information to project engineers. These circumstances often lead to
late, over budget, and low quality projects.

6. List out the macro issues in project management and explain each?

a) Evolving key success factors (KSF) upfront: In order to provide complete stability to
fulfilment of goals, one need to constantly evaluate from time to time, the consideration
of what will constitute the success of completing a project and assessing its success before
completion. The KSF should be evolved based on a basic consensus document (BCD). KSF
will also provide an input to effective exit strategy (EES). Exit here does not mean exit
from the project but from any of the drilled down elemental activities which may prove to
be hurdles rather than contributors.
b) Empowerment Title (ET): ET reflects the relative importance of members of the
organisation at three levels.
 i) Team members empowered to work within limits of their respective allocated
responsibilities the major change from bureaucratic systems is an expectation
from theses members to innovate and contribute to tome and cost.
ii) Group leaders are empowered additionally to act independently towards client
expectation and are also vested with some limited financial powers.
iii) Managers are empowered further to act independently but to maintain a
scientific balance among time, cost, expectation and perception, apart from being
a virtual advisor to the top management.
c) Partnering Decision making (PDM): PDM is a substitute to monitoring and control a
senior with better decision making process with work closely with the project managers as
well as members to plan what based can be done to manage the future better from past
experience. The key here is the active participation of members in the decision making
process. The ownership is distributed among all irrespective of levels the term equally
should be avoided here since ownership is not quantifiable. The right feeling of ownership
is important.

The PD process is made scientific through:

i) Earned Value management system (EVMS)

ii) Budgeted Cost of work scheduled (BCWS)
iii) Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)
iv) Actual cost of work performed (ACWP)

d) Management by exception (MBE): “No news is good news”. If a member wants help he or
she located a source and proposed to the manager only if such help is not accessible for
free. Similarly a member should believe that a team leaders silence is a sign of approval
should not provoke comments through excessive seeking of opinions. In short leave
people alone and let situation perform the demanding act. The bond limit of MBE can be
evolved depending on the sensitivity of the nature and size of the project.

Set – 2

1. Providing adequate resources is key to productivity – comment.

Ans.: Key elements of a Productivity Improvement Program:

1. Obtain Upper Management Support. Without top management support, experience shows a
PIP likely will fail. The Chief Executive Officer should issue a clear, comprehensive policy
statement. The statement should be communicated to everyone in the company. Top
management also must be willing to allocate adequate resources to permit success.

2. Create New Organizational Components. A Steering Committee to oversee the PIP and
Productivity Managers to implement it are essential. The Committee should be staffed by top
 departmental executives with the responsibilities of goal setting, guidance, advice, and general
control. The Productivity Managers are responsible for the day-to-day activities of
measurement and analysis. The responsibilities of all organizational components must be clear
and well established.

3. Plan Systematically. Success doesn't just happen. Goals and objectives should be set, problems
targeted and rank ordered, reporting and monitoring requirements developed, and feedback
channels established.

4. Open Communications. Increasing productivity means changing the way things are done.
Desired changes must be communicated. Communication should flow up and down the
business organization. Through publications, meetings, and films, employees must be told
what is going on and how they will benefit.

5. Involve Employees. This is a very broad element encompassing the quality of work life, worker
motivation, training, worker attitudes, job enrichment, quality circles, incentive systems and
much more. Studies show a characteristic of successful, growing businesses is that they
develop a "corporate culture" where employees strongly identify with and are an important
part of company life. This sense of belonging is not easy to engender. Through basic fairness,
employee involvement, and equitable incentives, the corporate culture and productivity both
can grow.

6. Measure and Analyze. This is the technical key to success for a PIP. Productivity must be
defined, formulas and worksheets developed, sources of data identified, benchmark studies
performed, and personnel assigned. Measuring productivity can be a highly complex task. The
goal, however, is to keep it as simple as possible without distorting and depreciating the data.
Measurement is so critical to success; a more detailed analysis is helpful.

2. Explain the relevance of work breakdown structure in determine responsibility area. Explain
in detail GDM and its key features?

Ans.: The Global delivery model (GDM) is adopted by an industry or business such that it has a
capability to plan design, deliver and serve to any customer or client worldwide with speed,
Accuracy, Economy and reliability.

The key features of GDM are:-

a) Standardization: Ingenious design and development of components and features which

like to be accepted by 90% of worldwide customer. Global standard of design focusing on
highly standardized method and processes of manufacture or development. Adopt block-
and-socket concept with minimum adaptable or connection.
b) Modularization: Product or solution split up into smallest possible individual identifiable
entities, with limited individuals functioning capability but powerful and robust in
combination with other modules.
c) Minimum customization: Minimum changes or modifications to suit individual customers.
d) Maximum micro structuring: splitting of the product modules further into much smaller
entity identifiable more through characteristics rather than application features. Approach
through standardization of these microbial entities even across multiple modules.
Application of these microbial entities to rest within multiple projects or products or even
as add-ons suit belated customer needs.
3. What do you understand by Resource Smoothing? What is the significance of reviewing ROI?

Ans.: Resource smoothing is part of the resource levelling process. In itself, resource smoothing is
the process that, not withstanding any constraints imposed during the levelling process, attempts
to determine a resource requirement that is "smooth" and where peaks and troughs are
eliminated. For example, even if 7 units of a given resource are available at any one time, utilizing
5 of these units each week is preferable to 4 one week, 7 the next, 2 the next and so on. Even if
there is no limit to the amount of any one resource available, it is still desirable that resource
usage is as smooth as possible. Given that the resource requirements of those activities on the
critical path are fixed, some order or priority needs to be established for selecting which activity
and which particular resource associated with this activity should be given priority in the
smoothing process. In determining which activity should be given priority, a subjective judgment
should be made about the type of resource (or resources) associated with each activity; priority
should be given to the activities whose resources are considered to be most important. Beyond
this consideration, activities should be ranked in order of total work content and total float or
slack available for that activity. A useful device for prioritizing is to consider the ratio of total work
content/total float remaining and give priority to activities with the highest value of this ratio.

Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculated benefit that an organization is projected to receive
in return for investing money (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 project’s lifecycle. 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 project’s technical complexity,
the agency’s management capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the consequences of
under or non performance. Where appropriate, ROI should reflect actual returns observed
through pilot projects and
Prototypes.ROI should be quantified in terms of dollars and should include a calculation of the
breakeven point (BEP), which is the date when the investment begins to generate a positive
return. ROI should be recalculated 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 (i.e., stage exit) or at least yearly.

If the detailed data collection, calculation of benefits and costs, and capitalization data from
which Return on Investment (ROI) is derived was not required for a particular project, then it may
not be realistic or practical to require the retrofit calculation of ROI once the project is added to
the Review portfolio. In such a case, it is recommended that a memorandum of record be
developed as a substitute for ROI. The memorandum should provide a brief history of the
program, a description of the major benefits realized to date with as much
Quantitative data as possible and a summary of the process used to identify and select system
enhancements.
Some of the major benefits experienced by sites that installed the information system that would
be important to include in the memorandum are: a) Decommissioning of mainframe computers
b) Reduction/redirection of labour
c) Elimination of redundant systems
d) Ability to more cost effectively upgrades all sites with one standard upgrade package.
In each case above, identify the specific site, systems, and labour involved in determining the
cited benefit. Identify any costs or dollar savings that are known or have been estimated. The
memorandum will be used as tool for responding to any future audit inquiries on project ROI. For
the Project Management Review; it is recommended that the project leader replace the text on
the ROI document through
(1) A note stating which stage of its cycle the project is in;
(2) A bulleted list of the most important points from the memorandum of record; and
(3) A copy of the memorandum of record for the Review repository.
In subsequent Reviews of the information system, the ROI slide can be eliminated from the
package. There is one notable exception to this guidance. Any internal use software project in the
maintenance phase of its lifecycle that adds a new site or undertakes an enhancement or
technology refresh that reaches the cost threshold established by Standard will need to satisfy
capitalization requirements. It requires all agencies to capitalize items acquired or developed for
internal use if the expected service life is two or more years and its cost meets or exceeds the
agency’s threshold for internal use software. The standard requires capitalization of direct and
indirect costs, including employee salaries and benefits for both Federal and Contractor
employees who materially participate in the Software project. Program managers are considered
to be the source of cost information for internal use software projects. If capitalization data is
collected for the project in the future, the project would be expected to calculate and track its
ROI.

4. Explain the concept of concurrency in High Technology Development.

Ans.: Always aim one step higher in performance usually; high technology development has a
long gestation period. By the time the product is perfected, it might have become obsolete. This
necessitates that the period be shortened. The other alternative is to make technology
development futuristic i.e. keeps the aim or target one step beyond what is required.
Combination of both will yield better results. Using principles of concurrent engineering, we can
start building components as developed and assembling on ad hoc basis and testing them and
making changes taking into consideration any new requirements. Every effort to make the
product
Contemporary will improve the competitive advantage. Build concurrency into every activity
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.
The following give some guidelines in the form of rules which would help organization to be
strong in this area.

Rule 1: Identify the critical technologies and make a deliberate choice for indigenous
development
One of the main reasons for lack of high technology base is that no attempt has ever been made
for indigenous development. Hence, the first step in the critical technology development is a
deliberate decision for making the process wholly indigenous. That a new track has to be laid
invariably has inherent risks. Time that may elapse before anything tangible is found will be long.
The quality of the outcome has to be proven with a lot of experimentation, which costs money.
The clients may suspect that the best is not being given to them. Many persons, even in higher
hierarchical positions want the easy way out – import. But experience has shown that once the
process is started, it will be found that certain technologies are easier to develop than acquire
from outside sources. The knowledge that gets acquired, experience that is gained and
confidence that it endows, makes the organization self-sufficient.
The encouragement that people get makes it worthwhile.

Rule 2: Always aim one step higher in performance

Usually, high technology development has a long gestation period. By the time the product is
perfected, it might have become obsolete. This necessitates that the period be shortened. The
other alternative is to make technology developments futuristic i.e. keep the aim or target one
step beyond what is required. Combination of both will yield better results. Using principles of
concurrent engineering, we can start building components as developed and assembling on ad
hoc basis and testing them and making changes taking into consideration any new requirements.
Every effort to make the product contemporary will improve the competitive advantage.

Rule 3: Focus on Multiuse technologies – Multiuser and Multirole systems

During the course of development, the customer preferences may undergo a great change, and
the intended application of the technology or the product may no longer exist. This uncertainty
demands that we should aim at multiuser products. The possibility of making products which can
address Multifunction should be considered. All these are to be conducted on a continuous basis
so that obsolescence is avoided.

Rule 4: Spot the competence of Divsio and empower them for technology development
Every division of an organization has certain inherent strength, sometimes unique to itself. We
must identify and build around this strength to realize maximum contribution. The strength may
be
Software skills, large trainable power, culture and value system or excellence in academics, It can
be translated into the required competence through innovation management.

Rule 5: Ensure Redundancy for critical systems and technologies

It has been observed that critical technologies have a tendency of acquiring high uncertainties.
Multitechnology routes are devised so that the target is reached in spite of blocks on any other
route,
Even multiple sourcing is deployed to ensure availability without any failure. The redundancy
needs extra resources, but then we cannot allow critical systems to stop for any reason. The
project and its success within the time slot allotted is worth making sacrifices for.

Rule 6: Focus efforts through programme / project / mission oriented approach

The traditional way of technology development is carried out without any link to the product
development of activities. The outcome of these activities will be in the form of models,
publications and working prototypes to some designed / assumed specifications. The
development is not normally bound by any time frame or the cost or the product is not directly
usable for any application.
This approach is not suitable for the development of high technology systems in a resource
Constrained environment. Projecting the technology development provides a sense of purpose
and direction to the development efforts and integrates all the efforts towards the common goal.
The outcome of the development efforts will be channelled into useful products.

Rule 7: Build concurrency into every activity

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.

Rule 8: Build long term Partnership with all the stake holders
High technology development is a dynamic process with large information exchange, teamwork,
problems, failures and successes. It requires long term partnership and commitment from all
stakeholders including the development partners, production partners and customers. This can
be achieved by tailoring suitable management structure and review system such that at each
stage of the project all the stakeholders are involved. Many institutions including R & D
organizations, industries, academia will be useful in our endeavors. It is essential to build suitable
organizational interface with each type of organization based on their priorities.

Rule 9: Focus on problem forecasting and prevention

The traditional project monitoring and control approach is based on solving the problems as they
arise during the project execution. In high technology development projects that would involve
delays which become very costly. At every stage we need to ascertain that we are moving in the
right direction. Failures in the early stages of the projects are less costly and harmful than at later
stages. Forecasting can be done by trying to analyze all possible situation during planning stage
and trying to answer ‘what if’ questions can obtain answers. They can be bases for effective
prevention steps. Once the practice starts, it may even become a standard method of starting a
project.

Rule 10: Ensure continuous and integrated Performance Measurement

Measurement means evaluating the achieved outcomes against expected. The process improves
the actual activities which take us towards our goal and also verify whether what we expected
was right. Haphazard or ad hoc measurements are worse than no measurement. When all
persons know that evaluation will be done on a continuous basis, they know that all that they do
get measured; there is emphasis on all activities. This means quality in the performance.
5. What are the main utilities of an ERP package?

Ans.: Integration is Key to ERP Systems

Integration is an exceptionally significant ingredient to ERP systems. The integration between

business processes helps develop communication and information distribution, leading to
remarkable increase in productivity, speed and performance.

The key objective of an ERP system is to integrate information and processes from all functional
divisions of an organization and merge it for effortless access and structured workflow. The
integration is typically accomplished by constructing a single database repository that
communicates with multiple software applications providing different divisions of an organization
with various business statistics and information.

The Ideal ERP System

An ERP system would qualify as the best model for enterprise wide solution architecture, if it
chains all the below organizational processes together with a central database repository and a
fused computing platform.

Manufacturing

Engineering, resource & capacity planning, material planning, workflow management, shop floor
management, quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc.

Financials

Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger, cash management, and billing
(contract/service)

Human Resource

Recruitment, benefits, compensations, training, payroll, time and attendance, labour rules,
people management

Supply Chain Management

Inventory management, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, and claim processing, sales
order administration, procurement planning, transportation and distribution

Projects

Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense

Customer Relationship Management

Sales and marketing, service, commissions, customer contact and after sales support

ERP Systems Improve Productivity, Speed and Performance

Prior to evolution of the ERP model, each department in an enterprise had their own isolated
software application which did not interface with any other system. Such isolated framework
could not synchronize the inter-department processes and hence hampered the productivity,
speed and performance of the overall organization. These led to issues such as incompatible
exchange standards, lack of synchronization, incomplete understanding of the enterprise
functioning, unproductive decisions and many more.

For example: The financials could not coordinate with the procurement team to plan out
purchases as per the availability of money.

Implementation of an ERP System

Implementing an ERP system in an organization is an extremely complex process. It takes lot of

systematic planning, expert consultation and well structured approach. Due to its extensive scope
it may even take years to implement in a large organization. Implementing an ERP system will
eventually necessitate significant changes on staff and work processes.

 Consulting Services - are responsible for the initial stages of ERP implementation where
they help an organization go live with their new system, with product training, workflow,
improve ERP's use in the specific organization, etc.
 Customization Services - work by extending the use of the new ERP system or changing its
use by creating customized interfaces and/or underlying application code. While ERP
systems are made for many core routines, there are still some needs that need to be built
or customized for a particular organization.

 The ERP implementation process goes through five major stages which are Structured Planning,
Process Assessment, Data Compilation & Cleanup, Education & Testing and Usage & Evaluation.

1. Structured Planning: is the foremost and the most crucial stage where an capable project
team is selected, present business processes are studied, information flow within and
outside the organization is scrutinized, vital objectives are set and a comprehensive
implementation plan is formulated.
2. Process Assessment: is the next important stage where the prospective software
capabilities are examined, manual business processes are recognized and standard
working procedures are constructed.
3. Data Compilation & Cleanup: helps in identifying data which is to be converted and the
new information that would be needed. The compiled data is then analyzed for accuracy
and completeness, throwing away the worthless/unwanted information.

 Advantages of ERP Systems

There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system. A few of them are listed below:

 A perfectly integrated system chaining all the functional areas together

 The capability to streamline different organizational processes and workflows
 The ability to effortlessly communicate information across various departments\
 Improved efficiency, performance and productivity levels

 Disadvantages of ERP Systems

While advantages usually outweigh disadvantages for most organizations implementing an ERP
system, here are some of the most common obstacles experienced:

 The scope of customization is limited in several circumstances

 The present business processes have to be rethought to make them synchronize with the
ERP
  ERP systems can be extremely expensive to implement
 There could be lack of continuous technical support

Q6. Explain three levels of SCMo documentation. Explain PILIN.

Ans.: It is possible today to establish a system aligned with an organization 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 bull-whip 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 multi-level
supply chain. It also eliminates time lags in the information flow and ensures synchronization of
demand information. SCMo set up (initialisation): The main steps for the set 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 systems are:

i. Releases and Interactions 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
traceability, QA stats and charts.
 v. Time Tracking- Create more accurate estimate of time.

A typical iteration plan methodology

a) Add release (iterations will be generated automatically)

b) Add user stories

c) Assign user stories on iterations (control team velocity)

d) To plan next iteration just assign required user stories and control remaining velocity
units.

e) View assigned tasks and bugs

f) Change bugs status

g) Add spent time

h) Spent time report could be added form To-do list. To simplify time calculation today’s
time shown in the form.

i) Bugs status could be changes right from the To-do list as well. So developer spends less
time on frequent actions.

PILLIN

Growing realization that sustainable identifier infrastructure is required to deal with the vast
amount of digital assets being produced and stored within universities. PILIN is a particular
challenge for e-research communities where massive amount of data are being generated
without any means of managing this date over any length of time. The broad objectives are to:

I. Support adoption and use of persistent identifiers and shared persistent identifier
management services by the project stakeholders.
II. Plan for a sustainable, share identifier management infrastructure that enables
persistence of identifiers and associated services over archival lengths of time.
III. Deploying a worldwide site consolidated solution for exchanges sever 2003 at Microsoft.
IV. Pictures
V. Using Microsoft exchange server 2003 to consolidate more than 70 messaging sites
worldwide into seven physical locations.