Management Exam 1 - Master Document PDF

Chapter 1: Project vs Program Project ○ A complex, non-routine, one-time effort, limited by time, budget, resources, and performance needs. Established Objective Defined Life Span, start + end Typically requir...

Chapter 1: Project vs Program Project ○ A complex, non-routine, one-time effort, limited by time, budget, resources, and performance needs. Established Objective Defined Life Span, start + end Typically requires across organization participation Involves doing something never done before Specific time, cost, and performance requirements Program ○ A series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time and are intended to achieve a goal. ○ A higher level group of projects targeted at a common goal. Examples: Project: Complete a required course in a project management Program: Complete all courses required for an engineering major. Project Manager: Manages temporary, non-repetitive activities and frequently acts independently of the formal organization ○ Activate the right people at the right time to address the right issues and make the right decisions. ○ Marshal resources ○ Provide direction, coordination, and integration to team ○ Manage diverse set of project stakeholders ○ Depend on others for technical answers ○ Be responsible for performance and success of the project Chapter 15 - Agile Project Management: Agile PM Overview Related to the rolling wave planning and scheduling project methodology. Main Theories ○ Focused on Customer Value ○ Iterative and Incremental Delivery ○ Experimentation and adaptation ○ Self organization ○ Continuous improvement Advantages ○ Developing critical breakthrough technology or defining essential features ○ Continuous integration, verification, and validation of the evolving product. ○ Frequent demonstration of progress to increase the likelihood that the end product will satisfy customer needs ○ Early detection of defects and problems. Disadvantages ○ Does not satisfy top management’s (traditional methods) need for budget, scope, and schedule control. ○ Principles of self-organization and close collaboration can be incompatible with corporate cultures. ○ Its methods appear to work best on small projects that require only five to nine dedicated team members to complete the work. ○ It requires active customer involvement and cooperation. Scaling Agile PM for large projects ○ Use several teams to work on different features at the same time ○ A lot of upfront planning to manage interdependencies ○ Developing protocols and establishing roles Product development is: ○ Interactive ○ Incremental Uses iterations to develop a workable product (Iterative Cycle) ○ Set goals ○ Sprint (2 weeks) ○ Stakeholders/Customers review progress and reevaluate priorities ○ Adjustments are made and new cycle begins that subsumes previous work and adds new capabilities to product  Traditional PM methods vs. Agile PM methods Traditional (KNOWN SOLUTIONS) Agile (UNKNOWN SOLUTIONS) Concentrates on thorough, upfront planning Incremental iterative cycles, to complete less of the entire project. predictable projects. Requires a high degree of predictability to be Is ideal for exploratory projects in which effective requirements need to be discovered and new technology tested. Project is definable up-front with expected Focuses on active collaboration between the results and less substantive results and less project team and customer representatives. substantive collaboration needed after the project definition phase. Popular Agile PM Methods Scrum Crystal clear Extreme programming Agile Modeling Lean development Dynamic systems Development Method (DSDM) Stand up meeting are time efficient Chapter 4 - Defining the Project: Steps to Fully define the project 1. Define the project scope 2. Establish project priorities 3. Construct WBS 4. Coding the WBS Define the Scope Project scope ○ The end result of the project. A product or service for the client/customer - in specific, tangible, and measurable terms. Project Scope Statement ○ A statement that documents the complete definition of the end result or goal ○ Answers what you are going to do and what is the end result for the customer ○ Written with tangible and measurable terms ○ Useful for Communicating Goals Evaluation Project Charter ○ Document authorizing the project manager to initiate and lead project ○ May contain expanded scope statement ○ The document approval officially brings the team together and ensures that all stakeholders are headed in the same direction. Scope Creep ○ Tendency for scope to expand over time due to changing requirements, specs, and priorities ○ You need a mechanism to get paid for the extra work. ○ Identify the minimum acceptable deliverable. Project Objective ○ One sentence summary statement of what you are going to do. What is the difference between a Scope Statement and a Project Objective? ○ They are similar ○ PO is 1-2 sentence summary. ○ Scope Statement addresses six comprehensive areas of definition. Limits and Exclusion ○ Items that are NOT include or not considered ○ Provide protection from scope creep Milestones ○ An event marking a significant change or completed stage in development. ○ Identified and assigned a definite time and date ○ NOTE: Historically, a milestone is a stone set up along a path to mark a distance to a particular place.  Reviews with Customer ○ Include details about project reviews with the customer that are relevant to the specific project and people involved ○ Who? How often? Format? Location? Written updates? Establish Project Priorities - The PM must manage the project priority trade offs Categories of resources/outcomes: ○ Cost, time, and scope of work Project currencies ○ Budget, schedule, and performance Resources vs Currencies ○ Cost = budget, Time = schedule, scope (of work) = performance Trade Offs ○ Proj. Manager must prioritize between budget, time, and performance ○ Change based on relative importance ○ Assign each to a parameter Constraint: Fixed requirement Enhance: Optimize over others Accept: Reduce or not meet requirement Responsibility Matrix (RM) ○ Also called a linear responsibility chart ○ Summarizes the tasks to be accomplished and who is responsible for what on the project. Ex: List of project activities and participants, clarify critical interfaces between units and individuals that need coordination ○ Project needs a responsibility matrix Hierarchical Breakdown of the Project Deliverables ○ Project - Complete Project ○ Deliverable: Major Deliverables - Systems ○ Sub Deliverable: Supporting Deliverables - Sub-systems ○ Lowest Sub-Deliverable: Lowest Management Responsibility - Components ○ Cost Account: Grouping of Work Packages - Component parts ○ Work Package: Identifiable Work Activities Work packages (are activities) ○ A work package (WP) is the lowest level of the WBS. Defines the work (activities) that needs to be done ○ A WP identifies: Time to complete the work package A time phased budget (cost) to complete the work package Resources required to complete the work package Identifies a single person responsible for units of work. (who do I go to when there is a problem?) ○ WP Heuristics  8-80 rule (1 day -2 weeks) One skilled person Cost is estimated for each WP Sum of all WP is Total Cost How does WBS help the PM ○ Facilitates evaluation of cost, time, and technical performance of the organization on a project. ○ Provides management with information appropriate to each organizational level ○ Helps develop organization breakdown structure (OBS) which assigns responsibilities ○ Helps manage plan, schedule, and budget ○ Defines communication channels, and assists in coordinating the various project elements. WBS Coding system Defines ○ Levels/Elements of WBS ○ Organization Elements ○ Work packages ○ Budget/Cost info Integrate the WBS with the organization ○ Depicts how the firm is organized to discharge its work responsibility for a project ○ Provides a framework to summarize organization work unit performance ○ Identifies organization units responsible for work packages. ○ Ties the organizational units to cost control accounts. Chapter 6 - Developing a Project Plan Project Network Diagram ○ Flow chart that shows sequence and interdependencies between activities ○ Provides start and end time for whole project Constructing a Project Network ○ Activity: element of the project that requires time. ○ Merge activity: two or more preceding activities on which it depends ○ Parallel/Concurrent Activity: Activities that are independent/can be at same time ○ Event: Point in time when activity starts or ends (does not consume time) ○ Burst Activity: Activity that has 2+ activities immediately following it How is a network diagram used? ○ Provides basis for scheduling labor and equipment ○ An estimate of the projects duration ○ Basis for budgeting cash flow ○ Highlights activities that are “critical” and should not be delayed ○ Help managers get and stay on plan Rules for Network Diagrams ○ Left to right ○ Activities can’t start till all predecessors are done ○ Arrows indicate precedence and flow  ○ Arrows can cross over each other ○ Identify each activity with letter/number (must be greater than predecessors) ○ Looping is not allowed ○ Conditional statements are not allowed ○ Use common start/stop nodes What does the gantt chart tell you? How might it be used? ○ SAME AS NETWORK DIAGRAM Sensitivity of a network ○ Likelihood the original critical paths will change once project starts ○ Function of # of critical paths Amount of slack near critical activities Network Computation Process ○ Forward Pass - Earliest Times How soon can it start/finish (ES/EF) ○ Backwards Pass - Latest times How late can it start/finish (LS/LF) Which activities represent critical path How long can it be delayed (slack or flat - SL) Computation ○ Forward Pass Add times (ES + Duration = EF) Carry early finish to next activity into early start Unless it is a merge activity then select largest EF time ○ Backward Pass Subtract times (LS - Duration = LS) Carry late start to next activity into late finish Unless it is a burst activity then select smallest LFtime ○ Slack or Float Free slack or float Amount of time activity can be delayed with delaying others Total Slack Amount of time activity can be delayed without delaying whole project Critical path is the path(s) with least slack in each activity (often zero) Practical considerations ○ Network logic errors ○ Activity numbering ○ Use of computers to develop networks ○ Calendar dates ○ Multiple starts and multiple projects Extended Network techniques to come close to reality ○ Laddering  Activities are broken into segments so the following activity can begin sooner and not delay the work. ○ Lags The minimum amount of time a dependent activity must be delayed to begin or end Can be used to constrain finish-start, start-start, finish-finish, start-finish, or combination activities Hammock Activities ○ Activity that spans over a segment of project ○ Duration of hammock activities is determined after network plan is drawn ○ Used to aggregate sections of a project to facilitate getting the right amount of detail for specific sections of a project