MB0049 - Project Management

ASSIGNMENT- Set 1

Q1. Define project management. Discuss the need for project management.

Ans. Project Management – It is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and hardware and software resources involved in a project.

Project Management Knowledge Areas refer to various techniques needed to manage projects, the practical methodologies adopted in formulating a project and managing the resources which would affect the project completion. Relationship with other management disciplines is essential for a project to be successful. Supporting disciplines include law, strategic planning, logistics, human resource management and domain knowledge.

Need for Project Management Project management is necessary because it helps an organisation execute a project successfully by:

a) Preventing Project Failure: A project requires huge investments which should not go waste. A loss in any project would have direct or indirect impact on the society. Project management helps an organisation prevent failures in projects.

b) Controlling Project Scope: Scope of the project activity may undergo a change. Project management helps an organisation define and control project scope.

c) Improving understanding: Lack of understanding of the project among the participants leads to failure. Project management helps participants understand the project and its purpose.

d) Managing Risks: A project is vulnerable to various risks. A project is affected if the technology used is changed during the course of project execution. Similarly changes in economic conditions may affect a project. Project management is very useful in assessing and mitigating such risks.

e) Managing Project Problems: Consequences of ignoring project related problems can be very serious. Project management helps in identification and communication of problem areas.

Project process categories

Q2. What is meant by risk management? Explain the components of risk management.

Ans. Risk Management 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 minimise 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 materialises.

Components Important components in risk management

Risk management components

a) Risk Assessment – Identify the possible risks and assess the consequences by means of checklists of possible risks, surveys, meetings and brainstorming and reviews of plans,

processes and products. The project manager can also use the process database to get information about risks and risk management on similar projects.

b) Risk Control – Identify the actions needed to minimise the risk consequences. This is also known as risk mitigation. Develop a risk management plan. Focus on the highest prioritised risks. Prioritisation requires analysing the possible effects of the risk event in case it actually occurs. This approach requires a quantitative assessment of the risk probability and the risk consequences. For each risk, determine the rate of its occurrence and indicate whether the risk is low, medium or of high category. If necessary, assign probability values in the ranges as prescribed based upon experience. If necessary assign a weight on a scale of 1 to 10.

c) Risk Ranking – Rank the risk based on the probability and effects on the project; for example, a high probability, high impact item will have higher rank than a risk item with a medium probability and high impact. In case of conflict, use judgment.

d) Risk Mitigation – Select the top few risk items for mitigation and tracking. Refer to a list of commonly used risk mitigation steps for various risks from the previous risk logs maintained by the project manager and select suitable risk mitigation step. The risk mitigation step must be properly executed by incorporating them into the project schedule. In addition to monitoring the progress of the planned risk mitigation steps, periodically revisit the risk perception for the entire project. The results of this review are reported in each milestone analysis report. To prepare this report, make fresh risk analysis to determine whether the priorities have changed.

Q3. Discuss the various steps in project monitoring and control.

Ans. Project Monitoring and Control Any project aimed at delivering a product or a service has to go through phases in a planned manner in order to meet the requirements. It is very important to measure the performance of the current status of the project at anytime against its planned version. This helps to tackle any unexpected deviation in time, efforts and cost. It is possible to work according to the project plan only by careful and close monitoring of the project progress.

It requires establishing control factors to keep the project on the track of progress. The results of any stage in a project, depends on the inputs to that stage. It is therefore necessary to control all the inputs and the corresponding outputs from a stage. This is achieved through devising proper controls for every stage.

A project manager may use certain standard tools to keep the project on track. The project manager and the team members should be fully aware of the techniques and methods to rectify the factors influencing delay of the project and its product. It is important for all stakeholders to know the impact of the changes in any parameters to the overall project. The various steps involved in monitoring and controlling a project from start to end are shown in figure

Steps for monitoring and control

Preliminary work The team members understand the project plans, project stage schedule, progress controls, tracking schedules, summary of the stage cost and related worksheets. All the members have to understand the tolerances in any change and maintain a change control log. They must realise the need and importance of quality for which they have to strictly follow a quality review schedule and frequently discuss the quality agendas. They must understand the stage status reports, stage end reports, stage end approval reports.

Project Progress The members must keep a track of the project progress and communicate the same to other related members of the project. They must monitor and control project progress, through the use of regular check points, quality charts, and statistical tables; control the quality factors which are likely to deviate from expected values as any deviation may result in changes to the stage schedule. The project manager ensures that these changes are made smoothly and organises review meeting with the project management group. Thus all the members are aware about the progress of the project at all times. This helps them to plan well in advance for any exigency arising due to deviation from planned schedule.

Stage Control The manager must establish a project check point cycle. For this, a suitable stage version control procedures may be followed. The details are to be documented stage wise. Project files

have to be timely updated with appropriate version control number and revision status should be maintained for each change. Team members are identified who will exercise controls at various points of the project.

Resources Plan the resources required for various stage of the project well in advance. Communication is the key. Brief both the project team and the key resources about the objectives of every stage, planned activities, products, organisation, metrics and the project controls. This increases the visibility into the project performance and hence a quality control can be achieved. Allocating a right resource at the right place and the right time will significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the resource.

Quality Control This is very important in any project. It is a tool which helps in tracking the progress of various parameters at any stage of the project. A project manager may use a standard quality control or customise according to the requirements. Quality control is possible if the project members follow the quality charts and norms very strictly. It is also important for all the project team members to know the importance of such quality checks and should have a good visibility into project performance.

Schedule Quality Review Conduct quality reviews at regular intervals. It is recommended that quality review be scheduled at the beginning of the stage and also at the ending of every stage. This helps the project manager and team members to plan well in advance for any unforeseen deviation.

Agenda for Quality Review Create and distribute a quality review agenda specifying the objective, products, logistics, roles, responsibilities and time frame. This increases the effectiveness of the review and also reduces the time gap.

Conduct Quality Review Conduct the quality review in a structured and formal manner. Quality review should focus on product development and its quality factors. Focus on whether it meets the prescribed quality standard.

Follow Up Revise the complete quality review product status from ‘In-progress’ to ‘QR Complete’. Follow up the actions planned in strict manner which ensures conformity to the standards.

Review Quality Control Procedure Verify that the quality objectives for each product are appropriate and that all participants are satisfied both with the process and its outcome. This is to ensure that all the stakeholders of the project are in conformity of control procedures.

Q4. What is Project Management Information System (PMIS)? What are the major aspects of PMIS?

Ans. Project Management Information System (PMIS)

An information system is mainly aimed at providing the management at different levels with information related to the system of the organisation. It helps in maintaining discipline in the system.

An information system dealing with project management tasks is the project management information system. It helps in decision making in arriving at optimum allocation of resources. The information system is based on a database of the organisation. A project management information system also holds schedule, scope changes, risk assessment and actual results. The information is communicated to managers at different levels of the organisation depending upon the need. Let us find how a project management information system is used by different stakeholders.

The four major aspects of a PMIS are – a. Providing information to the major stakeholders

b. Assisting the team members, stakeholders, managers with necessary information and summary of the information shared to the higher level managers

c. Assisting the managers in doing what if analyses about project staffing, proposed staffing changes and total allocation of resources

d. Helping organisational learning by helping the members of the organisation learn about project management

Usually, the team members, and not the systems administrators of the company, develop a good PMIS. Organisations tend to allocate such responsibility by rotation among members with a well designed and structured data entry and analytical format.

Q5. What is PERT chart? What are the advantages of PERT chart?

Ans. PERT stands for Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique. It is a popular project management model designed to analyse and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. It also helps in identifying the minimum time required for completing the total project.

A number of activities make a project. Due to technological necessities, some activities can be performed only after some others have been completed. Some activities are independent of some other set of activities.

Different activities have different duration for their completion. Some projects are big and a number of clearly distinguishable stages or milestones are identified. Since some activities run concurrently, there are possibilities that one set of activities end up early and have to wait for some other activities to proceed further. This means that there are more paths from the beginning to the end, and one of them takes more time than the others. We call that critical path. A PERT chart helps us to follow the critical path. Let us become familiar with the PERT chart.

A PERT chart is a graphic representation of a project’s schedule, showing the sequence of tasks. It also shows the tasks that can be performed parallely, and the critical path of tasks which has direct impact on the project schedule. The tasks in the critical path must be completed as per schedule in order for the project to meet its completion deadline. The chart can be constructed with a variety of attributes, such as:

Earliest and latest start dates for each task

Earliest and latest finish dates for each task

Slack time between tasks

A PERT chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 - 50) and six activities (A - F).

Sample PERT chart

You need to be familiar with some conventions while preparing a PERT chart.

Advantages of PERT chart

Avoid unrealistic timetables and schedule expectations

Understand the dependencies

Identify and shorten tasks that are bottlenecks

Focus attention on most critical tasks

Document an entire project or a key phase of a project

Q6. Write brief notes on the following: (i) Re-engineering and (ii) Re-structuring?

Ans. Revolutionary Change: There are four important instruments for revolutionary change Reengineering, E-Engineering, Restructuring and Innovation.

Instruments of revolutionary change

i) Reengineering: This is a process by which managers redesign a bundle of tasks into roles and functions so that organisational effectiveness is achieved. By doing so dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance like cost, quality and service are expected. There will be a radical rethink about the business processes adopted.

A business process may be of any activity like inventory control, product design, orders processing, and delivery systems. No reference is taken to the existing process and an entirely new process is adopted.

The following rules for reengineering are effective: i) Make changes with the outcome in mind – not the tasks that result in them.

ii) Make the users of the results of the process effect the change.

iii) Let the people on the spot decide on the solution – decentralise.

ii) E-Engineering: The term E-Engineering refers to the attempts of companies to make use of all kinds of information systems, to make their functions efficient. New information systems are installed for conducting all business processes in the organisation. The use of electronic communication within the organisation enables frequent interactions between employees and results in better communication.

Typically meetings require their presence, but with teleconferencing a lot of time and money is saved. Data have repositories which are accessible, transferable and updatable instantly and used by all concerned. Cross-functional workflows make it easier to coordinate activities. The increase in efficiency makes the organisation meet customers‟ requirements faster. All these result in widespread utilisation of knowledge in the organisation. It helps in creating and making available high quality of information. The information system also comprises of intranet and internet solutions to carry on their regular activities online.

The Project Manager may have to initiate the change process to increase the effectiveness of his team. Being a key person and the change agent in the organisation, his actions are always under scrutiny. If he takes initiative, whenever the opportunity arises, to effect incremental changes, he will face minimum resistance both by the top management and his team members.

ASSIGNMENT- Set 2

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

Ans. The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project‟s goals or objectives. Irrespective of the complexities of the project, a life cycle of a project consists of – a) Understanding the scope and objectives of the project b) Formulating and planning various activities d) Executing the project d) Monitoring the project and controlling the project resources

Phases of Project Management Life CycleThe various phases in project management life cycle are –

Analysis and evaluation

Marketing

Design

Inspecting, testing and delivery

Post completion analysis

Phases of project management life cycle

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 Analysing the problems encountered during the project

Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping.

Ans. Project Planning and Scoping Before you create a project plan, you need to define the project scope. A project scope provides the information that you need to complete the project plan.

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.

Fist, let us list the steps involved in project scoping. These steps include: i) Identifying the various parametric forces relevant to the project and its stages

ii) Enabling the team members to work on tools to keep track of the stages and thereby proceed in the planned manner

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

iv) Eliminating the factors responsible for inducing the problems

v) Analysing the financial implications and cost factor at various stages of the project

vi) Understanding and developing the various designs required at various stages of the project

vii) Identifying the key areas to be included in the scope through various meetings, discussion, and interviews with the clients

viii) Providing a base and track to enable alignment of project with the organisation and its business objectives

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

x) Listing out all the limitations, boundary values and constraints in the project

xi) 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 in the figure

Project planning processes

Let us now list the steps involved in each process of project planning.

a) The identification process – The main steps in the identification process of any project are: i) Identifying initial requirements ii) Validating them against the project objective iii) 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 iv) Identifying the framework of the solution v) Preparing a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility vi) Preparing relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and its different stages vii) Preparing a proper project schema of achieving the defined business requirements for the project viii) Identifying training requirement ix) Making a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project x) Identifying the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsible in the project xi) Preparing a training plan and a training calendar xii) Assessing the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the project organisation

b) The review Process – The main steps in the review process of any project are: i) Establishing a training plan to acquaint the project team members with the methodologies, technologies and business areas under study ii) Updating the project schedule to accommodate scheduled training activities

iii) Identifying the needs for review and reviewing the project scope

iv) 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

v) Reviewing the project scope, the objective statement, the non conformances in the project stages and identifying the need to use the project plan

vi) Preparing a proper project plan indicating all the requirements from start to finish of the project and also at every stage of the project

vii) Preparing a checklist of items to be monitored and controlled during the course of execution of the project c) The analysis process – The main steps in the analysis process of any project are: i) Comparing the actual details with that in the plan with reference to project stages.

ii) Measuring various components of the project and its stages frequently to control the project from deviating and also monitor the performance.

iii) Deciding how the task, the effort and the defects are to be tracked, what tools to be used, what reporting structure and frequency will be followed at various stages.

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

v) 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?

Ans. Each Project Management Review meeting starts with an introduction of the members along with the agenda and guidelines of the meeting. The remainder of the review meeting focuses on six categories of information – general overview, status of action items from prior review, project status, product status, issues and risks, project unique information.

The project status category focuses on the management approach used for the project. This includes schedule, cost, decision, points, ROI, funding status among others.

ROI 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 project’s 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 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 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. 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.

Project management review categories

Q4. Discuss the role of effective data management in the success of project management.?

Ans The Role of Effective Data Management in the Success of Project Management

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). Management of acquisition lies in ensuring that these are satisfied before they are stored for processing and decisions taken on the analysis.

Characteristics of useful data

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 in them. 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 they require. When all these are done efficiently the project will have no hold ups an assure success.

Measuring and Managing Success Project Managers are the key persons on whom top management depend upon for accurate periodic reports about the project. So the managers are continually concerned about the measurable aspects of the project in progress. Not all facts will show a measure of success of a project. The facts reported may not mean anything to the management. Therefore metrics used should be answering fundamental questions, the answers to which will be responsive to the needs of the top management. Metrics are important when predicting and controlling the outcome is important. We know what to correct, when to correct and how much to correct the factors that affect the measurement. Measuring is for the purpose of effecting corrections as project is progressing. Both the end-deliverables and the execution process have to be measured. The former is done to make sure that they support the business objectives. The latter is performed to make sure that the processes are running as predicted. Let us now look at some metrics and find out their meanings, measurements and benefits:On the same lines we have the following metrics for the project execution:–

Schedule Estimate

Cost estimates

Staff productivity

Average time to repair

The top management may determine which of the metrics they would like to use to measure efficiency, which they can communicate to the client also. Then the project manager will set up suitable reporting systems and analyse the progress accordingly. Success is the culmination of all measuring activities which brings satisfaction to all stakeholders. Lessons learnt should be the guiding factors for future projects.

Q5. What is Project risk management? Explain its significance.

Ans. Risk is an inherent part of any project. You cannot neglect the potential impact of risk in the project. Risks can be at any stage of the project life cycle and create impact based on it. In simple words, project risk can be defined as the possibility that something may go wrong, or at least not turn out as planned. Risks are different for each project, and risks change as a project progresses.

In any project, it is difficult to assess the quantum of risks involved. Therefore careful planning will result in minimising the risk in a project. The formulation of a project is based on the estimates of the past data available with the project management team. The data may have been from the recorded information about past projects executed successfully or from the experience of the project management team members.

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.

You discussed earlier that risk may be associated at all stages of a project life cycle. The earlier the risks are identified, lesser is the impact and easier is the mitigation. By contrast, risks can be more difficult to deal with and more likely to have significant negative impact if they occur later in a project. Risk probability is simply the likelihood that a risk event will occur. On the other hand, risk impact is the result of the probability of the risk event occurring plus the consequences of the risk event. Impact, in simple terms is defined as how much the realised risk is likely to hurt. The propensity (or probability) of project risk depends on the project’s life cycle, which includes five phases: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. While issues can occur at any time during a project’s life cycle, issues have a greater chance of occurring in earlier stages due to unknown factors.

The relationship of risks and their probability across the project life-cycle process is illustrated in the following figure. As the figure explains, the probability of the occurrence of the risk is higher in the initial stage and least in the closing stage. The greater area in pink signifies a greater probability of occurrence of risk.

Hence, it is important to adapt to these risks and be flexible enough to tackle them. We discussed about the probability of the risk occurring at various stages of the project life cycle. In the later section, you will learn about the impact created by these risks at each stage.

Q6. Write brief note on project management application software?

Ans. Support

SoftwareHaving learnt the basics of application software, you would have a fairidea of how and to what extent project management processes couldb e a u t o m a t e d . H o w e v e r , t h e c h a l l e n g e o f “ m a k i n g t h i n g s w o r k ” remains unchanged. While software vendors are confident of “makingit work”, two yawning gaps still remain:1. Business processes which are not covered in such software2. Integration of multi vendor supported software applications The enterprise is normally in a dilemma – whether to look at the samevendors to support such customisation or not. This normally works outtoo expensive for their comfort or within their tight budgets.Several software vendors have seized the opportunity with offeringsthat substantially fill these gaps effectively at a fraction of the costsquoted by the major vendors. The other carrot which these vendors o f f e r i s a un i l a te ra l t r ans fe r o f t he f ac i l i t y t o cus tom ise t hemse l ves which is seen as a huge advantage. The various support software thatmay be used for managing projects are:1. ARROW2. FEDORA3. VITAL4. PILIN5. MS EXCHANGE SERVER 2003

The ARROW Project

I t i s a conso r t i a o f i ns t i t u t i ona l r epos i t o r y so lu t i on , comb in ing open source and proprietary Software .Arrow is preferred support softwarebecause it:· P rov ides a p l a t f o rm fo r p romo t i ng resea rch ou tpu t i n t he ARROW context· Safeguards digital information· Gathers an institution’s research output into one place· Provides consistent ways of finding similar objects· Allows information to be preserved over the long term· A l l o w s i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m m a n y r e p o s i t o r i e s t o b e g a t h e r e d a n d searched in one step· Enables resources to be shared, while respecting access constraints· E n a b l e s e f f e c t i v e c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d c o l l a b o r a t i o n b e t w e e n researchers The vision of project ARROW: “The ARROW project will identify and testso f twa re o r so lu t i ons t o suppo r t bes t p rac t i ce i ns t i t u t i ona l d i g i t a l r e p o s i t o r i e s c o m p r i s i n g e - p r i n t s , d i g i t a l t h e s e s a n d e l e c t r o n i c pub l i sh ing . ” ARROW p ro jec t wan ted t o be a so lu t i on f o r s t o r i ng any digital output. Their initial focus was on print equivalents such as thesisand journal articles among others. It provided solution that could offero n - g o i n g t e c h n i c a l s u p p o r t a n d d e v e l o p m e n t p a s t t h e e n d o f t h e funding period of the project.

Fedora

ARROW wanted a robust, well architected underlying platform and a f l e x i b l e o b j e c t - o r i e n t e d d a t a m o d e l t o b e a b l e t o h a v e p e r s i s t e n t i d e n t i f i e r s d o w n t o t h e l e v e l o f i n d i v i d u a l d a t a s t r e a m s . I t a c c o m m o d a t e s t h e c o n t e n t m o d e l t o b e a b l e t o b e v e r s i o n independent.S ince t he beg inn ing o f t he p ro jec t ARROW has wo rked ac t i ve l y and closely with Fedora and the Fedora

Community. The ARROW project’s  Technical Architect is a member of Fedora Advisory Board and sits onFedora Development Group. This association is reinforced by VTLS Inc. VTLS President is a membero f Fedo ra Adv i so ry Boa rd and V ITAL Lead Deve lope r s i t s on Fedo ra Development Group

VITAL

VITAL refers to ARROW specified software created and fully supportedby VTLS Inc. built on top of Fedora. It currently provides:1. VITAL Manager2. VITAL Portal3. VITAL Access Portal4. VALET – Web Self-Submission Tool5. Batch Loader Tool

6. Handles Server (CNRI)7. Google Indexing and Exposure8. SRU / SRW Support9. VITAL architecture overviewV I T A L i s p a r t o f c r e a t i v e d e v e l o p m e n t o f A R R O W i n s t i t u t i o n a l repositories. VITAL has the following features:1. Inclusion of multimedia and creative works produced in Australianuniversities2. Limited exposure nationally or internationally3. Addition of annotation capability4. Inclusion of datasets and other research output not easily provided in any other publishing channel5. Being developed in conjunction with the DART (ARCHER) Project6. Exploration of the research-teaching nexus tools that will allow valueadded services for repositories7. Integration with or development of new tools that will allow value added services for repositories (for instance the creation of e-portfoliosor CVs of research output of individual academics)PILIN – Persistent Identifiers and Linking Infrastructure