mb0033 project management assignment

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ASSIGNMENTS Subject code: MB0033 Set 1 1. What are the various characteristics of a project? What is the importance of each characteristic? Give examples. Ans : It is well known to all that the organizations continue to grow year by year. As there is a need to grow it becomes necessary for a growing organization to resort to proper growth plan. The plan needs to be properly prepared. It is possible to prepare proper plans only if the manager has sufficient knowledge of the various process of the project envisage for growth. The manager has to work on the various life cycle stages and apply necessary planning tools to come out with a proper growth plan of the company. The various techniques of identifying the project items, work break down structure of the project , task duration, estimation etc are to be done meticulously. Characteristics Any project may be considered to have the following characteristics: a) Resource requirement - During the course of executing the project, it is seen that the resource requirement increases from start to an intermediate stage of the project. It further increases at rapid rate and becomes constant while the project is during its 80 to 95% progress stage. Thereafter the resources requirement decreases to zero i.e when the project comes to a finish. b) Funds - The requirement of funds for the completes execution of the project also follows the same trend as that of the resources. The two are more or less proportional. c) Probability of completion - The probability of completing the project can be estimated based upon the normal distribution curve. In the initial stage of the project the probability of completing the project is low though not zero. It gradually increases and as the project approaches

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Page 1: MB0033 Project Management Assignment

ASSIGNMENTS

Subject code: MB0033

Set 1

1. What are the various characteristics of a project? What is the importance of each

characteristic? Give examples.

Ans : It is well known to all that the organizations continue to grow year by year. As there is a need to grow it becomes necessary for a growing organization to resort to proper growth plan. The plan needs to be properly prepared. It is possible to prepare proper plans only if the manager has sufficient knowledge of the various process of the project envisage for growth. The manager has to work on the various life cycle stages and apply necessary planning tools to come out with a proper growth plan of the company. The various techniques of identifying the project items, work break down structure of the project , task duration, estimation etc are to be done meticulously.

Characteristics

Any project may be considered to have the following characteristics:

a) Resource requirement - During the course of executing the project, it is seen that the resource requirement increases from start to an intermediate stage of the project. It further increases at rapid rate and becomes constant while the project is during its 80 to 95% progress stage. Thereafter the resources requirement decreases to zero i.e when the project comes to a finish.

b) Funds - The requirement of funds for the completes execution of the project also follows the same trend as that of the resources. The two are more or less proportional.

c) Probability of completion - The probability of completing the project can be estimated based upon the normal distribution curve. In the initial stage of the project the probability of completing the project is low though not zero. It gradually increases and as the project approaches finish the probability of completing the project tends to become 100%.

d) Risk - The risks involved in the project affecting its completion time is high at the initial stages and low at the later stages of the project.

e) Design changes - The project during the course of its progress may be subjected to changes because of some external factors. The influence of such external factors on the project may result in changes in the design f the project though not very often. It is observed that

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such changes if any are normally high during the initial stages of the project and decreases as the project approaches finish.

2. State the principles of Deming’s Philosophy relevant to Project Management.

Explain how each one is applicable in management?

Ans : Dr. Deming's teachings and philosophy can be seen through the results they produced when they were adopted by the Japanese, as the following example shows: Ford Motor Company was simultaneously manufacturing a car model with transmissions made in Japan and the United States. Soon after the car model was on the market, Ford customers were requesting the model with Japanese transmission over the USA-made transmission, and they were willing to wait for the Japanese model. As both transmissions were made to the same specifications, Ford engineers could not understand the customer preference for the model with Japanese transmission. It delivered smoother performance with a lower defect rate. Finally, Ford engineers decided to take apart the two different transmissions. The American-made car parts were all within specified tolerance levels. On the other hand, the Japanese car parts had much closer tolerances than the USA-made parts - i.e. if a part was supposed to be one foot long, plus or minus 1/8 of an inch - then the Japanese parts were within 1/16 of an inch. This made the Japanese cars run more smoothly and customers experienced fewer problems.

Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved products and services. "Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment."

Deming philosophy synopsis

The philosophy of W. Edwards Deming has been summarized as follows:

"Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces."

In the 1970s, Dr. Deming's philosophy was summarized by some of his Japanese proponents with the following 'a'-versus-'b' comparison:

(a) When people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined by the following ratio,

quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.

(b) However, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs, costs tend to rise and quality declines over time.

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Deming offered fourteen key principles for management for transforming business effectiveness.

1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.

2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.

5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease cost.

6. Institute training on the job. 7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and

gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.

8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and

production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.

11. a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute workmanship.

12. a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement. 14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The

transformation is everyone's work.

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

Ans : Concurrency in High Technology Development

As the application of technology has become critical for the survival of organisation it has become imperative for organizations to initiate measures for the development of high technology to be ahead of competition. No doubt, there are many specialized Research and Development firms which offer their expertise to their clients’ problems. However, their services are available to the competitors and many technologies developed by the company’s own research personnel cannot be shared with outsiders. So the

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strategy would be utilize the services of external resource to the extent they are suitable for our purpose, but with a strong base of R and D of our own. This will really differentiate the best companies from other ordinary ones. The following give some guidelines in the form of rules which would help organisation to be strong in this area.

Building concurrency into every activity is essential to reduce the development cycle time and to counter the technology obsolescence. Many of the tasks that are normally done in a serial fashion can be done in parallel by synchronizing the flow of information. The practices of the concurrent engineering where the design of the product and all its associated processes are carried out simultaneously based on team work and participation. Would not only help in reducing the development cycle time, but also improves the product functionality with regard to requirements. Concurrency can be accomplished in many ways both for product development as well as technology transfer, user evaluation and production.

Example - Tactical Aircraft: Concurrency in Development and Production of F-22Aircraft Should Be Reduced (Letter Report, 04/19/95, GAO/NSIAD-95-59).

Because the F-22 fighter plane is not urgently needed and the Defense Department (DOD) has discovered engine and software problems with the aircraft, GAO urges that the F-22 be thoroughly tested before large numbers of these expensive aircraft are acquired. Concurrency between the development and production phases of F-22 means that independent testing of high-tech features of the aircraft will not be completed before the Air Force makes a significant commitment to producing the F-22. Among other things, the F-22 boast an advanced architecture for the integrated avionics system, a propulsion system that will allow cruising a supersonic speeds without the afterburners that current fighters needs, and low observable technologies. The military has already disclosed engine and stealth ness problems, and the potential for avionics and software problems underscore the need to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities before committing to production.

4. Explain in detail the project management review process. What are the

various post review activities ?

Ans : Project Management Review Process

There is mutual benefit for corporate and major information systems project teams and many of the programs as a result of the information exchange generated by the Project Management Reviews. Throughout the project lifecycle, project staff should collaborate and communicate with staff responsible for capital planning, information architecture, standards, information security, safety, configuration management, risk management, quality management and assurance. The information exchange may address status, issued, process, requests, requirements, approvals, and assistance in the areas of project plans, schedule, budget, functional content, scope, staffing, infrastructure and

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operations.Corporate and major information systems are reviewed from their inception to retirement, i.e., throughout the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) phases of Identification, Selection, Control, and Evaluation.

The Project Management Review Process includes the following steps:

Identification of projects that will participate in the Reviews Development and adherence to a quarterly reporting schedule Compilation of standard project management data into a presentation

data Collection of detailed project files that support the information reported

during the project Management Reviews and may be requested for inspection during a formal audit

Participation in the Review meetings with any required follow-up activities

Post Review Activities

Once the Project Management Review has been conducted, follow up with program/project managers on any issues or concerns requiring attention, the status of open items from the review, and CIO reporting actions, e.g., reports to the CIO Council. The CIO may also recommend quality assurance analysis be conducted.

1. Issues or Concerns Requiring AttentionThe project manager is responsible for raising issues or concerns that require assistance or guidance to the attention of the CIO. These items should be communicated whenever they become known, and not held to the next Project Management Review. The CIO will assign appropriate OCIO staff available to help resolve open items. The program / project manager should communicate the status of these items in each quarterly reviews until the items are resolved / closed.

2. Status of Open Items from ReviewThe program/project manager is responsible for tracking the open items from the review and communicating the status in each quarterly review until the items are closed. The supporting the scheduling of reviews will coordinate with the program/project manager after the quarterly reviews to help ensure that new items have been captured for tracking and action by the program/project manager.

3. CIO ReportsThe staff supporting the CIO Quarterly Reviews will prepare a summary report after each Project Management Review. The summary report will include the following information:

i) Summary Statusii) Open Issues/Itemsiii) Status Performance Objectives/Measuresiv) Status of Schedule/Cost

The summary report will be provided to the program/project manager to gain

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concurrence on the content. The summary report will be used by the CIO when reporting status to the CIO Council.

5. Explain the structure of the documentation systems as required by supply chain monitoring.

What is the significance of documentation? How does it help a manager?

Ans : Requirement of Documented systems in Supply Chain Monitoring (SCMo)

It is possible today to establish a system aligned with an organizations supply chain. It can be an add-on to existing ERP-systems. The main objectives are

i) Prevention of stock-out and over supply

ii) Early warnings, elimination of bullwhip effect

iii) Optimized allocation in bottleneck situations due to network-wide inventory and demand transparency

The main Principles behind is the Integration of supply chain participants, Exchange of demand and inventory information, transparency & Visibility of inventories and demands for multilevel supply chains. It also eliminates time lags in the information flow and ensures synchronization of demand information. SCMo set up (Initialization) The main steps for the set up are :

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

b) Mapping of Structures a) high shortage risk and effect, long lead and reaction times, high total inventory cost, frequent engineering changes.

Main Features – The main features of such system are –

i) Releases and Iterations planning – It is a simple way to create project plan.ii) Dashboard – It is a quick project status reporting tool.iii) To-Do lists – Identify and list the Integrated assignments.iv) Integrated QA - Bug Tracking, Test Cases management, user story-to-bugsTrace-ability, QA stats and charts.v) Time Tracking - Create more accurate estimates of time.

Significance of Documentation

It might sometimes be difficult for an organization to straightaway launch into a Project Management exercise, even if they are well equipped, particularly if the project is too large – for e.g., development of a new product, expansion of capacity, modernization of facilities, diversification into a totally new business area, getting into a Joint venture etc. In this case, the core project team itself might feel the need to have some major inputs before even a tentative plan could be drawn up. A well-drafted Business Plan would ideally serve this purpose, provided it is handled systematically & professionally.

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The documentation system is intranet based to provide immediate access to current, up-to-date process documentation. The system allows users to navigate through graphical structures to relevant documentation and processes which were created with the ARIS-Toolset.

The content of the process Documentation System includes the area supply chain management from the Odette supply chain Management Group. The system includes graphical process documentation, in the form of process chains, as well as the entire range of documentation related to the processes.

The Process Documentation System gives, according to its objectives, as overview and a detailed view of the relevant processes for SCMo.

The entry point in the documentation system is the model “Process Overview SCMo”. This model is the starting point for the navigation to other models.

The vertical navigation is the navigation on different levels. The horizontal navigation is the navigation on one level.

Microsoft has a team project management solution that enables project managers and their teams to collaborate on projects. The Microsoft Project 2002 products in this solution are Microsoft Project Standard 2002, Microsoft Project Server 2002, and Microsoft Project Server Client Access License (CAL) 2002.

6. Write down a brief outline of any assumed project management plan.

Ans : Various sections and subsections of this unit would cover as part of Project Management Plan, the following key aspects:

1. · Project Management Plan – Sample Project

Project Summary

Project Overview – Consider a firm XYZ as a Stock Broker/ Dealer firm. Any re will have applications supporting the following components:

· first, a Brokerage Account Opening application on XYZ’s Web site that will allow any internet user to open a brokerage account with XYZ.

· Second, an account opening and maintenance application, which is primarily for XYZ’s representatives to open accounts for the applications received in paper format.

Project Scope

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

ii. · To allow representatives to provide information

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iii. · To provide a complete picture to the client representatives for account status, valuation, order status, and trade activity

iv. · To increase the intelligence of the update process

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

Objectives

Strengthen relationship with XYZ by delivered high quality software on time Become preferred vendor by developing expensive on XYZ product and systems.

Commitment made to customers

3. · Assumptions made While Planning

Intelligent update to business partners will be incorporated in only the maintenance part of the application and not in the Account opening engine.

Qualified people will approve Rational Unified Process methodology for implementing this project

XYZ reviewers will take seven days to approve a milestone documents. If no comments are received within this time period, it will be considered as approved.

4. · Standard Process Followed and Deviation from standard Process

Tailoring Notes

Requirement trace ability will be done through the requisite pro-tool.

Physical data base design may be refined | later iterations.

Change request tracking

Changes requested by customer will be logged in change request and analyzed for impact of project

Major change usually has an effort/delivery-on-time impact on the project. The customer needs to formally approve these changes.

5. · Requirement Trace Ability

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Requisite tool will be used along with estimated size and effort. This is the estimation criteria to check everything is in place.

6. · Automated Estimation Process

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

7. · Scheduling and Estimation of Resources

People Hardware, software and Tools Training Plan

8. · Quality Plan – Quality Goals

Project Goals

Prepare a strategy for meeting quality goals indicating the expected benefits

Estimation of Defects to be defected Reviews

9. · Project Tracking

Prepare the reports to be given to the customer which indicates –

Milestone reports & weekly status reports Issue requiring clarification

Plus other reports which needs to be given to Business Managers

10. · Defect Control System Performance Summary

Prepare a list probable defects & defect distribution table to find out deviation for the same. There were very few large deviations in the process performance; the actual performance was close to what is expected. This will give a chance to improve the poor performance.

11. · System Driver Risk Management

Prepare a table on risk management indicating the type of risk, actual elapsed time, estimated time, percentage slippage and reasons for slippage.

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

Standardization Modularization Minimum Cutomerization Maximum Micro Structure

ASSIGNMENTS

Subject code: MB0033

Set 2

1. How can risks be prioritized in a project management? Give any suitable example.

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 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 prioritization – Risk prioritization focus on the highest risk. Prioritization requires analyzing 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

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consequences. For each risk rate the probability of its happening as low, medium or high. If necessary, assign probability values in the ranges given for each rating. For each risk, assess its impact on the project as low, medium, high or very high. Rank the risk based on the probability. 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 PM and select a 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.

2. Mention any six characteristics of interpersonal behaviour. What are the types of

reviews?

Ans : Interpersonal Behaviour - In a team the maxim that all members will do well to remember is “Learn to appreciate the problems of others, and some others would appreciate yours”. It is therefore important that in a business environment, particularly in Project Management, an effort to evolve solutions jointly has great benefits, both for the teams as well as the organization. The top management has the responsibility of encouraging such a culture to develop team work to healthy interpersonal behaviour.

Interpersonal behaviour calls for: Projection of a pleasant, but firm personality Clarity of expression and communication Patience in listening and reacting with empathy Documentation and correct recording Offer to help Call for help whenever necessary Seeking information before attempting decisions Not waiting for things to go wrong Motivation of others through efficiency and meticulousness, rather than urging

and exhibiting dependency Putting team goals ahead of individual targets.

The project manager should make it a habit of expressing appreciation openly for any good work done. Cross Functional Teams have become a necessity and the synergy they generate would be lost if interpersonal behaviour is not of high standard. As members are from different functions, understanding the requirements or compulsions of others is difficult. This fact should be impressed upon all the members and requesting them to cooperate is vital.

Reviews Types

The reviews are generally divided into four types which are conducted at different stages of the project.

1. Initiation Reviews (IR)2. Planning and Proposal Reviews (PPR)3. Procurement Reviews (PR)4. Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR)

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A project review is a process where we capture information from the team experience and see the variances and deviations from the plan. These reviews help in increasing productivity and improve organizational success. The purpose of the reviews can be generally stated as under. Depending on the manager’s ability they can be made more meaningful. Performance improvement starts with commitment to an agreed plan. The reviews are meant to keep the activities are according to the plan. The purpose of them can be states as:

Finding out the feasibility of the project and helping management team to take a decision based on this initial Review.

Checking if all the necessary activities were done before presenting a customer the proposal or solution

Checking if all the formal agreements and procedures were formally accepted and reviewed between the customer and the project delivery organization.

Finding out the deviation and allowing elbow room for changes in the action plan for improvement.

3. What are the main considerations in planning P2M? Give relevant examples.

Ans :

Consideration in Planning P2MSome of the considerations for effective programme management are given below:

Focusing on the various strategic initiatives taken up for multiple projects and the issues related to benefits and risks.

Bringing about the attention of management to a defined set of benefits, which are understood immediately, which are managed throughout the implementation and at completion.

Helping top management to set priorities, choosing options and allocate resources

Setting up mechanisms to measure and ensure that the projects making contributions for realizing expected business benefits.

Leading the organization on the path of ‘where it’ an ‘where it wants to be’

Ensuring that the effects of the programme driven changes are coordinated, the transitions are successfully managed. The operations are effective and efficient.Process of P2M

The objectives sought to be achieved and the methods which are adopted and the activities that are going to be undertaken i.e. the process include the following steps:Preparing and maintaining a set of activities and the workflow that is to be followed and identifying business areas responsible for different stages in the above;

1. Making sure that the priorities that the above generate are relevant and the projects are run on the basis of their impact on the business as a whole;

2. Structuring the programme so that the responsibilities and roles – at both programme and project level – are acceptable to both the top management and managers;

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3. Planning the various points of review between various phases of the projects. The process has to incorporate all the important aspects which are to be addressed during implementation and management of the projects. It is important to identify all factors and incorporate resources – men, materials, technology and time – so that their provision can be planned.

Managing the Programme

When we consider the portfolio of projects as a programme, the main considerations will be on resources, risks associated with the programme, quality of the projects at every stage of the execution as meeting the requirements of the client as per the contract and monitoring the change processes that get enmeshed during implementation. The specifics concerning the above are listed below:

i) Evaluating the risks associated with the programme – the planned changes to the business operations;ii) Ensuring that the processes to ensure quality are sufficient and purposes are fully met;iii) Keeping track of the changes and developments external to the project environment and studying their impact on the programme.iv) Making sure that the personnel in business affected by the above are informed and trained so that the projects are smoothly;v) Ensuring that the support services like human resources and IT are able to adopt to the changes that take place in the projects and business operations as a whole.

4. What is the significance of reviewing ROI? Explain in detail.

Ans : ROI - 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 nonperformance. 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 se 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.Exclusions

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

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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 computersb) Reduction/redirection of labourc) Elimination of redundant systemsd) Ability to more cost effectively upgrade 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 form 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.

5. What is meant by baseline? How is it reviewed?

Ans : BaselineThe Baseline created can be used to compare the original project plan with actual events and achievements. This will display the days required for each task and project phase. For actual operating instruction please refer the Microsoft Project User Handbook. The Microsoft Project family of products offers tools to work on a Project from management point of view. Microsoft Project is designed for people who manage projects independently and don’t require the capability to manage resources from a central repository. Microsoft has a team project management solution that enables project managers and their teams to collaborate on projects. After creating a fairly complete final project plan it is a good idea to create a baseline to compare the

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original project plan with actual events and achievements.

Reviewing baseline

This will display the days required for each task and project phase. It includes -

Tracking Progress

After creating a baseline, if the project has begun, it is necessary to enter actual dates that tasks are being completed and the resource utilization used to complete them. Again review different views and the cost and summary tables before proceeding to the next section. Return to the Entry view of the Gantt chart before proceeding.

Balancing Workloads

At times people and equipment can become assigned more work than they can complete in normal working hours. This is called over allocation. Project can test for this condition and reschedule (or level) their workload to accommodate completing tasks during a normal day.

Monitoring Variance

After a baseline has been established and the project has begun, it is desirable to determine if tasks are being accomplished on time and /or if cost over runs are occurring.

Creating Reports

Project has many different built-in reports and has the capability building custom reports and exporting data to other MS Office applications for integration into other reporting venues.

6. Explain in detail GDM and its key features?

Ans : GDM - 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 Customers or Clients Worldwide with Speed, Accuracy, Economy and Reliability. The key Features of GDM are ·

StandardizationModularizationMinimum CustomizationMaximum Micro structure

Adoption of a Combination of the Greatest Common Multiple and the Least CommonFactor of a Large Mass of Microbial Components-

a) Standardization - Ingenious Design and Development of Components and Features which are like to be accepted by 90% of Worldwide Customers. Global Standards of Design focusing on highly standardized Methods and Processes of manufacture or Development. Adopt Plug and socket Concepts with minimum adaptable joints or Connections.

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b) Modularization - Product or Solution split up into smallest possible individual Identifiable Entities, with limited Individual 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.

Special Features of GDM

Some of the special features of GDM are ·

Cuts across Geographical and Time Zone Barriers Unimaginable Speeds of Response and Introduction. Common Pool of Microbial Components Largely Independent of Skill Sets required at Delivery Stages Highly automated Processes Quality Assurance as a Concurrent rather than a Control Process Near Shore Development, Manufacture and Delivery for better Logistics Mapping of Economical Zones rather than Geographic Zones Continuous Floating virtual Inventory to save Time and Efforts.