MB0049 OK

Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 1

MB0049 – Project Management - 4 Credits

(Book ID: B1138)

Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks)

Q.1 List and explain the traits of a professional manager.

Ans. Being a good manager is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The first time you try to fit

the pieces together, it takes a while to get everything to fit smoothly. The second time you

attempt to make the pieces fit, you are a little more familiar with the pattern. Each time after that,

it becomes more and more natural to easily match everything together and have it all turn out

right.

The pieces of the puzzle a manager has to put together are:

1. advertising

2. recruiting

3. holding productive meetings

4. motivating a person who is in an emotional or financial slump

5. handling types of personalities they don’t relate to

6. recruiting people that are happy on other jobs, but are ready for change.

All of these techniques combined together make a great manager. In fact, great managers have

ten characteristics, and if each of these ten characteristics is developed, you will become a great

leader and a great manager.

Let’s start off with quality number one. The very first thing we find in a great manager is a total

commitment to building a team that functions in unison to reach their goals. Great managers

realize they are a team. Their team is made up of individuals that have different beliefs, values,

and ideals, but they all have to function in unison to reach the goals of the company.

The second characteristic we find in a great manager is they live what they teach and they

command respect by their example. You can’t be one thing and say another because you’ll lose

MB0049 – Project Management Page 1

respect. It’s not that important that your salespeople just like and admire you. It is important that

they respect you first ?the other things will follow.

Quality number three is very important. Great managers don't become buddies. They practice

business detachment with subordinates off the job.

Number four is also very important. Don’t play favorites. What do I mean by this? Make a

mental note of the words ‘justice?and ‘fairness.? These two words are critical in leadership ?that

you are totally just and totally fair through everything. You’re going to have to realize that if you

play favorites in the office, the group will know it, and you will lose respect. Not only that, they

start saying to themselves, “The reason I’m not doing good is not my skills, not my ability. I’ve

got a manger that gives the best business to other people. I can’t make it.?And by the way, the

person you’re playing favorites with over the years can be the one that will cause you the biggest

challenge when you go through change in policy or leadership, or when you really need

something done. So remember, just be fair and don’t play favorites!

Number five is so critical. Great managers develop future vision. They see their company

position, their market share, and their competitive edge in the future. But great managers also

have to start seeing themselves in the future, the office in the future, the number of salespeople

they’ll have, and how they are going to delegate. How do you develop future vision? It comes

back to having a plan and a goal. You must learn how to delegate authority and eventually

replace yourself. What do you delegate? Anything you can train anyone else to do which keeps

you from doing three things: recruiting, managing, and training.

Number six. They attack pending problems and rapidly make tough decisions. Average managers

don’t make decisions. In fact, they make decisions so slowly, that eventually there is no need for

a decision. What they had to decide upon has already taken place, so there is no need to do

anything, you see? Now, as far as making decisions about managing your office, there’s one

thing I want to warn you about. Until you totally learn your skill of managing, rely on the people

above you and run decisions past them. Rely on others for your knowledge and growth until, of

course, you have all the answers.

Don’t forget number seven if you really want to build a great sales force: promote risk-taking.

You want to promote risk-taking with your salespeople. What do I mean by risk-taking? I’m

talking about your salespeople going out a little bit on the edge as to the things they own, the


things they buy, and the way they live. In essence, they must gradually ‘up? their overhead as

you teach them to ‘up?their income. As a good manager, we help people increase their overhead

with balance, so that as they grow income-wise, they also grow emotionally and enjoy their

income. Promote risk-taking. Teach your salespeople they have to take a little risk in order to

grow.

And don’t forget number eight. Great managers are specialized at recruiting, training, and

retaining top people. That is a great manager’s main specialty. Becoming a great trainer or

teacher is necessary, because if you can't duplicate yourself and the concepts you used as a super

salesperson, you won't be able to complete the entire puzzle.

Now number nine is interesting. Good managers look at change as healthy. Change excites an

office. It keeps people on their toes. It motivates people to go far beyond what they normally

would, and not only that, it keeps people out of a rut. That’s why great managers don’t do the

same thing every day. They don’t come in at the same time every day. They don’t eat lunch at

the same time every day. They keep everyone on their toes. I’ll tell you a basic truth about

salespeople: if you have a set schedule, they will develop their schedule right around yours.

The last characteristic great managers must learn is to help people change their self-images by

using their individual needs to be comfortable. Salespeople lack confidence because they are

afraid and don't know what is going to happen to them. A manager’s job is not only to instill

confidence, but also to increase the way salespeople look at themselves. You see, self-image is a

mirror reflection of who you think you are. It may not be who you are. Your goal is to develop

your salespeople and to get them to grow far beyond their wildest dreams. It starts with how they

see themselves

Q.2 Describe in brief the various aspects of project management?

Ans. For the success of any project management program, a specific skill set is required. All

project management programs are unique and have their own set of challenges obstacles and

solutions. A successful project management plan should have a dedicated team that concentrates

on effective planning; accurate analysis and skill based objective building that is centered round

the project at hand.


Some of the main challenges of project management are

Proper and effective communication with the firm’s stake holders

Managing employee stress and pressures that arise out of projects

Proper allocation of resources that results in high profits

Preparing in advance for potential problems that may arise in the project

Assigning responsibilities to employees based on their capabilities.

Here are some of the key aspects of a successful project management program:

You can call your project management plan a full success when three main factors are taken care

of:

Resource allocation

Completion of targets within time lines

Completion of targets within the allocated budget and resources

This can happen only when you have a full understanding of the business and what you desire

from it. Firstly, conduct a detailed analysis of your business and understand its structure and

mode of operation fully and accurately. Take care of even the smallest and most irrelevant detail

before implementing a project management program. Set definite goals that are sound and

realistic within achieve-able timelines.

Decide the necessary methods and equipment required for implementation of the plan

beforehand itself so that you can start on time without any delays and loss of valuable resources.

And lastly make a thorough plan with the complete details of all expected expenses and

resources that will be required. This is highly important as money matters the most in any project

management plan for any firm.

Q.3 Compare the following:

a. Traditional Vs. Projectised Organization


Ans. When the execution of projects is a normal part of the organization's business, it is expected

that the organization will establish, in parallel with the Operations function, a function to manage

the projects. This would normally include a Central Project Office or Project Management Office

(PMO), and specialized personnel to manage projects. The PMO, under a Chief Project Officer

(or similar title) will develop standards and practices directed at the effective execution of

projects and the attainment of schedule, cost, scope and quality objectives. In doing so, a project

management planning and information system is put in place, and periodic measurements of

project progress and performance are conducted.

In the traditional organization, responsibility for determining and achieving the organization's

goals are assigned to the Operations function. Senior managers, having titles such as COO, CTO,

CIO, CFO, Strategic Planner, etc., establish objectives and goals, and develop strategies to

achieve these. When there are projects associated with these goals, these senior managers are

expected to select from a menu of proposed and pending projects. The objective is to create the

mix of projects most likely to support the achievement of the organization's goals - within the

preferred strategies - and within the organization's resource (people and funding) constraints.

A problem, common to many organizations, is that there is no connection between the

Operations and Projects functions, nor is there a structured, consistent, and meaningful flow of

information between these two groups. The organization's objectives (enterprise-level goals) are

hardly ever communicated to the Project Office, and the periodic measurements made by the

projects group cannot be related to these objectives.

When attempting to determine exactly how an organization fits in to the grand scheme of the

organization and analysis as well as the conducting of any of a number of series of given

projects, it is helpful to attempt to categorize as to whether a particular organization can be

deemed to be that of a projectized organization. A projectized organization refers specifically to

the particular and specific organization in question that has been built through the utilization of

an organizational structure that has been set up in a manner in which the project manager leads

the group and in which the project manager has the ultimate authority to make any and all

decisions involving the organization, including, but no necessarily limited to, the assignment of

all priorities, the application of any predesignated resources, and also any and all direct workings

of persons that have been assigned to the project already or may be assigned in the future.


b. Reengineering Vs. E-engineering

Ans. Reengineering implies changes of various types and depth to a system, from a slight

renovation to a total overhaul. Some of the typical challenges our clients have:

A system was developed for us, but we'd like to change several things, namely improve the

system's functionality, usability, security, stability and performance; change the system's

architecture or adjust it for another platform. Unfortunately, we don't have the detailed

documentation on this system or a knowledgeable enough staff. How do we implement the

desired changes?

We have three systems with roughly the same functionality, which work on different platforms.

As these systems supplement each other, users have to use all three of them. This makes their

work more complicated (starting one system means first shutting down the other two) and adds a

lot of extra work for the system administrators (when a new user is added, the data must be

copied to all three systems). We want to have one system instead of three.

We have a best-selling software solution and received an order from a major client to modify it.

However, no company wants to undertake its maintenance. What shall we do?

A software component was written by someone who is no longer with the company, and there is

nobody capable of working on the system's maintenance. There is no documentation or

comments in the program. What shall we do?

E-engineering is a competitive tool for boosting profits and increasing productivity. It supports

24-hour-a-day operations while avoiding the burnout that is common among American techies

who work grueling hours, according to Hossein. More than just a source of cheap labor, e-

engineering makes it "a lot easier finding technical talent because we're working with an

international labor pool," he adds.

But, scheduling adjustments have to be made when working with colleagues in another time

zone. Offsetting the advantages of running an around-the-clock business, communication among

programmers can be tricky when there is a 10-hour time difference. Ion Badulescu, a software

engineer at HydraWEB Technologies Inc., a New York City company that makes load balancers

for Web servers, has encountered problems when working with developers in other parts of the


world. Today, Badulescu works from his home in Irvine, Calif., but prior to that he worked for

HydraWEB from his home country of Romania. "Conference calls with three or four people are

difficult," he says. "Phone contact with a foreign country is chancy at best. The best way to

communicate is via email."

Q.4 List out the macro issues in project management and explain each.

Ans. Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing

resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is

sometimes conflated with program management, however technically that is actually a higher

level construction: a group of related and somehow interdependent engineering projects.

A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by

date, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives,

usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands

in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent or semi-

permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these

two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct

technical skills and the adoption of separate management.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals[4] and

objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints.[5] Typical constraints are scope,

time, and budget.[1] The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the

allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.

Today, relatively low-cost, trusted, security technology is readily available and easy to use. At

the same time, powerful statistical tools that can be used to analyze situations under risk—often

very effectively—by individuals with little or no understanding of the advanced statistics or

decision theory upon which these tools are based are available. And, with business globalization,

people (distributed project-team members) have become, to a much greater extent, a fungible

resource.


Three issues that can contribute to a project's success or failure.

Enterprise-level project management systems typically include, but are not limited to, the

collaborative use of packages such as:

Microsoft Project Server

Microsoft Project Professional

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Suite (used to develop custom Web Parts for

SharePoint)

Microsoft Team Foundation Server (used for further collaboration among developers)

Each of these applications has plenty of endogenous security built in, right out of the box. My

concern in this article is the exogenous security that you must provide, in addition, so that

unauthorized individuals don't have access to your project management applications and data.

Security is a big, open-ended subject. What I'll do here is make the point that you can't assume

that, just because you implement a number of layers of de rigeur, "by-the-book" security

practices, your data is safe.

To that end, I'll focus on system authentication and authorization and data encryption using

digital certificates (the foundation of Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI). These are electronic

credentials, issued by a certification authority (CA), that are associated with a public and private

key pair. The certification authority certifies that the person who has been issued a digital


certificate is indeed who he or she claims to be (see Reference 1 for further details). First, a little

background information on, and then, how you might get a false sense of security from using

PKI.

Digital certificates are important because today's password authentication schemes are little more

than security placebos. They perversely inspire abuse, misuse, and criminal mischief by

deliberately making users the weakest link in the security chain. You're far more secure with a

layered approach to authentication—one that starts with a digital certificate.

More than any other security protocol or technology available today, PKI can define trust in a

granular way. You can use its strengths to protect information about the status of your project

from outside competitors or even inside personnel who might misuse information about your

work-in-process. But, because of PKI's mystique, the all-too-frequent careless use of PKI can

lead to unwanted consequences. (See Reference 2 for an account of what to believe and what to

disbelieve about what you've been told by PKI marketers.) Today, the user interface to your PKI-

based security system often starts with his or her use of a smart card.

A smart card is a programmable device containing an integrated circuit that stores your digital

certificate. These portable cards serve as positive, non-refutable proof of your identity during

electronic transactions. As such, they allow you to digitally sign documents and e-mail messages,

encrypt outgoing e-mails to be deciphered only by their intended recipients, authenticate into a

domain (certificate logon), and automatically log into Internet and Intranet Web sites. To use a

smart card, a user must be issued a smart card certificate by his or her certificate authority. Smart

cards traditionally take the form of a device the size of a credit card that is placed into a reader,

but can they can also be USB-based devices or integrated into employee badges. And, smart

cards can be combined with a PIN (which you can think of as a password) to provide two-factor

authentication. Physical possession of the smartcard and knowledge of the PIN must be

combined to authenticate successfully.

Q.5 Describe the various steps in risk management listed below:

Ans. a. Risk Identification: Taking into account information gathered in Risk assessment, an

inventory of relevant risks to the genebank operations should be made. The major risks to


genebanks are germplasm mis-identification, unstable storage facilities and insufficient funding

support. An extensive list of risks gathered in documents from five CGIAR Centers and

genebank of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, discussions with four USDA-ARS

conservation and database management sites and information contained in various genebank

management literature has been compiled and is set out in Table 1 for seeds and Table 2 for

clonal materials.

The generic risk assessment tool for seed crops and clonal crops serves as the input forms for

risks and other information required for a particular genebank. For this step, the general area of

genebank operations and specific activity and the risk source/indicator should be identified.

These can be selected from those listed in Table 1a and Table 2a, but need not be limited to

these.

Also, as part of the risk identification step, risk ownership should be identified. This means

identifying the organizational unit or manager who is responsible for monitoring, analyzing,

evaluating the risk and implementing the controls or contingency plans associated with the risk.

Most of the risks identified will be managed by managers and staff within the genebank or larger

Genetic Resources Unit (or equivalent) in which the genebank staff are organizationally located.

Ans. b. Risk Analysis: Risk analysis covers both the potential impact (or consequence) of the

identified risks, and their likelihood (probability). In the case of likelihood, an intrinsic

likelihood was first considered, taking into account the nature of the risk and its probability in

the absence of controls or other mitigations, and then adjusted for mitigating controls that

were confirmed as being in place. To develop a quantitative risk assessment, a point system for

the scales or levels of the likelihood and impact of risks was devised in the context of

genebanking operations. The point system was simplified and, consistent with the approach

taken by many CGIAR Centres for their enterprise wide risk management frameworks; a 3-point

scale was proposed: 1 point (Low), 2 points (Medium), and 3 points (High) for both likelihood

and impact.

Intrinsic likelihood


The likelihood levels table below provides suggested definitions for the likelihood scale. These

likelihood levels can be amended to suit a particular genebank’s conditions. Should a genebank

wish to initially simplify this further, a 2-point scale could be adopted: 1 point (Low) and 2

points (High) for both likelihood and impact.

Likelihood levels

Low (1)Very unlikely to practically impossible; 0-10% of the time. (Example: one

or no occurrence in ten years.)

Medium (2)Occasional; 20-60% of the time. (Example: two or six occurrences in ten

years.)

High (3)Moderately frequent to frequent; Above 60% of the time. (Example: seven

and more occurrences in ten years.)

Ans. c. Risk Management Planning: Risk Management Planning is about defining the process

of how to engage and oversee risk management activities for a project. Risk Management

planning is an important part of project management. Having a plan on how to manage risk,

allows one to task to plan versus innovating and deciding after the fact and in the midst how to

handle a risk. The earlier Risk Management planning is engaged within increases the possibility

of success of all risk management activities and processes especially if the process definition was

created with input and buy-in from the project manager and key project stakeholders.

The inputs for Risk Management Planning are:

Project Scope Statement – The Project Scope Statement documents the project scope including a

description, major deliverables, project objectives, project assumptions, project constraints, and a

statement of work. In Risk Management Planning, the project scope statement is commonly used

for identifying project boundaries and assumptions.

Project Management Plan – The Project Management plan contains the WBS which is used in

Risk Management Planning to determine possible areas where risks can occur. For example, if

the WBS has usability testing being the last item completed after integrated testing. This is a risk.


The usability of the application may have affect on how the information is passed into and out of

the application. This could be considered a Project Management Planning Risk.

Organizational process assets – The organizations’ process assets may contain defined standards

and policies pertaining to risk management. Process assets included are risk categories, roles and

responsibilities, and processes of how to have a decision made.

Enterprise environmental factors – Enterprise environmental factors reveal the risk tolerance of

the organization and the individuals involved in the project. For example, patient billing

departments or leaders commonly have absolutely no risk tolerance for any impact to cash flow.

This is especially true in non-for-profit organizations like hospitals. However educators and

researchers have a high level or risk tolerance. Therefore in an academic medical center, one

could have two ranges of risk tolerance. Understanding how much risk your stakeholders and

organization are comfortable with help with decisions regarding the type, level, and amount of

risk management to apply in the project.

Ans. d. Risk Review: The credit environment in the majority of the Group’s core markets

remained generally benign throughout 2007, notwithstanding the turbulent market conditions in

some western markets in the second half of the year triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis

in the United States. The Group’s strategy to pursue growth in Asia, Africa and the Middle East

has resulted in no direct exposure to US sub-prime mortgages and extremely limited indirect

exposure.

The Group’s liquidity remains strong and is being used to strengthen relationships with key

clients and to continue to support growth opportunities.

Market risk is tightly controlled using Value at Risk (‘VaR’) methodologies complemented by

stress testing. VaR increased in 2007 as a consequence of increased volatility and growth in the

financial markets business of the Wholesale Bank.

The Wholesale Banking portfolio remains robust with new provisions continuing at a low level.

The absolute level of recoveries in 2007 was lower than in recent years due to a lower stock of

problem accounts after several years of benign credit conditions, and good progress in

management of these accounts. Forward credit portfolio quality indicators remain stable. The


Wholesale Banking asset backed securities portfolio includes mortgage backed securities and

collateralised debt obligations. This portfolio, representing around two per cent of assets, has

been affected by the market dislocation but has had limited impact on the Group’s performance.

The asset backed securities portfolio continues to be closely monitored and proactively managed.

Q.6 ABC Company implements got a very big project and they decided to allot the same to

a new project manager, who joined the company recently. In order to execute the project

successfully, what are the various phases in which the project lifecycle should be divided.

Ans. The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s

goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of

stages during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical

success factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the

project into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and

lastly a Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project. Project activities must be

grouped into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficiently

plan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals

and justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance to

organize project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each

industry sector involves specific requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects,

but also because different industry sectors have different needs for life cycle management

methodology. And paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things

well and excelling as project managers.

Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle

phases. Let’s take a closer look at what’s important in each one of these stages:

1) Initiation

In this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to

deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the team

members based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in


the initiation stage are Project Charter, Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview),

Business Case Justification, and Milestones Reviews.

2) Planning

The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the

end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the

successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders

identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or

methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

3) Execution and controlling

The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and

controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem

specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in

a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes,

testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become

more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most

common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of Risk Analysis and

Score Cards, in addition to Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

4) Closure

In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper

completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report

containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client,

Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with

the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project

resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or

methodology is needed during the closure phase.


Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 1

MB0049 – Project Management - 4 Credits

(Book ID: B1138)

Assignment Set- 2 (60 Marks)

Q.1 Write a short note on the following:

Ans.

a. Work Breakdown Structure: A work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management

and systems engineering, is a tool used to define and group a project's discrete work elements in

a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project. A work breakdown

structure element may be a product, data, a service, or any combination. A WBS also provides

the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control along with providing guidance

for schedule development and control. Additionally the WBS is a dynamic tool and can be

revised and updated as needed by the project manager. The Work Breakdown Structure is a tree

structure, which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective; for example a

program, project, and contract. In a project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with

the end objective and successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms of size,

duration, and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks, subtasks, and work

packages) which include all steps necessary to achieve the objective. The Work Breakdown

Structure provides a common framework for the natural development of the overall planning and

control of a contract and is the basis for dividing work into definable increments from which the

statement of work can be developed and technical, schedule, cost, and labor hour reporting can

be established. A work breakdown structure permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks,

materials, etc., into their successively higher level “parent” tasks, materials, etc. For each

element of the work breakdown structure, a description of the task to be performed is generated.

This technique (sometimes called a System Breakdown Structure) is used to define and organize

the total scope of a project.


The WBS is organised around the primary products of the project (or planned outcomes) instead

of the work needed to produce the products (planned actions). Since the planned outcomes are

the desired ends of the project, they form a relatively stable set of categories in which the costs

of the planned actions needed to achieve them can be collected. A well-designed WBS makes it

easy to assign each project activity to one and only one terminal element of the WBS. In addition

to its function in cost accounting, the WBS also helps map requirements from one level of

system specification to another, for example a requirements cross reference matrix mapping

functional requirements to high level or low level design documents.

b. Estimation Approach:Project managers are under a lot of pressure to produce estimates of

time and cost for systems development very early in a project, typically in the first two weeks.

However, estimating a development project from outline requirements and not from a physical

design is like a home buyer saying, “Quote me a price for building a house, but I am not sure

where I want the house located, or about the number of rooms, or whether it should be of brick

or wood.” It is not surprising that project estimates are as bad as they are, but that they can be

made and met at all. Three approaches can be taken to estimating:

1. Using industry experience

2. Using the experience of one’s own organization

3. Rolling up more or less detailed estimates of the project effort

Using Industry Experience: Function Points

Perhaps the most useful form of recorded industry experience comes in function point counts.

Many people measure software efforts based on the number of lines of code. The trouble with

this measure is that the same function involves many more lines in a low-level language than in a

high-level language. Often, an algorithm coded in one language requires more lines to be coded

in another language. A function point count is a more stable measure of software size than lines

of code, because it is based on the number of inputs, outputs, files, and other measures of

complexity. The International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) has put considerable effort

into devising and maintaining standard methods for sizing software.


Q.2 List and define in Brief all the tools for Post Implementation Review

Ans. Completing a project" is not the same thing as ending the project management process.

Simply finishing doesn't ensure that the organization benefits from the project's outcome.

For example, after completing a year long project to establish a new quality management process

for your organization, you want to make sure that what you set out to do was actually achieved.

Your objective wasn't to simply deliver a process – but rather, to deliver the process that

addresses the specific business need you intended to meet. This is the real measure of success.

To make the most of the benefits that the project can deliver, however, you also need to check to

see if further improvements will deliver still greater benefit. The post project review is the last

critical step in the project life cycle, as it allows an independent party to validate the success of

the project and give confidence to the stakeholders that it has met the objectives it set out to

achieve.

This template helps you perform a Post Implementation Review by:

Measuring the benefits and objectives

Deciding whether the project was within scope

Assessing the final deliverables produced

Reviewing the project against schedule

Comparing the expenditure against budget

Stating the final outcome of the project

The Post Implementation Review template also helps you to:

Identify the key project achievements and milestones

Document any lessons learned for future projects

Communicate its success to stakeholders

This Post Implementation Review template provides you with the steps needed to review a

project and document its overall level of success. It includes all of the sections, tables and

practical examples you need, to document a Post Implementation review today.


Q.3 Define the Basic categories of performance management.

Ans. Performance management (PM) includes activities that ensure that goals are consistently

being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the

performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a

product or service, as well as many other areas.

Performance management as referenced on this page is a broad term coined by Dr. Aubrey

Daniels in the late 1970s to describe a technology (i.e. science imbedded in applications

methods) for managing both behavior and results, two critical elements of what is known as

performance

This is used most often in the workplace, can apply wherever people interact — schools,

churches, community meetings, sports teams, health setting, governmental agencies, and even

political settings - anywhere in the world people interact with their environments to produce

desired effects. Armstrong and Baron (1998) defined it as a “strategic and integrated approach to

increasing the effectiveness of organizations by improving the performance of the people who

work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors.”

It may be possible to get all employees to reconcile personal goals with organizational goals and

increase productivity and profitability of an organization using this process. It can be applied by

organisations or a single department or section inside an organisation, as well as an individual

person. The performance process is appropriately named the self-propelled performance process

(SPPP).[citation needed]

First, a commitment analysis must be done where a job mission statement is drawn up for each

job. The job mission statement is a job definition in terms of purpose, customers, product and

scope. The aim with this analysis is to determine the continuous key objectives and performance

standards for each job position.

Following the commitment analysis is the work analysis of a particular job in terms of the

reporting structure and job description. If a job description is not available, then a systems

analysis can be done to draw up a job description. The aim with this analysis is to determine the

continuous critical objectives and performance standards for each job.


Q.4 Write a short note on the following:

Ans.

a. Professional Responsibility: Professional Responsibility is the area of legal practice that

encompasses the duties of attorneys to act in a professional manner, obey the law, avoid conflicts

of interest, and put the interests of clients ahead of their own interests.

Conflicts of interest. This occurs where the same lawyer or firm is representing both sides in a

lawsuit, or previously represented one side. In countries with the adversarial system of justice, a

conflict of interest violates the right of each client to the undivided, zealous loyalty of his lawyer.

Conflicts may also occur if the lawyer's ability to represent a client is materially limited by the

lawyer's loyalty to another client, a personal relationship, or other reasons.

Incompetent representation. Attorneys have a duty to provide competent representation, and the

failure to observe deadlines or conduct thorough research is considered a breach of ethics.

Mishandling of client money. Clients often advance money to lawyers for a variety of reasons.

The money must be kept in special client trust accounts until it is actually earned by the lawyer

or spent on court fees or other expenses.

Fee-splitting arrangements. Attorneys may not split fees with non-attorneys, or with other

attorneys who have not worked on the matter for which the client is represented.

Disclosure of confidential information. Lawyers are under a strict duty of confidentiality to keep

information received in the course of their representations secret. Absent law to the contrary,

lawyers may not reveal or use this information to the detriment of their clients.

Communication with represented parties. An attorney may not communicate directly with a

person who they know to be represented by counsel with respect to a matter for which the

attorney is seeking to communicate. For example, in a civil suit, the plaintiff's attorney may not

speak to the defendant directly if the attorney knows that the defendant is represented by counsel

without their attorney's express consent.

Improper solicitation and advertising. Attorneys generally may not solicit business by personally

offering their services to potential clients who are not already close friends or family members.

Advertising by attorneys is also strictly regulated, to prevent puffery and other misleading

assertions regarding potential results.


b. Business Orientation: Although many firms have adopted the BPO concept, little to no

empirical data existed substantiating its effectiveness in facilitating improved business

performance. McCormack (2000) conducted an empirical study to explore the relationship

between BPO and enhanced business performance. The research results showed that BPO is

critical in reducing conflict and encouraging greater connectedness within an organization, while

improving business performance. Moreover, companies with strong measures of BPO showed

better overall business performance. The research also showed that high BPO levels within

organizations led to a more positive corporate climate, illustrated through better organizational

connectedness and less internal conflict. Another empirical study by Kohlbacher (2009) reveals

that BPO is positively associated with customer satisfaction, product quality, delivery speed and

time-to-market speed.

For a central concept, one that has become something of a Holy Grail for 1990s managers, BPO

has remained remarkably hard to pin down. Its champions argue that it is a new approach to

management that replaces the rigid hierarchies of the past ("I report to my boss") with structures

that are much flatter, more cooperative, more process-oriented ("I report to my customer.").

Many of us have had experience with both types of organization and we know intuitively what

BPO feels like. Yet, if you're like me, you want a more solid foundation on which to make

decisions and recommendations.

Most of the literature on business process orientation has been in the popular press and lacks a

research or empirical focus. Although empirical evidence is lacking, several models have

emerged during the last few years that have been presented as the high performance, process

oriented organization needed in today and tomorrow’s world. Deming, Porter, Davenport, Short,

Hammer, Byrne, Imai, Drucker, Rummler-Brache and Melan have all defined what they view as

the new model of the organization. According to each model’s proponent, the “building” of this

model requires a new approach and a new way of thinking about the organization which will

result in dramatic business performance improvements. This “new way of thinking” or

“viewing” your organization has been generally described as business process orientation.


c. Personnel Productivity: Personnel Productivity pertains to the obligation of a lawyer to

perform his duties in a fitting manner. Not only does this include a professional and legal

approach to an attorney’s duties, but also to the moral aspect of the profession, which is not

always specified by the law. Personnel Productivity is also largely related to “legal ethics,” a

guideline of appropriate conduct that a legal practitioner is obligated to perform both to his

clients and to the court.

One popular issue with regard to Personnel Productivity is “conflict of interest." This situation

usually occurs when a lawyer is closely related to or in intimate affinity with a person subjected

to court rulings. This creates a predetermined bias for or against the potential client, which can

influence a lawyer’s decisions, actions, and judgment. Lawyers are recommended, if not

required, to refuse the person as a client. The most that a lawyer can do in this situation is refer

the person to another legal practitioner or give general legal advices outside of court.

Withdrawal from representation” is another issue under the area of Personnel Productivity.

Given certain circumstances, an attorney must discontinue representing a client, whether

voluntarily or out of necessity. Many lawyers perform a voluntary withdrawal if they discover

their client is the guilty party, such as in fraudulence, sexual assaults, or even murder. A client’s

failure to give the arranged fees can also result in withdrawal. If the attorney is not physically,

emotionally, and mentally able to take on his responsibility, the withdrawal is also mandated by

court.

In terms of court duties, a lawyer should also make known to the court instances of perjury, or

lying under oath. Misconduct of fellow attorneys, judges, or other legal practitioners should also

be reported. As a professional, a lawyer is also not allowed to directly seek out for clients, as this

somehow removes the latter’s freedom of decision.

d. Conflict Management: Conflict management refers to the long-term management of

intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances—

standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those

ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding,

genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in


any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure—or social

geometry—of the case.

Conflict management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for

actual conflict to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the

conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often

connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or

both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution.

Neither is it considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions

of the conflict parties.

Q.5 Comment on the following

Ans.

a. Importance of DMAIS in project management cycle

The projectised mantras of production management can be broadly identified as - Define

Measure, Analyze, Improve, Standardize (DMAIS). These projectised mantras help in

identifying, evaluating, and selecting the right improvement solutions for managing a project.

The mantras also help in identifying the critical issues thus assisting the organization to adapt to

the changes introduced through the implementation of different solutions.

The phases associated with each projectised mantra of production management are:

1. Define: benchmark, customer requirement, process flow map, quality function deployment,

project management plan

2. Measure: data collection, defect metrics, sampling

3. Analysis: cause and effect, failure modes and effect analysis, decision and risk analysis,root

cause analysis, reliability analysis

4. Improve: design of experiments, modeling, and robust design

5. Standardize: control charts, time series, procedural adherence, performance management,

preventive activities displays the various phases of DMIAS.


b. Knowledge areas of project 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.

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.

Scope verification—formalizing acceptance of the project scope.

Scope change control—controlling changes to project scope.

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.

Schedule development—analyzing activity sequences, activity durations, and resource

requirements to create the project schedule.


Schedule control—controlling changes to the project schedule.

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.

Cost control—controlling changes to the project budget.

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project

will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It consists of:

Quality planning—identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and

determining how to satisfy them.

Quality assurance—evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide

confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.

Quality control—monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant

quality standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance.

Q.6 What are the various SCMo soft wares available in project management? Explain each

in brief.

Ans. The various support software that may be used for managing projects are:

1. ARROW

2. FEDORA

3. VITAL

4. PILIN

5. MS EXCHANGE SERVER 2003


The ARROW Project

It is a consortia of institutional repository solution, combining open source and proprietary

Software

Why Arrow

Arrow is preferred support software because it:

• Provides a platform for promoting research output in the 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

• Allows information from many repositories to be gathered and searched in one step

• Enables resources to be shared, while respecting access constraints

• Enables effective communication and collaboration between researchers

The vision of project ARROW: “The ARROW project will identify and test software or solutions

to support best practice institutional digital repositories comprising e-prints, digital theses and

electronic publishing.”

What did the ARROW project set out to achieve? ARROW project wanted to be a solution for

storing any digital output. Their initial focus was on print equivalents such as thesis and journal

articles among others. It provided solution that could offer on-going technical support and

development past the end of the funding period of the project.

What is ARROW now? It’s in a development stage combining Open Source and proprietary

software such as Fedora, VITAL, Open Journal Services (OJS). It is not a centralised or hosting

solution. Every member has their own hardware and software.

Why Fedora

ARROW wanted a robust, well architected underlying platform and a flexible object-oriented

data model to be able to have persistent identifiers down to the level of individual data streams. It

accommodates the content model to be able to be version independent.


Since the beginning of the project ARROW has worked actively and closely with Fedora and the

Fedora Community. The ARROW project’s Technical Architect is a member of Fedora Advisory

Board and sits on Fedora Development Group.

This association is reinforced by VTLS Inc. VTLS President is a member of Fedora Advisory

Board and VITAL Lead Developer sits on Fedora Development Group

Why VITAL

VITAL refers to ARROW specified software created and fully supported by VTLS Inc. built on

top of Fedora. It currently provides:

1. VITAL Manager

2. VITAL Portal

3. VITAL Access Portal

4. VALET – Web Self-Submission Tool

5. Batch Loader Tool

6. Handles Server (CNRI)

7. Google Indexing and Exposure

8. SRU / SRW Support

9. VITAL architecture overview

VITAL is part of creative development of ARROW institutional repositories. VITAL has the

following features:

1. Inclusion of multimedia and creative works produced in Australian universities

2. Limited exposure nationally or internationally

3. Addition of annotation capability

4. Inclusion of datasets and other research output not easily provided in any other publishing

channel

5. Being developed in conjunction with the DART (ARCHER) Project


6. Exploration of the research-teaching nexus tools that will allow value added services for

repositories

7. Integration with or development of new tools that will allow value added services for

repositories (for instance the creation of e-portfolios or CVs of research output of individual

academics)

PILIN – Persistent Identifiers and Linking Infrastructure

There has been a growing realisation 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 amounts of data are being

generated without any means of managing this data over any length of time. The broad

objectives are to:

1. Support adoption and use of persistent identifiers and shared persistent identifier management

services by the project stakeholders

2. Plan for a sustainable, shared identifier management infrastructure that enables persistence of

identifiers and associated services over archival lengths of time

3. Deploy a Worldwide Site Consolidation Solution for Exchange Server 2003 at Microsoft

4. Add Picture

5. Use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to consolidate more than 70 messaging sites worldwide

into seven physical locations In this context, let us look at Microsoft Model Enterprises (MME).


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