Exercise 10

Schwalbe P.420 - Chapter 10, Ex 3

How many different communications channels does a project team with six people have? How many more communications channels would there be if the team grew to ten people?


According to Schwalbe,
number of communications channels = n(n-1)/2

So, if there are 6 people in the team, it will have 6(6-1)/2 = 15 channels;

When the team grew to have 10 people, there will have 10(10-1)/2 = 45 channels, which means there will be 45-15 = 30 channels more in compared to a 6 people team.



Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Boston Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology

Exercise 9

Schwalbe P.380 - Chapter 9, Ex 3

Read Douglas Ross's article "Applying Covey's Seven Habits to a Project Management Career" or another article that describes the seven habits. Summarize three of Covey's habits in your own words and give examples of how these habits would apply to project management.


Habit one: Be proactive

Covey suggested that a project manager should be business oriented, have the ability to anticipate and foresee problems before they surfaced, take action before things escalate. They also have the courage to do something beyond the norm, be confident and determined if they belief that it will benefit the whole.

To be proactive in project management, the company must not be conservative. The management need the wisdom to accept new ideas and innovative ways of doing things. It takes a very solid foundation to make decisions that might have tremendous effects on the outcome, but not much can be referenced from existing examples. Therefore rich knowledge, experience, sensitivity, and communication skills are all important characters of a project manager, besides being creative. And Covey believed that a proactive project manager can also stimulate his/her team members to break away from self-constrains, and grow together with the project.

Example

Many marketing executives may have heard about the story of selling shoes to a third world country, where no one is wearing shoes. To see this as a niche market, or the battle yard of Waterloo, the Project Manager must be very open-minded to investigate if there is the chance of a profitable business. The questions in his/her mind could be:

• Is the subject (shoes, or a new product/service/procedure) really in need?
• Why is that no one does this before?
• What are the critical success factors?
• What is the alternative?
• What is the opportunity cost?
• What is the risk?
• How much will we afford to lose?
• Where is the bottom line?

...... There would be a long list of questions that the Project Manager need to consider him/herself, or to go through brainstorming with his/her team. This situation may not only happen in developing a new market, but at all stages of managing IT projects.

Take another example, customers seldom have a 100% clear idea about what they are expecting from the result of a project. Project manager should get a clear understanding of what the customers need, instead of what they want. S/he needs to think ahead of any possible problem or changes that could be raised by the customers during project development, then proposes them ideas or options even before the project starts. This proactive habit not only helps project planning, saves time and cost on possible changes, but also enhances customer satisfaction at the same time.

Habit Four: Think Win-Win

Covey stressed that the success of a project is dependent on the interrelations and behavior of people, in most cases thinking win-win is the best choice. However, there could be conflicting situations that a win/lose paradigm is necessary. The target is to gain as much winnings as possible on the overall result.

Example

Some Project Managers might use incentives or rewards to promote productivity of team members. But conflicts of resources may hinder the performance of individual worker or department. Take for instance, a project needs testings at various stage, that require its own staff to be the testers to get the sample results. If it is possible to group different tests together, share a common section with the minimum testers, it will reduce time and cost of the project as a whole. Project Managers need to emphasize overall achievements (win-win) that should out-weight individual success, and to reward "sacrificing (lose)" team members as well. Sometimes return of investment is not obvious, Project Managers need to anticipate the long-term result to see if a temporary win/lose solution is more appropriate. For example, a customer may require extra work done on a finished project, without paying extra money. In the long run if the customer is likely to return for more business, the Project Manager should consider to do the extra work this time for the goodwill of the company - this is win-win thinking.

Habit Five: Seek first to understand, than to be understood

Covey stated that active listening is very important in communication with team members and all stakeholders. It is done through listening carefully to other people's words first, then summarize and rephrase what we heard in order to clarify we get the exact message across. Schwalbe further described it to be empathic listening, which is even more powerful in forgetting your personal interest and focusing on understand the speaker.

Example

In coordinating a project, the project manager will need to communicate well with all concerned people, include his/her team members, the client, and the higher management. If a project falls behind schedule, the manager has to look for the cause of delay, most probably need to ask the responsible team member(s) what problem has happen. Would there be conflicts in assigning resources? Would there be changes unexpected? Would there be difficulties that need extra attention? Is the team member(s) having some tough personal issue that makes him/her hard to focus? If a client keep changing his/her mind, have we tried to listen and find out what s/he needs, instead of what s/he wants which might not be well-presented from our own perspective? The habit of active or empathic listening can help the Project Manager to see a clearer picture of what is happening or what will happen, and put it under his/her own control.

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Ross, D. (1996). Applying Covey's Seven Habits to a Project Management Career. PM Network. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from

http://www.welchco.com/02/14/01/60/96/04/0105.HTM.

Exercise 8

Schwalbe P.330 - Chapter 8, Ex 2

Create a Pareto diagram based on the information in the table below. First, create a spreadsheet in Excel, using the data in the table below. List the most frequent customer problems first. Add a column called "% of Total" and another one called "Cumulative %". Then enter formulas to calculate those items. Next, use the Excel Chart Wizard to create a Pareto diagram based on this data. Use the Line - Column on 2 Axis custom type chart so your resulting chart looks similar to the one in Figure 8-1.

Pareto Diagram

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 7

Schwalbe P.281 - Chapter 7, Ex 1

Given the following information for a one-year project, answer the following questions. Recall that PV is the planned value, EV is the earned value, AC is the actual cost, and BAC is the budget at completion.

• PV = $23,000
• EV = $20,000
• AC = $25,000
• BAC = $120,000

a. What is the cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index (CPI), and schedule performance index (SPI) for the project?
b. How is the project doing? Is it ahead of schedule or behind schedule? Is it under budget or over budget?
c. Use the CPI to calculate the estimate at completion (EAC) for this project. Is the project performing better or worse than planned?
d. Use the schedule performance index (SPI) to estimate how long it will take to finish this project.
e. Sketch the earned value chart based for this project, using Figure 7-5 as a guide.

a.

Cost variance (CV = EV - AC) 20,000 - 25,000 = -5,000
Schedule variance (SV = EV - PV) 20,000 - 23,000 = -3,000
Cost performance index (CPI = EV / AC) 20,000 / 25,000 = 80%
Schedule performance index (SPI = EV / PV) 20,000 / 23,000 = 86.96%

b.

As both CV and SV are negative numbers, the project is behind schedule and over budget.

c.

Estimate at completion (EAC = BAC / CPI) 120,000 / 80% = 150,000

d.

Estimate time to complete (Original Time Estimate / SPI) 12/86.96% = 13.8 months

e.

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 6

Schwalbe P.243 - Chapter 6, Ex 4

You have been asked to determine a rough schedule for a nine-month Billing System Conversion Project, as part of your job as a consultant to a Fortune 500 firm. The firm's old system was written in COBOL on a mainframe computer, and the maintenance costs are prohibitive. The new system will run on an off-the-shelf application. You have identified several high-level activities that must be done in order to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close the project. Table 6-4 shows your analysis of the project's tasks and schedule so far.

a. Using the information in Table 6-4, draw horizontal bars to illustrate when thing each task would logically start and end. Then use Project 2003 to create a Gantt chart and network diagram based on this information.

b. Identify at least two milestones that could be included under each of the process groups in Table 6-4. Then write a detailed description of each of these milestones that meets the SMART criteria.



Horizontal Bar Chart



Gantt Chart




Milestone 1: Project charter signed - SMART criteria

• Specific - A formal commitment.
• Measurable - Done at the moment of signatures down in black and white.
• Assignable - All sponsors and responsible parties are involved.
• Realistic - It is an achievable and important event.
• Time-framed - It has to be scheduled in an appropriate time to signify formal approval and kick-off of the project.

Milestone 2: Team contract signed - SMART criteria

• Specific - A formal commitment.
• Measurable - All details set and confirmed by signatures.
• Assignable - Clear job allocation announced by Project Manager, and acknowledged by concerned staff.
• Realistic - It is an achievable event.
• Time-framed - It has to be signed off before commencement of jobs.

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 5

Schwalbe P.195 - Chapter 5, Ex 3


Create a WBS for the following project:

• Creating a new information system for your school or company

Decide on all of the level 1 categories for the WBS. Then break down the work at least the third level for one of the level 1 items. Enter the WBS into Project 2003 and print out the Gantt chart. Do not enter any durations or dependencies. Make notes of questions you had while completing this exercise.

Gantt chart

.

Information system for Annie's Company

1 Project Management

2 System Engineering

3 Software

3.1 Software design

3.1.1 Software requirement specification

3.1.2 Software work package definition

3.1.3 Software prototyping

3.1.4 Software unit detailed design

3.2 Software build

3.2.1 Software unit coding

3.2.2 Software unit debugging

3.3 Unit testing

3.3.1 Unit test planning

3.3.2 Unit test case preparation

3.3.3 Unit test conduct

3.3.4 Unit test record
4 Hardware

5 Deliverables Management

6 System Management

7 Support Services

8 Installation

Reference
.
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 4

Schwalbe P.160 - Chapter 4, Ex 4

Create a weighted scoring model to determine grades for a course. Final grades are based on three exams worth 15%, 20%, and 25%, respectively; homework is worth 20%; and a group project is worth 20%. Enter scores for three students. Assume Student 1 earns 100% (or 100) on every item. Assume student 2 earns 80% on each of the exams, 90% on the homework, and 95% on the group project. Assume student 3 earns 90% on Exam 1, 75% on Exam 2, 80% on Exam 3, 90% on the homework and 70% on the group project. You can use the weighted scoring model template, create your own spreadsheet, or make the matrix by hand.


Weighted Scoring Model for Course ITC000

Assume that Grades range from A to F, where 50% is the passing mark, A-E means Pass, F is failed below the passing mark.
(The space below is unintended, caused by bugs of this blog site. Please scoll down.)

Assessment	Weight	Student 1	Student 2	Student 3
Exam 1	15%	100 = 15%	80 = 12%	90 = 13.5%
Exam 2	20%	100 = 20%	80 = 16%	75 = 15%
Exam 3	25%	100 = 25%	80 = 20%	80 = 20%
Homework	20%	100 = 20%	90 = 18%	90 = 18%
Group Project	20%	100 = 20%	95 = 19%	70 = 14%
Total	100%	100%	85%	80.5%
Grade	A-F	A	B	B

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 3

Schwalbe P.112 - Chapter 3, Ex 5

Read an article about a recipient of PMI's Project of the Year award, such as the Salt Lake City Organizing committee mentioned on PMI's Web site. Write a one-page paper summarizing the project, focusing on how the project manager and team used good project management practices.


Link to source article:
"PMI® Case Study, Quartier International de Montréal: 2005 PMI Project of the Year" (PMI, 2006),
http://www.pmi.org/PDF/Case_Quartier%20International%20Montreal.pdf


The Quartier International de Montréal (QIM) was a massive urban revitalization project that comprehensively restructured a large portion of Montreal’s city center from the ground up.

The QIM team used standard project management techniques to coordinate the project’s many complex activities, plan for risks, and accommodate last-minute changes to the project plan by the City of Montreal. As a result, the QIM project was completed within budget and schedule, and won the PMI's Project of the Year award.

The project

Montreal city features a large business district and the Old Montreal town center, joined by an expressway that was not only unattractive, but impeded the potentially lucrative flow of pedestrian traffic. The QIM project's goal was to revitalize these two areas by covering the expressway to create 27 additional hectares land for business, cultural and pedestrian use - increasing traffic and revenue for both the quarter and the city. The team was to complete the project within a five-year time frame, US$90 million budget.

Outstanding project management practices

The QMI team succeed in applying many standard project management techniques:

• Integration management - identifying challenges and resolving methodology during project planning. Developed a detail plan allowing inevitable changes which are highly possible with a project of this scope and complexity. Each phase of the project had built in flexibility to accommodate unforeseen changes, which enabled the project to meet stakeholder needs at the time of request, mitigated the possibility for complaints.
• Quality management - created an outline of the QIM team's principles as initiatives, which provided a point of reference as well as a benchmarking tool throughout the cycle of the project. The team also included quality provisions in the contractors’ and employees’ mandates, and required that all professionals produce prototypes for original deliverables and conduct external testing for all stages of construction.
• Human resource management - established a professional development committee to encourage quality work and support employee morale.
• Communication management - Website, newsletters, mobile exhibit, informational DVD,daylong team meetings are developed to help communications between the team and all stakeholders.
• Risk management - an exploratory dig helped mitigate the risks associate with the project; provisions are included in the risk management budget in anticipation of potential problems.
• Procurement management - mediation and arbitration clauses are included in procurement contracts to create a framework for disputes, helped to avoid making compromises that would not benefit the project.

Outcome

With such good practices of project management, QIM attained a highly remarkable success that both public and private partners almost completely realized their ROI, and 100% satisfaction rate is gained from both users and the city government. The project lauded with international accolades received 17 awards in total.

Reference

PMI, Project Management Institute (2006). PMI® Case Study, Quartier International de Montréal: 2005 PMI Project of the Year. Retrieved August 25, 2007, fromhttp://www.pmi.org/PDF/Case_Quartier%20International%20Montreal.pdf

Exercise 2

Schwalbe P.66 - Chapter 2, Ex 5.

Write a one- to two- pages summary of an article about the importance of top management support for successful information technology projects.


Link to source article:
"The Importance of Executive Buy-In on Your ERP Project" (Kimberling, 2006),
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/erp/roi/archives/the-importance-of-executive-buyin-on-your-erp-project-8009

This is only a short article but I have found it conclude all important points of the subject issue here. Although it exclusively focused on ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) project which is big, the same theory literally applies to IT projects of all sizes.

According to a study updated by The Standish Group at 2000, Executive support is listed as top No.1 criteria among "Recipe for success - CHAOS Ten". It leads over User involvement, Experienced project manager, Clear business objectives, and other critical successful factors in project management. It highlights "lack of executive input can jeopardize a project" (Johnson, Boucher, Connors & Robinson, 2001).

And in the above source article, Kimberling stressed that the importance of "executive buy-in" goes beyond approving the budget to pay for the project. I summarised his points as below:

The importance of top management support for successful IT projects

1. Funding the project;
2. Top management or executives need to be engaged in projects to help making key business decisions which will affect the operation model and the organisation itself;
3. Large projects across multiple sectors of an organisation require top management to fight sensitive political battles during implementation, such as changing operation models, business processes, and staff positions;
4. Top management is needed to procure and secure employee resources necessary for the success of projects.

Furthermore, to complete the concept, senior consultant Gary Owen (2007) suggested six techniques to get started in obtaining top management support and but in:

1. Start small, be realistic;
2. Show value;
3. Don’t oversell;
4. Identify costs and resources first;
5. Be available and committed;
6. Build upon business continuity planning (Owen, 2007) visibility.

As the success or failure of IT projects hinges on the level of executive support received, IT professionals need to garner it, and keep it. Otherwise uninterested senior management will often relegate the projects to obscurity.

Reference

Johnson, J., Boucher, K.D., Connors, K., & Robinson, J. (2001). Collaboration: Development & Management, Collaborating on Project Success. Software Magazine and Wiesner Publishing.
Retrieved August 22, 2007, from http://www.softwaremag.com/archive/2001feb/CollaborativeMgt.html.

Kimberling, E. (2006). The Importance of Executive Buy-In on Your ERP Project. Information Technology Toolbox, Inc. Retrieved August 22, 2007, from
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/erp/roi/archives/the-importance-of-executive-buyin-on-your-erp-project-8009.

Owen, G. (2007). Consultants Corner: Getting Executive Support for your BCP. Strohl Systems. Retrieved August 22, 2007, from
http://www.recoverychronicles.com/MediaPR/eNewsletter/November2004/393/Article.asp.

Exercise 1

Schwalbe P.35 - Chapter 1, Ex 4

Find any example of a real project with a real project manager. Feel free to use projects in the media or a project from your work. If applicable. Write a one-page paper describing the project in terms of its scope, time, and cost goals. Discuss what went right and wrong on the project and the role of the project manager and sponsor. Also describe if the project was a success or not and why. Include at least one reference and cite it in the last page.



The Project

Link to source article:
"The project was three years late: but an incredible success!" (Woodward, 2005),
http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2005/cases05-0506.htm#02

This article describe a project conducted in USA, a company intended to increase its production by modifying the machines in their manufacturing plants throughout the country.

Here I summarize the project in terms of the Triple Constraint - Scope, Time and Cost (Schwalbe, 2006, p. 7) :

• Scope: To modify 21 paper machines at 4 manufacturing plants in USA, by installing control devices designed to reduce defects and allow workers to speed up the machines.
• Time: 2 years.
• Cost: Not mentioned in the article.

The objective of this project is: To produce additional production at an affordable cost.

As described in the article, inputs of the project includes a scope statement, a diverse team, a list of interested contractors, and the enthusiastic support of management. The project manager oversaw all aspects essential for the project such as communication, change management, risk management, and all the others. To begin with, the project team thought that they had had an excellent plan, even though it was implemented under tight cost and schedule requirements.


What Went Wrong??

The project turned out has the following problems:

1. Over-spending at the earlier stage.
2. New technology did not increase production as anticipated, sales volume was not developing.
3. Further cost constraint induced deference of the project and eventually it could not be completed within the time frame.
4. Downgrade of the project priority from management - from top to none.
5. The project was ordered to put on hold, but permitted to restart at any time.

What Went Right??

Once the project was put on hold, the company left the development team a free hand to restructure it. The project finally accomplished the goal in doing something right:

1. Reduced risk by prototyping each of the technologies included in the original scope, conducted sufficient testings until they found out which one works on the paper machines.
2. Strategic modification of scope - only premium devices were installed, new ideas evolved.
3. Proven methodology recovered sales and provided return on investment.

Role of Project Manager and Sponsor

On the whole, this project does not comply to a rigid plan of management. The project manager was supposed to monitor costing and timing at initial stage, ensure that expected results are shown at intervals. Yet, this is overlooked. The project manager should also investigate a proven or lower-risk methodology of execution during project planning, instead of doing trial and error in a full scale. He did perform a certain degree of change management, such as to redesign the cost and schedule commitments, restructure the project scope and process, etc. Yet the final success only arrived with some luck and flexibility of the sponsor.

Success or Failure?

Obviously this project would not have reached fruition if the management team was out-sourced to an external agent, say, a consultant company. It was possible to take a second chance to restart the whole project with no constraints, only because the project team resided in the company of its sponsor, that its existence was relying on other profit-generating jobs. The desired goals of the project was finally reached, but 3 years after the original completion date. I would consider this project a failure from a traditional project management perspective.

Reference

Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson CourseTechnology.

Woodward, H. (2005). The project was three years late: but an incredible success! pmforum.org, Inc. Retrieved August 19, 2005, from http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2005/cases05-0506.htm#02.