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.