Review for Final in ISQS 7342 Final will

Review for Final in ISQS 7342 Final will take place: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 7. 30 -10. 00 a. m. , this room – BA 025 Early Exam for those who signed on will be Saturday, December 6, 2014, 7. 30 -10. 00 a. m. , this room – BA 025

Format b 75 -100 multiple choice worth 75% b 2 -3 discussion problems worth 25% b exam is closed notes/closed book b Exam will be comprehensive • 70% of the exam will cover material since Exam 2 • 30% of the exam will cover prior material No talking during the EXAM, please

Bring b. Pencils/Eraser b Calculator b Orange Scantron sheet

Emphasis will be upon: b Human Resource Management b Risk Management b Procurement Management b Communications Management b Goldratt Concepts b Finishing Projects Fast

Possible Discussion Questions b Name ten characteristics of a project b Successful project management entails what exactly (4 ‘measures’) b Name the stages of the project lifecycle • Show their sequence b Why is project management important b Name the four core knowledge areas b Name the five facilitating knowledge areas

More discussion questions b What is the tenth knowledge area and what is its purpose b Name some things we do poorly in projects b What term do we use to describe an event at which a major deliverable is completed? b What device or construct is often used to initiate a project? b What steps are used to launch critical chain project management?

Typical discussion problems b Construct an activity on node network chart from a table; Determine duration, ES, EF, LS, LF and mark the critical path b Perform earned value analysis: BCWP, BCWS, ACWP, CV, SV, EV, PV, AC, CI, SI b Perform crashing of networks b What are the five phases that make up the CMMI? b Illustrate the tradeoff triangle b Assuming that half the durations are safety, redraw a project network showing all feeding and project buffers and their lengths

Multiple choice b Risk, Procurement, HR, and Communications knowledge mangement b Chapters 12, 14 of Burns b Process maturity slides b Finishing projects fast slides b Critical chain concepts

Why has Project Management become so in-vogue? b Diversity of new products and product markets b Shorter life span of products b Rapid technological changes

What are the major reasons for project failure? b Inadequate conceptualization and definition • Specifically, inadequate requirements b Absence of a plan b Unavailable resources when needed b Scope and hope creep b Unresponsive contractors who deliver their product late

What are the five stages of the project lifecycle? STAGE 1: Initiating STAGE 2: Planning STAGE 3: Executing STAGE 5: Closing STAGE 4: Monitoring-and-Controlling

In which of these stages is a WBS started? b Initiating (Conceptualizing and Defining) • First 3 levels b {The WBS is usually finished in the Planning and Budgeting stage}

What are the ten knowledge areas? b Scope management b Time management b Cost management b Quality management b. Integration management b Risk management b Procurement management b Human resource management b Communications management b Stakeholder Management

In which stage is scope management most important? b The first stage: Initiating (Conceptualization and Definition) because that is where scope is defined

Activity Definition (Define Activities) is ___ b a subproject b a process b a problem b a plan b. WHICH? ? ?

Activity Definition (Define Activities) is part of what knowledge area? b Time management

Project Scope Management Processes b Collect Requirements b Define Scope b Create WBS b Verify Scope b Control Scope

Project Time Management Processes b Define Activities b Sequence Activities b Estimate Activity Resources b Estimate Activity Durations b Develop Schedule b Control Schedule

Project Cost Management Processes b Estimate Costs b Determine Budget b Control Costs

Project Quality Management Processes b Plan Quality b Perform Quality Assurance b Perform Quality Control

The main purpose of a project plan is to ____ b acquire resources b guide project execution. meet standards expectations. b reduce risk. b

The most important output of project execution is b Not---change requests b Not—the WBS b Not—project plan b Not—requirements doc b. But—work products—the deliverables of the project

The Principle… b That work tends to fill up the time allotted for it is known as…. .

Most core knowledge areas have a b Planning process b And a b Control process

During the … b Conceptualization and definition stage, it is important that the project manager get

What are the five steps of the Theory of Constraints (Goldratt)? b IDENTIFY the project constraint b Decide how to EXPLOITE that constraint b SUBORDINATE everything to that decision b ELEVATE the system’s constraint b Go back to step a

NOT… b SUBORIDNATE that decision to everything else

According to Goldratt… b Team players put too much ____ into their estimated durations

As Goldratt sees it, …. b The ultimate constraint in projects is….

Which of the following does Goldratt regard as a positive thing b Safety b Multitasking b Student syndrome b Lose/lose contracting b None of the above

An activity has probabilistic completion times of 20, 50 and 80 for the optimistic, most likely and pessimistic durations. b What is the average time (duration) assuming a beta distribution? b 30 b 40 b 50 b 60 b 70

You should know b How to construct a NETWORK chart from a table b How to construct a Gantt chart from a table b How to perform NETWORK crashing b How to do EVA All of the above

A work package… b Has $100, 000 budgeted for it b Is 50% complete b What is its BCWP = EV? ? b $30, 000 b $40, 000 b $50, 000 b $60, 000

A task with a $10, 000 budget has a start date in the future b Its BCWS (planned value) is • • $0 $5, 000 $10, 000 Can’t be determined

A task with a $10, 000 budget has a stop date in the past. b Its BCWS (planned value) is • • $0 $5, 000 $10, 000 Can’t be determined

A task with a $10, 000 budget and a 6 day duration has just finished day 3 b Its BCWS = PV is • • $0 $5, 000 $10, 000 Can’t be determined

A task has a budget of $20, 000 and a scheduled duration of 5 days b What is its daily burn rate? b $4, 000 b What is its PV rate? b $4, 000 b If the project is 20% complete what is its BCWP? b $4, 000

A task has a budget of $20, 000 and a scheduled duration of 5 days b What is its PV rate? $4, 000 b If the project is 20% complete what is its BCWP? $4, 000 b If day three has just transpired, what is the BCWS? $12, 000 b What is the task’s SV (schedule variance )? b -$8, 000 b Is the task ahead or behind schedule? ? ?

Questions about MS Project b Which key for subordination? • The Indent arrow b Which key for linking, for sequencing? • The linking tool b How to view project duration and cost on the project information dialog box? • Click on the Project tab and then the Project Information Icon

Questions about MS Project b How to see all of the cost and duration detail in the entry table in the ? view, including total PROJECT cost and duration b How to see all of the activity costs

For MS Project to cost your project, it needs to know b Resource hourly costs • Specified in what view? ? – The Reource sheet b Activity fixed costs • Specified on the Cost table b THIS IS ALL

In MS Project, durations/costs of phases (summary tasks) …. . b Containing one or more subordinate tasks can be specified only by MS Project b Is it a good idea to assign resources to summary tasks as well as to subordinate tasks? No!!! Never!!

Summary Tasks…. . b Always appear in black or in blue? Black, always b Occur when…. There are tasks subordinate to it

Task info is entered in which view of MS Project, usually? ? b The Network View b The Gantt view, using the Entry Table b The Resource Sheet b The Tracking Gantt view

When using the standard calendar, MS Project assumes a. b. c. d. 8 -hour work days No work on Sat or Sun Two persons can do the work in half o f the time All of the above

Questions over CRITICAL CHAIN b Major conclusions, recommendations b Goldratt’s view of EVA b What to Measure b What to Focus on

More Questions on CRITICAL CHAIN b To avoid non critical paths from becoming critical you should… b Critical chain is the sequence of tasks performed by key persons both on and off the critical path

Measurements should b Induce the parts to always do what is good for the system as a whole

Why does Goldratt not like BCWP, BCWS, ACWP? b Because they have no sensitivity to the critical path

If you have a task on the critical path and …. . b Your time to complete that task has arrived, then Goldratt recommends that you drop everything and just focus (150%) on that task until you get it done!! • No multitasking • No procrastination (student syndrome)

Project Performance Measurement and Control b The first step is to…. b SET A BASELINE…. b The second step is to b MEASURE PROGRESS AND PERFORMANCE b The third step is to b COMPARE PLAN AGAINST PERFORMANCE

Project Performance Measurement and Control b The last step is b TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION b Project schedule status is usually communicated with a b Tracking Gantt Chart showing a progress line

Notes on shortening project durations b This should be done in the Planning and Budgeting stage b Crashing • Reducing the duration of tasks on the critical path b Fast-tracking • Starting tasks sooner b Adding resources? ? b Checking for parallelism opportunities in the schedule • Pull as much work off of the critical path as you can

More Tips on shortening project durations b REUSE, REUSE b Do it right the first time b Avoid enhancements to requirements b Instead, consider scrubbing requirements (reducing scope) b If its early in the project, consider • outsourcing some project work • Adding resources in-house • Using overtime

More techniques for shortening projects b Scrub the requirements, as we mentioned • Remove from the requirements those items that add little or no value, but nevertheless are significant contributors to cost • Remember the Pareto principle— 80% of the value comes from 20% of the functionality b Do everything right the first time (AGAIN) b. REMOVE SAFETY--GOLDRATT

Crashing Problem (Burns, Ch. 8) For the network diagram below, find the best crashing strategy considering that you have $1300 in the crashing budget and the following: Task A B C D E F G Crash cost/day $200 $300 $400 $350 $100 Minimum duration 8 10 6 5 6 Duration 10 12 10 13 10 7 10 Note from above that A can only be crashed 2 days, from 10 down to 8 days, etc.

Network diagrams, drawn by commercial software b. Do they use • Activity-on-Node, or • Activity-on-Arrow representations?

That’s all folks b {I enjoyed having you as a class—one of the best classes I’ve had)