List and describe five key activities typically performed as part of an effective configuration management process
- Configuration management planning: should describe any specific procedures, and identify roles and responsibilities for carrying out configuration management.
- Configuration identification: breaking down outputs into configuration items, creating unique reference numbers, establishing configuration baselines
- Configuration control: ensures all changes to configuration items are documented, and that you are able to identify interrelationships between items.
- Configuration status accounting: tracks current status of a configuration, so you can trace items throughout development and operation.
- Configuration verification and audit: checks whether a deliverable conforms to its requirements and configuration information.
What is configuration and configuration management?
Configuration is the functional and physical characteristics of a product as defined in its specification.
Configuration management encompasses the administrative activities concerned with the creation, maintenance, controlled change and quality control of the scope of work.
Within the context of Earned Value Management (EVM), explain the term Earned Value (EV).
The value of the useful work done at any given point in a project. The value of completed work expressed in terms of the budget assigned that work. A measure of project progress.
What is earned value management and explain 4 benefits of using earned value management.
EVM is a project control process based on a structured approach to planning, cost collection and performance measurement. It integrates project scope, time and cost objectives and helps establish a baseline plan for performance measurement.
Benefits include:
- EVM provides data to enable objective measurement of project status
- Provides a basis for estimating final cost and final completion date
- Supports the effective management of resources
- Provides a means of managing and controlling change
- Clearly communicates what has been achieved against the plan
- Clearly indicates whether the work achieved is costing more or less than planned
- Clearly indicates whether the project is ahead or behind of schedule.
What are the disadvantages of using earning valued management?
- Requires a detailed plan with a well defined WBS
- Requires accurate cost gathering
- Requires honest and accurate reporting on progress
- Requires accurate reporting of % complete
- Requires interpretation and presentation in a format understandable by management
- PM and sponsor must be skilled in generating and interpreting EVM data
List and describe five typical stages in the process for selection of a supplier via competitive tender
- Agree the requirements for delivery and supplier
- Engage the market / Request for information [‘RfI contains an outline of requirements and a request for suppliers to provide details about themselves and their capacity to perform the required functions’]
- Request for Proposal / Invitation to Tender (including clarification with bidders) [‘Can issue selected suppliers with a Request for Proposal or ITT. Questions can be raised for clarification on any aspect but must be copied to all competing firms’]
- Shortlisting and selection of preferred bidder, recording of scores based on the selection criteria agreed prior to and shared with bidders via the ITT
- Final negotiation and contract award (Negotiations are now confidential with a supplier often asked to produce a BAFO - best and final offer - before contract is awarded.
Explain what is meant by situational leadership in a project environment.
Based on the Blanchard and Hersey situational leadership model which recognises two aspects of leadership behaviour: directive and supportive.
- Directing (highly directive, low support) - TELL staff what to do, often when have low skilled staff
- Coaching (highly directive and supportive) - SELL, i.e. growing their skills and giving them opportunities to test their abilities.
- Supporting (highly supportive, low directive) - PARTICIPATE, i.e. team/individuals have broadening experience and developing in confidence. Leadership focused on mentoring and giving feedback.
- Delegating (low directive, low supportive) - appropriate for teams and individuals working collaboratively with high levels of transferable skill and enthusiasm.
List and describe four benefits of adapting leadership styles during a project. Ensure you include at least one beneficiary in each description.
- The team has different needs throughout a project. At the beginning, a leader will need to set out a clear vision for the project and use their influencing skills to get the team on board with that vision.
- Once a team has been formed and enter the ‘storming’ stage of team building where conflict is more likely to arise, a leader will need effective conflict management skills and be able to foster positive relationships. This will the team enter the norming stage and hopefully the performing stage where they are at their most effective in terms of delivery.
- In the delivery stage, the leadership style will focus on optimising performance and motivating staff. This could be through some of Herzberg’s motivators like recognition (financial and status), advancement, growth and development opportunities).
- As a project comes to close and a project team is about to enter its adjourning phase, the leadership style will need to consider the potential difficulty staff may be facing at having to finish the project and move onto something else.
List and describe five important environmental legislative requirements which the project manager must take into account when planning a project
- Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974
Sets out an employer’s duty of care to its employers to ensure reasonable, practicable measures are in place to minimise threats to employees’ health and safety, and employees’ responsibility to comply.
- Management of health and safety at work regulations 1999
Sets out requirements to carry out risk assessments in the workplace, and to have health and safety processes and procedures audited to ensure compliance
- Employment rights act 1996
Laws around hiring and firing, e.g. rules around temporary and fixed-term contracts, notification periods for firing staff, redundancy procedures, treatment of disadvantaged groups.
- Data protection act, 1998
Rules around the collection, storage, handling, transfer and destruction of data, particularly personal data.
- Freedom of Information Act 2000
The public’s right to access information pertaining to individuals and/or in the public interest, within certain parameters (time, cost, sensitivity).
List and describe five typical contents (eg processes, components, techniques) of a structured project management method.
A project method provides a consistent framework within which a set of procedures and techniques are performed and provides consistent guidelines for people involved in the project. It can include:
- process descriptions for each phase
- inputs and outputs for each process
- documented guidelines and templates
- guidelines for the organisational design, acountability, responsibility and communication
- role definitions
- processes to be used, e.g. risk, quality, issue, and change and configuration management
List and describe a source of conflict arising within each of the following parts of the extended project life cycle:
Concept
Definition
Development
Handover and Closure
Benefits Realisation
- Concept: In the concept phase, when there is still a high level of uncertainty about the project’s objectives and viabilities, there may organisational politics about who should take charge of the project (ie who is assigned as sponsor) and conflicts arising from a sense of uncertainty about the project.
- Definition: At this stage, there are likely to be disagreements about how best to resource the project, particularly in terms of which staff are brought in (e.g. people not wanting to lose staff to the project or where the project is highly prized, people feeling excluded from the project team) and where the money is coming from, particularly if the funding for the project has an impact on the funding of other projects/business areas.
- In the development stage, you may have interpersonal issues between members of the project team, in terms of different ways of working or where staff are feeling stressed by pressure points in the project.
- In handover and closure, there may be misunderstandings and assumptions about what is being handed over to whom - the receiving user may perceive the outputs as an extra burden to their business as usual responsibilities.
- Benefits realisation: conflicts may arise where there are cultural difficulties in embedding change, disagreement with the change itself (differing opinions on whether the change is worthwhile) and resistance from some staff to implementation (potentially from a feeling of insecurity about having to do something new and unfamiliar).
What are the basic factors used in earned value analysis?
% complete
budget at completion
planned costs
actual costs
cost variance (difference between planned and actual expenditure)
schedule variance (difference between the earned value to date and planned cost to date)
CV = EV - AC (overbudget)
SV = EV - PC (behind schedule)
negative numbers bad; positive numbers good
What is planning?
Determines what is to be delivered, how much it will be cost, when and how it will be delivered and who will carry it out.
What is a PMP?
A PMP is a project management plan and it is the plan of all plans - it comprises the project schedule, risk plan, configuration management, change control, quality, etc. The purpose is to document the outcome of the planning process and provide the reference document for managing the project.
What is total float?
Total float is the amount of time by which a task can be delayed without impacting the total project duration (latest start minus earliest start)
What is a risk management process? Explain the key steps.
- Initiate - establishing the risk management process, define its scope and risk objectives, and agreeing the risk management plan (will include things like risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk attitudes)
- Identify risks - sabotage team, workshops, prompt lists, checklists, expert analysis, delphi process
- Assess risks (qualitative and quantitative – decision trees and monte carlo analysis; plotting impact and likelihood)
- Plan responses (negative: reduce, avoid, transfer, accept / positive: exploit, enhance, share, reject)
- Implement responses
Describe types of project control
- Cybernetic control - ongoing progress tracking by the project manager and corrective action
- Go / No Go - decision points at gate reviews, stage reviews where project progress and plans for the next stage are assessed and a project receives or doesn’t receive authorisation to proceed into the next stage
- Post-control, for example, post-project review, benefits realisation review, etc. where the project’s progress, management, success, lessons learnt are considered
What is financial management?
Process of estimating and justifying costs in order to secure funds, controlling expenditure and evaluation the outcomes. The first step is the use of investment appraisal techniques.
What are the benefits of using scheduling software? What about disadvantages?
Benefits
- enables scenario planning and modelling what if options in a project
- more efficient way of making changes and seeing the impact of changes on the project schedule
- more reliable and accurate (avoids errors in calculations)
- support shared working with various stakeholders being able to access the plan more easily
- it can produce various types of reporting styles, such as gantt charts, network diagrams, milestones charts
- reduces amount of effort when dealing with many project tasks
- good for determining the critical path
- good for allocating resources
- baselining the schedule
- ease of tracking actual progress
Disadvantages
- requires people to know how to use and understand the software and its outputs
- it can require a lot of time/effort to input data (rather than actually managing the project)
- it can be difficult to spot mistakes of the mass of outputs they produce
- quality of information produced only as good as information sources and modelling/estimating used
What are the main areas of scope management?
- Requirements management
- Solutions development
- Configuration management
- Change control
- Change management
- Benefits management
What is the requirements management process?
- Capture requirements
- Analyse requirements
- Requirements specification
- Prioritise requirements
- Test requirements
What is the scope management process?
- Establish the requirements
- Determine a solution
- Produce product breakdown structure
- Develop work breakdown structure
Can also add that configuration management and change control will help control the scope of the products/activities, ensuring beneficial changes are agreed and made; and change and benefits realisation management will ensure that outputs are implemented and embedded in the business and that benefits are realised
What is benefits management?
The identification, definition, planning, tracking and realisation of business benefits
What is the difference between success criteria and key performance indicators?
Success criteria are the qualitative or quantitative measures by which the success of project management is judged; whereas KPIs are measures of success that can be used throughout the project to ensure that it is progressing towards a successful conclusion. The success criteria determine what KPIs are suitable and each KPI has a target value that needs to be achieved or maintained to demonstrate the project is progressing satisfactorily. If a KPI is missed or is likely to be missed then corrective action is needed.
