Lesson 2: Project Management

Question 1

What is a project?

Answer 1

Series of related jobs or tasks focused on the completion of an overall objective.

Question 2

What is project management?

Answer 2

Planning, directing, and coordinating resources to meet the technical requirements, cost, and time constraints of the project.

Question 3

What is a program?

Answer 3

A long term goal (project) which may involve several smaller projects. For example: University’s research program, NASA’s space program, etc.

Question 4

What the four project phases?

Answer 4

• Project Initiation
• Planning and Scheduling
• Execution and Control
• Closing

Question 5

What is in the project initiation phase?

Answer 5

• Description of the project and scope:
  Key resources; Budget requirements (+/- 30%); Time consideration; Feasibility / worthiness (with respect to time);
• Selection:
  Detailed product definition, scope, outcome, threats, challenges, etc.; Team building, Key personnel, key resources; Tentative schedule, tentative budget (+/-5%) etc.;

Question 6

What is in the planning and scheduling phase?

Answer 6

• Project is divided into several tasks/activities with associated resources, budget, etc.
• Project partners, day-to-day activity assignment to teams, role and responsibility assignment.
• Definition of time and performance targets.

Question 7

What is in the execution and control phase?

Answer 7

• New planning and rescheduling is needed at every step to control the cost.
  (If something goes wrong, the impact on the overall outcome must be reduced)
• Monitoring and control may require plan changes, goal changes, etc.
• Review the progress for better control and progress estimation
• Control is attaining the goals with the least deviation possible

Question 8

What is in the closing phase?

Answer 8

Documentation and knowledge sharing once the project is concluded to look at the good and bad situations that took place and how those challenges were handled. (To be looked at as a learning experience)

Question 9

Why do projects fail?

Answer 9

Projects fail either because we are too optimistic at the definition and planning stage or because we lack the skills at the monitoring and control stage.

Question 10

What is a task?

Answer 10

An entity (subdivision) in a project that can be done by a team or organization.

Question 11

What is a subtask?

Answer 11

Break a task down into more meaningful pieces.

Question 12

What is a work package (activity)?

Answer 12

Smallest unit of work that a project can be broken down to.

Question 13

What is a milestone?

Answer 13

Specific events to be reached at points in time.

Question 14

What is the work breakdown structure (WBS)?

Answer 14

Method by which a product is divided into tasks and subtasks.

Question 15

What are the levels of WBS?

Answer 15

Level 1: Program
Level 2: Project
Level 3: Task
Level 4: Subtask
Level 5: Work Package

Question 16

What are the two types of representation tools?

Answer 16

Gantt Chart and Network Diagram

Question 17

What are Gantt charts used for and what are its advantages/disadvantages?

Answer 17

Visualize the sequence of activities and their planned duration.

Advantages: Visual and simple.
Disadvantages: Fails to reveal relationships among activities

Question 18

What are network diagrams used for and what are its advantages/disadvantages?

Answer 18

A network diagram (or precedence network) is used on more complex projects.

(The same activities as a Gantt chart can be represented in the form of Network)

Question 19

What are common techniques for scheduling and controlling of large projects?

Answer 19

• PERT (program evaluation and review technique)

- CPM (Critical Path Method)

Question 20

What is the difference between independent and sequential activities?

Answer 20

Independent can be started at anytime whereas sequential cannot be started until the immediate predecessor activities are finished.

Question 21

What are the two common ways to represent the project using network diagram?

Answer 21

Activity on Arrow (AOA);

Activity on Node (AON).

Question 22

What is project completion time?

Answer 22

The time of the last activity. (The duration of the longest path)

To compute:
A+C+D = 6+1+2 = 9 weeks
B+C+D = 3+1+2 = 6 weeks

The earliest D can start is week 7 because in BCD, D cannot start before week 4, and in ACD, D cannot start before week 7, the duration of D is 2 weeks, therefore D can finish in the 9th week.

Question 23

What is the critical path known as?

Answer 23

The longest path.

activities on this path are known as Critical activities

Question 24

Can more the one Critical path exist in the same project?

Answer 24

Yes

Question 25

What is critical path method?

Answer 25

Stepwise approach to identify the critical paths.

Question 26

What are the four times associated with an activity? (CPM)

Answer 26

- ES: earliest start - EF: earliest finish - LS: latest start - LF: latest finish

Question 27

Notation for CPM solution technique:

Answer 27

First column: ES and LS Middle column: Activity Name and Duration Third column: EF and LF

Question 28

What are the two major steps of CPM?

Answer 28

- Forward Pass | - Backwards Pass

Question 29

What is the forward pass?

Answer 29

Computing the early start and early finish time.

Question 30

What is the backward pass?

Answer 30

Computing latest start and latest finish.

Question 31

How is slack calculated?

Answer 31

LS - ES or LF - EF

Question 32

What does activities with zero slack indicate?

Answer 32

The critical path.

Question 33

What is the beta distribution used for?

Answer 33

To describe the inherent variability in activity durations. Beta distribution is a continuous distribution and its feature makes it attractive in practice.

Question 34

Three point estimate methods used in PERT:

Answer 34

Optimistic time; Pessimistic time; Most likely time.

Question 35

What is optimistic time?

Answer 35

to: The length of time required under optimal conditions.

Question 36

What is pessimistic time?

Answer 36

tp: The length of time required under the worst conditions.

Question 37

What is most likely time?

Answer 37

tm: The most probable length of time required.

Question 38

When is the assumption of independence in path statistics considered to be met?

Answer 38

When only a few activities in a large project are on multiple paths.

Question 39

What does computing the chance of completing the project within the required time entail?

Answer 39

Computing: - The probability that it will be completed by a certain time - The probability that it will take longer than its expected completion time

Question 40

What is crashing?

Answer 40

Shortening activity durations to reduce project completion time. (carefully reducing theproject duration in a minimum possible costs)

Question 41

What information is required for whether the duration of an activity can be reduced?

Answer 41

Regular time and crash time estimates for each activity; Regular cost and crash cost estimates for each activity; And a list of activities that are on the critical path. (Critical path activities are potential candidates for crashing seeing how crashing non-critical paths would not have an impact on overall project duration)

Question 42

Crash Procedure:

Answer 42

A. Crash least expensive activity on the critical path (if there's more than one crash the cheaper of a common activity shared by the critical paths, or sum of the least expensive activities on that path). B. After each crash, recalculate the critical paths. C. Repeat A & B until required crashing is obtained.

Question 43

What does project execution involve?

Answer 43

Performance of activities planned and project manager directs teams, coordinate teams and supplies, and manages other project activities.

Question 44

What does project control involve?

Answer 44

Assessing project progress against plans and taking corrective actions; Controlling changes that may be required as the project progresses (design change, adding/removing features, etc.)

Question 45

What is Goldratt's two psychological principles?

Answer 45

Student's syndrome and Parkinson's law.

Question 46

Define Student's syndrome:

Answer 46

A student tends to delay the start of an assignment until the last possible time

Question 47

Define Parkinson's law:

Answer 47

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Question 48

How does Goldratt's two psychological principles play into project execution?

Answer 48

- Do not disclose due dates of activities to workers. - Prioritize, schedule accordingly, and do activities asap. - Eliminate padding in activity time estimates. - Add buffer time to end of critical chain (= longest path considering constraints).