Q1. What is meant by project management? Discuss the need for project management. Ans.

A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic

elements of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope. All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project, and the project manager, is to be a success.

Resources People, equipment, material Time Task durations, dependencies, critical path Money Costs, contingencies, profit Scope Project size, goals, requirements

Most literature on project management speaks of the need to manage and balance three elements: people, time, and money. However, the fourth element is the most important and it is the first and last task for a successful project manager. First and foremost you have to manage the project scope. The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish and the budget (of time and money) that has been created to achieve these objectives. It is absolutely imperative that any change to the scope of the project have a matching change in budget, either time or resources. If the project scope is to build a building to house three widgets with a budget of $100,000 the project manager is expected to do that. However, if the scope is changed to a building for four widgets, the project manager must obtain an appropriate change in budgeted resources. If the budget is not adjusted, the smart project manager will avoid the change in scope. Usually, scope changes occur in the form of "scope creep". Scope creep is the piling up of small changes that by themselves are manageable, but in aggregate are significant. For example, the project calls for a building to be 80,000 square feet in size. The client wants to add a ten foot long, 4 foot wide awning over one bay door. That's a pretty minor change. Later the client wants to extend the awning 8 feet to cover the adjacent bay. Another minor change. Then it's a change to block the upwind side to the covered area to keep out the wind. Later, it's a request to block the other end to make the addition more symmetrical. Eventually, the client asks for a ceiling

under the awning, lights in the ceiling, electrical outlets, a water the workers, some sound-proofing, and a security camera. By minor change has become a major addition. Make sure any change, no matter how small, is accompanied by approval for a budget or schedule or both.

faucet for now, the requested change in

You can not effectively manage the resources, time and money in a project unless you actively manage the project scope. When you have the project scope clearly identified and associated to the timeline and budget, you can begin to manage the project resources. These include the people, equipment, and material needed to complete the project Its all too easy for project managers to forget what Project Management is all about. Its all too easy for project managers to lose track of whats ahead because theyre too busy trying hard to solve the problems that keep popping. And its all too easy for project managers to be so focused that they lose awareness. If this sounds familiar I invite you to keep on reading. Not that theres something wrong with focus: theres nothing wrong with it and in fact its one of the must have qualities of any project manager. Just dont think for a second that focus will be enough. But having present in your mind why organizations do projects is something very useful that allows you to put things into perspective. If you check the literature, organizations do projects for several reasons that sum up to this: organizations do projects to survive. But let me elaborate on this. An organization can do a project because they have to (for instance, because new legislation is out that demands some changes in their quality processes). If they dont comply they may just have to shut down the company. It could also be that an organization needs some kind ofimprovement. This is the case of companies that do a lot of research and development projects. What would happen to a car or a cell phone maker if they didnt invest any more in such projects? Would you buy a car exactly the same as the one you bought 15 years ago for about the same price as any other new car on the market? I guess not Sales would drop to a point where the company would be forced to close down. For cell phones the scenario is even worst: any 1 year old cell phone is simply out-dated So the argument on this article goes like this: companies have tochange to survive and so they do projects to change the things they decide they want to change. Your job as a Project Manager is not to question if the planned changes are the right ones. Your job as a project manager is to make sure you projects results are the right ones to allow the planned changes in the organization. In comparison, anything else is less important than this, even the delivery of the project on time, on budget and with the planned quality (although the planned quality should have a bit of this fit to purpose included). It is very useful for you to have this present in your mind. When you discuss a change request, the first question you should ask is does this change request contribute to the

organization make the desired changes? If it doesnt, the interest in this change request must be low even if this change request will permit performance improvements or whatever.When you propose a change request you better be ready to defend it. If you can say: this change will postpone the final delivery by 2 months but it will make sure you can use the project result to improve the organization as you planned; and this will be compromised if the change request isnt approved. The argument is much stronger in this case, agree? This is just an example. The point is that if you always aim for the end results to be useful for the organization, youre making sure that every step is taken in the right direction. This is the difference between projectoutputs and outcomes, as theyre called in some literature. Projectoutputs are the results of the project, what is actually delivered by the project. And a project outcome is what the organization will do with the projects outputs. For example, you may have a project to design a cell phone and so the cell phone will be your output. But the real outcome is the cell phone sales to maintain the companys market share. So in this project, while youre concerned about all the technical bits, the schedule, costs and whatever more, you must keep an eye on the outcome as well: the company keeping its market share due to this cell phone. If the company doesnt achieve that, the project will not be successful. Projects only exist because of the business. In order to deliversuccessful projects, you dont have to be happy with the business, but you do have to understand the business youre working in
Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping. Ans. The key to a successful project is in the planning. Creating a project plan is the first
thing you should do when undertaking any kind of project. Often project planning is ignored in favour of getting on with the work. However, many people fail to realise the value of a project plan in saving time, money and many problems. This article looks at a simple, practical approach to project planning. On completion of this guide, you should have a sound project planning approach that you can use for future projects.

Step 1: Project Goals

A project is successful when the needs of the stakeholders have been met. A stakeholder is anybody directly, or indirectly impacted by the project. As a first step, it is important to identify the stakeholders in your project. It is not always easy to identify the stakeholders of a project, particularly those impacted indirectly. Examples of stakeholders are: The project sponsor. The customer who receives the deliverables. The users of the project outputs.

The project manager and project team.

Once you understand who the stakeholders are, the next step is to find out their needs. The best way to do this is by conducting stakeholder interviews. Take time during the interviews to draw out the true needs that create real benefits. Often stakeholders will talk about needs that aren't relevant and don't deliver benefits. These can be recorded and set as a low priority. The next step, once you have conducted all the interviews, and have a comprehensive list of needs is to prioritise them. From the prioritised list, create a set of goals that can be easily measured. A technique for doing this is to review them against the SMARTprinciple. This way it will be easy to know when a goal has been achieved. Once you have established a clear set of goals, they should be recorded in the project plan. It can be useful to also include the needs and expectations of your stakeholders. This is the most difficult part of the planning process completed. It's time to move on and look at the project deliverables.

Step 2: Project Deliverables

Using the goals you have defined in step 1, create a list of things the project needs to deliver in order to meet those goals. Specify when and how each item must be delivered. Add the deliverables to the project plan with an estimated delivery date. More accurate delivery dates will be established during the scheduling phase, which is next.

Step 3: Project Schedule

Create a list of tasks that need to be carried out for each deliverable identified in step 2. For each task identify the following: The amount of effort (hours or days) required to complete the task. The resource who will carryout the task.

Once you have established the amount of effort for each task, you can workout the effort required for each deliverable, and an accurate delivery date. Update your deliverables section with the more accurate delivery dates. At this point in the planning, you could choose to use a software package such asMicrosoft Project to create your project schedule. Alternatively, use one of the many free templates available. Input all of the deliverables, tasks, durations and the resources who will complete each task. A common problem discovered at this point, is when a project has an imposed delivery deadline from the sponsor that is not realistic based on your estimates. If you discover this is the case, you must contact the sponsor immediately. The options you have in this situation are:

Renegotiate the deadline (project delay). Employ additional resources (increased cost). Reduce the scope of the project (less delivered).

Use the project schedule to justify pursuing one of these options.

Step 4: Supporting Plans

This section deals with plans you should create as part of the planning process. These can be included directly in the plan.

Human Resource Plan

Identify by name, the individuals and organisations with a leading role in the project. For each, describe their roles and responsibilities on the project. Next, describe the number and type of people needed to carryout the project. For each resource detail start dates, estimated duration and the method you will use for obtaining them. Create a single sheet containing this information.

Communications Plan
Create a document showing who needs to be kept informed about the project and how they will receive the information. The most common mechanism is a weekly or monthlyprogress report, describing how the project is performing, milestones achieved and work planned for the next period.

Risk Management Plan

Risk management is an important part of project management. Although often overlooked, it is important to identify as many risks to your project as possible, and be prepared if something bad happens. Here are some examples of common project risks: Time and cost estimates too optimistic. Customer review and feedback cycle too slow. Unexpected budget cuts. Unclear roles and responsibilities. Stakeholder input is not sought, or their needs are not properly understood. Stakeholders changing requirements after the project has started.

Stakeholders adding new requirements after the project has started. Poor communication resulting in misunderstandings, quality problems and rework. Lack of resource commitment.

Risks can be tracked using a simple risk log. Add each risk you have identified to your risk log; write down what you will do in the event it occurs, and what you will do to prevent it from occurring. Review your risk log on a regular basis, adding new risks as they occur during the life of the project. Remember, when risks are ignored they don't go away

the Project Scoping and Planning stage of a project has been developed specifically to get into the precise details of how to successfully execute a content or document-related business strategy. Following in-depth analysis of documents and processes, Mekon assists clients by recording and refining initial technical requirements, short-listing potential tools, and laying out a recommended solution architecture. We will also define the vitally important project success criteria and business metrics that will be used to measure performance on an ongoing basis.

PSP Benefits

Shortlist the best tools for the job Set the specific project goals and priorities Define high level workflows and use case scenarios for product selection Minimise disruption by facilitating communication and understanding among all project sponsors and team members Validate feasibility of specific project scope, ensuring it will work on time and on budget

Q3. Discuss the various steps in project monitoring and control. Ans. Project Monitoring and Control: Any project aimed at delivering a product or a service has to go through phases in a planned manner in order to meet the requirements. It is possible to work according to the project plan only by carefully monitoring of the project progress. It requires establishing control factors to keep the project on the track of the progress. The results of any stage depend on the inputs to that stage. It is therefore necessary to control all the inputs and the corresponding outputs from a stage. A project manager may use certain standard tools to keep the project on track. The project manager and the team members should be fully aware of the techniques and methods to rectify the factors influencing delay of the project and its product.
The various steps involved in monitoring and controlling a project from start to end are as follows: Preliminary work- the team members understand the project plans, project stage schedule, progress controls, tracking schedules, summary of the stage cost and related worksheets. All the members have to understand the tolerances in any change and maintain a change control log. They must realize the need and importance of quality for which they have to follow strictly a quality review schedule and frequently discuss on the quality agendas. They must understand the stage status reports, stage end reports, stage end approval reports. Project Progress - the members must keep a track of the project progress and communicate the same to other related members of the project progress, through the use of regular check points, quality charts, and statistical tables, control the quality factors which are likely to deviate from expected

values as any deviation may result in changes to the stage schedule. The project manager ensures that these changes are made smoothly and organizes review meeting with the project management group. Stage Control - the manager must establish a project check point cycle. For this suitable stage version control procedures may be followed. The details are to be documented stage wise. Project files have to be frequently updated with suitable version control number and revision status should be maintained for each change. Team members are identified who will exercise controls at various points of the project. Resources - plan the resources required for various stage of the project. Brief the project team on the key resources and objectives of every stage, planned activities, products, organization, metrics and project controls. Quality Control - this is very important in any project. Quality control is possible if the project members follow the quality charts and norms very strictly. Schedule Quality Review - it is recommended that quality review be scheduled at the beginning of the stage and also ending of every stage. Agenda for Quality review - create and distribute a quality review agenda specifying the objective, products, logistics, roles, responsibilities and time frame. Conduct quality review - the quality review is to be conducted in a structured and formal manner. Quality review should focus on production development and its quality factors. Focus on whether it meets the prescribed quality standard. Follow up - quality review complete product status revised from 'in progress to quality review complete'. Follow up the actions planned in strict manner which ensures conformity to the standards. Review quality control procedures - verify that the quality objectives for each product are appropriate and that all participants are satisfied both with the process and its outcome.

Q4. What is Project Management Information System (PMIS)? What are the major aspects of PMIS? Ans. A project management information system (PMIS) is a part of management information
systems (MIS) and manages information of a project centric organization. These electronic systems "help [to] plan, execute, and close project management goals. PMIS systems differ in scope, design and features depending upon an organisation's operational requirements.

PMIS Configuration Management System Change Management SystemConfiguration Management System has 4 main aspects: 1. Configuration Identification(identifying configurable items(CI)) 2. Configuration Control(Access Control of documents) 3. Configuration Status Accounting(updating the status of documents) 4. Configuration Verification and Audit Q5. What is PERT chart? What are the advantages of PERT chart? Ans. A PERT chart is a graphic representation of a projects schedule, showing the sequence of tasks, which tasks can be performed simultaneously, and the critical path of tasks that must be completed on time in order for the project to meet its completion deadline. The chart can be constructed with a variety of attributes, such as earliest and latest start dates for each task, earliest and latest finish dates for each task, and slack time between tasks. A PERT chart can document an entire project or a key phase of a project. The chart allows a team to avoid

unrealistic timetables and schedule expectations, to help identify and shorten tasks that are bottlenecks, and to focus attention on most critical tasks. The program evaluation and review
technique (PERT) involves charts that display scheduled tasks for project completion. This type of flow chart is a common method used by project managers, and is part of the critical path analysis that focuses on essential tasks for project completion. Project managers often design PERT charts for specific parts of complex projects. Each chart begins with one node that branches out into networks of activities, emphasizing relationships among tasks. PERT has advantages .

Advantage: Large Project Planning

A PERT chart makes planning large projects easier, according to the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences. It answers three key questions about each activity that help managers identify relationships between tasks and task dependencies. These questions involve how long it will take to complete an activity, and which other activities must occur immediately before and immediately after this activity for effective project completion. PERT is a good way of making these relationships visible in a diagram.

Advantage: Visible Critical Path

The critical path includes all activities that cannot be delayed without affecting the project completion date. PERT makes the critical path visible, as explained by the University of Virginia. All tasks not on the critical path can have some slack time without affecting project completion time. When the project manager must delay one task to allocate more time to another, the critical path makes clear which tasks cannot be delayed.

Q6. Write brief notes on Re-structuring. Organizations are human systems and their system structure includes the worldview, beliefs, and mental models of their leaders and members. Changing organizational behavior requires changing the belief system of its personnel. This process of changing beliefs is called learning. Effective learning requires clear, open communications throughout the organization. Organizational performance ultimately rests on human behavior and improving performance requires changing behavior. Therefore organizational restructuring should have as a fundamental goal the facilitation of clear, open communication that can enable organizational learning and clarify accountability for results. Since the world is continually changing, continuous organizational learning is necessary to stay up to date. Organizations that cannot or will not learn will become obsolete. Leaders should periodically examine the organizational structure of their enterprise to assure that it continues to provide an environment for organizational learning. A non threatening, development focused performance appraisal process can be an effective organizational learning tool. The points of leverage in organizations are the beliefs and worldview of their leaders and decision makers. The sense of purpose, vision and commitment of an organization's leadership play a critical role in the results it can accomplish

Symptoms indicating the need for organizational restructuring.

New skills and capabilities are needed to meet current or expected operational requirements. Accountability for results are not clearly communicated and measurable resulting in subjective and biased performance appraisals. Parts of the organization are significantly over or under staffed. Organizational communications are inconsistent, fragmented, and inefficient. Technology and/or innovation are creating changes in workflow and production processes. Significant staffing increases or decreases are contemplated. Personnel retention and turnover is a significant problem. Workforce productivity is stagnant or deteriorating. Morale is deteriorating.