PM - Assignment
PM - Assignment
Preston University
B-Tech (Hons)
Distance Learning
Assignment
Subject: Project Management
Registration #: 10M2-114517
Page 1 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Table of Contents
1 Q / No. 1
2 Q / No. 2
3 Q / No. 3
4 Q / No. 4
5 Q / No. 5
6 Q / No. 6
7 Q / No. 7
8 Q / No. 8
9 Q / No. 9
10 Q / No. 10
10 Q / No. 10
11 Reference Sources
Page 2 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Page 3 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Ans:
Project: -
Project is a key concept in IS management. The word is frequently used in
textbooks and standards. Yet we seldom find a precise definition of the concept.
This paper discusses how to define the concept of a project. The proposed
definition covers both heavily formalized projects and informally organized, agile
projects. Based on the proposed definition popular existing definitions are
discussed.
One can also define a project as a set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within
certain cost and other limitations.
A project concept is a complete documentation of the proposed project but needs to be implemented yet.
The term "concept" means that it is under planning and processing for implementation.
A full blown project concept consist of following documentation such as ; project feasibility studies
(technical, financial, environmental, etc.), detailed drawings/plans & specifications, detailed estimates
for project cost, environmental permit, social acceptability of the project and other requirements for fund
sourcing.
A project concept is also called project proposal and can only be called "Project" when it is funded and
under implementation.
This section of the Project is related to the concept and definition phase of a project. Although there is
no uniform agreement on the specific sages of a project and the associated management processes that
follow, there is agreement that for a project to exist, it must begin. This starting point is critical because
it is essential at this point for those
who will deliver the technology, those who will use that technology, and those who have a stake in the
project to reach agreement on its concept and definition. The process is represented in the figure below.
Page 4 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Defined in this section are general guidelines to assist in defining the overall parameters of the project
during the concept phase. The actual sections have been organized to be
consistent on how a project might progress through the concept phase.
Currently under review are the actual documents that must be submitted outside the state organization to
get a project initiated and approved.
When that process has been completed, this section will be updated to be consistent with the actual
required format. As stated in each of the actual sections, however, the principles and processes that are
necessary to develop initial information about a project will not change.
It must be stressed that the recommended methods in this section are standard steps for IT development
efforts, since it is here that agreement is reached on what the projects end product(s) will be. The basic
processes for the project concept phase are:
Development of a project statement (sometimes called concept statement)
Completion of a business analysis
Review of the projects concept
Each of these will be discussed briefly below and addressed fully in the appropriate documents in this
section.
The Project Statement defines the projects charter and ensures that the project is consistent with the state
organizations business plan and IT strategic plan. It defines a high-level approach, project success
factors, and other top-level planning information. Ideally, the information contained in the Project
Statement provides both internal and external management with the information necessary to decide if
the project can be supported.
The Project Statement should not be a collection of technical information, but should state what is to be
done, why it is to be done, and what business value it will provide to the state organization when the
project is completed. Components of the Project Statement are shown in the following figure:
Analyzing project constraints, alternatives, and related assumptions is also part of the initial concept
phase. Again, this material has been organized to build upon the material already
presented in the project statement. These steps, in many cases, will be going on while the initial project
plan is being developed. Every caution should be taken to keep these activities at a high level in the
organization so that they do not result in a project design document.
There are four basic components to the analysis:
Definition of project constraints and assumptions
List of weaknesses and strengths as defined with the risk identification
Stakeholder and customer analysis
Top level functional specifications
Concept Review
This process is currently being defined as part of the initiation process analysis. This document will be
updated when that process is complete. There may be times when actual reviews need to be scheduled
with the project team and external agencies. These reviews would provide a forum for information
exchange and would be more timely than written
question and answer sessions. No separate document exists to refine the review process. The contents
and structure of the meeting will be driven by the materials generated during the initial statement and
analysis process.
Page 5 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
The atmosphere during the concept phase is marked by indecision and hesitation and characterized by:
Project Team Frustration
The desire of the project staff to get the project moving and to start designing the solution never seems
to come.
Management Non-Commitment
There is a lack of full commitment on the part of management; usually, there is too little known with just
presenting a fuzzy idea, and the project teams cannot provide more than rough estimates for how
much and how long.
Many problems during the concept phase are due to the difficulty in getting a project to move forward.
This is a direct result of the atmosphere defined above.
The most difficult commitment to obtain is from the key stakeholders (top management) and customers
(users). A summary of some of these problems is highlighted below:
Scarcity of Resources Many of the problems are related to assembling the initial project concept team.
Locating the right people is rarely easy, and it is even more difficult for the more complex
projects.
Lack of Coordinated Leadership While qualified team members may be in short supply, individuals
serving as leaders may be numerous. In many cases, the concept phase is led by too many people some
for the estimating, some for the user meetings, and so forth.
Such environments create an atmosphere of bad or disjointed decision making.
Lack of Consensus on the Project Objectives It is not uncommon to find that there are many different
ideas as to what the project should be and what the project should produce. Rapid prototyping can be
useful when general agreement on the concept is difficult to reach.
Concepts are often easier to integrate when the team is considering something concrete.
A successful project concept should be concise and clear. Anyone reading the statement should have a
good idea of what the project consists of (and what will not be part of the project). This statement will
give a view of the project. It is also important to be specific in a project concept.
For example, "The catalog will feature 100 products" is better than "The catalog will feature many
products" and "The project will be completed over six months" is preferable to "The project will be
completed over a period of time." The more specific you can be, the better.
Page 6 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Ans:
Project management: -
Traditional project is basically a particular set of techniques and tools that are
applied to an activity that seeks an end products or may be service. These tools
and techniques are designed to serve a particular purpose.
Project management is a practice that can be found everywhere. Project management does not belong to
any specific domain or a field. It is a universal practice with a few basic concepts and objectives.
Regardless of the size of the activities or effort, every 'project' requires project management.
There are many variations of project management that have been customized for different domains.
Although the basic principles are the same among any of these variations, there are unique features
present to address unique problems and conditions specific to each domain.
The Traditional project management uses orthodox methods and techniques in the management
process. These methods and techniques have been evolved for decades and are applicable for most of the
domains. But for some domains, such as software development, traditional project management is not a
100% fit.
Therefore, there have been a few modern project management practices introduced to address the
shortcomings of the traditional method. Agile and Scrum are two such modern project management
methods.
Page 7 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Google, you will find hundreds of definitions given by many project management 'gurus' on traditional
project management. But, it is always a great idea to stick to the standard definitions such as PMBOK.
Project management is a composite activity with multiple dimensions. Depending on the type and class
of project, this management activity can be very complex. To begin with, we should be clear on what we
mean by project management - not in terms of the traditional definitions but in terms of the scope of this
management activity.
In a nutshell, project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading,
and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined
beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables),
undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or add value.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while
honoring the pre-defined constraints. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The
secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate
them to meet pre-defined objectives.
For a successful project, the following principles are necessary assets when charting a path to
completion. These principles of project management can be applied to any level or branch of a project
that falls under a different area of responsibility in the overall project organization;
Project structure
Definition phase
Clear goals
Transparency about project status
Risk recognition
Managing project disturbances
Responsibility of the project manager
Project success
Project Structure
Project management typically revolves around three parameters Quality, Resources & Time. A project
structure can usually be successfully devised by considering the following three aspects -
1. Project Goal
An answer to the question What has to be done is usually a goal. This question leads to the project
structure plan. This plan consists of work packages which represent enclosed work units that can be
assigned to a personal resource. These work packages and their special relationships represent the
project structure.
Page 8 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
3. Project Milestones
Milestones define certain phases of your project and the corresponding costs and results. Milestones
represent decisive steps during the project. They are set after a certain number of work packages that
belong together. This series of work packages leads to the achievement of a sub-goal.
Definition Phase
The definition phase is where many projects go wrong often because there is no clear definition, or
because definition is muddled due to the involvement of too many stakeholders. Successful definition
must involve the entire team at every step to facilitate acceptance and commitment to the project.
Clear Goals
The project manager is responsible for the achievement of a project goal. These goals should always be
defined using the SMART paradigm (specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, time-bounded). It is a
daily grind for a project manager to be confronted with nebulous goals, which are a result of improperly
defined goals at the outset.
Risk Recognition
Every project is confronted with a lot of risks. This is normal. Always keep in mind that your project is a
unique endeavor with strict goals concerning costs, appointments and performance. The sooner you
identify these risks the sooner you nip negative developments. Its the duty of the project manager to
evaluate risks regularly.
Page 9 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Project Success
Project success is a multi-dimensional construct that inevitably means different things to different
people. It is best expressed at the beginning of a project in terms of key and measurable criteria upon
which the relative success or failure of the project may be judged. For example, those that -
Meet key objectives of the project such as the business objectives of the sponsoring organization,
owner or user, and;
Elicit satisfaction with the project management process, i.e. that the deliverable is complete, up to
standard, is on time and within budget; and
Reflect general acceptance and satisfaction with the projects deliverable on the part of the projects
customer and the majority of the projects community at some time in the future.
The likelihood of any projects success is governed by ensuring that your project delivers the right scope
from the start. Defining the scope of a project entails adopting a clear vision so that it allows each
milestone of the project to stay on target. This is the first step in ascertaining your project goals and
objectives as well as assigning resources and forming a sound project timeline.
Once you have this established, it will permit you to allocate tasks more efficiently and provide direction
for your employees so that you are able to deliver the project within a deadline and budget.
Suppose a person is semi ritered, which means he would rather be working than
sitting around. Suppose he has taken a tractor and drives for a potato farm in a
city. In order to plot a straight line, he focuses on a point at the far end of field and
aims for it. One time he finished a row and found that the point he picked for
focusing was the head of duck that was walking back and forth along the edge of
field, that row was not even close to straight, so if we allow our scope to waddle
back and forth the project will suffer same consequence as in the above illustrated
example. So our scope in project must be always focused without moving back and
forth. We can adjust at times but not like duck which is eventually moving without
need. So the above examples illustrate the scope of project as its backbone.
Page 10 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
The following steps can help you to effectively define the scope of a
project:
1. Identify needs
When you are clearly able to identify the needs of a project, you are more likely to set a sound
benchmark from the beginning. Understanding the basis of reasons towards the what and why of a
project will enable you to set specific goals and objectives. It also sets the ground work of what tasks
are to follow and how they are to be performed.
SpecificThis involves stating accurately what the project wants to achieve. That is, what, why and how
these will be done. Clarity will reduce the chances of ambiguities and misunderstandings.
Measurable Are your goals and objectives able to provide feedback and be accountable for?
Achievable Can the projects goals and objectives be achieved, given the resources on hand?
Realistic Are the goals and objectives easy to deliver, are faced with problems or complicated. Will
these reduce the overall quality of the projects outcome and cause running over budget and not meeting
the set deadlines.
Time Frame Can the project goals and objectives be met within the allocated time frame? Is it a key
criterion to meet these deadlines?
3. Scope description
You need to be clear about the features and functioning required for your product or service. For
example, you are building a website. You need a list that provides how you will build your website, the
type of branding required and so on. In other words, what certain qualities will increase achieving your
projects success.
Page 11 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
5. Identify constraints
There are always roadblocks to achieving what you were set out to do. When being aware of possible
limitations along the way, it can help you minimize problems that may delay or constrain your ability to
achieve your projects outcome. These can be caused by dynamic environmental conditions (internal and
external), technological glitches and/or lack of resources.
Communicating such problems with your team early on and taking steps to overcome these hurdles will
reduce delays of project completion and keep spending within budget. Whether these are based on
assumptions or uncertainty, analyzing their impact throughout the projects timeline further reduces risk
of failure.
After all, you dont want your project to reach its final stages and then sadly realize that a whole lot of
re-working needs to be done.
Start your project off on the right foot by appropriately defining your projects scope. The aim of your
project should steer in the direction of successfully meeting your projects outcome in a timely manner,
within budget and be able to satisfy the end users expectations. Effective scoping of a project gives you
and your team a sense of focus. It provides a foundation in which properly guides your project from
start to finish.
Page 12 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Q-4: Project activities are based on scope, finance and project
components. Discuss in detail.
Ans:
Project activities are based on scope, finance and project components. Project
activities are selected based on the scope of the project inside or outside the
country. If there is no scope then there will be no meaning of a project to be
undertaken.
Finance is the major factor which should be considered before undertaking any
project activity because everyone is investing in order to make profits. And if the
cost is more than the benefit of the project then there is also no meaning of
project.
Project components should be selected properly neither the project will not be
successful. Project components are like what are the works to be done, and how
the work will be progressed etc. So, project activities are based on all these factors.
The documentation of a project's scope explains the boundaries of the project,
establishes responsibilities for each team member and sets up procedures for how
completed work will be verified and approved. The documentation may be referred
to as a scope statement, statement of work (SOW) or terms of reference. During
the project, this documentation helps the project team remain focused and on
task.
The scope statement also provides the project team leader or facilitator with
guidelines for making decisions about change requests during the project. It is
natural for parts of a large project to change along the way, so the better the
project has been "scoped" at the beginning, the better the project team will be
able to manage change. When documenting a project's scope, stakeholders should
be as specific as possible in order to avoid scope creep, a situation in which one or
more parts of a project ends up requiring more work, time or effort because of poor
planning or miscommunication.
Scope is about product scope and project scope. Project scope includes business
requirements, project requirements and delivery requirements. Product scope
includes technological requirements, security requirements and performance
requirements.
Finance: -
Projects finance is the long-term financing of infrastructure and industrial projects based upon the
projected cash flows of the project rather than the balance sheets of its sponsors. Usually, a project
financing structure involves a number of equity investors, known as 'sponsors', a 'syndicate' of banks or
other lending institutions that provide loans to the operation. They are most commonly non-recourse
loans, which are secured by the project assets and paid entirely from project cash flow, rather than from
the general assets or creditworthiness of the project sponsors, a decision in part supported by financial
modeling. The financing is typically secured by all of the project assets, including the revenue-
producing contracts. Project lenders are given a lien on all of these assets and are able to assume control
of a project if the project company has difficulties complying with the loan terms.
Generally, a special purpose entity is created for each project, thereby shielding other assets owned by a
project sponsor from the detrimental effects of a project failure. As a special purpose entity, the project
company has no assets other than the project. Capital contribution commitments by the owners of the
project company are sometimes necessary to ensure that the project is financially sound or to assure the
lenders of the sponsors' commitment. Project finance is often more complicated than alternative
financing methods. Traditionally, project financing has been most commonly used in the extractive
(mining), transportation, telecommunications industries as well as sports and entertainment venues.
Risk identification and allocation is a key component of project finance. A project may be subject to a
number of technical, environmental, economic and political risks, particularly in developing countries
and emerging markets. Financial institutions and project sponsors may conclude that the risks inherent
in project development and operation are unacceptable (unfinanceable). "Several long-term contracts
such as construction, supply, off-take and concession agreements, along with a variety of joint-
ownership structures are used to align incentives and deter opportunistic behavior by any party involved
in the project." The patterns of implementation are sometimes referred to as "project delivery methods."
The financing of these projects must be distributed among multiple parties, so as to distribute the risk
associated with the project while simultaneously ensuring profits for each party involved.
A riskier or more expensive project may require limited recourse financing secured by a surety from
sponsors. A complex project finance structure may incorporate corporate finance, securitization, options
(derivatives), insurance provisions or other types of collateral enhancement to mitigate unallocated risk.
Page 14 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Components of a Project: -
There are many factors that contribute to the final outcome of a project, whether it is large or small,
simple or complex. But just a few of these factors will determine the ultimate success of your project.
Projects come in all shapes and sizes such as straightforward improvements to products or operations
procedures through to new product research or major software development. But the key components
that contribute to the success of a project are the same no matter how simple or complex the project is
and whether it is being run in a small organization without any formal project framework or in a large
organization as part of a well-established framework in an ongoing program of projects and with the
support of a project office.
The most important factors that will contribute to a project being completed successfully can be broadly
broken down into the following five areas:
1. Strategic Planning
Understanding your marketplace, the wider industry and your competition is necessary so that the
specific business objectives of the project can be well-defined and, more importantly, meet a genuine
need, or anticipated need, within the market to which the end-product will be targeted. For simpler
projects in small organizations the "marketplace" may, in fact, be a small internal team or department but
the concept of understanding them and their objectives is still the same and still just as important.
3. Marketing
Focused marketing aimed at the right target audience is as vital for the simplest internal projects
designed to change an existing operations process as it is to a new product with a global market. Of
course, the realities of such marketing are quite different - internal projects are unlikely to have big-
budget advertising campaigns for example - but it is still important to "sell" the product/process to those
who will be buying or using it. In many internal projects involving major change to the status-quo the
greatest challenge is to convince the end-users that they will be better off with the new process in the
face of typical human reluctance to change.
4. Support
For the wide variety of projects that take place in organizations year-round, the provision of a support
mechanism both before and after implementation is another key component to the success of the project.
Support might come in the form of IT support (providing the right hardware and software), Human
Resources for recruiting and retaining the appropriate staff, facilities for providing the necessary offices
or other building space and any number of other support services relevant to the project.
Page 15 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
5. People
There are different categories of people involved in projects and they all have different and specific roles
to play, but they are all stakeholders with a vested interest in the project being a success:
Sponsor: The sponsor(s) of a project is often a member of the senior management team of an
organization, but can also be someone from outside the organization if a strategic alliance has
been set up. Their role is to define the business objectives that are the driving force behind the
initiation of a project, to ensure that adequate resources are made available to complete the
project and to influence the completion date of the project by defining priorities. They will tend
to have a good overview of the project, but not become involved in any of the detailed aspects.
Project Manager: A professional project manager has the responsibility of creating a detailed
project plan that meets the budget, schedule and scope determined by the sponsors. They advise,
teach and motivate team members; resolve conflicts and issues with deliverables and deadlines
and have a good understanding of all tasks required to complete the project. They also aim to
manage and control risks and changes.
Team Member: These can range from a subject-matter expert through to a recently hired novice,
but all team members will have a contribution to make towards the end-product. Each will be
responsible for completing individual tasks to a deadline, including resolving issues that arise
related to their tasks. More experienced members of the team should help the less-experienced
members by answering questions and giving advice to maximize the ability of the whole team to
deliver projects successfully.
So if you can get these five components right you will be able to do the following on your project:
6. Execution;
When the plan is complete and the project is ready to start, the project network is
fixed and the buffers' sizes are "locked" (i.e., their planned duration may not be
altered during the project), because they are used to monitor project schedule and
financial performance.
With no slack in the duration of individual tasks, resources are encouraged to focus
on the task at hand to complete it and hand it off to the next person or group. The
objective here is to eliminate bad multitasking. This is done by providing priority
Page 16 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
information to all resources. The literature draws an analogy with a relay race.
Each element on the project is encouraged to move as quickly as they can: when
they are running their "leg" of the project, they should be focused on completing
the assigned task as quickly as possible, with minimization of distractions and
multitasking. In some case studies, actual batons are reportedly hung by the desks
of people when they are working on critical chain tasks so that others know not to
interrupt. The goal, here, is to overcome the tendency to delay work or to do extra
work when there seems to be time. The CCPM literature contrasts this with
"traditional" project management that monitors task start and completion dates.
CCPM encourages people to move as quickly as possible, regardless of dates.
Because task duration has been planned at the 50% probability duration, there is
pressure on resources to complete critical chain tasks as quickly as possible,
overcoming student's syndrome and Parkinson's Law.
[Link];
A fever chart or similar graph can be created and posted to show the consumption
of buffer as a function of project completion. If the rate of buffer consumption is
low, the project is on target. If the rate of consumption is such that there is likely to
be little or no buffer at the end of the project, then corrective actions or recovery
plans must be developed to recover the loss. When the buffer consumption rate
exceeds some critical value (roughly: the rate where all of the buffer may be
expected to be consumed before the end of the project, resulting in late
completion), then those alternative plans need to be implemented.
The Project Closure Phase is the fourth and last phase in the project life cycle. In
this phase, you will formally close your project and then report its overall level of
success to your sponsor. Project Closure involves handing over the deliverables to
your customer, passing the documentation to the business, cancelling supplier
contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing stakeholders of the closure
of the project.
Page 17 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
After the project has been closed, a Post Implementation Review is completed to
determine the projects success and identify the lessons learned. In detail briefed
five main step are including Project Closure Phase;
Make sure all pertinent documents and deliverables have been signed off by the
customer; You dont want this coming back to you after the project is over
especially if there are any question marks our payments outstanding.
Conduct a lessons learned session with the customer and your team; The
information you glean from this type of session can be invaluable to you as a
project manager going forward, to your customer as they go forth with the
implemented solution, and to your tech support as they provide the ongoing
support for the solution with the customer.
Hold a proper handoff to tech support; Make sure they have all necessary
information in order to properly support the client post-deployment.
Keep in touch with the customer post-deployment; You may have a 30 or 60-day
agreement to remain available to the customer and for your team to remain
available before the formal transition to tech support. But dont just drop them
at that point, keep checking back. Its good for your reputation with the
customer and for your companys reputation.
Ans:
Resource: -
Page 18 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Resources are the economics of productive factors/aids that are required
throughout the project for its successful completion. Determining the resource of
any project is critical for its effective cost managements.
In project management terminology, resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They can be
people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour)
required for the completion of a project activity. The lack of a resource will therefore be a constraint on
the completion of the project activity. Resources may be storable or non-storable. Storable resources
remain available unless depleted by usage, and may be replenished by project tasks which produce them.
Non-storable resources must be renewed for each time period, even if not utilised in previous time
periods.
Resource scheduling, availability and optimization are considered key to successful project
management.
Allocation of limited resources is based on the priority given to each of the project activities. Their
priority is calculated using the Critical path method and heuristic analysis. For a case with a constraint
on the number of resources, the objective is to create the most efficient schedule possible - minimizing
project duration and maximizing the use of the resources available.
1- Primary resource
People
The resource accounts towards the labour cost. The cost is estimated by
determine the number of hours of labour required and cost per hour.
2- Secondary Resources:
i) Material
ii) Equipment
iii) Facilities
iv) Services
v) Software
vi) Hardware
The Secondary resources accounts to the non-laboure cost.
Cost estimation is an essential aspect for any project scheduling and control.
Duration of a project it is elapsed time in terms of business day excluding
weekends, holidays, non-working days. Duration of any project can be estimated
only once you determine the resources required for the completion of the project.
The duration of the task can be changed by adding more or increasing the resource
required for any activity have a direct linear relationship with the project duration.
In some cases, increasing the resource actually increasing the duration this is
referred as the crash point of a task.
Cost for performing an includes direct and indirect cost the direct cost is associated
with each individual activity such as labour cost, material and equipment cost,
supervision cost, depreciation, insurance.
Page 19 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
When the time for the individual activity is reduced the direct cost increases, this is
known as crashing the activity.
While the direct cost increases with the increase in the project duration.
A requirement is an objective that must be met. Planners cast most requirements in functional terms,
leaving design and implementation details to the developers. They may specify price, performance, and
reliability objectives in fine detail, along with some aspects of the user interface. Sometimes, they
describe their objectives more precisely than realistically (p 32).
There are actually several kinds of requirements; the term requirement is awkward because it describes
the concept of an objective or goal or necessary characteristic, but at the same time the term also
describes a kind of formal documentation, namely the requirements document. Putting aside the
particular document for now, requirements are instructions describing what functions the software is
supposed to provide, what characteristics the software is supposed to have, and what goals the software
is supposed to meet or to enable users to meet.
I prefer to use the term requirements to refer to the general set of documents that describe what a project
is supposed to accomplish and how the project is supposed to be created and implemented. Such a
general set of requirements would include documents spelling out the various requirements for the
project the what as well as specifications documents spelling out the rules for creating and developing
the project the how.
Project requirements provide an obvious tool for evaluating the quality of a project, because a final
review should examine whether each requirement has been met. Unfortunately, its never quite that easy.
Requirements tend to change through the course of a project, with the result that the product as delivered
may not adhere to the available requirements this is a constant and annoying facet to the quality
assurance process. Moreover, meeting all of the requirements doesnt ensure a quality product, per se,
since the requirements may not have been defined with an eye towards the quality of the end-users
experience. A projects specifications are more useful for determining the products quality.
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
4. Putting aside the particular document for now, requirements are
instructions describing what functions the software is supposed to
provide, what characteristics the software is supposed to have, and what
goals the software is supposed to meet or to enable users to meet.
Business and Functional Requirements. The first step is for the IT project team and end users
to define and document all of the business and functional requirements of the project. This
process begins with a requirements document. This document details all business and functional
requirements of the project. It details the "what" of the project.
Design Requirements. Next, the team and users define the design requirements and add them to
the requirements document. The design requirements describe "how" to build the solution(s). All
team members must fully understand all requirements before moving forward.
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Project Phases. The next step is to outline the phases of the project based on the requirements.
The end of each phase should have measurable deliverables so that it will be clear when a phase
has been completed.
Project Schedule. The team then creates a project schedule from the determined phases. This
should be approved before continuing.
Test Plans. Another PM best practice is to write and execute test plans during each project phase
completion. Each requirement is listed in the test plan and cross referenced with its associated
test to assure that every requirement is tested for success.
Completion. The project is deemed complete and successful when execution of the
corresponding test plan validates that the project has met each documented requirement. Of
course, in order to be deemed successful, the project must also be completed within the budgeted
time and cost.
This procedure puts the users of the solution and the team creating that solution on the same page
throughout the project, leading to a greater success rate. Both sides understand and feel ownership of
each documented requirement because they were both involved in defining requirements. As project
phases are completed, project testing validates that all IT project requirements are met, and therefore the
end product meets the overarching goals set in the very beginning. Please share your experiences with
defining and following project requirements.
Project Cost Management (PCM) is a method that uses technology to measure cost and productivity
through the full life cycle of enterprise level projects.[citation needed]
PCM encompasses several specific functions of project management including estimating, job controls,
field data collection, scheduling, accounting and design. PCM main goal is to complete a project within
an approved budget[1]
Beginning with estimating, a vital tool in PCM, actual historical data is used to accurately plan all
aspects of the project. As the project continues, job control uses data from the estimate with the
information reported from the field to measure the cost and production in the project. From project
initiation to completion, project cost management has an objective to simplify and cheapen the project
experience. [2]
This technological approach has been a big challenger to the mainstream estimating software and project
management industries.[3] [4]
Project Cost Management is one of the ten Knowledge Areas outlined in the A Guide to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (aka the PMBOK Guide). It is used during the Planning and
Monitoring & Controlling Process Groups.
Page 22 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
There are 4 processes in this knowledge area including
2. Estimating Costs
3. Determining Budget
4. Controlling Cost
A key technique for Project Cost Management is Earned Value Management (EVM).
You need to become adept at using project estimating techniques and even more adept at presenting your
estimates. You also need to learn the first lesson of estimating which is to keep your mouth shut. The
reason that estimates are so tricky is that every estimate has risk and uncertainty until all the work is
complete. Because of that uncertainty, you need to present estimates in ways that communicate that the
estimate is not a commitment to finish the project in precisely 171 days. Instead of saying 171 days, you
say you estimate the project will take between 150 and 195 days. Executives will always take the lower
number in that range. Thats why you should always present estimates in writing. That way the higher
number, 195 days, is also on the document, just in case the executives and project sponsor forget.
Needless to say, the wide ranges of those estimates do not satisfy executives. However, initiation is the
time of greatest uncertainty about the project and only a foolish project manager would commit to a
precise date or budget.
You continue to estimate project cost and duration at several points; during project planning, and every
week while the project team is executing the plan. The amount of uncertainty in the estimates decreases
as planning is complete and you execute more of the project plan. The estimates at initiation may be plus
or minus 50% but by the time the project is half-complete, the ranges of the estimates might be plus or
minus 5%.
Page 23 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
What Techniques Do You Use to Estimate Project Cost and Duration?
There are three principal project estimating techniques that project managers use to prepare their cost
and duration estimates.
You can learn proven techniques for estimating cost and duration in our online project management
courses. Youll work privately and individually with an expert project manager. You control the schedule
and pace and have as many phone calls and live video conferences as you wish. Take a look at the
course in your specialty.
Q-6: Giving and example show how would you construct and analyze
project Network Diagram.
Ans:
The best way for project managers to avoid poor planning is to incorporate the
critical path method in their diagrams. Having this as a diagram makes it easy
to visualize the important tasks of a project. This is really helpful for managers and
makes it easier for the project team to visualize and plan their work accordingly.
The main aim is to produce a visual of the entire project broken down into smaller
activities which are vital to the completion of the entire project.
Page 24 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
A typical project has many tasks involving lots of different people so project
managers have a hard time keeping track of things. It is far too easy for certain
activities to fall behind and get lost in the sea of endless jobs. These forgotten
tasks and errors in planning can severely affect the time scale of the whole project.
A late project will cost money and lead to unhappy customers and bosses. Critical
path method helps managers figure out two very important things. How long it will
take to complete the project and what are the critical tasks that must be
completed before starting other dependent tasks.
All of the activities which are added onto the network diagram are ones which
have to be completed on time. By adding them on to a diagram it is possible to see
how long each section will take. This is essential when it comes to predicting the
timescale of the project. The benefits of applying each of the set time critical and
essential activities to a diagram include:
Predicating the time each activity will take and offering a timescale to the
client
Seeing how each section is important to the progress of the rest of the plan
It is important to note that at the beginning of the project time taken for each task
is the estimated time. During the project the estimated time might vary based on
different factors. In such cases it is important to revisit your diagram and again do
a critical path analysis. Experienced developers are usually accurate with their
estimations so this isnt something that will happen frequently.
The network diagrams can be very helpful in this type of time management.
Once you have all of the necessary activities worked out and added to the diagram
you can use the critical path method to find the optimal way to finish those tasks.
Perhaps the simplest way of using the critical path method, once you have the
earliest and latest start days, is to work backwards. Obviously the last activity is on
the critical path as without this section the project will not be completed. You then
work backwards throughout each of the activities to locate the line of activities
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
which do not have any float days available to them. However it is much easier to
create a table indicating the activity, preceding task and time duration and draw
the network diagram based on that.
Calculate the minimum overall project completion time and identify which
activities are critical.
What is the slack (float) time associated with each of the non-critical
activities?
In the above network there are a number of options for the completion time
for activities C, D and E as shown below:
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
directly afterwards. So if a task will take three days to complete and only has three
days available from the start to the following activity this means that there is no
float available, therefore it is a critical task. On the other hand float days would be
available if you have a task which only took one day to complete but there are four
days until the start of the following task. Therefore, this task is not time critical
and it can be slightly delayed if necessary.
The critical path is the activities which have to be completed on time, and if they
are not the whole of the project is put in jeopardy. When you are designing your
diagram it is a good idea to highlight the vital sections of the entire plan to show
that they are of utmost importance to the successful completion of the project.
Page 27 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
ACTIVITY NETWORK FOR EXAMPLE
Creating a network diagram can be an involved process that begins after youve
determined predecessors to your activity. Heres a simple example that can help
you learn how network diagrams can be useful in any project you manage.
You find out how to draw the network diagram for a sample project from the
information in the table shown here:
"Network chart" redirects here. For the 1980s and early 1990s British radio show,
see The Network Chart Show.
A project network is a graph (flow chart) depicting the sequence in which a
project's terminal elements are to be completed by showing terminal elements and
their dependencies. It is always drawn from left to right to reflect project
chronology
Page 28 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
The work breakdown structure or the product breakdown structure show the "part-
whole" relations. In contrast, the project network shows the "before-after"
relations.
Q-7: How would you organize and conduct Joint Project Planning section.
Ans:
Joint project planning session: -
The Joint project planning session is a group session which all of the people are
involved in the project meet to develop the detailed plan.
In JPP session the project can accomplished within a specified time frame, budget,
resource, availabilities and customer specification.
In this the planning process shares many of the features as:
i) Joint requirement planning (JRP)
JRP session is commonly used to design computer application.
ii) Joint applications design (JAD)
JAD is robust that is used for any type of project including the design and
development of computer application.
Page 29 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
objective of JPP Session is to develop a project plan that meets the conditions of
satisfaction as negotiated between the requestor and the provider.
Reasons of JPP Session;
1. People are generally impatient to get on with the work of the project.
2. We do not time for proper planning.
3. This projects is eleventh hour, which is too late to recover from a poor plan.
Planning the JPP Session;
Planning is essential to good project management. The plan is generating dynamic
document. It changes as the project commences. In JPP Sessions the good planning
is painful but the poor planning is even more painful. The document consider in JPP
Sessions is POS. The POS can develop in a number of ways. It is an idea for
consideration. It will probably be developed by one individual that is the project
manager. It can be departmentally based or cross- departmentally based. It
developed as the first phase of JPP. The JPP session being by discussing and
clarifying exactly what is intended by the POS. The project team might also use
this opportunity to write the PDS for their understanding of the project.
Facilitator;
A successful JPP Session requires an experienced facilitator. The facilitator is
responsible for conducting the JPP. It is important that the facilitator not have
interest or bring biases to the Session because that would diminish the
effectiveness of the plan. It must be developed with open mind, not biased mind.
Project manager;
Project manager is not leading the planning session; he or she can concentrate on
the plan itself; that is the project managers major role in the JPP. Having the
proposed project manager facilitate the JPP session may seem to be an excellent
choice. Project manager is the one who has final responsibility when it comes to
getting the project done on time within budget, and according to specification.
Skilled JPP facilitators are hard to find. If the project manager is not good choice for
facilitator, then the another project manager would be a good choice for facilitator,
if they has experienced in JPP.
JPP consultant;
The project manager consultants will often serve as another source of qualified JPP
facilitator. The project manager consulting will be invaluable. Especially in an
organization that have recently completed project management training and are
the process of implementing their own project management methodology.
Technographer;
The JPP facilitator is supposed by the technographer. It is an expert software tool
used to support the project. The JPP technographer is recording planning decision
on the computer as they occur in real time. Technographer can print out or display
the plan for all to see and critique.
Customer representative;
The other project managers or the importance of their participation in the meeting
JPP to convince consumers or champions. It is easy, but is necessary. Customer
must purchase the project plan, must be involved in the planning session.
Resource manager;
These manager control resource that the project will require. Schedule their
managers put together without the input and participation will be a waste of time.
Resource management is a key element in the planning process has the option of
committing resources to the project.
Project champion;
Page 31 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
The project champion drives the project and sells it to senior management.
Customers can champion an ideal situation because the commitment is already
there. The project champion can be the senior manager of the division,
department, or process that will be the beneficiary of the project deliverables.
Functional managers;
Functional managers manage areas that can either provide input to or receive
output from the project deliverable. They will be ensuring that the project
deliverable can be smoothly integrated into existing functions or that the functions
will have to be modified as part of the project plan.
Process owner;
In this the same reason that functional managers should be present, so should
process owner. If the project deliverables do not smoothly integrate into their
process, either the project plan or the affected process will have to be altered.
Facilities of JPP;
In this it is important that the physical facility is comfortable and the out-site
seems preferable, we prefer on site planning. The advantage of this is easy access
to information to on-site planning session.
The disadvantages of this it interruptions due to the daily flow of work.
In this you need to allocate enough space so those groups of four or five planning
members each have separate work areas. All work should be done in one room.
Everybody needs to be present everything that takes place in the planning session.
Session# 3
Entire planning team creates the first level WBS.
Subject matter experts develop further decomposition with the entire
planning team observing and commenting.
Estimate activity duration and resource requirements.
Construct project network diagram.
Determine critical path.
Revise and approve project completion date.
Finalize resource schedule.
Gain consensus on the project plan.
(Second part)
Deliverables
The deliverables from the JPP session are given in the project management life
cycle and have already been discussed. They are repeated here.
Resources requirements:
For each activity in the project an estimate of the resources to perform the work is
required. The resources are mostly technical, people skills, physical facilities,
equipment and computer.
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Activity schedule;
With the sequence determined, the planning team will schedule the start and end
date of each activity.
Resource assignments:
The output of the activity schedule will be the assignment of specific sources (such
as skills sets) to the project activities.
Project notebook:
Project documentation happens as a natural byproduct of the project work. All that
is needed is to appoint a project team member to be responsible. His or
responsibilities include gathering information that is already available, putting it in
a standard format, and electronically archiving it.
Project proposal
The culmination of all the planning is the project proposal. The project proposal is
the deliverable from the JPP session and is forwarded to the senior management
team for approval to do the project. In addition to this information the proposal
details,
1-What is to be done?
2-Who is going to do it?
3-When it is going to be done?
4-How it is going to be done?
Page 34 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
This brief description details the situation that led to the project proposal. It often
states the business conditions, opportunities, and/or problems giving rise to the
project.
Objectives;
This is another short section that gives a very general statement of what you hope
to accomplish through this project. Use the language of the business, not the
technical languages of your department. The objective should be clearly stated so
that there is no doubt as to what is to done and what constitutes attainment of the
objective.
Page 35 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Q-8: Explain in detail monitoring and controlling project Progress.
Ans:
Project Monitor and Control;
Purpose:-
The key activities of the project are tracked, reviewed, and revised at regular intervals to ensure the
desired results are delivered. The benefit of this process is that risks to project setbacks or failure are
minimized.
Regularly assessing progress related to scope, timeline, and budget helps to minimize the impact of
setbacks as the project progresses. By capturing and assessing progress, proper evaluation of variance to
plan can be conducted and corrective actions implemented. Additionally, as the PM or lead is
thoroughly capturing progress and any missed activity dates, adjustments and tradeoffs between
schedule and budget goals can be analyzed and agreed upon.
It is important to track risk, respond effectively to the documented risk if any and
evaluating risk is all part ensuring the project is effectively being executed.
Project managers using the Project Management Institutes Body of Knowledge
Guide to help add successful infrastructure to their projects can feel more
confident about every stage of the process knowing that over 650,000 project
managers around the world trust the expert information contained in this best-
practice publication.
Among the five process groups detailed in the manual is the Monitoring and
Controlling Process Group which indicates key elements a savvy project manager
should address when overseeing a project that is in its most active state. While all
the process groups overlap somewhat and allow for custom tailoring, collectively
they serve to elucidate the mystery of what makes great projects work like magic.
The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group addresses the skills needed to
review progress and document benchmarks. After initiating, planning, and
executing a project, the project is then officially underway though the project
manager has been hard at work since the initiation process.
Verify Scope;
As the project progresses through each phase, it is important to secure the
documentation related to completed portions of the project. Re-visiting another
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
process groups to be sure that objectives have been met reflecting any changes is
part of the follow-through needed as the project continues toward completion.
Control Scope;
If there have been adjustments to the budget, timeline, or the desired end-product,
it is important to re-visit the documentation related to the scope and mitigate any
unresolved challenges. Maintaining effective communication with stakeholders and
related constituents will keep everyone updated and engaged in the projects
success.
Control Schedule;
Every project has a schedule baseline. As the project progresses adjustments are
often necessary to address unforeseen circumstances. Monitoring the project
properly can decrease the chances that schedule issues become major setbacks.
Control Costs;
Many factors will affect cost throughout the project timeline. Keeping track of any
changes in the budget is important so that communication around the control of
costs is clear and accurate.
Report Performance;
Collecting and reporting performance data is important to complete proper
forecasting with regard to timeline and phasing. Keeping stakeholders aware of
team progress toward benchmark goals supports positive project relations.
Administer Procurements;
Team needs will change throughout the project, additional items may be required
while other items and services may not be needed at all. Keeping track of all
paperwork that documents any changes in contracts is vital to delivering the
project within budget, or as close as possible.
The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group presents a detailed set of skills and
knowledge directly applicable toward implementing the decisions needed to
sustain the most active part of the project. While moving forward with a project, a
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
top project manager continuously reviews progress and makes necessary
adjustments to increase workflow effectiveness.
Project managers looking to increase their understanding of the PMBOK can seek
the advice of leaders in the field through becoming active in a local chapter of the
Project Management Institute or by enrolling in a class taught by an industry leader
through one of Villanovas reputable and convenient online programs.
Ans:
The project closure process is the last of the process groups, and is considered important for the projects
success. All projects have a definite start and a specific end. A project closure process indicates the
formal closing of a project, and lists the key activities required to be undertaken at this stage of a
project. To calculate total expenditure a closing costs calculator is available to accurately determine the
buyers closing costs. The project closure phase can use a lessons learned template, and a project closure
report form to facilitate the project closing.
The closure process of a contract can occur in any phase of a multi-phase project if
its the term is only be applicable to a given phase. Contracts that are applicable to
a specific phase will have their particular procedures for contract closure included
in the contract terms and conditions.
This is the most important action that is taken during the project closure phase. The project deliverables
are reviewed by the customer according to the agreed acceptance criteria, and formally accepted. The
acceptance criteria relate to the functional capability of the project deliverables, and are essentially a
contract according to which a project is executed.
You have delivered the deliverables (Products, Services, or Result); however it does not mean your
project is over. You need to get a formal sign-off from the customer on the delivered deliverables. If it is
positive from the customers end, it can be declared as completed projects. Just imagine a worst scenario
if the customer after receiving the deliverables say that it is not up to the mark and you need to rework
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Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
on the process again, that will be incurring more cost along with rework. Another serious problem would
be to regroup the project team again. Therefore, formal sign-off is very essential for finally closing
projects.
Page 41 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Short-term success factors and how they were met
Financial data
Culture or environment
Lessons learned
Recommendations to future project managers Be certain to identify in the report the project
successes, problems on the project, and new ideas that were successful on the project. Make
recommendations on how these processes might be adapted for other projects.
Share the projects success with other organizations. In the same way that problem identifications can
lead to improvements, successes must be shared so they can be repeated. Where possible, successes
should be translated into procedures that will be followed by future projects.
Final Project Report & Last Items:
As the Project Manager, most organizations will expect the delivery of some sort of Final Project
Report. This document should be delivered to your Project Sponsor. The document should be a recap of
the project. Begin with information from the Project Plan document, like the Executive Summary,
Project Purpose, Project Objectives, Project Organization, and a Project Schedule (I usually include a
comparison table of major milestone dates from the initial schedule baseline, as compared to the dates of
the final working schedule at the end of the project).
Be sure to provide some detail on the effect of changes to the project and describe those changes not
covered by the project, which you recommend should be addressed as soon as possible. In addition to
the above topics, make sure to include your final reconciliation of the project budget. Also, include a
recap of the performance metrics taken during the project (the budget and schedule reconciliations will
provide the final project metrics).
Some organizations and some Project Sponsors will request a written report, others will request a
presentation (i.e., MS-PowerPoint slides). Make sure to ask the Project Sponsor her/his preferred format
of the Final Project Report.
Once the Final Project Report is delivered and accepted by the Project Sponsor; you have ensured the
release/re-assignment of all project team members; and all contracts have been closed, your final chore
as Project Manager is to make sure all project documentation is archived and accessible.
Celebration of a party:
And finally the stage arrives where you need to arrange a get together party involving all your team
members and all your stakeholders. They should feel the success they made altogether. This portion is
usually ignored by many project managers but this work as a good team motivation for the entire team
involved in the project. Ideally you should go for milestone parties after the end of long term projects. If
possible, you should involve your end customer and third party vendors also in the celebration party to
make it a huge success altogether. This defines complete closure of a project.
Page 42 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Ans:
Critical Chain Project Management is a methodology for planning, executing and managing projects in
single and multi-project environments. Critical Chain Project Management was developed by Dr Eli
Goldratt and was first introduced to the market in his Theory of Constraints book Critical Chain in
1997. It was developed in response to many projects being dogged by poor performance manifested in
longer than expected durations, frequently missed deadlines, increased costs in excess of budget, and
substantially less deliverables than originally promised.
1. It is determination modes.
2. It avoid mismanagement of slack or float.
3. It optimize the utilization of resources.
4. The project is based on the critical chain method completes 10% to 30%
faster than that critical path method.
5. It is more practical approach.
6. It encourages the team members to perform efficiently.
7. It includes the productivity.
The critical path can be assumed as a particular code of critical chain when the
project has access to unlimited resources that will never run out. In other words
you can log that the critical chain method is a modified form of the critical path
method. Here availability of resources is conceded while creating the project
schedule.
The Critical Chain Method has its roots in another one of Dr. Goldratts inventions,
namely, The Theory of Constraints (TOC). This Project Management Method comes
into force after the initial Project Schedule is prepared, which includes
establishment of the task dependencies. The evolved Critical path is reworked
based on the Critical Chain Method. To do so, the methodology assumes
constraints related to each task.
Page 43 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
If the Safety Margin assumed is not needed, it is actually wasted. If the task is
finished sooner, it may not necessarily mean that the successor task can start
earlier as the resources required for the successor task may not be available until
their scheduled time. Hence, the saved time cannot be passed on to finish the
Project early. On the other hand, if there are delays over and above the estimated
schedules, these delays will most definitely get passed on, and, in most cases, will
exponentially increase the Project Schedule.
The critical path can be assumed as a particular case of the critical chain when the project has access to
unlimited resources that will never run out.
In other words, you can say that the critical chain method is a modified form of the critical path method.
Here, availability of resources is considered while creating the project schedule.
In critical chain project management, instead of float, buffers are used. These buffers are designed in
such a way that they completely eliminate the concept of float or slack.
Three types of buffers are used in critical chain management. These buffers are as follows:
Project Buffer:-
This buffer is placed between the last task and the project completion date as a non-activity buffer, and
this buffer acts as a contingency for the critical chain activities. Any delay on the critical chain will eat
this buffer, but the project completion date will remain unchanged. Also, if there is any gain from the
early finish of any activity, this gain will be added to this buffer as well.
Usually the duration of this buffer is 50% of the contingency that you have removed from each task
estimate. This helps you move uncertainty from each task to the project buffer.
Please note that, although the critical chain starts from the beginning, it ends before the start of the
project buffer. It does not end at the end of the project. This duration will include any time duration
borrowed from the project buffer or exclude the duration added to the buffer.
Feeding Buffers:-
These buffers are added to the non-critical chain so that any delay on the non-critical chain does not
affect the critical chain. They are inserted between the last task on a non-critical chain and the critical
chain.
Feeding buffers are also calculated the same way as the project buffer. The duration of these buffers is
based on some fraction of the safety removed from the tasks on non-critical chains.
Page 44 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Resource Buffer:-
These buffers are kept alongside the critical chain to make sure that they are available when they are
required. This buffer can be a human resource or any equipment.
Please note that, since the critical chain considers the resource constraints as well, it may be longer than
the critical path schedule. However, this might be compensated by removing the contingencies from the
activities. Resources used in critical chain are known as critical resources.
As the Progress of the Project is reported, the Critical Chain is recalculated. In fact,
monitoring and controlling of the Project primarily focuses on utilization of
the Buffers. Hence the Critical Chain Method considers the basic Critical Path based
Project Network and Schedule to derive a completely new Schedule.
Along similar lines, the Event Chain Methodology of Project Management focuses
on determining the uncertain events and the chain Reactions they propagate. It is
a method of modelling uncertainties and is based on Monte Carlo Analysis,
Bayesian Believe Network, and other established simulation methodologies. When
they occur, events can cause other events, triggering an Event Chain, which will
effectively alter the course of the Project. Events and Event Chains are identified
and a Quantitative Analysis is performed to determine the extent of the
uncertainty and the probable impact of the same on the Project. From this exercise,
Critical Event Chains are derived, which have the potential to impact the project
significantly. Event Chain diagrams are visual representations of Events, Event
Chains, and their impact.
It is clear that neither the Critical Path Project Management Methodology nor the
Event Chain Methodology can be considered as alternatives to the standard
Methodology for project Management as advocated by PMBOK. While the Critical
Path Project Management Methodology can be at best used as a tool for deriving
Project Schedule networks, the Event Chain Methodology for Project Management
can be used as a tool for Quantitative Risk Analysis.
Planning:-
Page 45 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
A project plan or work breakdown structure (WBS) is created in much the same
fashion as with critical path. The plan is worked backward from a completion date
with each task starting as late as possible.
Resources are assigned to each task, and the plan is resource leveled, using the
aggressive durations. The longest sequence of resource-leveled tasks that lead
from beginning to end of the project is then identified as the critical chain. The
justification for using the 50% estimates is that half of the tasks will finish early
and half will finish late, so that the variance over the course of the project should
be zero.[
Recognizing that tasks are more likely to take more time than less time due to
Parkinson's law, Student syndrome, or other reasons, CCPM uses "buffers" to
monitor project schedule and financial performance. The "extra" duration of each
task on the critical chainthe difference between the "safe" durations and the 50%
durationsis gathered in a buffer at the end of the project. In the same way,
buffers are gathered at the end of each sequence of tasks that feed into the critical
chain. The date at the end of the project buffer is given to external stakeholders as
the delivery date. Finally, a baseline is established, which enables financial
monitoring of the project.
Execution:-
When the plan is complete and the project is ready to start, the project network is
fixed and the buffers' sizes are "locked" (i.e., their planned duration may not be
altered during the project), because they are used to monitor project schedule and
financial performance.
Page 46 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
With no slack in the duration of individual tasks, resources are encouraged to focus
on the task at hand to complete it and hand it off to the next person or group. The
objective here is to eliminate bad multitasking. This is done by providing priority
information to all resources. The literature draws an analogy with a relay race.
Each element on the project is encouraged to move as quickly as they can: when
they are running their "leg" of the project, they should be focused on completing
the assigned task as quickly as possible, with minimization of distractions and
multitasking. In some case studies, actual batons are reportedly hung by the desks
of people when they are working on critical chain tasks so that others know not to
interrupt. The goal, here, is to overcome the tendency to delay work or to do extra
work when there seems to be time. The CCPM literature contrasts this with
"traditional" project management that monitors task start and completion dates.
CCPM encourages people to move as quickly as possible, regardless of dates.
Because task duration has been planned at the 50% probability duration, there is
pressure on resources to complete critical chain tasks as quickly as possible,
overcoming student's syndrome and Parkinson's Law
Monitoring:-
Page 47 of 48
Name: Muhammad Faisal Qamar Reg No:10M2-114517
Assignment: Project Management Semester: Spring 10th
B-Tech (Hons) Civil 10th
Reference Sources
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