Review for exam II March 12, 2015

Format for exam 70 multiple choice 3 sets of discussion questions

Bring…/Don’t Bring… Bring… –Scantron sheet –Pencil, eraser, calculator Don’t Bring… –Paper –PDAs, Pocket PC’s, tablets, –Programmable, high memory storage devices

We Covered: Burns Chs 4, 7, 8 Schwalbe, Chs 3-7

We also covered Probabilistic PERT (formulas will be given to you) –Each task (activity) requires three time estimates – Optimistic, Most likely, Pessimistic Crashing

Schwalbe, Chs. 3-8 Ch 3—PM Process Groups—a Case Study Ch 4--integration management Ch 5—scope management Ch 6—time management Ch 7—cost management

For Schwalbe material Skim the chapter –Look for definitions and concepts Work the multiple choice at the end Read the chapter Summary

Traits of Project Managers –Leadership Ability –Ability to Develop People –Communication Skills –Interpersonal Skills –Ability to Handle Stress –Problem-Solving Skills –Time Management Skills

How do you develop these skills? Gain experience Seek feedback Conduct a self- evaluation Interview project managers Participate in training programs Join organizations like PMI Read, Read, Read Volunteer

The Project Team Ideally, the PM should become involved at what point in a project? What about the other project team members? Which is easier to develop? Skills or competencies? What have many organizations done about this? Create a learning laboratory for wanna be project managers Use a hierarchy of job classifications for aspiring project managers

Parkinson’s Law What is it??

Processes

More Processes

What are the processes that make up the cost management knowledge area? Estimate Costs Determine Budget Control Costs

What are the processes that make up the quality management knowledge area? Plan Quality Perform Quality Assurance Perform Quality Control

Human Resources Management Develop HR plan Acquire team Develop team Manage team

Team Development and Effectiveness Name the five states of team development according to B.W. Tuckman Effective project teams have what characteristics? –Next slide Barriers to team effectiveness include what? –Next slide

Characteristics of effective project teams A clear understanding of the project objective Clear expectations of each person’s role and responsibilities A results Orientation A High Degree of Cooperation and Collaboration A High Level of Trust

Barriers to team effectiveness are… Unclear goals Unclear definition of Roles and Responsibilities Lack of project structure Lack of Commitment Poor Communication Poor Leadership Turnover of project team members Dysfunctional behavior

The Core Team The project team is comprised of two categories of team members--core and contracted Core team members are with the project from cradle to grave, albeit only part time Selection criteria: Commitment, shared responsibility, flexible, task oriented, team oriented, open-minded, work across departments,

The Contracted Team Contracted team members are with the project for only a short time, during which they produce a specific deliverable and then leave What problems, do contracted team members present to the PM? –Window of availability, project orientation, commitment to the project

Level Project Resources What is meant by resource leveling? Why do we need to level resources? What is meant by splitting activities? Stretching activities? Can you split or stretch activities that are on the critical path? Why or why not?

Schedule and Document Work Packages –How many tasks in a work package? –How many cost accounts in a work package? What chart is recommended for scheduling a work package? –Organized by due date, and again by activity manager

POSSIBLE MC Questions What is contingency? Which of the following is used to calculate probabilities? CPM, PERT, Gantt, or Crashing A key tool used to track cost and schedule is… Costs or benefits that are easily measured in dollars are called--TANGIBLE

Monitor and Control Progress— will not test you on EVA Earned Value Analysis Be able to do anything we assigned as homework What is BCWP, BCWS, ACWP, CV,SV,CI,SI—WON’T HAVE TO KNOW THESE

Earned Value Analysis – NO! If a work package is 70% done and $50,000 was budgeted for it, how much value is earned? What is its BCWP? If the same work package has consumed $40,000, what is its ACWP? Is the work package over or under budget? What is the CV? If the package is supposed to be 60% complete, what is the BCWS? Is the work package behind or ahead of schedule? What is the SV?

Scope Management

Schwalbe Ch. 6: Time Management Define Activities Sequence Activities Estimate Resources Estimate Activity Durations Develop Schedule Control Schedule

Schwalbe Ch. 7: Cost Management Estimate Costs Determine Budget Control Costs

Cost Management – Estimate Costs Cost estimation – our weakest link Three types of cost estimates –Rough cut (35-72 months out), budgetary (24 months out)and definitive (1 month out) –Could us MS project to do definitive cost estimation There are many spreadsheet templates to assist with cost estimation—more popular than MS Project

Cost Management – Control Costs Use EVA/EVM EVA – Earned Value Analysis EVM – Earned Value Management Won’t cover these on this exam…

Life Cycle Costing Does it make sense to spend more time on development so that life cycle costs will be less?

Types of Costs Direct costs –Direct labor costs –hourly rate * hours Indirect costs –Overhead (administration, pension, health care costs Sunk costs –Money that has already been spent; consider it gone

Cost Estimation Tools Analogous estimates –Also called top-down estimates –Bottom-up estimates –Parametric modeling – COCOMO –It helps when you have a past project…

Schwalbe Chapter 8: Quality Management Plan Quality –The longer a defect remains, the _____it is to fix Perform Quality Assurance –How can we test designs? –Test all affected logic paths Perform Quality Control –Use an off-side independent tester—beta testing

Planning Quality What functionality?—based on requirements What outputs?—also based on requirements What performance?—also… What reliability?—also… What maintainability?--also…

Tools for Quality Control Cause and effect diagrams (fishbone diag) Statistical process control charts Run charts Scatter diagrams Histograms Pareto charts

Types of testing as part of Quality Assurance Design Walkthroughs Module (unit) testing Integration testing –Regression testing System testing Beta testing

Quality and Cost They are related Consumer’s perspective: higher cost means better quality Producer’s perspective: better quality means lower cost –Less rework – less debugging –Less scrap –Less liability claims –Greater market share

Quality Costs Costs of conformance (good quality) –Prevention (4% of revenues) Process innovation and improvement –Appraisal Walkthroughs and testing Costs of nonconformance (bad quality) –Internal External (up to 40% of revenues)

Close out the Project STEPS –Ensure all deliverables are installed/delivered –Get client acceptance of deliverables –Ensure documentation is in place –Get client sign-off on final –Conduct post-implementation –Celebrate success

Obtain Client Acceptance The client decides when the project is done PM must demonstrate that deliverables meet client specifications Ceremonial Acceptance –formal acceptance not required, such as plan and conduct a conference Formal acceptance –a written acceptance procedure that requires the project team to demonstrate compliance

Miscellaneous Be able to crash a network as we did in class You must know by now that adding resources to a project that is behind might only make it finish later, because of the training and communication overhead You must know by now that most IT projects need to be finished quicker

Miscellaneous You must know by now why frozen requirements are usually desirable, but not possible Frozen requirements, like the proverbial snowman, are a myth—both will melt when enough heat is applied SOOO00oooo????

THAT’S ALL FOLKS

Capability Maturity Model Who invented the CMM? What are the five stages of process maturity? How long does it take to go from one stage to the next? How is it decided what stage a process is in? Why is this concept important?

Goldratt’s Thinking Process What is this methodology good for? What are the three questions that get addressed? What is an “Evaporating Cloud?” What is an injection?

Goldratt’s Thinking Process, Cont’d What “tree” addresses the question WHAT TO CHANGE? What “device” addresses the question WHAT TO CHANGE TO? What trees address the question HOW TO CAUSE THE CHANGE? What tree gives you a sequence of steps, actions to take in route to achievement of the injection?

Goldratt’s CRITICAL CHAIN What is safety? Why does Goldratt want to remove it? Where should safety be put? Why does Goldratt want a static (unchanging) critical path? How does Goldratt insure a static critical path? What is wrong with C/SCS measures like BCWP, BCWS, ACWP?

More CRITICAL CHAIN What measures does Goldratt suggest? What does Goldratt propose as a matter of policy relative to tasks on the critical path?

Best Practices Daily Build and Smoke Test Designing for change Miniature milestones Evolutionary Prototyping Change Control Board Rapid Development Languages Staged Delivery

More Best Practices Measurement Reuse Joint Application Development Requirements Scrubbing Timebox development

Systems Thinking Why has this concept taken center stage? Name an archetype –Limits to Growth –Shifting the Burden

System Dynamics What is a rate? What is a state? What are the two types of connectors? What is an auxiliary? What is a parameter or input?

More System Dynamics How has SD been used to facilitate control of projects?

More Systems Thinking Describe the behavior observed by the limits to growth archetype Describe the behavior observed by the shifting the burden archetype How many other archetypes are there?