Project Management Final

How does the International Organization for Standardization define quality?

"The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements"

Stakeholder Engagement PLan Contents

-Current and desired engagement levels of stakeholders -Scope and impact of change to stakeholders -Identified interrelationships between stakeholders and potential overlap -Potential management strategies for each stakeholder classification -Methods for updating the stakeholder management plan

Negative Risk Responses

-Escalation of the risk -Risk avoidance -Risk acceptance -Risk transference -Risk mitigation

Positive Risk Responses

-Escalation of the risk -Risk exploitation -Risk sharing -Risk enhancement -Risk acceptance

Team Management Plan - Key components?

-Project organizational chart -Responsibility assignment matrix -Resource histogram -Staffing management plan

10 Negative Effects of Groupthink according to Forbes Coaches Council

1- Common responses to threat under pressure 2- Limits and inclusion 3- Focusing only on what is known 4- The "corporate nod" 5- Project extinction 6- Blind commitments to best practices 7- Lack of engagement 8- Disasters 9- Drowned out voices 10- Over confidence in your decision because everyone supports it

4 Key Practices that best-performing companies follow

1- They build an integrated project management toolbox 2- They grow competent project leaders 3- They develop streamlined, consistent project delivery processes 4- They install a sound but comprehensive set of project performance metrics

On a RACI chart, which letter can only appear once for a task?

A

Resource histogram

A column chart that shows the number of resources required for or assigned to a project over time

Procurement SOW

A description of the work that is to be purchased

Proposal

A document in which sellers describe what they'll do to meet the buyer's requirements

Bid (aka quote)

A document prepared by sellers providing pricing for standard items that have been clearly defined by the buyer

Risk register

A document that contains the results of various risk management processes and is often displayed in a table or spreadsheet format

Procurement management plan

A document that describes how the procurement processes will be managed, from developing documentation for making outside purchases or acquisitions to contract closure

Communications management plan

A document that guides project communications

Request for Proposal (RFP)

A document used to solicit proposals from prospective suppliers

Request for Quote (RFQ)

A document used to solicit quotes or bids from prospective suppliers

Project organizational chart

A graphical representation of how authority and responsibility is distributed within the project The size and complexity of the project determines how simple or complex the organizational chart is

Project dashboard

A graphical screen summarizing key project metrics

Time-and-material contracts

A hybrid of both fixed-price and cost-reimbursable contracts

Responsiblity Assignment Matrix

A matrix that maps the work of the project as described in the WBS to the people responsible for performing the work

Metric

A standard of measurement

RACI charts

A type of RAM that show Responsibility, Accountability, Consultation, and Informed for tasks

Project Communications Management

Account for 90% of the job Involves generating, collecting, disseminating and storing project information

Risk

An uncertainty that can have a negative or positive effect on meeting project objectives

How do experts generally define quality?

Based on conformance to requirements and fitness for use

Explicit knowledge

Can be easily explained using words, pics, or numbers and is easy to communicate, store and distribute

Topics such as who will receive project information and who will produce it, suggested methods or guidelines for conveying the information, frequency of communication, and escalation procedures for resolving issues should be described in a _______________.

Communications management plan

Project Communications Management: Outputs

Communications management plan and project website

Project resource management

Concerned with making effective use of the people involved with a project as well as its physical resources

Groupthink

Conformance to the values or ethical standards of a group

Who determines what quality level is acceptable on a project?

Customer

Most project _____ use red, yellow, and green to indicate the status of each metric

Dashboards

You can purchase an item you need for a project for $10,000 and it has daily operating costs of $500, or you can lease the item for $700 per day. On which day will the purchase cost be the same as the lease cost?

Day 50

Most project sponsors would say that the most important output of any project is ?

Deliverables

Task-related conflict

Derived from differences over team objectives and how to achieve them - often improves team performance

Staffing management plan

Describes when and how people will be added to and removed from a project

Fallback plans

Developed for risks that have a high impact on meeting project objectives (Sometimes called contingency plans of last resort)

Tacit knowledge (aka informal knowledge)

Difficult to express & highly personal (includes beliefs, insight and experience)

Risk management plan

Documents the procedures for managing risk throughout the life of a project

Conflict Handling Modes (Blake and Mouton)

Each strategy is based on importance of the task & importance of the relationship between the people having the conflict Confrontation or problem solving- Directly face a conflict (high/high) Compromise/reconcile- Use a give-and-take approach (medium/medium) Smooth/accommodate- de-emphasize areas of differences and emphasize areas of agreement (low/high) Force/direct- the win-lose approach (high/low)_ Withdrawal/avoid- retreat or withdraw from an actual or potential disagreement (low/low) Most recent mode: Collaborating

Project quality management

Ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied needs for which it was undertaken

What section of a communications management plan describes how issues should be resolved?

Escalation procedures

What does estimating activity resources involve?

Estimating the type, quantity, and characteristics of team resources and physical resources required to complete the project

What are examples of common metrics used by organizations?

Failure rates of products produced, availability of goods and services, customer satisfaction ratings

The ______ Acquisition Regulation provides uniform policies for acquisition of supplies and services by executive agencies

Federal

You bought a laptop assuming it had application software loaded so you could use it right away, but it did not. Which quality consideration did the laptop not meet?

Fitness for use

You want to have the least risk possible in setting up a contract to purchase goods and services from an outside firm. As the buyer, what type of contract should you use?

Fixed price

Contingency reserves or allowances

Funds held by the project sponsor that can be used to mitigate cost or schedule overruns if known risks occur

Management reserves

Funds held for unknown risks that are used for management control purposes

Benchmarking

Generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects

What does a probability/impact matrix do?

Help decide which risks are most important on a project

Project procurement management

Includes acquiring or procuring goods and services for a project from outside the organization

Quality assurance & key outputs

Includes all the activities related to satisfying the relevant quality standards for a project Outputs: quality report, test and evaluation documents, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates

Fixed price or lump-sum contracts

Involve a fixed total price for a well-defined product or service

Cost-reimbursable contracts

Involve payment to the seller for direct and indirect actual costs

Process analysis

Involves analyzing how a process operates and determining improvements

Make-or-buy analysis

Involves estimating the internal costs of providing a product or service, and comparing that estimate to the cost of outsourcing

______ reserves are funds held for unknown risks that are not included in the cost baseline

Management

Conformance to requirements

Means that the project's processes and products meet written specifications

What do metrics allow organizations to do?

Measure their performance in certain areas and to compare them over time or with other organizations

Achieving an average course evaluation of at least 3.0 on a 5.0 scale is an example of?

Metric

__________ allow organizations to measure their performance in certain areas—such as failure rates, availability, and reliability—and compare them over time or with other organizations.

Metrics

Contracts

Mutually binding agreements that obligate the seller to provide the specified products or services, and obligate the buyer to pay for them

How are suppliers evaluated?

On criteria related to cost, quality, technology, past performance and management

What determines the success and failure of organizations and projects?

People

Project Risk Management: Main planning processes

Planning risk management, identifying risks, performing qualitative risk analysis, performing quantitative risk analysis, planning risk responses

Contingency plans

Predefined actions that the project team will take if an identified risk event occurs

What two dimensions should you use when evaluating project risks?

Probability and impact

Project Procurement Management: Outputs

Procurement management plans, procurement strategies, bid documents, procurement statements of work, source selection criteria, make-or-buy decisions, independent cost estimates, change requests, project documents updates, organizational process assets updates

What is the majority of a project's time and budget spent on?

Project execution

What is the most noticed process group?

Project execution

Project resource management: Outputs

Project resource management plan, team charter

Federal Acquisition Regulation

Provides uniform policies for acquisition of supplies and services for executive agencies in the U.S.

______ is defined as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Quality

Project quality management: Outputs

Quality management plan, quality metrics, updates to the project management plan and project documents

Risk events

Refer to specific, uncertain events that may occur to the detriment or enhancement of the project

What document graphically shows how many and what type of resources are estimated to be needed on a project over time?

Resource histogram

A RACI chart is a type of _______________.

Responsibility assignment matrix

A _______________is a document that contains results of various risk management processes, often displayed in a table or spreadsheet format

Risk register

Identifying Risks: Outputs

Risk register and risk report

Risk Report Contents

Sources of overall project risk and summary information on risk events, distribution across risk categories, metrics, trends

A _______________ describes when and how people will be added to and taken off of a project.

Staffing management plan

Project stakeholder management: Output

Stakeholder engagement plan

Emotional conflict

Stems from personality clashes and misunderstandings - often depresses team performance

Quality audit

Structured review of specific quality management activities that helps identify lessons learned

Lean

System based on the Toyota Production system - used to help improve results and efficiency by eliminating waste

Who decides whether quality level is acceptable?

The customer

Overall project risk

The effect of uncertainty on the project as a whole

Risk Management Plans should address:

The methodology for risk management, roles and responsibilities, budget and schedule estimates for risk-related activities, risk categories, probability and impact matrices, risk documentation

Why do companies use team charters?

To help promote teamwork and clarify team communications

Suppose you are a member of Kristin's team and you are having difficulties communicating with one of the supplier management experts who is providing important content for a class you are developing. What strategy might you use to help improve communications?

Use several different methods to communicate with this person

Request for Information (RFI)

Used when more information about the goods or services is needed

What is a common way to summarize work performance information?

Using a milestone report

Kanban

Visual technique used to improve workflow

Issue

a matter under question or dispute that could impede project success

Blogs

easy to use journals on the Web that allow users to write entries, create links, and upload pictures, while readers can post comments to journal entries

Issue log

helps to document, monitor, and track issues that need to be resolved for effective work to take place

Project stakeholder management

involves determining strategies to effectively engage stakeholders in project decisions and activities based on their needs, interests, and potential impact

Fitness for use

means that a product can be used as it was intended