Project Management test 2

Task Dependency Types

Finish to start Start to finish Finish to finish Start to finish

Task Dependencies

The nature of the relationship between to linked tasks.

Determining the budget

allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work items to establish a baseline for measuring performance

Developing the schedule

analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule

Intangible costs or benefits

are costs or benefits that are difficult to measure in monetary terms

Indirect costs

are costs that are not directly related to the products or services of the project, but are indirectly related to performing the project

Direct costs

are costs that can be directly related to producing the products and services of the project

PERT

is a network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates

CPM

is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration

Slack or float is

the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date

A critical path for a project is

the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed

Analogous or top-down estimates

use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project

Parametric modeling

uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs

Gantt charts Symbols include

A black diamond: a milestones Thick black bars: summary tasks Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks Arrows: dependencies between tasks

Milestones

A milestone is a significant event that normally has no duration It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone They're useful tools for setting schedule goals and monitoring progress Examples include obtaining customer sign-off on key documents or completion of specific products

A network diagram is

A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities

Calculating the Critical Path

First develop a good network diagram Add the duration estimates for all activities on each path through the network diagram The longest path is the critical path If one or more of the activities on the critical path takes longer than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless the project manager takes corrective action

Scope Aspects of IT Projects

Functionality Features System outputs Performance Reliability Maintainability

Planning quality management

Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them; a metric is a standard of measurement

Methods for Collecting Requirements

Interviewing Focus groups and facilitated workshops Using group creativity and decision-making techniques Questionnaires and surveys Observation Prototyping Benchmarking, or generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products inside or outside the performing organization, can also be used to collect requirements

Performing quality control

Monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards

Performing quality assurance

Periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards

A schedule management plan includes

Project schedule model development The scheduling methodology Level of accuracy and units of measure Control thresholds Rules of performance measurement Reporting formats Process descriptions

Approaches to Developing WBSs

Using guidelines: Some organizations, like the DOD, provide guidelines for preparing WBSs The analogy approach: Review WBSs of similar projects and tailor to your project The top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the project and break them down The bottom-up approach: Start with the specific tasks and roll them up Mind-mapping approach: Mind mapping is a technique that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas

Tangible costs or benefits

are those costs or benefits that an organization can easily measure in dollars

Mandatory dependencies

inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic

Controlling the schedule

controlling and managing changes to the project schedule

Controlling scope

controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the project

Controlling costs

controlling changes to the project budget

Bottom-up estimates

involve estimating individual work items or activities and summing them to get a project total

External dependencies

involve relationships between project and non-project activities

Discretionary dependencies

defined by the project team., sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options

Collecting requirements

defining and documenting the features and functions of the products produced during the project as well as the processes used for creating them

Planning scope

determining how the project's scope and requirements will be managed

Planning cost management

determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling project cost.

Planning schedule management

determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule

Estimating costs

developing an approximation or estimate of the costs of the resources needed to complete a project

Project quality management

ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken

Estimating activity resources

estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities

Estimating activity durations

estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities

Validating scope

formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables

Sequencing activities

identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities

Defining activities

identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables

Sunk cost

is money that has been spent in the past; when deciding what projects to invest in or continue, you should not include sunk costs

The critical path

is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float

Gantt charts

provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format

Scope

refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them

Defining scope

reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope statement

Creating the WBS

subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components