Questions and Answers of Project Management Processes Methodologies And Economics

9 Planmatics is undertaking a modernization program. The set of activities in Table 16 has been defined for refurbishing one of its wave soldering machines.The AOA network is given in Fig. 5.a. Find
3 Using the data in Exercise 2, assume that the overhead for the project is given by Overhead = $2,000 + a * $1,000 per day What is the project duration that minimizes its total cost if: a. a=1? b. a
17 For Exercise 16, compute the total slacks and free slacks, and summarize the critical path calculations in a tabular format.TABLE 15 Immediate Duration Activity Description predecessors (days)A
11 You have been awarded the contract to set up a new restaurant in an existing building at a local university (i.e., there is no need for external construction). The WBS for the project, as
9 Discuss the following statement made by a project manager: "We have already spent 70% of the budget required to complete the projects it would be a waste of money to abandon it at this stage."
8 Identify two projects (local or national) that were terminated prematurely.a. Analyze the reasons that each was canceled.b. Compare the results of the two cases.
7 Develop a questionnaire to capture the importance of various activities that should be performed during the termination stage.a. Administer the questionnaire to a sample of project managers.b.
6 Identify two projects in which you have been involved recently.a. Describe each project briefly.b. Suggest criteria that may have been used to identify the start of the termination phase of each
successes, and the reasons that it has flourished for so long, as well as the more traditional information associated with termination.
5 In the United States, a flagrant example of a program that has outlived its mission is the Rural Electrification Program that was started in the 1930s by the Roosevelt administration. Its original
4 Develop a CBS for the termination phase, assuming that only activities that are not related to the substance of the project are performed in that phase.
3 Develop a “generic” project termination plan that is based on the list of activities presented in the chapter.What are the precedence relations among these activities? Develop a linear
2 Write a job description for a project termination manager.
1 Develop guidelines for writing a project final report.
12. List the political and sociological reasons that a project might continue to be supported even though it cannot be justified economically. Can you identify such a project in your private life?
11. Many people in and out of government have proposed sunset laws for all projects and agencies.That is, after a fixed amount of time, a project or an agency would be closed down unless sufficient
10. Identify the closeout costs for a big project, such as the International Space Station after it becomes operational but before it is occupied or a nuclear power plant that is, say,90% complete.
9. Assume that you are working for a computer manufacturer as a software engineer and that you are told abruptly that your project will be canceled within 4 weeks. List the questions that you would
8. Several years ago, the U.S. Congress canceled funding for the development of a batterypowered electric vehicle. Do you think that was a good decision? Can you imagine what the pros and cons were?
7. What is the most important information that a final report should contain?
6. Why do some projects that are clearly “losers” seem to go on forever? Can you identify a few at the national level? State level? Local level?
5. In what way should the planning of the project termination phase be influenced by personnel considerations?
4. How might the input requirements differ for a project control system versus an audit team evaluating the process that accompanied a project termination decision?
3. In what ways does the termination phase of a project differ from the closedown of a failed company? What are the similarities?
2. Explain the difference between termination by integration and termination by inclusion using an example for each process.
1. Develop a flow diagram that shows how project termination decisions should be made.
11 Read a recent article evaluating project management software packages. Such articles fre- quently appear in technical journals and magazines such as Industrial Engineer, OR/MS Today, and PC World.
10 As part of your company's effort to select a project management software package, you have been asked to approach several other companies that presently use such packages.a. Develop a
9 Discuss the following comment and develop a numerical example to validate your re- marks: "The purchasing price of a project management software package is a negligible issue as long as the price
8 Develop a benchmark project to be used to evaluate the suitability of software packages as a teaching aid in project management studies.
7 You have been asked to choose the project management software to be used as a teaching aid for a project management course.a. Write the software specifications for such a package.b. What might be
6 Develop a PERT program on a spreadsheet that is based on the three time estimates for each activity. Your program should be able to calculate the probability of completing the project by a given
5 Develop a spreadsheet application for resource management within an OBS-WBS frame- work. The application should present planned use, cost of resources, actual use and cost, and the deviations for
4 Develop a spreadsheet application for project scheduling that calculates the early start, early finish, late start, late finish, total slack, and free slack for each activity.
3 Obtain a project management software package with which you are not familiar. For the example project determine how much time is required to learn its basic func- tions, including data entry,
2 Develop a software selection methodology for the project "Design of a New Space Labo- ratory for Crystal Manufacture." Use the methodology to assess Microsoft Project's ability to support the
1 Write a report on the software package Microsoft Project or another one with which you are familiar. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of the package as a tool for sup- porting the study of
12. To simplify Microsoft Project, which features would you eliminate?
11. What improvements or changes in Microsoft Project would you recommend?
10. Prepare a risk management plan for the project discussed in Question 8.
9. What risks are associated with the project discussed in Question 8?
8. You are in charge of the selection and implementation of a new project management software package in your organization. Develop a project plan and explain the details.
7. Write a description of one application from the list you developed in your answer to Question 6.
6. Which aspects of project management can be supported by a database system?
5. Write a description of one application from the list you developed in your answer to Question 4.
4. Which aspects of project management can be supported by a simple spreadsheet application?
3. Develop a list of criteria for a project management software package to be used in a project management course.
2. Are there aspects of project management for which computer support cannot be used?
1. For which aspects of project management are computers most useful? Explain.
10 Using a commercial integer programming package, solve model (2a)-(2f) initialized with the case study data presented in the appendix at the end of this chapter.
9 Computer Assignment. Write an interactive computer program implementing the three-step procedure discussed in Section 6.2 for screening projects and computing project scores.
8 For each of the 14 key variables presented in Section 6.1, identify the internal and ex- ternal data sources that can be used to ascertain their status.
7 Choose a new technology, describe its major features, and explain how you would apply the total quality management principles to an R&D project aimed at commercialization. What is different about
6 Construct a mathematical programming model for the parallel funding problem discussed in Exercise 5 and Section 5.
5 Consider the problem of trying to decide which tasks to fund in parallel to achieve a given technical objective. For example, the objective might be to develop a low-cost rechargeable battery to
4 Select an industry such as semiconductors or consumer electronics, and go through the six stages of the strategic technical planning process listed in Table 1.
3 The transonic airplane, now on the drawing board, is intended to be a commercial trans- port operating between continents at supersonic speeds. It will fly a ballistic trajectory and be able to
2 Assume that you are in charge of a round-trip mission to Mars. The goal is to spend 3 months on the planet's surface performing experiments and collecting data that will be used to help set up a
1 Identify a new product that is based on an innovation in technology, and draw up a strate- gic technical plan for its development. Be sure to discuss the risk factors at each stage, and indicate
15. What data are needed to run the mathematical programming model (2)? How would you go about collecting these data?
14. What are some of the shortcomings of the mathematical programming model presented in Section 6.2 to manage an R&D portfolio? Can you suggest ways of correcting or accommodating them?
13. Which of the critical factors and key variables described in Section 6 do you think would apply to conventional projects?
12. Why has simulation modeling, which is a descriptive technique, been preferred to mathematical programming, which is a prescriptive technique, for analyzing and providing help in the management of
11. Identify a new technology for which you believe that parallel development is not warranted.Explain your choice.
10. Consider a new technology, such as superconductivity or magnetic levitation, and identify several (parallel) ways of realizing it on a commercial rather than a laboratory scale.
9. As the head of an R&D group that is contemplating the development of a notebook computer with a built-in fax machine, who would you like to have on your strategic planning team? Why?
8. What are the differences between a strategic technical plan and an operational plan for an R&D project?
7. Pick an industry and identify its base, key, and pacing technologies.
6. Can you think of any example for which lack of standards retarded the introduction of a new product or technology? Give some details.
5. Give a few examples for which commercial success did not follow technical success with regard to new product introduction.What were the reasons for market failure?
4. In the mid-1980s, General Motors undertook a $5 billion program to introduce robotics and computer-integrated manufacturing techniques into many of its assembly plants. The results were
3. Pick a major U.S. industry, such as automobiles or computers, and discuss the lapses in technology and innovation on the domestic front that permitted foreign competitors to get a foothold and, in
2. Identify a few breakthrough technologies and the products that they spawned.
1. What characteristics distinguish R&D project management from conventional project management? What additional skills does an R&D project manager need?
9 Explain CM and control within the curriculum of your school. Give three examples that demonstrate a good configuration control process and three that identify poor CM.
8 In designing the new program outlined in Exercise 7, identify the WPs and the organi- zational units that will be responsible for their implementation.
7 Big State University has decided to start a new program for executives called "Manage- ment of Technology." Your task is to design the control system for this project. Discuss the following
6 For the project described in Exercise 5, calculate and chart the following values: BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP. Assume linearity of cost versus time. State any additional assumptions that you believe are
5 The performance of a project was evaluated 10 weeks after its start. Table 15 gives the relevant information.a. On the same Gantt chart, show the project plan and the project progress, and discuss
4 An activity on the critical path of a project was scheduled to be completed within 12 weeks, with a budget of $8,000. During a performance review, which took place 7 weeks after the activity was
3 A cost schedule control system produces weekly reports.The reports for weeks 1, 2, and 3(assume 5 working days each week) are shown Table 13.3 In Exercise 2, an estimate of the “percent
2 Consider the project plan defined in Table 12.TABLE 12 Activity Scheduled start day Scheduled finish day Cost/day A 1 3 $1,000 B 1 5 $5,000 C 3 7 $3,000 D 5 15 $1,000 E 7 22 $2,000 F 7 25 $4,000a.
1 The National Institutes of Health support research and development of new treatments for AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Develop a project control system by which the agency will be
12. Why will a delay in the completion of a project probably cause a budget overrun?
11. How would you build total quality management principles into a project control system?
10. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the line-of-balance technique as opposed to using several program evaluation and review technique networks.
9. Is there a need for a control system in projects performed by nonprofit organizations?Explain and give examples.
8. Explain what the responsibilities of “quality control” are in a project associated with making a Hollywood-style movie. How would these responsibilities differ if the movie were a documentary
7. Is there a need for “technological control” in developing a new insurance policy? Explain.
6. Explain how you would measure the EV of the following activities:a. Writing a term paperb. Building a nuclear power plantc. Designing a new card. Developing a new training program
5. Why is it important to integrate cost and schedule control? Give an example for which separate cost and schedule control systems may not function properly.
4. Suppose that you have decided to build a new house. Explain what kind of project control you will consider and why.
3. Give an example of an organization that does not use any control systems. Is this justified?
2. Referring to Question 1, explain how the control system that you identified deals with uncertainty.
1. Describe the control systems used in one organization with which you are familiar.
16 Assuming that the weekly labor cost per employee is $1,200 and that the fringe benefit rate is 25%, determine the cumulative cash flow requirement for the project describeda. For an early-start
15 Find a schedule for Exercise 3 that minimizes the cost of the project assuming that resource I costs $10/hour, resource II costs $15/hour, and there is an overhead of $150/day for the project.
14 You have signed a contract to complete the project described in Exercise 10 within 10 weeks.The weekly managerial fee is $2,000.a. Generate the schedule that will delay expenses to the last
13 Each activity in the project described in Exercise 10 has a duration variance of 1 week. For example, the expected time for activity A is 3 weeks, with a variance of 1 week.Assuming that the
12 A managerial fee of $1,400 per week is to be paid as long as the project in Exercise 10 has not been completed.a. Calculate the optimal project duration.b. You have been offered a bonus of $5,000

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