1. You have been hired as a Business Analyst for a software company that develops online learning tools for colleges and universities. Your company wants to launch a new scheduling feature that allows students to see available office hour timeslots and schedule appointments with their professors online. The professors will be able to accept or decline the proposed time.

The Project Manager has asked you to gather requirements for the project. She suggests that you concentrate on gathering these requirements from a few professors at a local college, from a wide variety of students, and look into what other schools have done across Canada.

To do:

• For each of the above sources of requirements (professors, students, other schools), describe an approach you will use to gather requirements. Please note: you must use a different approach for each source.
• For each approach that you selected, describe why this would be an effective approach.
• Do not just provide a word or two for each approach. Fully describe what you would specifically do for each of the different approaches.

2. You work for the ACME Construction Corporation. Management is excited that you have recently earned your PMP credentials and has invited you to give a brief presentation to the executive team on Schedule Planning.

After the presentation, you observe a friendly debate between two executives. Gurpreet Kaur claims that once the WBS is known from the scope planning, a Gantt Chart could be quickly prepared without much additional effort. Shrawan Kumar has quite a different opinion. Shrawan states that some essential steps are needed after getting the work packages and before finalizing the Gantt Chart.

To do:

• Explain whose views you would you support.
• Elaborate and justify with reasons.

3. You work for a project management consultancy firm that provides advice to client organizations who are relatively immature in project management practices. Here are two recent examples:

• Ramesh Kumar is the Project Manager with ABC Construction. Ramesh has been asked to manage a new construction project in which the high-level deliverables are clearly stated in the Project Charter. Ramesh has asked for your advice on the approach to follow in creating the WBS.
• Jack Smith is the Project Manager with NextGen Technology Solutions. Jack has been asked to manage an innovation project where the high-level deliverables are not clearly identified in the Project Charter. Jack has asked for your advice on the approach to follow in creating the WBS.

To do:

• What advice shall you give to Ramesh?
• What advice shall you give to Jack?
• Elaborate with reasons.