Question 1

Problem Statement: Stakeholder and Project Quality Management

Hercules Creative Solutions has successfully bagged two research and development related projects from ministry of science and technology. You are working on one of a project as senior project manager which is related to develop a gadget for the help of physically disabled persons in their day to day commuting. The main challenge for you and your team is that neither you nor any of your team members have ever done this type of project. USAID and one of a leading bank are the sponsors of this project. The designing of the product has been outsourced to one of a very famous engineering firms of the country. For the procurement purpose, two potential vendors are on board.

The company you are working for is a multinational company and has very strict procurement procedure and procurement audit is mandatory at the end of the project. Stringent quality standards have to be followed which includes but not limited to rigorous testing of all the features, user friendliness and ability to recover in case of software/ hardware errors.

After completing the pilot, the product was released for beta test to selected users that were arranged by the sponsors. Multiple users complained that this product is difficult to use and at times does not work as expected. In other words, end users were not satisfied with the design and working of this product. Hercules Creative Solutions has decided to recall all the pieces from the end users and planned to perform a hardware/ software upgrade. The main stakeholders are not happy with this situation as have complained earlier multiple times during the course of this project for not being involved. The external auditors have also pointed out some serious compliance issues related to procurement process

After getting know about the situation of this project, answer the following questions.

Required:

1. [01 mark ] Identify all the internal and external stakeholders of this project.
2. [01 mark ] In which category, the cost of recalling the product will fall?
3. [02 marks] List down some of the risks while working on this project.
4. [02 marks] In your opinion, what were the reasons of this projects failure?
5. [02 marks] What could have been done by Hercules Creative Solutions to avoid or minimize the situation faced due to product failure?

Question 2

Problem Statement: Project Control and Monitoring

You are working on a manufacturing project having a budget of PKR 3,600,000 and expected time of its completion is one year. There is an ideal condition that your budget and work are evenly spread across the duration of the project that is twelve month. At the end of forth month, the senior management has called a meeting and invited all the stakeholders to brief about the status of the project. You being the PM of this project is giving the presentation to all the attendees and informed that project is on schedule and PKR 1,800,000 have already been spent on the project.

Question 3

Problem Statement: Project Organization and Close-out

Up-think Consultants are celebrating for a successful completion of a complex project they were working since long. All the deliverables were handed over to the customer on time and within budget. All the documents related to projects initiation, planning, execution and monitoring were prepared and made available with all the concerned teams and individuals. Management has decided to announce a performance bonus for the team and asked you (the project manager) to recommend the team members by writing performance review for each of them. You know that the team will get disbanded/parted and in the next project you may not get the same team members who so successfully delivered the current project.

Required:

1. [02 marks] What kind of organization structure Up-think Consultants has?
2. [02 marks] What is still missing as part of project phases?

Required:

1. [02 marks] Calculate Cost and Schedule Variance
2. [02 marks] What is SPI and CPI of the project?
3. [02 marks] Estimate at completion and Estimated time to complete?