MB0049 Q1. Describe the project planning process and explain it in detail. Ans.

Why is the project planning phase so important for successful implementation and closure of a project? In order to be in control of the project activities and results we need a "list" of actions and their required results; that is, we need a plan. Creating this project plan fits into our overall project control picture, which we explained in section Project Definition: Basic Project Controlling Cycle Let us explore the planning process in its most important aspects in order to get an overview of the planning steps and what results each step produces. Triple Constraints of Project Management Based on the triple constraint of project management - scope, schedule, and budget we answer the following questions: What do we need to plan? How can we provide sufficient flexibility? What tools can we use? How do we document the planning results? What do we need to plan? We translate this into the following more process-oriented view. Project Planning Process This picture reflects the basic project planning process with the core planning steps, which we will follow in project planning phase. Planning the Project Scope - Steps 1 and 2 We plan the project scope in two steps, first the product breakdown structure PBS which describes the product or service we are going to create with the project. In a second step, we setup the work breakdown structure WBS that describes all the work that has to be done in order to create that product or service in the form of work packages. For a more detailed description please go to Planning the Project Scope. Effort Estimation Step 3 After setting up the WBS we have to estimate effort and duration of each work package. We do this by asking the work package experts how much of what resources they need, for what period of time, thus obtaining the effort. We recommend combining effort estimation with the first risk analysis into a workshop in the project planning phase, with all the experts involved. Then we have better chances to avoid over- or under-estimation, or hidden security blankets for the work packages since we can discuss these issues openly with the whole team and address critical items and risks explicitly. For a more detailed description please go to Effort Estimation. Planning the Project Schedule Steps 4, 5, and 6

Planning the project schedule comprises three steps: planning the milestones, creating a network diagram of all the work packages, and setting up the Gantt chart. The milestone plan gives us a top level view of the project without the details of all the work packages. In the network diagram we arrange the logical sequence of all the work packages, while the Gantt chart represents the actual time schedule of all the work packages of the project. You find a detailed description in sub-section Planning the Project Schedule. Network diagram and Gantt chart also help us to analyze the critical path in order to identify risks affecting the schedule. Assigning Resources Step 7 Having prepared project scope and schedule, we now assign all the necessary resources to each one of the work packages, that is, human resources, tools, and material. Especially, getting all the human resources on board requires some preparation: we coordinate the level of skills and experience of the available people with what is needed; we prepare and discuss their target agreements; we prepare, negotiate, and sign sub-contracts for those work packages that will be provided by external suppliers; we set up and maintain close contact to those resources that are critical; we coordinate the resource planning of our project with that one of others. For a more detailed description please go to Assigning Resources. Planning the Project Budget Steps 8, 9, and 10 Planning the project budget, in another three steps, concludes the core of the project planning process. Having all the resources assigned, we can now allocate hourly rates of human resources and tools, as well as material cost, and integrate all these data with the project schedule on work package level. Thus, we obtain the finalized resource plan, and from that, the (accumulated) cost plan. Together with a payment plan (in case of a customer-contractor based project) or sales plan (in case the project is about product development, marketing, and sales) we prepare the financing plan for our project. For a more detailed description please go to Planning the Project Budget. We can go through steps 1 to 10 of project planning phase and set up the entire project plans manually, with paper and pencil. Of course, using planning software is much more convenient. However, we should keep the whole project planning process a team effort. Building these plans, PBS and WBS milestone plan, network diagram, and Gantt chart resource plan, accumulated cost plan, and payment plan would conclude project planning phase. But real life holds just too many surprises, and thus, we need to prepare for eventualities. Project Risk Management In order to prepare for flexibility in implementation and closure phase we need to integrate another important element into project planning: the risk management process. Risk Management Process When shall we ideally start the risk management process? We will be able to identify different types of risks only with reference to the different types of plans, for example: technical risks after setting up the PBS risks of delays after creating the milestone plan, network diagram, and Gantt chart

risks of missing resources after producing the resource plan. Thus, it is essential to start the risk management process early in project planning phase, e.g. combined with effort estimation, and depending on the size of the project, repeat the risk management steps 1 to 4 after each step of planning. Ideally, we combine steps 1 to 4 into what we call risk analysis, and we usually carry out this risk analysis in workshops of one to three days, depending on the size of the project. The results of these risk analysis workshops in planning phase are (1) Preventive actions, i.e. add-ons to already existing work packages or completely new work packages which we have to integrate into the WBS and all the other planning documents. (2) Corrective actions, that also add to the WBS or make for decision points in our project plan in the following way. If event X happens then we follow plan A, if X does not happen then we follow plan B. Preventive and corrective actions together reflect our risk management strategy or risk management plan. Creating contingencies in form of corrective actions or just in form of budget reserves represents the first important part of keeping our project plans flexible for foreseeable eventualities in implementation phase. For a more detailed description please refer to sub-sections Risk Management and Risk Analysis. Project Change Management While risk management can take care of foreseeable eventualities there will be things happening which nobody can plan for. For all unforeseeable events we need to make provisions in a different way. We only know that something is going to happen that will change project scope, schedule, or budget. So, we have to prepare a project change management process that tells us how we are going to deal with necessary changes. We can think of two different types of situations: (1) Situations in which we have enough time for finding mutually agreed decisions before implementing any change, without jeopardizing the project goal(s). (2) Situations in which we cannot wait for mutually agreed decisions before implementing a change. Project Contract Management Many projects are based on contracts, and thus, on contract structures setup in definition phase. Now, in planning phase, we have to refine the contracts and their content in order to integrate a project change management process for the first type of situations, and a project claim management process for the second type of situations. Thus, any contract which includes clauses for project change and claim management, helps us to keep our project plans flexible for all the unforeseeable eventualities in implementation phase. For a more detailed description, please go to Project Contract Management. Planning the Controlling Tools

There are a couple of controlling tools available which support our controlling of implementation and closure phase. It is worthwhile to spend some time in project planning phase in order to plan which one of those tools we want to use for what kind of work packages. These tools, sometimes also referred to as project management metrics, comprise Comparison of actual with planned quantities (e.g. 76 of 105 windows installed) 0 100 % method (work on work package not started finished) 0 50 % 100 % method (work on work package not started ongoing finished) Estimation of remaining effort and duration "Simple" tools, like work breakdown structure (WBS), network diagram and Gantt chart Milestone Trend Analysis Earned Value Analysis (including schedule variance and cost variance) In order to collect all the details we ask our team members who are responsible for the work packages periodically, in scheduled project status meetings. Obviously, there must be a high level of trust in each other to obtain the truth about each one of the work packages. This high level of trust is the key to successful project controlling. For a more detailed description please go to Project Controlling Tools. Project Communication Plan Successful project management depends on successful communication: between project manager and team members between team members between project manager and control board between project management team and the customer's team between project management team and sub-suppliers between project management team and other stakeholders Communication takes place in many different ways: discussions in project meetings project presentations project reports written correspondence written notes telephone conversations e-mails In order to make all this project communications successful we need to prepare a project communications plan. For a more detailed description please go to Project Communications Plan. Best practices would dictate that the materials forming the Project Handbook be protected from loss and made easily but securely accessible to all the participants. A simple way to accomplish this is to use an on-line storage service such as Esotera Secure Storage Solutions to hold all data. Each participant would be provided with a web interface to a set of directories. Some directories would be read-only and contain planning documents and reports, other directories would allow the participant to place updated documents for the rest of the group to review. Acceptance Procedure

We undertake projects in order to create clearly specified results, products, or services. These clear specifications or requirements are the result of the activities in definition phase and part of the project goal(s). They guide us in planning phase to create the plans and help us at the end of implementation phase and in closure phase to decide if the project goal(s) are reached or not. In case we have to follow a contract we develop acceptance procedures for preliminary and final acceptance of the project results, discuss and negotiate them with the customer, and integrate them into the contract. Acceptance procedures define how we are going to check the project result(s) if they are compliant with all requirements and specifications set in definition phase. Hence, contract clauses that describe, or are related to acceptance procedures, significantly contribute to the decision if the requirements and specifications are met, and thus, project goal(s) are reached. Remarks (1) Creating a project plan is a recursive process Optimization of all project plans turns the project planning phase into a recursive process sometimes with many back-loops. You find some details in sub-section Project Management Plan. (2) Software support While planning the project should be a joint effort of the whole project team, we use supporting planning software for our convenience. We just need to make sure that we do not become slaves of a specific software package, but rather tailor the software to the requirements of the project and the team. You find some details in sub-section Project Planning Software. Conclusion of Project Planning Phase Planning scope, schedule, and budget define the classical core of the project planning process. Important steps in this process are effort estimation and the assignment of resources. As part of the contract, we setup acceptance procedures for preliminary and final acceptance of the project results. In order to create enough flexibility we supplement this by a risk management plan, and by integrating change and claim processes into the contract. Ideally, the supplier follows these planning steps when preparing a proposal that has to be submitted to the customer. Finally, we set up the controlling tools we want to use and define our project communications, reporting, and documentation. After mutual negotiations, customer and supplier sign the contract for implementation phase. This concludes project planning phase, and we continue with implementation phase.

Q2. A. Explain the life cycle of a project Ans. The project manager and project team have one shared goal: to carry out the work of the project for the purpose of meeting the projects objectives. Every project has beginnings, a middle period during which activities move the project toward completion, and an ending (either successful or unsuccessful). A standard project typically has the following four major phases (each with its own agenda of tasks and issues): initiation, planning, execution, and closure. Taken together, these phases represent the path a project takes from the beginning to its end and are generally referred to as the project life cycle. Initiation phase:

During the first of these phases, the initiation phase, the project objective or need is identified; this can be a business problem or opportunity. An appropriate response to the need is documented in a business case with recommended solution options. A feasibility study is conducted to investigate whether each option addresses the project objective and a final recommended solution is determined. Issues of feasibility (can we do the project?) and justification (should we do the project?) are addressed. Once the recommended solution is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approved solution and a project manager is appointed. The major deliverables and the participating work groups are identified and the project team begins to take shape. Approval is then sought by the project manager to move on the detailed planning phase. Planning phase: The next phase, the planning phase, is where the project solution is further developed in as much detail as possible and you plan the steps necessary to meet the projects objective. In this step, the team identifies all of the work to be done. The projects tasks and resource requirements are identified, along with the strategy for producing them. This is also referred to as scope management. A project plan is created outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes. The project manager coordinates the preparation of a project budget; by providing cost estimates for the labor, equipment and materials costs. The budget is used to monitor and control cost expenditures during project execution. Once the project team has identified the work, prepared the schedule and estimated the costs, the three fundamental components of the planning process are complete. This is an excellent time to identify and try to deal with anything that might pose a threat to the successful completion of the project. This is called risk management. In risk management, highthreat potential problems are identified along with the action that is to be taken on each high threat potential problem, either to reduce the probability that the problem will occur or to reduce the impact on the project if it does occur. This is also a good time to identify all project stakeholders, and to establish a communication plan describing the information needed and the delivery method to be used to keep the stakeholders informed. Finally, you will want to document a quality plan; providing quality targets, assurance, and control measures along with an acceptance plan; listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance. At this point, the project would have been planned in detail and is ready to be executed. Execution phase: During the third phase, the execution phase, the project plan is put into motion and performs the work of the project. It is important to maintain control and communicate as needed during execution. Progress is continuously monitored and appropriate adjustments are made and recorded as variances from the original plan. In any project a project manager will spend most of their time in this step. During project execution, people are carrying out the tasks and progress information is being reported through regular team meetings. The project manager uses this information to maintain control over the direction of the project by measuring the performance of the project activities comparing the results with the project plan and takes corrective action as needed. The first course of action should always be to bring the project back on course, i.e., to return it to the original plan. If that cannot happen, the team should record variations from the original plan and record and publish modifications to the plan. Throughout this step, project sponsors and other key stakeholders should be kept informed of project status according to the agreed upon frequency and format. The plan should be updated and published on a regular basis. Status reports should always emphasize the anticipated end point in terms of cost, schedule and quality of deliverables. Each project deliverable produced should be reviewed for quality and measured against the acceptance criteria. Once all of the deliverables have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution, the project is ready for closure. Closure phase:

During the final closure, or closeout phase, the emphasis is on releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to conduct lessons learned studies; to examine what went well and what didnt. Through this type of analysis the wisdom of experience is transferred back to the project organization, which will help future project teams.

B. Describe the need for feasibility studies Ans. A feasibility studys main goal is to assess the economic viability of the proposed business. The feasibility study needs to answer the question: Does the idea make economic sense? The study should provide a thorough analysis of the business opportunity, including a look at all the possible roadblocks that may stand in the way of the cooperatives success. The outcome of the feasibility study will indicate whether or not to proceed with the proposed venture. If the results of the feasibility study are positive, then the cooperative can proceed to develop a business plan. If the results show that the project is not a sound business idea, then the project should not be pursued. Although it is difficult to accept a feasibility study that shows these results, it is much better to find this out sooner rather than later, when more time and money would have been invested and lost. It is tempting to overlook the need for a feasibility study. Often, the steering committee may face resistance from potential members on the need to do a feasibility study. Many people will feel that they know the proposed venture is a good idea, so why carry out a costly study just to prove what they already know? The feasibility study is important because it forces the NGC to put its ideas on paper and to assess whether or not those ideas are realistic. It also forces the NGC to begin formally evaluating which steps to take next. The NGCs organizers will typically hire a consultant to conduct the feasibility study. Because the consultant is independent of the cooperative, he or she is in a better position to provide an objective analysis of the proposed venture. The consultant should have a good understanding of the industry as well as the new generation cooperative model of business. He or she should have previous experience in directly related work. To get an estimate of the costs of a feasibility study, prepare a rough outline of the work needed to be done. Contact several consultants and provide them with a copy of this rough draft to see what sort of estimates they give. When the time comes to hire a consultant, prepare a formal request for proposals that outlines the information that is needed and send this to several consultants. It might be tempting to choose the lowest-cost consultant or a personal acquaintance of one of the NGCs organizers, but always remember that quality work is the most important factor when choosing a consultant. Make sure that the consultant can provide an independent assessment of the business opportunity. For instance, hiring an engineering firm or an equipment manufacturer to conduct market analysis may lead to biased results in favor of proceeding with the venture. Engineering firms and equipment manufacturers may have an incentive to show positive results so they can obtain contracts with the cooperative once it chooses to start up operations. Engineering firms and equipment manufacturers are needed in order to provide information about equipment requirements and costs, but an independent consultant should conduct the overall feasibility study. A feasibility study should examine three main areas: market issues technical and organizational requirements financial overview

Q3. Describe the CPM model. Explain network cost system Ans. CPM.: 1. CPM is activity oriented i.e., CPM network is built on the basis of activities. 2. CPM is a deterministic model. It does not take into account in uncertainties involved in the estimation of time. 3. CPM places dual emphasis on project time as well as cost and finds the trade off. between project time and project cost. 4. CPM is primarily used for projects which are repetitive in nature and comparatively small in size.

Q4. Explain the project cost estimate and budgets Ans. The idea of managing a project can seem like a daunting task, however, provided with the right tools, any project can achieve success. When undertaking any type of project management, there must be a working set of guidelines and objectives that must be followed, in order to guarantee success for that particular project. An essential element when entering into any type of project management is cost budgeting. To create an effective cost budgeting plan, a total budget for the entire project must first be established. To achieve this, each area of the project must be analyzed and given a particular cost estimate. Once that is done, the total sum of cost assessments, whether those costs are in individual projects or in work packages, are combined to establish a certain parameter to provide a working guideline for the budget. These guidelines are set in place so that the allotted costs are divvied up amongst the appropriate project needs. This will ensure that the budget goals are being accurately met. The process of cost budgeting is a simple, yet necessary process of any successful type of project management. Project cost management is keeping your project within its defined budget. It is also an essential part of project management. Cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control are three cost related processes that interact with each other and with other areas of project management. All of these processes require effort and a working knowledge of the cost of things. Depending on the complexity of the project they can require more than one person, and they may occur more than once during the life of a project. Project cost management can be very simple, or extremely complex. If scrimping in one part of the project will increase say a maintenance cost after the end of the project, then that maintenance cost should be included in the project cost management strategy. This approach is sometimes` called life-cycle costing, and can reduce the cost of a project and improve the quality of the deliverable. But Project management should also consider what the project stakeholders think about the cost of the project. They will measure cost in different ways and at different times. Like looking at a brick from a different angle. Cost estimating and cost budgeting are two different processes, but are often closely linked. On small projects they are often done by the same person because of this. Influencing cost is easiest early in the project, so it is important to define the budget in the scope of your project at the beginning. This includes creating a cost management plan, which has many benefits.

Q5. A. Discuss the relationship between project manager and line manager. Ans.

Project management manages a project. A project goes through a life cycle of proposal, approval, scheduling, implementation and completion. Think of building a bridge or a computer application. Line management is ongoing, repetitive, with no concept of beginning or ending. A project manager does proposals, cost-benefit analysis, hires and builds teams, schedules tasks, meets deadlines, reports on progress to management. leadership is very important in shaping the attitudes and behaviors of the employees in an organization. It also influences how people communicate with each other in order to solve problems and make decisions. Leadership researchers have focused, not only, on interpersonal relations, but also on the role of a leader and his or her leadership competency. The objective of this paper was to answer the question, is there a relationship between project managers leadership style and project success. After a thorough review of literature on project success factors, it is apparent that researchers have, to a large extent, ignored the effect of the project manager, and his or her leadership style and leadership competence, on project success. First, the reason why this happened may be because mostly researchers surveyed project managers opinions on project success factors, but respondents never mentioned the project managers leadership style and its effects on project success. Secondly, it may be that researchers never inquired into the effects of the project managers leadership style. Lastly, it may be because the project managers leadership style has no impact on project success. However, the idea that the project managers leadership style has no impact on project success goes totally against management theory, which holds that the leadership style and leadership competency of a manager have a direct impact on the performance of the organizations. Recently, some researchers proved that there is definite relationship between leadership competency and leadership style and project success (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; Turner & Mller, 2005, 2007; Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Leadership will remain one of the most important aspects of project management, and, as a result, more researchers will study this topic. Research indicates that the leadership style of a project manager is an important factor in being assigned to a project (Turner and Mller, 2005). At the same time, the project managers leadership style influences the project team and can contribute to project success. They found that a project managers emotional competence, EQ, had a meaningful contribution to project success, in most project situations. Managerial competence, MQ, of the project manager was sometimes meaningful, and intellectual competence, IQ, was usually not correlated to success.

B. What are the strategies used to reduce risk? Ans. Risk reduction strategies are usually split into two types: those meant to change individual behavior and those related to organizational and community development. Strategies related to changing individual behavior include: incentives or disincentives--finding ways to penalize or discourage risky behavior and reward or encourage protective behavior (for example, high taxes on cigarettes as a disincentive, lower insurance rates for smokers as an incentive) increasing (or reducing) time and effort for target behaviors providing support (some tactics that could be used to do this are peer education and risk reduction counseling) arranging mentor programs in which older or more experienced people work to help others change their behavior

enhancing resources--working to raise more money, improve materials, connect better with other programs and services, or increase public awareness of the resources that are available to them changing your program to remove barriers or make it more accessible to the people using it (for example, school breakfast programs, making more WIC distribution centers, parent nutrition education at school pick-up-time, etc. to work against child hunger) changing policy (creating, modifying, or terminating) providing information (some tactics that could be used to do this are informational campaigns, community outreach, peer education, and risk reduction counseling) modeling (a tactic that could be used to do this is peer education) skills training (some tactics that could be used to do this are peer education and risk reduction counseling) providing feedback on progress (some tactics that could be used to do this are peer education and risk reduction counseling) Strategies related to organizational and community development include: public awareness and media campaigns (some tactics that could be used to do this are information campaigns, street outreach, community outreach, peer education, and direct action) community assessment and monitoring building coalitions with other community groups changing the level of access to products and services (making cigarettes less available for minors to buy, for example) developing resources to enhance family and peer support enforcement of existing policies and laws advocacy and nonviolent protest (some tactics that could be used to do this are information campaigns and direct action) changing policies and laws (some tactics that could be used to do this are information campaigns, community outreach, street outreach, and direct action) Some common tactics used in risk reduction There are many, many tactics that can be used in risk reduction. Here are a few of the most common--but remember, the tactics you use are only limited by your own imagination! Information campaigns: This is probably the most commonly used tactic in risk reduction. Educating the public about how to cut down on their risks for certain health problems is a common and widespread practice. Some of the methods to get out information might include advertisements, posters, brochures, public service announcements on radio or television, speakers, and informational hotlines. Street outreach: This involves sending outreach specialists into a given area to make face-to-face contact with the target population. Some street outreach activities include canvassing, setting up information tables, or distributing information or supplies. The regular contact that street outreach provides between your coalition and your target population tends to have a pretty strong impact on risky behavior. Community outreach: This differs from street outreach because it's more often done in a group setting - workshops, presentations, lectures, and so on. The impact on behavior is usually limited because they're singleencounter experiences, but they're still good ways to get information out there. If you use community outreach, you should probably back it up with other tactics as well.

Peer education: In peer education, people who are themselves members of your target population go into the community to act as positive role models for behavior and distribute information. Peer education can be very effective, because your target population gets to see people like themselves who not only come to them to talk about less risky behavior, but also model that behavior in their own lives. Peers can do one-on-one counseling, speaker's bureaus, or other activities. Risk reduction counselling: Risk reduction counseling is intensive interactive work usually done with people who are at a particularly high risk. Someone from your coalition's staff gets together with the client or clients to give them straight talk about risky behavior and work with them to build skills to change that behavior. It's often one-on-one, but can be done through small group meetings as well. Direct action: Direct action is term used to describe a range of political actions or "media stunts" taken to directly confront or highlight the issue or authority you're trying to address. If you want to make a big statement publicly, direct action might be a tactic to consider. Some examples of direct action are demonstrations, symbolic actions, street theater, trespass actions, occupations and sit-ins, and blockades. Clearly, direct actions are often disruptive and more confrontational than other methods and, depending on what you do, people involved may end up being arrested. Look into other ways of campaigning for change before you do a direct action, because direct action's confrontational nature can alienate and polarize the public, especially if you haven't tried other ways of getting your message out. If using direct action tactics it is very important that you painstakingly plan it out and try to anticipate how to counter any negative public reaction to your actions. See Chapter 33: Conducting a Direct Action Campaign for more information on this type of campaign.

Q6. Discuss the concept of quality and project quality management. Ans.