Name G M Firoz Khan

Roll No. 520931217

Program MBA
Project Management
Subject
[Set 2]
Code MB 0033

Learning Systems Domain –Indira Nagar,

Centre Bangalore [2779]

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1. How can risks be prioritized in a project management?
Give any suitable example.

Risks are those events or conditions that may occur and whose
occurrence has a harmful or negative impact on a project. Risk
management aims to identify the risks and then take actions to minimize
their effect on the project. Risk management entails additional cost.
Hence risk management can be considered cost-effective only if the cost
of risk management is considerably less than the cost incurred if the risk
materializes.
Risk Analysis
The first step in risk analysis is to make each risk item more specific.
Risks such as, “Lack of Management buy-in,” and “people might leave,”
are a little ambiguous. In these cases the group might decide to split the
risk into smaller specific risks, such as, “manager Jane decides that the
project is not beneficial,” “Database expert might leave,” and “Webmaster
might get pulled off the project.”

The next step is to set priorities and determine where to focus risk
mitigation efforts. Some of the identified risks are unlikely to occur, and
others might not be serious enough to worry about. During the analysis,
discuss with the team members, each risk item to understand how
devastating it would be if it did occur, and how likely it is to occur. For
example, if you had a risk of a key person leaving, you might decide that
it would have a large impact on the project, but that it is not very likely.

In the process below, we have the group agree on how likely it thinks
each risk item is to occur, using a simple scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is
very unlikely and 10 is very likely). The group then rates how serious the
impact would be if the risk did occur, using a simple scale from 1 to 10
(where 1 is little impact and 10 is very large). To use this numbering
scheme, first pick out the items that rate 1 and 10, respectively. Then
rate the other items relative to these boundaries. To determine the
priority of each risk item, calculate the product of the two values,
likelihood and impact. This priority scheme helps push the big risks to the
top of the list, and the small risks to the bottom. It is a usual practice to
analyze risk either by sensitivity analysis or by probabilistic analysis.

In sensitivity analysis a study is done to analyse the changes in the

variable values because of a change in one or more of the decision
criteria.

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In the probability analysis, the frequency of a particular event occurring is
determined, based on which it average weighted average value is
calculated.
Each outcome of an event resulting in a risk situation in a risk analysis
process is expressed as a probability. Risk analysis can be performed by
calculating the expected value of each alternative and selecting the best
alternative.

Ex : Now that the group has assigned a priority to each risk, it is ready to
select the items to mange. Some projects select a subset to take action
upon, while others choose to work on all of the items. To get started, you
might select the top 3 risks, or the top 20%, based on the priority
calculation.
Determine scope of the risk session. Select the team and moderator. The
moderator explains the risk process to new team members. Identify risks
(potential future problems). Brainstorm areas of risk, e.g., Weak areas
such as unknown technology. Things which are critical are extremely
important to the effort. Such as the timely delivery of a vendor’s
database software, creation of translators, or a user interface that meets
the customers’ needs. Identify things that have caused problems in the
past, such as loss of key staff, missed deadlines, or error-prone software.
Remove invalid or irrelevant.

Current problems should be treated as problems, not risks. Minimize the

risks. Stakeholders may adopt various strategies to prevent the risk but
risks are unavoidable. Risks vary from one project to another project. A
contingency plan has to be prepared to handle the risks.
The main steps to handle risks are:
• Identify risks
For each risk item:
a. Does the team understand the risk item? If necessary, split into
separate risk items, e.g., Disk may overload under condition X. Disk
may overload under condition Y. Discuss and determine its scope.
b. What would the consequences be if this risk item did happen?
c. Determine what the impact would be if the worst happened, using a
scale of one to ten.
d. Determine how likely it is that the risk item will occur, using a scale
of one to ten.
e. Determine the priority of the risk items and thus which to work on
(impact x likelihood).

• Analyze the risk – Use any of the available methods to analyze the
risk. Software may be used for the purpose of analysis.

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• Plan to mitigate risks – Select the most important risk issues, such
as the top 2 or 3, or top 20%. Brainstorm on actions that could be
taken to reduce the likelihood of the risk item occurring. Brainstorm on
actions that could be taken to reduce the impact if the risk item does
occur. Decide which actions to pursue. Select a person to be
responsible for each action chosen. Document the information in the
risk management plan.

• Review risks – Establish how often risks should be reviewed (once a

month is typical). Risk reviews can be incorporated into existing
project status and phase reviews. Update the list based on risk review
sessions.

• Control the risk – It refers to controlling the deviations in a project

which may be one of the reasons to induce a risk element in the
project. Controlling the risk ensures that the project is likely to be
completed as per the plans and heading towards the goals set for the
project. It is preferable to work in a structured mode to handle risks in
a project.

1. Mention any six characteristics of interpersonal

behaviour. What are the types of reviews?

Characteristics Interpersonal Behaviour:

In a team the maxim that all members will do well to remember is “Learn
to appreciate the problems of others, and some others would appreciate
yours”. It is therefore important that in a business environment,
particularly in Project Management, efforts to evolve solutions jointly
have great benefits, both for the teams as well as the organisation. The
top management has the responsibility of encouraging such a culture to
develop team work to healthy inter-personal behaviour. The following are
the main characteristics of inter-personnel behavior:

• Projection of a pleasant, but firm personality

• Clarity of expression and communication
• Patience in listening and reacting with empathy
• Documentation and correct recording
• Offer to help
• Call for help whenever necessary
• Seeking information before attempting decisions
• Not waiting for things to go wrong

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 • Motivation of others through efficiency and meticulousness, rather
than urging and exhibiting dependency
• Putting team goals ahead of individual targets.

The project manager should make it a habit of expressing appreciation

openly for any good work done. Cross Functional Teams have become a
necessity and the synergy they generate would be lost if inter-personal
behaviour is not of high standard. As members are from different
functions, understanding the requirements or compulsions of others is
difficult. This fact should be impressed upon all the members and
requesting them to cooperate is vital.

Types of Review:

It is very easy for projects to go astray, because most of the activities are
not repeated. Learning will have to take place on the first task. This is
where the competent Project Manager becomes important. Instructions
will have to be clear and the progress kept in constant purview with
reference to milestones.

As a governing committee it has to make continuous reviews of

performance of the projects. The PMO must create and maintain the
ability of the project manager to keep focused on the client’s
requirements and meet them. He must have the necessary tools to affect
them.

The reviews are generally divided into four types which are conducted at
different stages of the project.

1. Initiation Reviews (IR)

2. Planning and Proposal Reviews (PPR)
3. Procurement Reviews (PR)
4. Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR)

A project review is a process where we capture information from the

team experience and see the variances and deviations from the plan.
These reviews help in increasing productivity and improve organizational
success.

The purpose of the reviews can be generally stated as under. Depending

on the manager’s ability they can be made more meaningful.
Performance improvement starts with commitment to an agreed plan.
The reviews are meant to keep the activities are according to the plan.
The purpose of them can be states as:

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• Finding out the feasibility of the project and helping management
team to take a decision based on this initial Review.
• Checking if all the necessary activities were done before presenting a
customer the proposal or solution
• Checking if all the formal agreements and procedures were formally
accepted and reviewed between the customer and the project delivery
organisation.
• Finding out the deviation and allowing elbow room for changes in the
action plan for improvement.

1. What are the main considerations in planning P2M?

Give relevant examples.

Project and Programme Management – P2M

Some of the considerations for effective programme management are

given below:
• Focusing on the various strategic initiatives taken up for multiple
projects and the issues related to benefits and risks.
• Bringing about the attention of management to a defined set of
benefits, which are understood immediately, which are managed
throughout the implementation and at completion?
• Helping top management to set priorities, choosing options and
allocate resources
• Setting up mechanisms to measure and ensure that the projects
making contributions for realizing expected business benefits.
• Leading the organisation on the path of ‘where it is and where it wants
to be’ and ensuring that the effects of the programme driven changes
are coordinated, the transitions are successfully managed. The
operations are effective and efficient.

The objectives sought to be achieved and the methods which are adopted
and the activities that are going to be undertaken i.e. the process include
the following steps:
Preparing and maintaining a set of activities and the workflow that is to
be followed and identifying business areas responsible for different stages
in the above;
• Making sure that the priorities that the above generate are relevant
and the projects are run on the basis of their impact on the
business as a whole;
• Structuring the programme so that the responsibilities and roles –
at both programme and project level – are acceptable to both the
top management and managers;

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 • Planning the various points of review between various phases of the
projects.
The process has to incorporate all the important aspects which are to be
addressed during implementation and management of the projects. It is
important to identify all factors and incorporate resources – men,
materials, technology and time – so that their provision can be planned.

Managing the Programme

When we consider the portfolio of projects as a programme, the main
considerations will be on resources, risks associated with the programme,
quality of the projects at every stage of the execution- as meeting the
requirements of the client as per the contract and monitoring the change
processes that get enmeshed during implementation. The specifics
concerning the above are listed below:
i. Evaluating the risks associated with the programme – the planned
changes to the business operations;
ii. Ensuring that the processes to ensure quality are sufficient and
purposes are fully met;
iii. Keeping track of the changes and developments external to the
project environment and studying their impact on the programme.
iv. Making sure that the personnel in business affected by the above
are informed and trained so that the projects are smoothly;
v. Ensuring that the support services like human resources and IT are
able to adapt to the changes that take place in the projects and
business operations as a whole.

Projectised Organizations
This is one of the various models of organizations, which enterprises
adopt to run their businesses depending on the policies they follow, the
opportunities they want to exploit and the constraints that the
environment forces on them. Most organizations follow some sort of
‘projectisation’ of their activities – be it manufacturing, development of a
product, research, entering a market, acquiring of another company,
training programmes, setting up a new plant etc. In some situations they
find it advantageous to treat a set of activities requiring resources of
different kinds for short periods to reach a particular stage. They call that
a project. Projectised operations have in them some are all of the
following objectives, so that this business model to be useful.
• Accommodate discrete projects as a group in certain organizational
units to facilitate monitoring and controlling performance levels at
various stages.
• Assign priority of divisional management efforts based on Pareto’s law
backed by statistics or rules of thumb for prevention of problems or
profit growth on a group of projects in hand.

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• Facilitate project resource assignment and subsequent adjustment
especially human and information resources among the various
projects.
• Enumerate, evaluate and implement various procedures of
standardization in the form – tables, charts, manuals, templates with
the abundance of data that get generated across projects. Analyses of
data help in identifying opportunities of making changes in similar
projects.
• The project management capability can be enhanced – perhaps with
the help of the PMO, by setting objectives and measuring them with
success achieved. Each project can be measured for its maturity level.
Enhancement of the levels of different projects does become a
motivational factor for performance enhancement. A system of
internal benchmarking gets initiated almost automatically resulting in
highly efficient organisation as a whole.
The principles of Project Management can be extended to various
traditional operational type units.
The main differences between the traditional and project approach are
mentioned below. Here, we would like to emphasize that no one approach
can be considered the better for all businesses or at all times for the
same business. However, many organizations have found the project
approach worth giving a try to improve productivity.

Traditional organizations – We have the formal organisation structure,

with departments, functions, sections having an hierarchy of managers
and their assistant. All of them function on a continuous basis catering to
a series of requirements issued by the planning department. An assembly
of various units of their production forms a products and a variety of such
products make up the business of the company. No one particular
member or a department or a team is responsible for the completion of
any particular product. Their creativity and innovation is particular
respect of jobs. Most of them do not get exposed to other areas of
operations in the organisation. They will become specialists and be
insular.

Projectised organizations – have teams comprising members who are

responsible for completing one completely deliverable product. They will
have all the resources required to do all jobs or operations to complete it.
Most importantly, they have a time schedule within which all the
elements of the projects have to be completed. It has been found that a
sense of ‘ownership’ of the project motivates them for being creative;
cooperate among them to achieve high productivity.

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1. What is the significance of reviewing ROI? Explain in
detail.

Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculated benefit that an

organization is projected to receive in return for investing money
(resources) in a project. Within the context of the Review Process, the
investment would be in an information system development or
enhancement project. ROI information is used to assess the status of the
business viability of the project at key checkpoints throughout the
project’s life-cycle.

ROI may include the benefits associated with improved mission

performance, reduced cost, increased quality, speed, or flexibility, and
increased customer and employee satisfaction. ROI should reflect such
risk factors as the project’s technical complexity, the agency’s
management capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the
consequences of under-or non-performance. Where appropriate, ROI
should reflect actual returns observed through pilot projects and
prototypes.

ROI should be quantified in terms of dollars and should include a

calculation of the break-even point (BEP), which is the date when the
investment begins to generate a positive return. ROI should be re-
calculated at every major checkpoint of a project to see if the BEP is still
on schedule, based on project spending and accomplishments to date. If
the project is behind schedule or over budget, the BEP may move out in
time; if the project is ahead of schedule or under budget the BEP may
occur earlier. In either case, the information is important for decision-
making based on the value of the investment throughout the project life-
cycle.

Any project that has developed a business case is expected to refresh the
ROI at each key project decision point (i.e., stage exit) or at least yearly.
For the Project Management Review, it is recommended that the project
leader replace the text on the ROI document through –

(1) a note stating which stage of its-cycle the project is in;

(2) A bulleted list of the most important points from the memorandum of
record; and
(3) a copy of the memorandum of record for the Review repository.

In subsequent Reviews of the information system, the ROI slide can be

eliminated from the package. There is one notable exception to this
guidance. Any internal use software project in the maintenance phase of

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its life-cycle that adds a new site or undertakes an enhancement or
technology refresh that reaches the cost threshold established by
Standard will need to satisfy capitalization requirements. It requires all
agencies to capitalize items acquired or developed for internal use if the
expected service life is two or more years and its cost meets or exceeds
the agency’s threshold for internal use software. The standard requires
capitalization of direct and indirect costs, including employee salaries and
benefits for both Federal and Contractor employees who materially
participate in the Software project. Program managers are considered to
be the source of cost information for internal use software projects. If
capitalization data is collected for the project in the future, the project
would be expected to calculate and track its ROI.

2. What is meant by baseline? How is it reviewed?

Base line:
Baseline data is basic information gathered before a program begins. It is
used later to provide a comparison for assessing program impact.

The Microsoft Project family of products offers tools to work on a Project

from management point of view. Microsoft Project is designed for people
who manage projects independently and don’t require the capability to
manage resources from a central repository. Microsoft has a team project
management solution that enables project managers and their teams to
collaborate on projects.

After creating a fairly complete final project plan it is a good idea to

create a baseline to compare the original project plan with actual events
and achievements.

Reviewing the Baseline

The Baseline created can be used to compare the original project plan
with actual events and achievements. This will display the days required
for each task and project phase. For actual operating instruction please
refer the Microsoft Project User Handbook.

• Tracking Progress
After creating a baseline, if the project has begun, it is necessary to enter
actual dates that tasks are being completed and the resource utilization
used to complete them. Again review different views and the cost and
summary tables before proceeding to the next section. Return to the
Entry view of the Gantt chart before proceeding.

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• Balancing Workloads
At times people and equipment can become assigned more work than
they can complete in normal working hours. This is called over allocation.
Project can test for this condition and reschedule (or level) their workload
to accommodate completing tasks during a normal day.

• Monitoring Variances
After a baseline has been established and the project has begun, it is
desirable to determine if tasks are being accomplished on time and /or if
cost over runs are occurring.

• Creating Reports
Project has many different built-in reports and has the capability building
custom reports and exporting data to other MS Office applications for
integration into other reporting venues.

1. Explain in detail GDM and its key features.

The Global Delivery Model (GDM) is adopted by an Industry or Business

such that it has a capability to plan design, deliver and serve to any
Customers or Clients Worldwide with Speed, Accuracy, Economy and
Reliability.
The key Features of GDM are –
• Standardization
• Modularization
• Minimum Customization
• Maximum Micro structure
• Adoption of a Combination of the Greatest Common Multiple and the
Least Common Factor of a

Large Mass of Microbial Components:

a. Standardization – Ingenious Design and Development of Components
and Features which are like to be accepted by 90% of World-wide
Customers. Global Standards of Design focusing on highly
standardized Methods and Processes of manufacture or Development.
Adopt Plug-and-socket Concepts with minimum adaptable joints or
Connections.

b. Modularization – Product or Solution split up into smallest possible

individual Identifiable Entities, with limited Individual Functioning
Capability but powerful and robust in Combination with other Modules.

c. Minimum Customization – Minimum Changes or Modifications to suit

Individual Customers.

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d. Maximum micro structuring – Splitting of the Product Modules further
into much smaller entity identifiable more through characteristics
rather than application Features. Approach is through Standardization
of these Microbial Entities even across Multiple Modules. Application of
these Microbial Entities to rest within multiple Projects or Products or
even as add-ons suit belated Customer Needs.

Special Key Features of GDM

Some of the special feature of GDM is –

• Cuts across Geographical and Time Zone Barriers

• Unimaginable Speeds of Response and Introduction.
• Common Pool of Microbial Components
• Largely Independent of Skill Sets required at Delivery Stages
• Highly automated Processes
• Quality Assurance as a Concurrent rather than a Control Process
• Near-Shore Development, Manufacture and Delivery for better
Logistics
• Mapping of Economical Zones rather than Geographic Zones
• Continuous Floating virtual Inventory to save Time and Efforts.

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