Reference no: EM132348988

Project Management Principles Assignment -

Please complete all of the following details. Your assignments must be submitted as either Word documents or as .pdf documents.

Project Management Assessment -

Topic 1: Project Management Introduction, Charter and kick-off

1.1 Project Selection Prioritization Matrix

Attached is an example of how calculations in a trade-off matrix are performed.

Using the example, score each of the projects in the table below. Based on the score, which project would you choose?

Based on the prior Project Selection Prioritization Matrix, you undoubtedly have surmised that the Old Farm House investment project is the best option for you at the moment.

Old Farm House Business Case

You have inherited a century old farm house and acreage in a rural area. You have visited the site and made an inspection. The house needs a great deal of repair work to get it marginally liveable. You have itemized the most important things that need to be done and estimated the time required as shown below.

You plan to use this house for vacations and as a rental property through Airbnb. In fact, your work colleague as already expressed interest in staying over as soon as the property is finished. Your parents have sponsored you with a personal loan of $10.000,-that will give you enough money to buy the supplies and have a spending budget on help from a local contractor and two of his apprentices. You yourself have committed to working 80 hours over your vacation to fix up the house, but you are terrible at carpentry and painting. Your vacation of two weeks starts on Monday the 1st of June, and you prefer to be present when the contractor is on site. Assume you, the contractor and his apprentices all can work up to 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week.

You expect that within 2 years of renting the property you will have earned enough money to repay your parents.

Each activity is to be performed by one person only.

1.2 Scope Overview (word limit: 150)

Use your own words to convert the project brief(business case) in a short scope overview.

1.3 Milestone Schedule and Deliverables

Based on the project brief and the list of work packages, please list the milestones you would identify for this project. The first and last are already given for you. Estimate a completion date for each milestone, as well as what the acceptance criteria would be. Also think about who should judge whether or not the criteria have been met.

1.4 Initial Risk Identification

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify at least four potential risks to the project.

1.5 Resources Required

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify the funding, workers and equipment required for this project, as well as potential other resources. Don't overthink this exercise and keep it short and simple.

1.6 Initial Stakeholder Identification

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify at least four stakeholders to the project, their interest and priority to the project.

1.7 Team Operating Principles

Please list a minimum of three Team Operating Principles you believe are important for your project (refer to textbook).

1.8 Lessons Learned

Please list a minimum of three Lessons Learned you believe can contribute to your project.

1.9 Commitment

Fill out the first column of the table (attached).

Topic 2: Communication plan, WBS, and RACI

2.1 Stakeholder Prioritization Matrix

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify as many stakeholders as possible. Rank their power, Interest, Influence, Impact, Urgency and legitimacy on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 = low, 2 = medium, 3 = high) and add them in column 'Total'.

2.2 Project Communications Matrix

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, complete the communication matrix below. (It is possible that certain cells might be left open).

2.3 Work Breakdown Structure

Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, complete the WBS. Use Exercise 1.3, the milestones, to guide you. Start with the first milestone after 'Charter signoff' and finish with the 'Project completion'. The number of sub-packages needed per milestone is up to your discretion and the context of the project.

While you are working on the WBS you also need to provide the predecessors for each activity - what must be completed before this activity can begin. This dependency will be needed later in Topic 3 to help create the AoN.

The table below is an example. Replace the text with your own interpretation of the project at hand.

2.4 The RACI chart

Based on the project brief and the WBS, as well as example from the book, finish the RACI chart below. You decide how many people should be added to the table.You may need to add rows. Please make sure you replace the text 'Person A, and B' with your project team member identified.

The first and second columns of this table should match the first and second columns of the table in Exercise 2.3.

Topic 3: Time management and Cost Management

Go to blackboard and download the additional information needed for this topic. Go to 'Assessment Tasks and Submission' >'Assessment 2 - The Workbook' > 'Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case' and locate 'Additional Information WEEK 3'.

Use the WBS contained therein as the foundation for this week's AoN and Gantt chart.

It is still up to you to determine dependencies in this WBS, which you will do in activity 3.2.

Remember, the Business Case outlines the resource limitations, that is, who can work on what activity. Consider these limitations as you develop your AoN.

3.1 AoN

Based on the informationprovided on blackboard, use for instance MS PowerPoint to create an Activity on Node diagram based on the WBS provided in 'Additional Information WEEK 3'. Ensure that you have one node per activity. Make sure you save your work as we will change and add to it as we advance through the Exercises.

Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4.

3.2 Time estimation

Based on the information provided, give a best estimate of the duration of each activity. Make sure you mention the unit you use (i.e. hours). Not each activity will have a clear answer, so use your best educated guess. Give a short explanation to each activity why you think it will take as long as you've estimated. Keep your explanation as short and succinct as possible.

3.2.1 Time estimation - Enumeration method

You can now update the AoN diagram with the time estimates. This is your basic project schedule.

Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4.

3.2.2 Time estimation - Two Pass method

Now use Exhibits 8.11-8.14 (Pages 260-263) to create a Two-Pass schedule for your project.

Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4.

3.3 Critical path

Identify the critical path in your project:

The critical path in my project is_________________, and takes ___________ (hours)

3.4 Resource Loading

In your project, assign your resources to the activities and optimise the project schedule as best as possible. With the limitation of your resources, your project might again increase in time. Don't worry about this. In topic 4 we will discuss project crashing and try to improve the project timeline.

Please post here your re-adjusted Two-Pass AoN including the resources.

*There will be no point deductions for project running over time or budget in this week*.

3.5 Gantt chart

Go to blackboard and download the. Go to 'Assessment 2 - The Workbook' --> 'Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case' and locate 'MNG91217 - Gantt Chart Template'.

Using the template provided, create your Gantt chart based on the AoNdeveloped before.

Instructions: In column A name the activity, in column D enter the start (in hours) and in column E enter the duration (hours). Leave the resource column (F) empty for now as we'll fill it under Exercise3.6 Resources and cost to activity.

From column H onward, simply place a '1' in each cell corresponding to your start time and duration. As an example, activity 2 - buying supplies has already been entered for you.

There is no need to post anything here.Just save your work and post the final chart under 3.6.

3.6 Resources and cost to activity

In the excel template, assign a resource to each of the activities from the dropdown box in column 'F'. As a result, a project cost overview for your project will be updated in the graph below the chart. The graphcan be used to help control the projectbudget.

Post here your final Gantt chart with resource allocation, including the histograms and budget graph.

Tip: select the cells in excel you want to display here, for example A17 to CI37, and press CTRL-C. Switch the window to Word and select the location you want the graph to appear and press CTRL-ALT-V - and select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) for the best result.

Please do not paste as a Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.

You can leave the picture in the size it appears, the marker will be able to zoom in and see the details.

You can follow the same process to copy the graph. Simply select the graph in excel, and press CTRL-C. Switch the window to Word and select the location you want the graph to appear and press CTRL-ALT-V - and select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) for the best result.

You can leave the graph in the size it appears, the marker will be able to zoom in and see the details.

Topic 4: Progress reporting scope change, and crashing

Go to blackboard and download the additional information needed for this topic. Go to 'Assessment Tasks and Submission' >'Assessment 2 - The Workbook' > 'Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case' and locate 'Additional Information WEEK 4'

Use the information contained therein as the foundation for this week's Two-Pass AoN and Gantt chart.

There is only one exercise this week, but it is a big one and will require some experimentation. Use the example provided to your advantage to understand the effects of crashing one or more activities in your project.

4.1 Crashing your project

Use the information provided in the updated information, your project brief and the requirements given in the Project Customer Trade-off Matrix, to optimize your project.

Provide a new Two-Pass AoN (including resource loading), Ganttchart, histograms andbudgetgraph based on the crashed project.

Topic 5: Risk management, and Quality management

5.1 Risk identification I

Look at the risks identified in Exhibits 11.5, 11.6, and 11.7. Compile a list of risk categories you believe are relevant to your project. (Identify at least 3)

5.2 Risk identification II

Using the first three categories of risk you compiled in the previous exercise, now identify the one risk for each category that may impact on your project. Add them to the table below following the example, and score the probability and impact on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is lowest, 10 is highest).

Fill out all columns except for the last two. This will be done in the next exercise.

5.3 Risk identification III

Now complete the last two columns in your risk register for your risks. Keep in mind that while we may identify both a prevention and a mitigation (you may need to check your understanding of this word in a dictionary) strategy at this stage, only one of the two might actually be implemented at time of project start.

5.4 Quality tools

Identify at least three quality tools based on Exhibit 14.9 that are applicable to your project and explain why.

Next, select three work packages from your project, and using the quality tools you have nominated above, explain how you would maintain its quality, as well as identify who is responsible for each quality tool.

Note - All required tables and information are in attached file.

Attachment:- Project Management Assignment Files.rar