Reference no: EM131745389

Required is 110 words summary for each one of the following so total is 8 summary

1- Definition of: Work breakdown structure

2- What is the "critical path" Provide an example for managing the critical path for a project.

3- Define and provide example: Build a Project Schedule

4- Define and provide example: Making a Realistic Schedule

5- Define and provide example: Sequence of Tasks

6- Formalization of project portfolio management

In contrast to single project management, project portfolio management is conducted at a higher hierarchical level. With an eye on the entire project portfolio, a more holistic view is required to reflect previous experience, simultaneous projects, the organizational environment, and future organizational intentions (Engwall, 2003). Therefore, the exchange of information, management of resources, and coordination of the collection of projects become even more important for project portfolios. Various studies support the notion that the formalization of portfolio processes significantly influences portfolio performance (Cooper, 1990, 1999, 2008; Kleinschmidt et al., 2007). In stage-and-gate type processes, after each process stage, a go/kill decision is made, and each project is assessed against pre-defined criteria to decide whether to continue investing in the project. If applicable, an action plan for the next stage is developed (Sethi and Iqbal, 2008). At each gate, it is ensured that decisions and resource allocations reflect the needs of the entire portfolio. These formal processes introduce structure, sequence, and clarity to all projects (Tatikonda and Montoya-Weiss, 2001). Establishment of clear rules and guiding principles at the decision points lead to data integrity and facilitate the comparison of divergent projects (Cooper, 2008), ensuring that processes are comprehensive and responsibilities are well defined (Naveh, 2007). Portfolio process formalization therefore improves information and coordination quality by supporting interactions between different functional groups and projects and facilitating inter-project learning (Prencipe and Tell, 2001). Clear criteria for making go/kill decisions and for prioritizing projects allow for a rational, predictable, and deliberate resource allocation and decision process (Benner and Tushman, 2003; Christensen and Bower, 1996). Poor projects can be terminated earlier, and important projects can benefit significantly from the available resources. In light of these arguments, we suggest the following hypothesis.

7- Software: What are the advantages and disadvantages for a project manager to use Project Management software over managing a project manually? What type of general purpose software might project managers find useful? Why?

8- Project portfolio management quality

Project portfolios are defined as collections of single projects that run concurrently (Archer and Ghasemzadeh, 1999). Fundamentally, these multiple projects must be operated efficiently. However, project portfolio management focuses on effectiveness: the execution of the right projects. If a project portfolio were regarded as an organization's investment strategy, the right projects would be those that yielded the most return on investment for this organization (Roussel et al., 1991; Seider, 2006) based on consideration of single project and project portfolio level risks. Thus, project portfolio management is a decision-making process that steers the right projects from idea to successful implementation. These decisions are made on present and potential projects and include selection, prioritization, and termination as well as re-allocation of resources across the collection of projects (Cooper et al., 2001).

PPM quality measures the quality of the process execution in project portfolio management (Dammer, 2008; Dammer et al., 2006; Jonas et al., 2010). It consists of three complementary dimensions. First, information quality is concerned with the availability, comprehensiveness, and transparency of information. Second, resource allocation quality is related to the speed of assignment, reliability of commitment, and avoidance of conflicts during resource endowment. Third, cooperation quality implies the empathy and readiness to help fellow project managers and other project teams (cross-project cooperation)