The 'afterlife'

What is to come of this blog?

- Up until this point this site has become a great study tool for ITC493. With only 10 exercises from a 12 Chapter book I think having one completed exercise from each chapter will really come of great benefit when it comes to preparation for the final exam.

- After the subject finishes I plan to log in once every 3 months, to add experiences from my work field, and to add any other useful project management tools I come across along the way. I already need to add the different project life cycle gates that my work currently uses so that I can have them available to me at the touch of a URL.

- I also plan to use the blog as a reference for all other project management jobs. I aim to show my staff and fellow colleagues just how useful it can be to have a communal blog. It might even be worth using a blog as a timetable for all different tasks associated with each project.

- I WILL NOT LET IT DIE!

Exercise 10

Schwalbe P.420 - Chapter 10, Ex 3

How many different communications channels does a project team with six people have? How many more communications channels would there be if the team grew to ten people?

Number of communications channels = n(n-1)/2

6 people in the team:
6(6-1)/2
= 15 channels

10 people in the team:
10(10-1)/2
= 45 channels

Difference between the two:
45 - 15 channels
= 30 channels

Therefore there are 30 more channels in a team of 10 in comparison to a team of 6.

Reference
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 9

Schwalbe P.380 - Chapter 9, Ex 1

1. Your company is planning to launch an important new project starting January 1, which will last one year. You estimate that you will need one full time project manager, two full time business analysts for the first six months, two full time senior programmers for the whole year, four full time junior programmers for the months of July, August and September, and one full time technical writer for the last three months.

Reference
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 8

Schwalbe P.330 - Chapter 8, Ex 2

Create a Pareto diagram based on the information in the table below. First, create a spreadsheet in Excel, using the data in the table below. List the most frequent customer problems first. Add a column called "% of Total" and another one called "Cumulative %". Then enter formulas to calculate those items. Next, use the Excel Chart Wizard to create a Pareto diagram based on this data. Use the Line - Column on 2 Axis custom type chart so your resulting chart looks similar to the one in Figure 8-1.

Reference
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 7

Schwalbe P.281 - Chapter 7, Ex 1

Given the following information for a one-year project, answer the following questions. Recall that PV is the planned value, EV is the earned value, AC is the actual cost, and BAC is the budget at completion.

PV = $23,000

EV = $20,000

AC = $25,000

BAC = $120,000

A. What is the cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index (CPI), and schedule performance index (SPI) for the project?

Cost Variance (CV = EV - AC) 20,000 - 25,000 = -5,000

Schedule Variance (SV = EV - PV) 20,000 - 23,000 = -3,000

Cost Performance Index (CPI = EV / AC) 20,000 / 25,000 = 80%

Schedule Performance Index (SPI = EV / PV) 20,000 / 23,000 = 86.96%

B. How is the project doing? Is it ahead of schedule or behind schedule? Is it under budget or over budget?

As both CV and SV are negative numbers, the project is behind schedule and over budget.

C. Use the CPI to calculate the estimate at completion (EAC) for this project. Is the project performing better or worse than planned?

Estimate at completion (EAC = BAC / CPI) 120,000 / 80% = 150,000

D. Use the schedule performance index (SPI) to estimate how long it will take to finish this project.

Estimate time to complete (Original Time Estimate / SPI) 12/86.96% = 13.8 months

E. Sketch the earned value chart based for this project, using Figure 7-5 as a guide.

Reference
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.

Exercise 6

Schwalbe P.241 - Chapter 6, Ex 4.

You have been asked to determine a rough schedule for a nine-month Billing System Conversion Project, as part of your job as a consultant to a Fortune 500 firm. The firm's old system was written in COBOL on a mainframe computer, and the maintenance costs are prohibitive. The new system will run on an off-the-shelf application. You have identified several high-level activities that must be done in order to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close the project. Table 6-4 shows your analysis of the project's tasks and schedule so far.

a. Using the information in Table 6-4, draw horizontal bars to illustrate when thing each task would logically start and end. Then use Project 2003 to create a Gantt chart and network diagram based on this information.

b. Identify at least two milestones that could be included under each of the process groups in Table 6-4. Then write a detailed description of each of these milestones that meets the SMART criteria.

Milestone 1: a completed detailed WBS - SMART criteria
Specific - A documented WBS in MS project
Measurable - Completed when sent out to all team members
Assignable - All sponsers, project manager and team members
Realistic - definately achievable and a must for project success
Time-framed - must be completed within a week

Milestone 2: Project charter completed and signed - SMART criteria
Specific - A formal document.
Measurable - Completed when completed and signed
Assignable - Sponsers and other responsible team members
Realistic - Achievable and important.
Time-framed - Part of the initiation process must be completed before any work can be done

Reference
Schwalbe, K. (2006). Information Technology Project Management (4th ed.). Massachusetts: Thomson Course Technology.