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.