IT2403 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2 marks with answers and solved university questions

IT2403            SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

UNIT I           INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT    

Project Definition – Contract Management – Activities Covered By Software Project Management – Overview Of Project Planning – Stepwise Project Planning.

UNIT II          PROJECT EVALUATION                                                                                   

Strategic Assessment – Technical Assessment – Cost Benefit Analysis –Cash Flow Forecasting – Cost Benefit Evaluation Techniques – Risk Evaluation.

UNIT III        ACTIVITY PLANNING                                                                            

Objectives – Project Schedule – Sequencing and Scheduling Activities –Network Planning Models – Forward Pass – Backward Pass – Activity Float – Shortening Project Duration – Activity on Arrow Networks – Risk Management – Nature Of Risk – Types Of Risk – Managing Risk – Hazard Identification – Hazard Analysis – Risk Planning And Control.

UNIT IV        MONITORING AND CONTROL                                                                       

Creating Framework – Collecting The Data – Visualizing Progress – Cost Monitoring – Earned Value – Priortizing Monitoring – Getting Project Back To Target – Change Control – Managing Contracts – Introduction – Types Of Contract – Stages In Contract Placement – Typical Terms Of A Contract – Contract Management – Acceptance.

UNIT V          MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZING TEAMS                         

Introduction – Understanding Behavior – Organizational Behaviour: A Background – Selecting The Right Person For The Job – Instruction In The Best Methods – Motivation – The Oldman – Hackman Job Characteristics Model – Working In Groups – Becoming A Team –Decision Making – Leadership – Organizational Structures – Stress –Health And Safety – Case Studies.

ANNA UNIVERSITY QUESTION PAPER

ANNA UNIVERSITY - MAY / JUNE 2012

1.      What are the Characteristics that make Software Projects different from other projects?

      In IT projects,

·                     Software projects are complex in nature

·                     The progress is not visible immediately

·                     Customer would keep changing his requirements

·                     High degree of flexibility is expected

·                     Limited knowledge on application domain

Whereas in other projects like civil engineering projects these constraints do not  happen.

2.      What is a Product Breakdown Structure(PBS)? Show the hierarchical diagram of a Sample PBS.

            Every project has to deliver one or more products at the end of it. The final product made using intermediate product called “work products”. The             structure of various work product leading to final product called PBS.  The      Hierarchy is,

3.      What is called Return On Investments? Give an example.

            The Return on Investment is the percentage of the ratio of average annual profit to total investment.

ROI = Average annual profit / Total Investment  *100%

      Eg. If at the end of 5 year, net profit is 50,000. Then,

                        ROI = (50,000/5) / 100,000 *100 = 10%

4.      What is the significance of a “Project Risk Matrix”? Give an example.

            Project risk depends upon 2 factors.

·         Probability of risk happening

·         Impact

Medium Risk	High Risk
Low Risk	Medium Risk

                                    Probability                                           Impact

      Eg.

Situation	Sale value in Rs.(V)	Probability factor (P)	Impact Expected sale in Rs. (ES=V*P)
Bright Average Dull	100,000 50,000 20,000	0.2 0.5 0.3	20,000 25,000 6,000
Most probable sale value			51,000

5.      What are called “Free Floats” and “Interfering Floats”? How are they calculated?

      Free Floats:

            It is the earliest start date of an activity minus the earliest end date of its preceding activity.         

      Interfering Floats:

            It is the difference between total float and free float. Total float(Activity float) is difference between an activity ‘s start date and its latest start date.

6.      What is a “Dangle” in an activity network? Show an example.

            Consider the following figure,

 Here, ‘write user manual’ and ‘Deliver’ both look likes end node which is against the basic rule. ‘Deliver’ is a end node hence ‘write user manual’ is the dangling activity.  Hence it can be resolved by,

    

Here end activity is ‘sign off’ from customer. Preceding activity to ‘deliver’ is ‘test’ and ‘write user manual’.

7.      List the important roles of the Configuration Librarian.

·         Identification of Software Configuration Items(SCI) which are subjected to change   control

·         Maintain a central repository of all software project components and all documentation

·         Control of check in and checkout files and their related documentation

·         Defining and maintaining access control responsibilities for various files

·         Defining, documenting and publishing the SCM procedure followed

·         Version numbering of various files/modules and their control and maintenance

8.      Name the popular visual tools used for monitoring and tracking the project progress.

·      Gantt chart

·      Slip chart

·      Ball chart

·      Timeline graph

9.      What is “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”?

      Abraham Maslow’s, an American psychologist theory is one of the most widely discussed theories of motivation.  He suggested hierarchy of needs. As lower level needs are satisfied thenØ gradually higher level needs emerge.  The needs, listed from basic(lower) to most complex(highest) are asØ follows:

10.  What do you understand by “Egoless Programming”?

            Programmers in seeking perfection, develops ‘ego’ and personal attachments to their programs. This lead to programmers not accepting criticism. Programmers must develop an egoless attitude and consider their programming as just objects. writing programs with this attitude is called ‘egoless programming’.

ANNA UNIVERSITY  - NOV / DEC 2012

1.      Mention the characteristics of software projects.

·      Planning is required.

·      Work is carried out in several phases.

·      Non-routine tasks are involved.

·      Specific objectives are to be met or a specific product is to be created.

2.      Which factor decides the success of a project?

·      Smart Planning

·      Committed and effective team

·      Open Communication

·      Management Control

·      Clear and agreed objectives

·      Careful Risk Management

·      Strong Project Closure

3.      Give the significance of cost benefit analysis.

            The most common way of carrying out an economic assessment of a proposed information system or software product is by comparing the expected costs of development and operation of the system with the benefits of having it in place.

4.      When Net Present Value is calculated for a project?

            The calculation of net profit evaluation technique that takes place into account the profitability of a project and the timing of the cash flows that are produced.

                                             Value in year t

            Present value  =  -------------------------

                                                  ( 1 + r )^t

                         r -> discount rate          

                         t -> number of years

5.      Define the objectives of activity planning.

·      Feasibility assessment

·      Resource allocation

·      Detailed costing

·      Motivation

·         Co-ordination

6.      List the factors used to identify the risk.

      Checklists: These are simply lists of risks that have been found to occur regularly in software development projects. Checklists have also suggested potential counter measures for each risk.

      Brain storming: It is used to identify possible solutions to the problems that emerge. One usual outcome of such an approach is that the Collaborative approach may generate a sense of ownership in the project

7.      What is bespoke system?

              Custom software (also known as bespoke software or tailor-made software) is software is specially developed for some specific organization or other user. Since custom software is developed for a single customer it can accommodate that customer's particular preferences and expectations.

8.      What is the use of check points in monitoring?

            Checkpoints are milestones in a project when project sponsors, stakeholders and executive management reviews and oversees the cost, schedule and scope of the project as the project proceeds. Checkpoint places are,

·         After project initiation

·         To approve project charter

·         Project plan approval

·         For every change request from customer

·         When the deliverables are done and the project goal is met

9.      Define stress.

            Occupational stress is stress involving work. Stress is defined in terms of its physical and physiological effects on a person, and can be a mental, physical or emotional strain. It can also be a tension or a situation or factor that can cause stress.

10.  List the steps involved in selecting the right person for the job.

            The steps involved in selecting right person for right job are: 

1.      Assessment of actual skills rather than past experience.

2.      Create job specification.

3.      Examine CV’s.

4.      Conduct interviews.

5.      Ask only appropriate questions

6.      Avoid discrimination

ANNA UNIVERSITY - MAY / JUNE 2013

1.      List some problems with software projects.

            The problems in software projects come from three different viewpoints,

·      Project Managers Problems – Poor role definition, Lack of estimation and planning skills and lack of decision making skill.

·      Developers problem – Lack of knowledge in application area, lack of knowledge about developing standards, Lack of up to date documentation, deadline pressure.

·      Customers problem – Monetary constraints and receiving products past the due date

2.      What is contract management?

            The supervisory role of overseeing the progress of project exactly in line with the legal contract is called “contract managsement”. The need for contract management in software projects is essential as multiple contractors will be involved with multiple specialties and time, resources are always critical and customers may keep on asking changes to software.

3.      Differentiate between Strategic Assessment and Technical Assignment.

      Strategic Assessment:

            It is carried out based on the need of the business with the following in mind.

·         Organizational image

·         Organizational objective

·         Effect on organizational structure

·         Organization’s MIS requirement

      Technical Assessment:

            It is carried out based purely on technical aspects like

·         Hardware

·         Database

·         Software tools

·         Networks

     

4.      What is the use of decision tree in Risk Evaluation?

            Risk do not come in a standalone manner. They take place in series or random. It is the specific situation arises due to combination of multiple risks. Many such situations are possible due to various nature of risk. The output analysis, under various situations can be analyzed with the use of decision tree.

5.      List out the objectives of activity planning.

·         Feasibility assessment

·         Resource allocation

·         Detailed costing

·         Motivation

·         Co-ordination

6.      Give an example of activity on arrow networks.

·         A project network may have only one start node.

·         A project network may have only one end node.

·         A link has duration.

·         Nodes have no duration.

7.      What are the levels of prioritizing monitoring?

            The levels of prioritizing monitor is,

·      Critical path activities

·      Activities with no free float

·      Activities with less than a specified float

·      High risk activities

·      Activities using critical resources

8.      Draw the project control cycle model.

9.      List some obstacles for good group decision making.

            Some obstacles for good group decision making are: 

·         Faculty Heuristics

·         Escalation of Commitment

·         Information Overload

10.  Write down any four selection criteria for SCM tools.

            SCM tools and utilities used in administering source code, building and installing software, defect tracking and managing changes to software.

from many tools available, following selection criteria can be used to choose the one which fits the best.

·         Ability to support process

·         Easy usability with friendly GUI

·         Good documentation and support

·         Various capabilities of the tool

ANNA UNIVERSITY  -  NOV / DEC 2013

1.      What are the characteristics of a project?

·         Planning

·         Have a specific goal or objective

·         Have a definite time frame

·         Work involving many people

·         Requirement of people with different skill set

·         Resources are limited

2.      Distinguish between objectives and products.

Objectives	Products
1.      An objective is a specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a timeframe and with the available resources. It must be very specific and measurable. 2.      Eg. To improve the health of our teeth with 6 month by brushing 2 times a day.	1.      Product is the result of a process to create an object or service to satisfy a need. 2.      Eg. Tooth paste(specific) and Tooth brush(specific)

3.      What is the concept of strategic programmes?

            Strategic programs are steps taken by any management with a vision to achieve an objective with limited resources.

                        Resources

                              +                à Strategic Program à Objective

                        Vision

4.      What are the steps in cost-benefit analysis?

a.    Identifying and estimating all the costs( development, setup, training, operating) and benefits(Tangible and intangible) of carrying out the project.

b.   Expressing these costs and benefits in common units(Eg.Money).

5.      Define Hammock activities.

            Hammock activities are activities which, in themselves, have zero duration but are assumed to start at the same time as the first ‘hammocked’ activity and to end at the same time as the last one. They are normally representing overhead costs or other resources that will incurred or used at a constant rate over the duration of a set of activities.

6.      What are the risks to business impact?

            The risk related to business impact is,

·         Personnel shortfalls

·         Unrealistic time and cost estimates

·         Developing the wrong software functions

·         Developing wrong user interface

·         Shortfalls in externally supplier components

·         Shortfalls in externally performed tasks

·         Developing technically too difficult

7.      Give the formula for Earned Value Analysis.

            Earned Value is an approach where you monitor the project plan, actual work, and work-completed value to see if a project is on track. Earned Value shows how much of the budget and time should have been spent, with regard to the amount of work done so far.

8.      Mention the advantage and disadvantages of fixed price contracts.

      Advantage:

·         Known Income/Expenditure

·         Supplier Motivation

·         Client Control

Disadvantage:

·         Risk absorption

·         Difficulties in changes to requirements

·         Threat to quality

·         Supplier demand for more money

     

9.      Define Acceptance.

            When the work has been completed, the customer needs to take action to carry out acceptance testing. The contract may put a time limit on how long acceptance testing can take, so the customer must be organized to carry out this testing before the time for requesting correction expires.

10.  What is forming?

            The members of the groups get to know each other and try to set up some ground rules about behavior.

ANNA UNIVERSITY  - MAY / JUNE 2014

1.      Define software project management?

            Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects. It is sub discipline of project management in which software are planned, monitored, and controlled.

2.      Differentiate objective and product.

Objectives	Products
·      An objective is a specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a timeframe and with the available resources. It must be very specific and measurable. ·      Eg. To improve the health of our teeth with 6 month by brushing 2 times a day.	·         Product is the result of a process to create an object or service to satisfy a need. ·         Eg. Tooth paste(specific) and Tooth brush(specific)

3.      Give some units for measuring the size of the software.

            Lines of code (LOC), Function points, feature points, number of bubbles on the data flow diagram, number of entities on entity relationship diagram.

4.      What is meant by cost flow forecasting?

            As important as estimating the overall costs and benefits of a project is the forecasting of the cash flow that will take place and their timing. A cash flow forecast will indicate when expenditure and income will take place.

5.      State Activity-on-Arrow(AOA).

            One representation of network diagram put the activity information on the arrows between the nodes are called an activity-on-arrow representation (AOA).

6.      What is a hazard? List out the generic risks.

            A Hazard is an event that might occur and will, if it does occur, create a problem for the successful completion of the project.

7.      Define Acceptance.

            When the work has been completed, the customer needs to take action to carry out acceptance testing. The contract may put a time limit on how long acceptance testing can take, so the customer must be organized to carry out this testing before the time for requesting correction expires.

8.      State Earned Value Analysis.

            Earned Value is an approach where you monitor the project plan, actual work, and work-completed value to see if a project is on track. Earned Value shows how much of the budget and time should have been spent, with regard to the amount of work done so far.

9.      What  are the three basic objectives of organizational behavior?

            Organizational behavior is related to human and work psychology. The 3 objectives are,

·         Select right person for the right job

·         Train them with best practices and methods

·         Give incentives which are ‘better than the best’

10.  Define stress.

            Occupational stress is stress involving work. Stress is defined in terms of its physical and physiological effects on a person, and can be a mental, physical or emotional strain. It can also be a tension or a situation or factor that can cause stress.

ANNA UNIVERSITY - NOV / DEC 2014

1.      What are the Characteristics that make Software Projects different from other projects?

            In IT projects,

·      Software projects are complex in nature

·      The progress is not visible immediately

·      Customer would keep changing his requirements

·      High degree of flexibility is expected

·      Limited knowledge on application domain

Whereas in other projects like civil engineering projects these constraints do not happen.

2.      Distinguish between Contract management and Technical Project management.

      Contract Management:

            The supervisory role of overseeing the progress of project exactly in line with the legal contract is called “contract management”. The need for contract management in software projects is essential as multiple contractors will be involved with multiple specialties and time, resources are always critical and customers may keep on asking changes to software.

      Technical Project Management:

            Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects. It is sub discipline of project management in which software are planned, monitored, and controlled.

3.      What do you understand by payback period?

            The payback period is the time taken to break even or pay back the initial investment. The project with shortest payback period will be chosen on the basis to minimize the time.

            Payback period = Cost of Investment / Average annual cash inflow

4.      What are called as Discounted Cash Flow Techniques?

            Net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) are collectively known as discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques.

5.      What do you understand by Work Break Down structure?

            This identifies main tasks required to complete a project and then breaking each of these down into a set lower-level tasks.

6.      What is the significance of a Critical Path?

            The path with zero flexibility is called the critical path, because it will have zero float between all of its activities.

7.      What is a Slip Chart? Mention its use.

            It emphasizes the relative position of each activity. Slips for various activities are marked and joined together. This line is called ‘Slip line’. More bends are observed in slip line, more the deviation in the project.

Use: It is easy to visualize ‘slips’ as more bends on slip line indicates more deviations.

8.      What is Time and Material Contract?

            An arrangement under which a contractor is paid on the basis of (1) actual cost  of direct labor usually at specified hourly rates  (2) actual cost of materials and equipments usage   and  (3) agreed upon fixed add-on to  cover the contractors overhead and profit.

9.      State Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory.

1.      Hygiene or maintenance factor:

            Level of pay, working conditions are examples of hygiene factors on the job. If they are not right, it will dissatisfy the employee.

2.      Motivation factor:

            Sense of achievement, challenges in the work are examples of motivation factors. It they are lacking or missing, then these lead to employee dissatisfaction.

10.   What do you understand by Virtual Teams?

            A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or remote team) is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology.

ANNA UNIVERSITY - MAY / JUNE 2015

1.      What are the Characteristics that make Software Projects different from other projects?

      In IT projects,

·         Software projects are complex in nature

·         The progress is not visible immediately

·         Customer would keep changing his requirements

·         High degree of flexibility is expected

·         Limited knowledge on application domain

Whereas in other projects like civil engineering projects these constraints do not happen.

2.      Who are project stakeholders?

            Stakeholders might be internal to the project team, external to the project team but in the same organization, or totally external to the organization.

3.      What are the different categories of project costs.

·         Staff cost

·         Overheads

·         Usage charges

4.      What is “Internal Rate of Return”?

            The internal rate of return on an investment or project is the "annualized effective compounded return rate" or rate of return that makes the net present value (NPV as NET*1/(1+IRR)^year) of all cash flows (both positive and negative) from a particular investment equal to zero. It can also be defined as the discount rate at which the present value of all future cash flow is equal to the initial investment or in other words the rate at which an investment breaks even.

5.      What is “Free Float”?

            It is the time by which an activity may be delayed with out affecting any subsequent activity. It is calculated as the difference between the earliest completion date for the activity and the earliest start date of the success ding activity.

6.      What do you understand by “Risk Transfer”. Give an example.

            Risk transfer is a risk reduction method that shifts the risk from the project to another party. The purchase of insurance on certain items is a risk transfer method. The risk is transferred from the project to the insurance company.

7.      Define “Scope Creep”.

            It is a project’s parameters. The project scope should be identified in a detailed description identifying and describing all major deliverables and any project boundaries. It needs to include sufficient information for the project team to produce the desired product on time and within budget. In general, the project scope is determined early in the project management processes, documented and agreed upon by all project stakeholders.

8.      Differentiate Budgeted cost of work scheduled and Budgeted cost of work performed.

S. No.	Budgeted Cost of work scheduled	Budgeted Cost of Work performed
1.	The budgeted cost of tasks as scheduled in the project plan, based on the cost of resources assigned to these task, plus any fixed costs associated with the tasks, called “The Budgeted cost of work Schedule”(BCWS).	The value of the work performed by status date measured in currency. this is literally the valve earned by the work performed and is called the budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP).
2.	Planned value (PV) or Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) – original estimate of the effort/cost to complete a task (compare with idea of a ‘price’)	Earned value (EV) or Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) – total of PVs for the work completed at this time.

9.      What is “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”?

            Abraham Maslow’s, an American psychologist theory is one of the most widely discussed theories of motivation.  He suggested hierarchy of needs. As lower level needs are satisfied thenØ gradually higher level needs emerge.  The needs, listed from basic(lower) to most complex(highest) are asØ follows:

                                                Self – Actualization

 

                                    Self Esteem/Recognition/Achievement

 

                                                 Belongingness

 

                                                Safety/Security

 

                                    Physiology [hunger, thirst, sleep etc.].

10.  Mention the important causes of “stress” encountered in projects.

            Projects are about overcoming obstacles and achieving objectives. Almost by definition both the project manager and team members will be under pressure. Once a project gets rolling, there is a need to expect members to be putting in atleast 60 hours a week and the project must except to put in as many hours as possible.

UNIT – I

 

INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1. What is a project?

A project is defined as:

·         A specific plan or design.

·         A planned undertaking.

·         A large undertaking.

2. What is Software Project?

            It is a unique, planned, temporary endeavor with definite start and end dates to  design, develop, test and maintain a software to satisfy the customer’s need. It have constraints like cost, schedule, quality, performance, resources in addition to lack of computer knowledge on domain which the developed software work.

3. What are the three activity of SPM?

·      The feasibility study,

·      Planning,

·      Project execution.

4. What is feasibility study?

Feasibility study in short is termed as “Learned Lessons”. With the help of collected information, investigation to decide whether a prospective project is worth starting is the feasibility study.

5. What is planning?

It is an act of formulating a program for a definite course of action. Planning is to decide “what is to be done”.

6. List different stages of project life cycle?

                                                  i.            Requirement Analysis.

                                                ii.            Specification

                                              iii.            Design

                                              iv.            Coding

                                                v.            Verification and Validation

                                              vi.            Implementation

                                            vii.            Maintenance and Support.

7. What is strategic planning?

Strategic Planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy or duration and making decisions on allocating its resources to pressure this strategy, including its capital and people. It is the process of identifying an organizations long term goals and objectives and then determining the best approach for achieving those goals and objectives.

8. What is requirement Analysis?

Requirement analysis is defined as finding out in detail what the users require of the system that the project is to implement.

9. What is Design?

Design is the diagrammatic representation of project which we going to do. Design is the planning that lays the basis for the making of every object or system.

10. What is management?

Management is one which performs the following set of activities such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, monitoring, controlling, innovating and representing.

11. What are the elements of planning approach?
• The establishment of project objectives.
• The analysis of the characteristics of the project.
• The allocation of resources to activities.
• The establishment of quality controls.

12. What is system and sub system?

The term system is defined as “a set of interrelated parts”. A system will normally be part of a larger system and will itself compare sub systems.

13. List the umbrella activities in a software development project.

·         Project plan preparation

·         Project tracking and control

·         Risk management

·         Configuration management

·         Quality assurance

·         Formal review to foresee errors

·         Documentation for all work product

·         Reusable component preparation

·         Measurements

14. What do you understand by ‘Project Management Triangle’?

            The cost, time and resources are three arms of triangle. Even if one arm gets affected the other two arms get affected automatically. The focus of the project with constraints are called quality product.

15. Who are stakeholders?

            Stakeholder is a person who affects/affected by the system. They are,

·         Business organization

·         Suppliers

·         Customers

·         Competition

·         Investors

16. Difference between ‘project’ and ‘program’.

                        Project – It is a temporary endeavor undertaken to accomplish an unique  purpose

                        Program – It is a group of projects managed in a coordinated way

17. Write any four process standards.

IEE, SEI, ISO, PMI.

18. Differentiate Leaders and managers.

Leaders- set direction, do the right thing

Managers- Follow process, do things right.

19. Define charter and  project portfolio.

A charter is a documentation that formally recognizes the existence of a project.

Project portfolio is group of project carried out under this sponsorship and/or management.

20. What are the project charter contents?

Objectives, Fucntions, Performance, constraints, scope, cost or benefits.

21. What are the duties of ‘project authority’?

·         Setting the objective

·         Monitoring the progress towards the objective

·         Modify the objective

22. What are the parameters considered before allocating a project?

·         Skills and competency

·         Experience

·         Salary

·         Requirement availability

·         Personal traits

23. What are the various categories of software projects?

·         Embedded system

·         Information system

·         Objective driven system

·         Compulsory usage system

·         Voluntary usage system

24. Differentiate product view and project view

Product view-hierarchical relationship among product elements

Project view- hierarchical relationship among work activities.

25. What information you can get from a project plan?

·         List and order all activities

·         Link between various activities

·         Timeline for each activity

·         Resources for each activity

·         Various milestones

·         Project completion date

UNIT – II

PROJECT EVALUATION

1. What is project evaluation?

It is carried out in step 0 of stepwise. Deciding whether or not to go ahead with a project is really, a case of comparing a proposed project with the alternatives and deciding whether to proceed with it, is termed as project evaluation.

2. What is the 3 criteria project evaluation depends?

The project evaluation depends on strategic, technical and economic criteria.

3. What is project portfolio management?

                        A project portfolio is a group of projects carried out under a management. All these portfolio share the common resources. In addition to manage the mix of projects in a company, project portfolio management must determine whether it can be executed by a company in a specified time, given finite development resources in the company.

4. List the various project portfolio model.

·         Market driven model

·         Economic return model

·         Cost benefit model

·         Market research model

5. What are the two primary steps of cost-benefit analysis?

·         Identifying and estimating all the costs and benefits of carrying out the project.

·         Expressing these costs and benefits in common units.

6. What are the cost involved in software projects?

·         Development cost

·         Setup cost

·         Training cost

·         Operational cost

7. What are Development Costs?

It includes the salaries and other employment costs of the staff involved in the development project and all associated costs.

8. What is Net Profit?

The Net project of a project is the difference between the total costs and the total income over the life of the project.

9. What is payback period?

The payback period is the time taken to break even or payback the initial investment.

10. What is Net Present value?

The calculation of net present value is a project evaluation technique that takes into account the profitability of a project and the timing of the cash flows that are produced.

11. What is an activity?

An element of work performed during the course of the project.

12. Write the goals of project management?

·      Complete the project on time.

·      Complete the project within budget

·      Meet requirement

·      Meet expectations.

13. Write the legal issues for project management skills?

·      Alternative Dispute Resolution,

·      Arbitration

·      Negotiation and mediation.

14. Write about ARR.

The return on investment (ROI) is known as accounting rate of return (ARR ). It provides a way of comparing the net profitability to the investment required.

                                    Average annual profit

            ROI       =   --------------------------------- X   100

                                      Total investment

15. What are the standard ways of evaluating the benefits of a project?

·      Identifying and estimating all of the costs and benefits of carrying out the  

     project and operating the delivered application.

·      Expressing the costs and benefits in common units.

16. Mention the name of the direct costs

·      Development cost: It includes the salary and other employment costs of the staff involved in the development project and all associated costs.

·      Setup cost: It includes the costs of putting the system into place. These consist mainly of the costs of file conversion, recruitment and staff training.

·      Operational cost : It consists of the costs of operating the systems once it has been installed.

17. What is the use of stakeholder map?

·      The stakeholder identifying the groups of people with an interest in the projects and its outcomes and their particular interests could be drawn up.

·      It is used to write a communication strategy and plan showing how the appropriate information flows between stakeholders can be set up and maintained.

18. Define technical assessment.

Technical assessment of a proposed system consists of evaluating the required functionality against the hardware and software available. Organizational policy aimed at the provision of a uniform and consistent hardware/software infrastructure is likely to place limitations on the nature of technical solutions that might consider.

19. What is the need of technical assessment of a proposed system ?

The technical assessment of a proposed system consists of evaluating the required functionality against the hardware and software available. The constraints will influence the cost of the solution and must be taken into account in cost benefit analysis.

20. What are the questions can be asked while analyse other project characteristics?

·         Is a data oriented or process oriented system to be implemented

·         Will the software that is to be produced be a general tool or application specific

·         Are there specific tools available for implementing the particular type of application

·         Is the system to be created safety critical

·         Is the system designed primarily to carry out predefined services

·         What is the nature of the hardware and software environment?

21. What are the steps involved in Risk evaluation process?

·            Risk identification

·            Risk ranking

·            Risk quantification

22. Describe ‘Risk ranking’ with an example.

            Ranking each risk is to assess its likelihood of occurrence. one can give a number in a scale of zero to 5 or it could be assessed with low/medium/high. Eg.

Risk no.	Risk description	Ranking
1	Unavailability of specific domain experts	2

23.  Describe NPV method as risk quantification technique.

            It is easy to compare two similar projects, if we can quantify the risk level by numbers instead of subjective words like ‘high’, ’medium’, ’average’ and ‘low’. One factor which can be considered is NPV. For high risk projects, we can have more discount rate like 6% ,for low risk project 2% and for medium risk project 4%.

24. What is RAR?

            It is a ‘Risk Adjusted Revenue’. In any project where risks are probable, the revenue cannot be calculated. Under various risk scenarios, assuming a certain % of probability, the revenue can be calculated.

25. Write the difference between programme managers and project managers.

Programme manager	Project manager
Many simultaneous projects	One project at a time
Personal relationship with skilled resources	Impersonal relationship with resource type
Need to maximize utilization of resources	Need to minimize demand for resources
Projects tend to be similar	Projects tend to be dissimilar

UNIT – III

ACTIVITY PLANNING

1. List the advantage of activity planning.

·         Clarity among the project team

·         Measurement of achievement of project

·         Reserve appropriate resources during the exact time when required

·         Parallel activities can be identified and executed

·         Project budget can be calculated

2. Write about schedule production.

Once resources have been allocated to each activity, we will be in a position to draw up and publish a project schedule, which indicates planned start and completion dates and a resource requirements statement for each activity.

3. What are the three approaches for identifying the activities that make up a project?

·      The activity based approach

·      The product based approach

·      The hybrid approach

4. What are the five levels used in WBS?

·      Project

·      Deliverables

·      Components

·      Work-packages

·      Tasks which are tasks that will normally be the responsibility of a single person

                                                 

5. What is risk management?

Risk management is the procedure that explains the process of managing risk through analysis. This procedure does not provide solution to perceived risks.

6. Short notes on Finish-to-Start (FS) Dependency Relationship?

One activity can start only when the proceeding activity finishes.

7. What is Brainstorming?

Brainstorming refers to the process of a group of colleagues meeting and working collaboratively to generate creative solutions and new ideas.

8. What is Activity-on-Node (AON)?

One representation of network diagram put the activity information on the nodes and is called an activity-on-arrow representation (AON).

9. Name the three forms of presenting a project schedule?

à Table

à Gantt chart

à Network diagram

10. Write any three network diagram methods?

PERT – Program evaluating and review technique.

CPM – Critical path method.

ADM – Arrow Diagramming method.

11. What is a start-to-start relationship?

It means that one activity can start if and only if another activity starts.

12. What are the uses of nominal group techniques?

à Problem solving

à Creative decision making.

à Ideas generating situations.

13. What is project schedule?

Once the plan has been refined to detail level, then it is called as project schedule.

14. What do you mean by an ideal activity plan?

A plan of when each activity would ideally be undertaken where resources not a constraint is termed as an ideal activity plan.

15. What do you mean by activity-based approach?

The activity based approach consists of creating a list of all the activists that the project is thought to evolve.

16. What is product flow diagram (PFD)?

The PFP indicates, for each product, which other products are required

17. What is forward pass?

The network analyzed by carrying forward pass is, to calculate the earliest dates as which activities may commence and the project be completed.

18. What is backward pass?

It calculates the latest start dates for activities and the critical path.

19. What is a risk?

A risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives. The chance of exposure to the adverse consequences of future events.

20. What are the key elements of risk?

It relates to the future. Risk planning involves speculating about future events. The future is inherently uncertain. It involves cause and effect. A specific risk identifies a situation such as inexperienced staff, and a particular type of negative outcome, such as lower productivity.

21. Write about causal mapping.

Casual mapping and diagrams represent the chains of causes and effects that will influence that outcome in a particular area of activity.

22. What are the categories of risk?

 

23. What are all the steps involved for planning a risk?

·      Risk identification

·      Risk analysis and prioritization

·      Risk planning

·      Risk monitoring

24. Write the formula for estimating the risk exposure.

Risk exposure can be estimating by using the following formula,

                        Risk exposure    =  ( potential damage ) X ( probability of occurrence )

25. What are the choices involved in risk planning?

·      Risk acceptance

·      Risk avoidance

·      Risk reduction and mitigation

·      Risk transfer

26. What is the need of contingency plan?

The planned action to be carried out if the particular risk materializes. If a team member involved in urgent work were ill then the project manager might draft in another member of staff to cover that work.

27. What is Risk management?

Risk management is the process of anticipating hurdles in carrying out the original plan and providing alternate plans so that the impact on the originally anticipated final outcome is minimal.

28. What is Risk mitigation?

Mitigation is a possible means if minimizing or even avoiding the impact of risk.

29. What is risk identification?

It consists of listing all of the risks that can adversely affect the successful execution of the project. It is the process of determining risks that could potentially prevent the program, enterprise, or investment from achieving its objectives

30. What is risk estimation and risk evaluation?

·            Risk mitigation consists of assessing the likelihood and impact of each hazard

·            Risk evaluation consists of ranking the risks and determining risk aversion strategies.

31. What are generic risks?

Some hazards are generic risks, they are relevant to all software projects and standard. Checklists can be used and augmented from an analysis of past projects to identify them.

32. What are the three-step method of PERT?

·      Most likely time

·      Optimistic time

·      Pessimistic time

33. What are the advantages of PERT?

PERT focuses attention on the uncertainty of forecasting. Using the technique the standard deviation for each task and use this to rank them according to their degree of risk. If we use the expected times and standard deviations for forward passes through the network ,for any event or activity completion, estimate the probability of meeting any set target.

34. What are the estimates required by the PERT technique?

·      Calculate the standard deviation of each project event.

·      Calculate the Z-value for each event that has a target date.

·      Convert Z value to a probabilities.

UNIT – IV

MONITORING AND CONTROL

1. What is the purpose of project monitoring and control?

The purpose of project monitoring and control is to keep the team and management up to date on the project’s progress

2. What are the different categories of reporting?

·      Oral –formal –regular

·      Written-formal-adhoc

·      Written-formal-regular

·      Written-formal- adhoc

·      Oral – informal-adhoc

3. What is BCWS?

·      The budgeted cost of tasks as scheduled in the project plan, based on the cost of resources assigned to these task, plus any fixed costs associated with the tasks, called “The Budgeted cost of work Schedule”(BCWS)

·      It is the baseline cost up to the status date you choose.

4. What is ACWP?

·      The actual cost required to complete all or some portion of the task,up to the status date.

·       This is to actual cost of work performance (ACWP).

5. What is BCWP?

The value of the work performed by status date measured in currency. this is literally the valve earned by the work performed and is called the budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP).

6. What is variance and how do you define variance it?

                  For any estimate the metric to determine its effectiveness is the variance. It            can be defined by,

Variance = (planned-Actual)/Planned * 100

7. What is cost variance (CV)?

It is the difference between a task’s estimated cost and its actual cost .

            CV=BCWP-ACWP.

8. What is schedule variance (SV)?

                  It is the difference between the current progress and the schedule progress of a task in terms of cost

SV=BCWP-BCWS.

9. What is cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI)?

·         It is the ratio of budgeted costs to actual cost.

CPI=BCWP∕ACWP.

·         It is the ratio of work performed to work schedule

                              SPI=BCWP∕BCWS.

10. What is “To complete performance index”(TCPI)?

                  It is the ratio the work done to be done to funds remaining to be spend as of the status date, or budget at completion.

TCPI=BAC-BCWP∕[BAC-ACWP].

BAC=Budget at completion.

11. What is EAC?

Estimated At completion (EAC) is the expected total cost of a task or project, based on performance as of the status date.

EAC=ACWP+[BAC-BCWP]∕CPI

12. What is BAC?

                  Budget at completion (BAC) shows an estimate of the total project cost.

13. . What is TCPI?

                  To complete performance index (TCPI) is the ratio of remaining available budget to be spend to the remaining schedules cost

TCPI=(BAC-BCWP) ∕ (BAC-ACWP)

TCPI>1->Good projected performance for remaining work.

TCPI<1->indicates poor projected performance.

14. Who is the client and supplier in contract management?

                  Client is the customer who asks for a contract to work for his project.  Client may be customer or somes times company, which is the client to supplier (controller). Supplier is one who supplies goods and services may be contractor/company owner.

15. List the steps for process of evaluation?

·      Scrutiny of the proposal documents.

·      Interviewing supplies is representatives.

·      Demonstrations.

·      STR visits.

·      Practical tests

16. What are the different types of contracts?

·      Fixed price contracts.

·      Time and materials contracts.

·      Fixed price per delivered unit contracts.

17. What is cost monitoring?

Cost Monitoring is monitoring expenditure for the project.  Project costs may be monitored by a company’s accounting system.

18. Define estimation.

Estimation is a process of expectations setting which forms the basis of quantifying the resources required to accomplish certain goals, based on certain clearly stated assumptions.

19. What are the three phases of estimation?

·      Size

·      Effort

·      Schedule estimate.

20. What are the formal models of size estimation?

·      Lines of code

·      Function points

21. What is Earned Value and Planned Value?

·                                          Earned values analysis, also known as Budgeted cost of work performed.

·                  Planned Value is the portion of approved cost estimate planned to be spent on the given activity during a given period.

22. Differentiate Budgeted Cost of work scheduled and Budgeted Cost of Work performed.

S.No.	Budgeted Cost of work scheduled	Budgeted Cost of Work performed
1.	The budgeted cost of tasks as scheduled in the project plan, based on the cost of resources assigned to these task, plus any fixed costs associated with the tasks, called “The Budgeted cost of work Schedule”(BCWS).	The value of the work performed by status date measured in currency. this is literally the valve earned by the work performed and is called the budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP).
2.	Planned value (PV) or Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) – original estimate of the effort/cost to complete a task (compare with idea of a ‘price’)	Earned value (EV) or Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) – total of PVs for the work completed at this time.

23. What is planned expenditure?

Planned expenditure is one in which the costs incurred by the project is estimated before project starts.

24. List two methods for visualizing progress?

 i) Gantt Charts (Static).

ii) Time-line Charts (Dynamic).

25. What do you understand by ‘Liquidated damages’?

            If vendor fails to deliver according to the terms of contract, then the customer will claim damages according to the limits and schedule  described in the liquefied damages clause. Even if customer were to take the vendor to court, it is likely that customer would only be awarded the damages specified in liquefied damage clause.

26. What is COTS?

Customized off-the-shelf (COTS) software is a basic core system, which is modified to meet the needs of a particular customer.

UNIT – V

MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZING TEAMS

1.      List some competencies of an IT project manager to make the project success?

·         Recruiting right people

·         Forming a well blend team

·         Building the team

·         Care for team members

·         Good negotiating skill

·         Leadership qualities

2.      Who is termed as ‘eligible’ candidate and who is a ‘suitable candidate’ for a job?

·         Eligible candidate – It is a person with right qualification and experience on paper

·         Suitable candidate – It is the person who do the job well

3.      Why personal interview is must in selection process?

           All posts, Whether preliminary tests are conducted or not, will definitely have at least one round of personal interview. The interaction will enable personal touch, judge the body language, pressure handling abilities.

4.      What are the purposes of an induction program?

·         Work ethics / culture followed ny the organization

·         Standards to be followed by every employee

·         Introduce team members formally and informally

·         Any technical knowledge/ skill to be built up before putting the person on the project.

5.       Differentiate leaders and managers.

Leaders-Set direction, do the righting.

Managers-Follow process, do things right.

6.       Give some unites for measuring the size of the software.

Lines of code (LOC), Function points, feature points, number of bubbles on the dataflow diagram, number of entities on entity relationship diagram.

7.       Write the any two advantages of LOC.

           It is widely used and universally accepted.

           LOC is easily measured upon project completion.

8.       Write the goal of software project planning?

Software estimates or documented for use in planning and tracking the software project.

9.       What is Legacy code?

Code developed for a previous application that is believed to be of use for a new application.

10.  What are the characteristics of an organization?

                 Model, Maturity, Thickness, Size, Structure.

11.  Write any five competencies of project management skills.

Documenting plans, estimating cost, estimating effort, managing risks, scheduling, tracking processes.

12.  Write any two goals of organizational process focus.

           Software process development and improvement activities are coordinated across the organization.

           The strength and weakness of the s/w processes used are identified relative to a process standard.

13.   What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management is the combination of activities involved in gathering, organizing, sharing, analyzing, and disseminating knowledge to improve an organization’s performance.

14.  What is unstructured data?

Unstructured data are the data drawn from meeting discussions, private conversations, textual documents, graphical representations and other “non-uniform” sources.

15.  What is structured data?

           Structured data are numbers and facts that can be conveniently stored and retrieved I an orderly manner for operations and decision-making.

16.   Write some ways to collect information for system requirements.

·      Interviews

·      Questionnaries

·      Examination of documents.

·      On-the-job observation.

17.  What are the two categorized for decision making?

Structured- generally relatively simple, routine decisions where rules can be applied in a fairly straightforward way. 

           Unstructured- more complex and often requiring a degree of creativity.

18.  How to becoming a team?

1. Forming- The members of the groups get to know each other and try to set up some ground rules about behaviour

2. Storming- one nice packaging, all for publishing need

3. Norming- Asset Management is a powerful and complete asset management solution 4. Performing- Optimize project delivery across the software

5. Adjourning - added a final stage

19.  What is the phases in systems development life cycle (SDLC)?

           1. Planning 2. Analysis 3. Design 4. Implementation 5. Support.

20.  Write some ways to collect information for system requirements.

1. Interviews

2. Questionnaires

3. Examination of documents

4. On-the-job observation.

21.  Write the goals of project management.

1. Complete the project on time

2. Complete the project within budget

3. Meet requirements

      4. Meet expectations.

22.  What do you understand by ‘matrix organization’?

           In structure of an organization, when project managers report to specialist project managers who in turn report to CEO directly, the specialist project manager gets power of a functional manager.

                       

23.  How to avoid stress in working environment?

·         Realistic planning

·         Periodic monitoring

·         Avoid role ambiguity

·         Avoid role conflict

24.  What is Role conflict?

           It leads to stress. Eg. An analyst who has to deliver an important ‘software patch’ to avoid a ‘show stopper’ at the customer site and also as a parent at house to take his/her ailing son to doctor. In this situation, the job holder is torn between two roles – analyst role at office and parent role at house.

25.  List the ‘occupational hazard’ of an IT employee.

·         Keep watching the computer screen most of his life

·         Sit in chair for most of the time

·         Subject himself to stress due to impossible target completion dates and customer pressure

·         Works long hours

·         Lack of sleep

16 MARKS QUESTIONS

UNIT –I

1. Explain in detail about contract management.
2. Explain stepwise project planning.
3. Draw Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) and Product Flow Diagram (PED) for online ticket reservation.
4. Draw an activity network fragment of payroll processing of particular department.
5. Explain “information flow and control in organization.
6. Draw and explain project control cycle with its objectives, sub-objectives and goals.
7. List and explain in detail the various activities covered by software project management.
8. Write the MACRO level steps involved in planning. Explain.
9. Write the MICRO level steps involved in planning. Explain.
10. Explain the various SDLC activities outline by ISO 12207 with a neat diagram.

UNIT – II

1. Explain why discount cash flow techniques provide better criteria for project selection than net profit or return on investment?
2. Identify major risk of your own organization in the pay roll payout.
3. Draw decision diagram for accounting project department with extend and replace.
4. Consider the projects cash flow estimates for four project at your own, Rank the four projects in order of financial desirability and make a note of your reasons for ranking them in that way?
5. Draw and explain a risk analysis profile?
6. Explain risk analysis using decision free.
7. Case study with various decision scenarios and to make the business decisions based on decision tree structure.
8. Describe using an example, the decision tree method of risk quantification.
9. What are the various perspectives considered while strategic assessment in the project selection process.
10.  Evaluate the risk involved in a project and suggest appropriate strategies for minimizing the cost.

UNIT – III

1. List the major risks that might affect your programming assignment and identify strategies of minimizing each of those risks.
2. If you have access to a project planning computer application, find out whether or not it supports the PERT methods.
3. Explain risk engineering task breakdown.
4. Draw activity table for forward pass and backward pass?
5. Draw activity network using CPM conventions for the development of software project.
6. Explain risks for constructing CPM networks.
7. What is activity planning? List its objectives.
8. Explain different approaches for identifying activities with neat diagram.
9. Explain with an example how will you prioritize the risk.
10. What are the steps involved in risk planning and control?

UNIT – IV

1. Explain error value analysis.
2. At IOE, the management is considering ‘out-sourcing’ the maintenance accounting system.  Write a short memorandum to management outlining the advantages and disadvantages of such organization.
3. Explain types of contracts?

On basis of payment made to contracts.

4. Explain different stages in contract management.
5. Write notes on change control procedures?
6. Explain with diagram for the different ways of visualizing progress.
7. Draw framework for monitoring and control.
8. Describe the various ways of collecting a project data.
9. Explain in detail about Software configuration management.
10. Explain in detail ‘Earned Value Analysis’.

UNIT – V

1.      Explain the requirement process.

2.      Explain Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

3.      Comment on ‘Selecting the right person for the right job’.

4.      Describe different methods of improving motivation.

5.      Describe five stages of team development.

6.      Explain about decision making.

7.      Explain different leadership styles.

8.      Explain different Organization structure.

9.      Describe the process of participating management techniques.

10.  Explain in detail the Oldham-Hackman’s job characteristics model.