(02) Defining the project Flashcards

1
Q

What is a project?

A
  • “A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service.”
  • “It is a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer demand.”
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2
Q

What are the steps of making a project?

A

Step 1: Defining the project scope.
Step 2: Establishing project priorities.
Step 3: Creating the work breakdown structure
Step 4: Integrating the WBS with the organisation.
Step 5: Coding the WBS.

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3
Q

What is Project Scope?

A

A definition of the end result or mission of the project – a product or service for the client/customer – in specific, tangible and measurable terms.
- Use creative ways to communicate scope e.g., models, prototypes, exclusions, etc.

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4
Q

What is the purpose of the scope statement?

A
  • To clearly define the deliverable(s) for the end user.

- To be used by the project manager and participants as a planning tool and for measuring project success.

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5
Q

What is the statement of work (SOW)?

A

An expanded version of scope statement with risks, budget, etc.

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6
Q

What is Scope Creep?

A

The tendency for the project scope to expand over time due to changing requirements, specifications and priorities.

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7
Q

What are the effects of Scope Creep?

A
  • Risk going over budget.
  • Missing deadlines.
  • Delivering low quality outcomes e.g. bugs in the code or faulty product.
  • Ultimately leads to project failure.
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8
Q

How do you manage scope/project creep?

A
  • Get agreement on scope before you launch. A good definition of the project scope helps to avoid project creep.
  • Choose a technique to manage scope creep.
  • Make a list of what is in scope (when stakeholders are certain about the scope).
  • Set scope tolerance parameters (when stakeholders are not certain about the scope).
  • Get stakeholders to sign off or review parameters.
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9
Q

What is the meaning of establishing project priorities?

A

There are shifts in the relative importance of criteria related to cost, time and performance parameters. Consider:

  • Budget (cost).
  • Schedule (deadline).
  • Performance (scope).
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10
Q

What is Time-Constrain?

A

The product or service has to be finished/available by due date.

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11
Q

What is Scope-Accept?

A

The scope can be amended.

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12
Q

What is Cost-Enhance?

A

Costs should be optimised.

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13
Q

Time, scope, cost of these examples?

  • Launch of the new Amazon Alexa.
  • Delivery of a new University paper.
A

Time-constrain, scope-enhance and cost-accept.

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14
Q

Time, scope, cost of these examples?

  • Building a house for a young family.
  • Going on a world trip.
A

Time-accept, scope-constrain and cost-enhance.

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15
Q

Time, scope, cost of these examples?

  • Concert.
  • Sports event.
A

Time-constrain, scope-accept and cost-enhance.

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16
Q

What is a WBS?

A

A deliverable-oriented grouping hierarchal decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives.

17
Q

What does a WBS do?

A
  • Identifies the work elements / components (sub projects) involved in a project.
  • Defines the relationship of the final deliverable to its sub-deliverables.
  • Breaks all the work required for the project into discrete activities and groups those tasks into a logical hierarchy (not related to order of completion).

WBS descriptions should include a verb and a noun.

18
Q

What is the Purpose of a WBS?

A
  • It reflects the project objectives.
    - It is the logical structure of deliverables for the project.
    - It discovers the building blocks to be used for tracking cost and managing the schedule.
    - It discovers the building blocks that will be used for control and communications.
    - It discovers the building blocks to be used for the network plan.
19
Q

What are the steps for creating the WBS?

A
  1. Team members write down all activities (tasks) they can think of.
  2. Activities are logically organised.
20
Q

What are the guidelines when creating the WBS?

A
  • The 100% Rule.
  • Mutually exclusive tasks (or sub-tasks).
  • Balance between breadth and depth.
21
Q

What is the 100% Rule?

A

The WBS includes all the activities that must be done to complete the work defined by the project scope.

22
Q

What are mutually exclusive tasks (or sub-tasks)?

A

No overlap among activities (or sub-activities) included in the WBS.

23
Q

What is the balance between breadth and depth?

A

No more than seven (7) sister sub-activities under an activity in the WBS.

24
Q

What are things to note when creating the WBS?

A

The project manager must decide how to organise the work and how many levels to include in the WBS.

25
Q

What is a Work Package?

A

A task at the lowest level of the WBS that is output-oriented.

26
Q

What does a Work Package do?

A
  • Defines work: what.
  • Identifies time: how long (but not start finish times).
  • Identifies information for the time-phased budget: cost.
  • Provides basis for identifying resources needed: how much/how many.
  • Identifies a single person/team responsible for units of work: who.
27
Q

What are other things to consider about Work Package?

A
  • May be considered as a project in itself by the owner.

- Is what the project manager monitors and controls.

28
Q

What is an Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS)?

A
  • Identifies organisation units responsible for work packages.
  • Provides a framework to summarise organisation work unit performance.
29
Q

What does the WBS Coding System Define?

A
  • Levels and elements of the WBS.
  • Work packages.
  • The basis of the project cost/budget.
30
Q

What is the Responsibility Matrix?

A

The responsibility matrix (RM), or linear responsibility chart, list the project activities and participants.

31
Q

What does the Responsibility Matrix do?

A
  • Summarises the tasks to be accomplished and who is responsible for what on the project.
    • Clarifies critical interfaces between units and individuals that need coordination.
    • Provide a means for all participants to view their
      responsibilities and agree on their assignments.
    • Clarifies the extent or type of authority that can be exercised by each participant.
32
Q

What is Project Management?

A

The application of knowledge, tools, techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholders needs and expectations from a project.

33
Q

What are the steps in a Project’s Life Cycle?

A
  1. Defining.
  2. Planning.
  3. Executing.
  4. Delivering.
34
Q

What are the factors in the Defining stage?

A
  1. Goals.
  2. Specifications.
  3. Tasks.
  4. Responsibilities.
35
Q

What are the factors in the Planning stage?

A
  1. Schedules.
  2. Budgets.
  3. Resources.
  4. Risks.
  5. Staffing.
36
Q

What are the factors in the Executing stage?

A
  1. Status Reports.
  2. Changes.
  3. Quality.
  4. Forecasts.
37
Q

What are the factors in the Delivering stage?

A
  1. Train customer.
  2. Transfer documents.
  3. Release resources.
  4. Release staff.
  5. Lessons learned.