Chapter 3 - Managing Systems Projects Flashcards
The three major components of a project: cost, scope, and time. A project manager tries to find the optimal balance among these factors
project triangle
The person charged with managing a project from an administrative perspective.
project manager
The person charged with leading a project from a technical perspective.
project leader
The person who handles administrative responsibilities for the development team and negotiates with users who might have conflicting requirements or want changes that would require additional time or expense.
project coordinator
Identifying project tasks and estimating completion time and costs.
Project planning
The creation of a specific timetable to facilitate completion of a project. Also involves selecting and staffing the project team and assigning specific tasks to team members.
Project scheduling
Guiding, supervising, and coordinating the project team’s workload.
Project monitoring
Providing regular progress reports to management, users, and the project team itself.
Project reporting
A project broken down into a series of smaller tasks.
work breakdown structure (WBS)
A horizontal bar chart that illustrates a schedule. Developed many years ago by Henry L. Gantt as a production control technique. Still are in common use today
Gantt chart
A task that represents several activities.
task group
See PERT/CPM.
Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)
Shows a project as a network diagram. The activities are shown as vectors, and the events are displayed graphically as nodes. Although ___ developed separately from the Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), the two methods are essentially identical.
Critical Path Method (CPM)
The ___________________________ was developed by the U.S. Navy to manage very complex projects, such as the construction of nuclear submarines. At approximately the same time, the ____________________ was developed by private industry to meet similar project management needs. The important distinctions between the two methods
PERT/CPM
A method for analyzing a large, complex project as a series of individual tasks, called project tasks.
bottom-up technique
A PERT chart also is referred to as a _________.
network diagram
Any work that has a beginning and an end and requires the use of company resources including people, time, and/or money. Examples include conducting a series of interviews, designing a report, selecting software, waiting for the delivery of equipment, and training users.
task / activity
Any work that has a beginning and an end and requires the use of company resources including people, time, and/or money. Examples include conducting a series of interviews, designing a report, selecting software, waiting for the delivery of equipment, and training users.
Task / activity
A reference point that marks a major occurrence. Used to monitor progress and manage a project.
events /milestone
A reference point that marks a major occurrence. Used to monitor progress and manage a project.
Event / milestones
A single prior task upon which two or more concurrent tasks depend.
predecessor tasks
The amount of work that one person can complete in one day.
person-day
The most optimistic outcome
best-case estimate
The most likely outcome
probable-case estimate
The most pessimistic outcome.
worst-case estimate
An important multiplier that managers factor into estimates so they can be analyzed.
weight
A logical sequence of tasks in a WBS. Can involve sequential tasks, multiple successor tasks, and multiple predecessor tasks.
task pattern
A component of a PERT/CPM chart that contains important scheduling and duration information about a task. Each task in a project is represented by its own _______ in the PERT/CPM chart.
task box
A brief descriptive name for a task, which does not have to be unique in the project. For example, a task named Conduct Interviews might appear in several phases of the project.
task name
A number or code that uniquely identifies a task.
task ID
The amount of time it will take to complete a task.
duration
The day or date when a task is scheduled to begin.
start day/date
The day or date when a task is scheduled to be finished.
finish day/date
A task is said to be ___________ when it has to be completed in a serial sequence.
dependent tasks
A task that can be completed at the same time as (in parallel with) another task.
concurrent task
Each of the concurrent tasks of a predecessor task.
successor task
A series of events and activities with no slack time. If any activity along the _________ falls behind schedule, the entire project schedule is similarly delayed. As the name implies, a _________ includes all activities that are vital to the project schedule.
critical path
The amount of time by which an event can be late without delaying the project. The difference between latest completion time (LCT) and earliest completion time (ECT)
Slack time
A review of a project team member’s work by other members of the team. Generally, systems analysts review the work of other systems analysts, and programmers review the work of other programmers, as a form of peer review. _________________ should take place throughout the SDLC and are called requirements reviews, design reviews, code
structured walk-through
See structured walk-through.
design reviews
A review of a project team member’s work by other members of the team to spot logic errors. Generally, systems analysts review the work of other systems analysts, and programmers review the work of other programmers, as a form of peer review. Structured walk-throughs should take place throughout the SDLC and are called requirements reviews, design
code reviews
Software that is supported by a large group of users and developers. The source code is made freely available.
open-source
An event that could affect the project negatively.
risk
The process of identifying, evaluating, tracking, and controlling risks to minimize their impact.
Risk management
Includes a review of the project’s scope, stakeholders, budget, schedule, and any other internal or external factors that might affect the project. The plan should define project roles and
responsibilities, risk management methods and procedures, categories of risks, and contingency plans.
risk management plan
Listing each risk and assessing the likelihood that it could affect a project.
Risk identification
Evaluating risk by estimating the probability that it will occur and the degree of impact.
Qualitative risk analysis
Evaluating risk in terms of the actual impact in terms of dollars, time, project scope, or quality.
quantitative risk analysis
A proactive effort to anticipate a risk and describe an action plan to deal with it. An effective ______________ can reduce the overall impact by triggering a timely and appropriate action.
risk response plan
Frederick Brooks, an IBM engineer, observed that adding more manpower to a late software project only makes it later.
Brooks’ law
The process of planning, scheduling, monitoring, controlling, and reporting upon the development of an information system.
project management
