Chapter 7

Question 1

How do you visualise project progress?

Answer 1

Milestones are essential for monitoring and visualising project progress.

Question 2

Requirement analysis asks the question

Answer 2

What shall the system do?

Question 3

System specification asks the question

Answer 3

How does the system do this

Question 4

Highlight the project reporting paths in a project

Answer 4

The paths:

Team members reports to Team leader, team leaders reports to the project leaders while the project leader reports to the project manager or the steering committee.
The higher the level of reporting, the more abstract the reports will be and less often project reporting will happen.

Question 5

What are the things a status report should contain?

Answer 5

1. Current project schedule and actual course of the project.
2. Current risk estimation
   - What are the top five risks and which actions have been taken
3. Next steps
   - What are the next steps to be taken until the next reporting session
4. What decisions have to be made by the person getting the report
5. Project status
   - what is the overall project status

Note:
Project status is visualised by traffic lights

Green: everything is okay, project will reach its objectives.

Yellow: There are problems, the projects objectives are endangered

Red: Severe problems, project will mostly miss its objectives if no action is taken.

Question 6

Discuss the four steps for change request management

Answer 6

1. Formulate: Write down the precise content of the request which should address the questions
   - what exactly is the problem
   - what is the suggested solution
   - who is the sponsor of the request
   - what are the consequences if the change is rejected
2. Evaluate: The formulated change request has to be evaluated, during the evaluation, the consequences of the request regarding project schedule (time, budget) are estimated.
3. Decide: Here, it is possible to make a decision about the change; there are three alternatives
   - Accept
   - Reject
   - Defer
4. Implement:
   Implementing a change request means changing the project plan.

Question 7

Source for change request in a project

Answer 7

It can come from project’s customer or from the project itself

Question 8

Change management has to be agreed on early and should be described in

Answer 8

the project contract or project charter

Question 9

What does controlling mean

Answer 9

it means actively managing your team so that the project objectives can be reached.

Question 10

Permanent processes in project management

Answer 10

planning, controlling

Question 11

Typical reporting cycles

Answer 11

1. Team members to team leader: weekly
2. Team leaders to Project leader: weekly or biweekly
3. Project leader to project manager or steering committee: monthly or bimonthly