Planning & Managing Deployment 1/2 Flashcards
What are the key stages in the requirements management process?
Key stages are:
1. Gather
2. Analysis
3. Justify requirements
4. Baseline needs
Describe the requirements management process stages?
- Gather - where you will gain a detailed understanding of the stakeholder’s requirements for a project & assemble a comprehensive set of requirements from multiple perspectives.
- Analysis - analyse each of your requirements to work out their value (i.e., cost of achieving it vs. benefits expected), this step will help you identify any gaps or clashing requirements.
- Justify requirements - prioritisation methods used: MoSCoW technique: The MoSCoW model will help you prioritise the must haves, the should haves, the could haves, and the won’t haves. Using this technique, you can clearly share results with stakeholders, giving everyone the same details and avoiding misunderstandings or disputes.
- Baseline needs - Once the requirements are set, they become the baseline for the project. By having those requirements baselined and getting the correct approval, it ensures that everyone on the project understands what needs need to be implemented.
This is a step before moving into the design and development phase. It helps the project manager and team determine deliverables.
what is functional analysis?
It incorporates the analysis of the requirements to provide a thorough understanding of each. Time and cost are drivers to understand the value they will each contribute to the overall objectives.
What does value represent on a project?
- Value represents the amount of benefit that will accumulate from the project requirements.
- Used to justify its priority, e.g. how important this requirement is compared to the others.
- It is created at the beginning of the project. Achieved through the development of a business case.
- Maintained throughout the project life cycle using, for example, cost and schedule management.
Detail Function Analysis or function cost analysis
Function analysis or function cost analysis are value-based techniques which allow the analysis of the requirements by combining information from functions such as schedule management and investment appraisal.
If the time and cost required to deliver the requirements is analysed in this way, then this will result in a thorough understanding of the requirements needed and the value they will contribute to the overall project.
This tool//technique can also assess any assumptions that have been made as part of the analysis stage. This step can primarily help with providing feedback to stakeholders, building consensus, and generating idea.
The result is a baselined set of options for functional requirements.
Describe MoSCoW
The MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have and Won’t have) model.
Must have: most important requirements for a project to succeed. Once negotiated and agreed, changing them is unlikely or a last resort.
Should have: they are not crucial to the project’s success. However, they still add substantial value. what value does this requirement bring to the project, and if this requirement were left out would it impact the project significantly?
Could have: based on small impact requirements that, if left out, would not have that much of an impact to the overall project.
Won’t have: These are requirements that will not be included in the project at this time. They are the lowest of the priorities
What is the benefit of MoSCoW
Ensure that essential requirements are understood and for an ideal solution to be clearly outlined between the project and the stakeholders.
This level of rigour, when using the MoSCoW model, mitigates certain risks that may appear later in the project life cycle.
And finally, if there is a dispute between both parties, all the requirements have been prioritised correctly within the project.
What is Configuration management processes?
Configuration management encompasses the technical and administrative activities concerned with the creation, maintenance, controlled change, and quality control of the scope of work.
Configuration management consists of what five key stages:
(PIC SA)
1. Planning
2. Identification
3. Control
4. Status Accounting
5. Audit
Describe the Configuration management stages
- Planning: defines process and procedures for the configuration management process. Sets actions for team & clear R&Rs.
- Identification: determines which products are going to be treated as configurable items and assigns a unique identifier to each.
- Control: ensures changes to these items are controlled. And parallels between the items are understood to fully comprehend the impact of the change. Changes to the configuration baseline must only be implemented and approved by authorised parties such as a Configuration Item Owner.
- Status Accounting: ensures traceability of configuration items throughout their development in the project. This stage also maintains record keeping and document control for the project as it is essential to maintain a healthy audit trail of configuration records over the course of the project.
- Audit: ensures the deliverables match to the requirements and configuration information. At a minimum, the project assets should be reviewed at each stage to ensure that their actual status aligns with the presently authorised version. (important for project hand over).
which configuration management activity would ensure that all changes to configuration items are authorised and documented?
Control
Your project sponsor has emailed to ask you to explain a configuration management process, so that they can understand what is involved at each step.
Explain the five steps in a configuration management process
- Planning: Involves defining the procedures/processes to follow, with roles and responsibilities
- Identification: Involves breaking down the project into items and giving each a unique reference
- Control: Ensures that any changes to items are controlled and dependencies between items are understood
- Status accounting: Items are under full version control so there is an audit trail of all configurable items
- Verification audit: Ensures that all items conform to requirements and that deliverables meet with what has been documented.
When should the requirements management process commence?
The requirements management process should commence at the beginning of a project, typically during the initiation or planning phase.
Describe one stage of the requirements management process
- Gather: After having identified key stakeholders as far as possible, information needs to be gathered from these to ensure that all possible requirements are gathered, recorded, and documented. Where some stakeholders are missed from these early discussions, this can lead to important information being missed or conflict further down the line.
- Analysis: Function analysis or function cost analysis will provide detail on the value that the requirements will contribute to the organisation. Analysis should enable any gaps to be identified or conflicting requirements resolved. This can also provide information on alternative solutions. The outcomes of the analysis should be fed back to stakeholders and a consensus reached.
- Justifying requirements: Functional requirements should be prioritised, which link directly back to the benefits using techniques such as MoSCoW (M – Must have; S – Should have; C – Could have; W – Won’t have). Reporting on the outcomes to stakeholders is then required to mitigate any misunderstandings or disputes.
- Baseline needs: Once the functional requirements have been set, these form the baseline requirements for the project from which the project manager and project team can determine the project deliverables, manage change, and mitigate scope creep.
In the analysis stage, you decide to perform a function cost analysis to identify the [BLANK] of the requirements of the organisation.
You then use the [BLANK] technique to prioritise the requirements.
Value
MoSCoW
Definition of Solutions development
Solutions development: The systematic process of identifying, analysing, and implementing responses to challenges and opportunities within a project.
Definition of Requirements gathering
Requirements gathering: The process of collecting the needs and expectations of stakeholders for a project.
Definition of Prioritisation:
Prioritisation: Ranking requirements or tasks based on their importance and urgency.
Definition of Feasibility study:
Feasibility study: An assessment of the practicality and potential success of a proposed solution.
Definition of Risk management:
Risk management: The process of identifying, assessing, and prioritising risks followed by coordinated efforts to minimise, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events.
Definition of Prototyping:
Prototyping: Creating an early model of a solution to test and refine concepts.
Definition of Minimum viable product (MVP):
Minimum viable product (MVP): The most basic version of a product that can be released to start the learning process as quickly as possible.
Definition of Iterative development:
Iterative development: A development approach that breaks the project into small parts (iterations) that are completed in cycles.
Definition of Project governance
Project governance: The framework for decision-making and oversight within a project.
Different types of projects
Technical – Process, material, software, future
Social – People, interactions, needs, relationships
Procurement – Lease, buy, make, service, partnership
Management – Life cycle, governance
Transition – Phased, all at once, big bang
What are the key considerations during the Solutions Development : this requires prioritising and evaluating requirements and options.
- the priority of objectives and requirements.
- acceptance criteria necessary to be achieved.
- priorities of the project end users.
- the life cycle approach for project delivery.
- value of alternative solutions.
- The potential for stakeholder pressure to adopt a preferred solution which may not be the optimal choice.
Once options have been documented in the business case, you need to identify the optimal solution to take forward. To help evaluate and prioritise the options, what must you consider:
(SIM)
1. Stakeholder commitment – a stakeholder’s commitment to the solution
2. An investment appraisal – considering the trade-off between costs, benefits, and risks, looking at value management techniques focusing on the value that requirements contribute to the overall objective.
3. Market capability – considering supply of materials and/or services required for the project.
what in a project is crucial to ensure that the most important and critical tasks are completed first.
Prioritising requirements
What is the benefit of Prioritising requirements?
Reasons for this can be to focus on more high-impact tasks that have the greatest impact on a project’s success or to manage stakeholder expectations, enhance risk management and improve resource allocation, so the team are working on the most critical tasks.
Describe 3 prioritisation techniques that can be used to establish importance.
- Numerical assignment – Grouping requirements, a prioritisation technique based on an ordinal scale assigning numerical amounts to requirements based their priority to the project.
- The ABC model – Classifying objects based on importance: A category has the greatest value, B category is of lesser value than A, and C category has the least value.
- The 5 Whys method – Asking the stakeholders ‘Why is the requirement necessary?’ trying to get to the root cause by asking ‘Why’.
The project needs will determine what approach needs to be taken to develop the best solution for that project.
The linear life cycle:
- straightforward approach.
- maps everything out in order
- Prioritisation/managing starts, of a project and all options are analysed and agreed upon at the very beginning. Once agreed on, the plan is locked in, and any changes will need to go through a rigorous change control process if they are to be amend.
- Downside: inflexible if any latest changes need to be made as the plan is set in stone at that point.
The iterative (Agile) life cycle:
- more flexible
- allows for ongoing refinement.
- Solutions are delivered in small chunks so the ‘Must have’ requirements can be delivered early on as a minimum viable product (MVP).
Detail MVP
MVP (minimum viable product) is an approach that only includes the essential features, and by releasing the MVP in this way it allows you to get user feedback during the project.
This approach helps you understand what works and what doesn’t and once the MVP is out there, the project continues to develop, incorporating user feedback and gradually adding more features.
This leads to the Minimum Marketable Product (MMP). This version includes enough features to be marketable and provide real value to a larger audience. It’s more polished and functional than the MVP.
With each iteration you release in this way the more features you can gradually add each time and based on the feedback already given, the product keeps getting better.
Each approach has its pros and cons, so the best choice depends on your project’s specific needs and circumstances.
If the project is unable to deliver all the requirements within its scope, the requirements may have to be prioritised. Name a common technique.
and explain four areas of the common technique
A common technique for prioritisation is MoSCoW. The four areas of this technique are:
M – Must Have
S – Should Have
C – Could Have
W – Won’t Have
When defining the different options, there may also be different criteria to consider as well. Typically, these are dependent on the type of project. When selecting options, what two criteria may the project manager consider?
any two of the following:
Technical - Process, material, software, future
Social - People, interactions, needs, relationships
Procurement - Lease, buy, make, service, partnership
Management - Life cycle, governance
Transition - Phased, all at once, ‘big bang’
Describe the quality plan
The quality plan is a key part of the project management plan (PMP). The PMP sets out the scope of work, aligns to the business, and it’s how the plan will be assessed.
it includes: regulations, standards, specifications, and any agreed acceptance criteria you have discussed with the stakeholder (the requirements and essential conditions that must be achieved before a deliverable is accepted)
What sort of sections are likely to be included in the quality plan?
will always vary depending on the needs of the organisation and the project, but as a minimum it’s likely to comprise the following sections:
- Quality standards to be achieved.
- Quality methods and procedures to be used (these may be constrained by the adoption of a formal QMS - quality management system - such as ISO9000).
- Specific quality tools (control charts, scatter diagrams etc.).
- Records and reports that will be created (quality register).
- Timing of reviews, audits and checks.
- Specific roles and responsibilities relating to quality (quality reviewer, QA engineer).
Describe Quality management
is the process that oversees and controls all project activities. This management process makes sure that all tasks, activities, and other project inputs are being done to the highest quality and distinction.
Quality management allows you to concentrate on long-term goals through short-term plans. This process can be conducted by creating quality planning, quality assurance, and quality controlling within a project.
What are the benefits of quality Management:
( PED A CCL)
- Processes. more efficient processes as efforts are directed to the areas that will result in better quality for less incremental cost.
- Errors. significant reduction in errors detected by the delivery organisation and/or customer.
- Decision-making. improved decision-making resulting from better source data and information.
- Approaches. more consistent approaches to project activities, leading to less variation in the process outputs.
- Credibility. increased delivery credibility, leading to higher confidence from management, customers, regulatory bodies, etc.
- Customer. improved customer satisfaction.
- LL. lessons learned are disseminated throughout the organisation through effective quality assurance and continuous improvement mechanisms.
What are the two distinct components of the quality management process:
quality control and quality assurance.
Describe Quality Control
Quality control is verifying compliance of the output to requirements, and it consists of inspections, measurement, and testing to confirm project outputs meet acceptance criteria defined during the quality planning stage.
Quality control focuses on finding problems to stop them from being passed onto the customer. A member of the project team can perform quality control and to be effective, the test plans agreed during quality planning need to be managed through the change control process, so any amends are agreed and communicated clearly.
These test plans include aspects such as: the sample size of tests, test protocols including resources required, and whether the test is an independent performance or should be witnessed.
Quality control outputs are checked against a degree of project requirements and acceptance criteria. If the outputs fail to meet specified requirements, then decisions need to be made on what action is needed. Quality control as a process will provide a pass or fail result; there is nothing in-between.
Describe Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is providing confidence to stakeholders that the right processes/methods have been used and, once the project is delivered, it is the task of quality assurance to confirm the acceptance criteria has been met for the overarching outputs of the project.
For example, when using an iterative life cycle, acceptance criteria will be defined at each stage of the cycle and then will also be verified for the final product.
If a project is part of a programme, some quality requirements may be planned and controlled at programme level. These requirements could include looking to build in quality assurance by using standard processes and procedures supported by training and feedback.
Quality assurance must be performed by people independent to the project and, for it to be effective, a framework with supporting documentation on how to do things and methods to use needs to be in place as standard practice. These need to be applied as soon as the project commences management activity.
In the event a deviation to standards is identified, a decision will need to be made on what action is needed. And finally, quality assurance as a process may not be followed fully, yet still deliver an acceptable output.
What are the main differences
differences between quality control and quality assurance, you can conclude that both are vastly different but both essential to ensuring the quality and success of a project.
On the one hand, you have quality control that makes sure that tasks are being completed correctly and any issues are rectified. On the other hand, you have quality assurance that ensures project goals and expectations are being met, and finds ways to ensure mistakes are not repeated in future projects.
You have now reached the end of your core content for quality management. Next up, you will explore some scenario questions that will support you in applying the knowledge you have gained.
What is one purpose of a quality plan and what are four elements that should be included in a quality plan?
- It guides the planning of quality control and assurance activities.
- It plans how to confirm that project outputs meet requirements.
- It sets out the quality indicators/acceptance criteria of outputs, aligned to the business case.
- It answers the question ‘what does good look like’?
- It includes regulations, standards, specifications, and acceptance criteria/quality indicators.
and:
- How it will be verified that the outputs meet requirements/methods of verification.
- Pass/fail criteria for each method.
- Frequency of the tests to be conducted.
- Requirements for resources to conduct testing.
- Testing equipment required.
What are two elements of information that a quality plan may include to ensure a project’s success criteria are met?
- Pass/fail criteria for each method/each deliverable.
- Quality control processes/activities.
- The frequency of the tests/checks/audits that will be carried out.
- What resources are needed to support/carry out quality tests.
- Actions/remediations that can be taken in the event of a fail.
- Methods of documenting a pass/fail for each method/each deliverable.
Quality control is [BLANK] to requirements, whereas quality assurance is providing confidence that the right processes and methods have been used to deliver it.
Verifying compliance of the output
When using an iterative life cycle, acceptance [BLANK] , and then will also be verified for the final product, once the project is delivered, to confirm the acceptance criteria has been met for the overarching outputs.
Will be defined for each time period
What is integrated planning
Integrated planning is the application of management processes that bring together the planning of benefits, success criteria, scope, quality, time, resources, cost, risk, communications, etc. to create the project management plan (PMP).
What are the typical contents of a project management plan.
Benefits – Why?: Why are you doing this? What benefit does this bring to the stakeholder?
Scope – What?: overall project scope: the totality of the outputs, outcomes, and benefits and the work required to produce them.
Time – When?: timeline for project activities and deliverables aligned to the project life cycle.
Resources – Who?: who will be conducting these activities/tasks and in which capacity? The roles and responsibilities are made clear.
Cost – How much?: The financial framework to the entire project belongs here. Showing how the budget has been allocated (labour costs, materials, equipment, etc.)
Delivery logistics – Where?
Detailing project location, delivery requirements, any environment constraints, technology to support virtual locations, or security protocols is what input is needed.
Management – How?
The areas covered could include quality, risk and issues, communication, and project controls. The measurement of a project’s success/failure and all detailed documentation belong here.
In which section of the project management plan would your find details of the product breakdown structure (PBS) and work breakdown structure (WBS)?
Scope (what)
Why is a PMP important:
- enhances communication of approved project details.
- key stakeholders involvement.
- sole source of truth - doc reference.
- function as a reference or contract between the pm and ps, clarity on expectation.
- provides a baseline against which the project team can measure progress.
- holds team members accountable, promoting individual accountability.
- highlight areas where risks may occur and show how mitigation activities may affect the project.
What are five reasons why it is important to produce an integrated project management plan?
- single point of reference for the project.
- clear communication of all important project details.
- help induct new project team members.
- Serves as the contract between the project manager and project sponsor.
- Gives clarity to the project manager on what is expected of them/the project.
- Allows everyone to understand what the project is aiming to achieve, and how.
- Makes sure that all relevant governance/strategies are documented.
- Serves as the baseline for measurement of progress.
The project manager recognises the importance of an integrated project management plan. Give two reasons why the Integrated project management plan is important.
Communication of the details of approved project plans to stakeholders.
Key stakeholders involved in deployment of the project have been engaged with its production.
Provision of a reference source for all stakeholders.
Provision of one source of the truth to all resources involved and can be used as induction material for new members to ensure continuity to the project.
Provision of a reference as the contract between the project manager and project sponsor providing clarity on what is expected of the project manager.
Guidance for the project team and is the baseline for measurement and analysis of progress to take place.
The exact contents of a project management plan may vary between projects due to the project’s size, complexity, and ______(a)________.
Typical contents of a project management plan include the benefits, scope, timeline, project team organisation, budget, and _____(b)______.
(a) Choice of life cycle
(b) Management strategies
how important does scope impact on a project.
1.tangible or intangible outputs (It is the end of the project that meets the project’s objectives and stakeholders’ expectations.) Example: The project is to build a new factory to manufacture motorcycles.
- Depending on the outputs being produced, these will determine the outcome of the project’s circumstances, behaviours, or practices. (Outcome is the ultimate result or consequence of a project.) Example factory: The outcome could be job creation, increased local economic activity, increased production capacity.
- The benefits are then created in line with the defined acceptance criteria of the project. Example: Increased market presence and competitive advantage for the motorcycle manufacturer.
What is a PBS
Product breakdown structure (PBS): Defining the scope of a project and identifying what deliverables need to be met is where you will use a PBS.
PBS is a hierarchical structure, where the outcome of the project is placed at the top level, defining all components as you move down levels, until reaching the individual products to be delivered at the bottom. E.g. from Reno bathroom down to painted walls.
what is a WBS
Work breakdown structure:
spotlight on work and not products, the work required, and skill set needed to complete each task for the project to be a success. Work involving a similar skill set can be grouped together. This supports the allocation of resources, estimating and scheduling of the work packages. (The lowest level of detail identified is a work package.)
like the product breakdown structure, a work breakdown structure defines a baseline scope. This scope, however, is based on capturing the activities or work to be completed to deliver the project requirements.
E.g. From Reno bathroom to buy paint
what is CBS
Cost breakdown structure (CBS):
The financial element of the project can be visualised and broken down into a diverse number of cost components.
The structure helps bring to light the key costs associated with the project and helps highlight the costs assigned to project work packages.
Using the WBS structure to cost factors such as people required in the project, equipment needed, materials used, other required resource, or the costs assigned.
E.g. from Reno bathroom, buying paint brush, pay for tiler.
What are project links/dependencies
Links represent the relationships between different activities outlining the order in which they should occur. E.g. plaster and then paint the walls.
Project dependencies – these define the reliance of one task on another for successful completion e.g. to create a stable foundation is dependant on grading and compaction of the soil to create a stable foundation.
How do you ensure schedule optimisation
- Involve the project team
- Incorporate lessons learnt and reduce contingency reserves
- Realise the accepted risk
- Increase the likelihood of adhering to overall estimate.
What are estimating techniques
- realistic
- scope
- time consuming
- Accurate WBS
- expertise
- trade off
What are the two main methods for used to support scheduling optimisation
the critical path.
the critical chain.
Describe the Critical path
method places emphasis on the shortest time required to complete all activities in a logical order. The logic can include whether activities can start at the same time, if one activity needs to be completed before the next begins, etc.
These tasks go on to create the longest pathway of activities on the project and therefore become the critical activities to be managed
Describe a critical chain
known as the resource critical path, places emphasis on resources, attempting to keep them at a constant utilisation.
It places the emphasis on the resources (labour and non-labour) in a project, whereas the critical path emphasises the activities. If resources were unlimited and always available, the critical path and critical chain method for scheduling would provide the same result.
usually presented as a visualisation, such as a Gantt chart, that shows either activities or resources as bars on a timeline.
What are five ways that activities in business-as-usual (BAU) can impact a project’s schedule?
- Equipment can be required for BAU and not be available for the project, leading to schedule delays.
- Dependencies on a BAU output that is delayed can delay a project schedule in turn.
- Conflicts between the needs of BAU and the needs of a project can impact a project schedule.
- Stakeholders can be required for BAU and not available when the project needs, delaying a project schedule.
- The project team could be required to balance their work on BAU with the project, which means that the schedule may need to include BAU activities as dependencies.
- Confusion over the project scope can lead to stakeholders expecting BAU activities to be delivered by the project.
What are two reasons why it is important to clearly define the project scope at an early stage of a project?
- Avoids misunderstanding/misalignment on what the project is delivering.
- Can reduce amount of future change requests.
- Ensures that stakeholder expectations can be met/avoids disappointing/disengaging stakeholders later.
- Can reduce risk of project being delayed, enables effective planning.
- Can reduce risk of project going over budget.
Scope is defined by the __________a_____________ being delivered and a high-level scope should normally be recorded in the business case.
A project’s outputs are the ______b_______ deliverables being created which produce the outcomes of changed circumstances, behaviours, or practices, to create the benefits in line with the defined acceptance criteria.
(a) WBS, PBS and CBS
(b) Tangible and intangible
