Planning & Managing Deployment 2/2 Flashcards
What is an OBS
An organisational breakdown structure (OBS) details the organisation and resources available for a project. The OBS outlines tasks that can be allocated to the resources defined, helping to clarify roles for people. An OBS also makes escalation of issues clear, which helps with any resource problems that may need escalating.
What is a RAM
(responsibility assignment matrix)
The RAM is a communication device to guarantee that the people involved in doing the work are informed of the work they have to do and their position in the project organisation. Resource or BAU managers (these may be line managers) also consult the RAM. They use the RAM to understand and agree the work that has been distributed to their people.
What does RACI stand for
Responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed (RACI)
Describe a RACI
Responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed (RACI)
It is best practice for one person to be responsible and one person to be accountable. The project manager is accountable for the work packages/deliverables as they are responsible for the delivery of the project up to transition.
To deliver the project objectives successfully to the agreed acceptance criteria, labour and non-labour items are needed. resources are categorised into what four types:
Human
Materials
Plant or equipment
Facilities
what is the difference between resource levelling and resource smoothing
Resource levelling: is used where a fixed amount of resources are available, and the end date of the project can be delayed.
- It answers the question: with the resources available, when will the work be finished.
- Can be achieved through redefining scope and/or specifications, increasing task durations, increasing resources earlier on to bring activities forward, or moving non-critical activities to a different time.
Resource smoothing: is used when time is more important than cost, answering the question: what resources do I need to deliver the work within the fixed timescale?
- It looks to protect the end date of the project.
- Smoothing can be achieved through reducing task durations, by adding more resources, avoiding peaks and troughs of resource demand, or changing the order of activities where the logic used originally was optional to run activities in parallel rather than in sequence.
How are resources categorised and allocated to linear life cycle schedules?
- Resources are categorised according to their type (human resources, materials, equipment, financial resources).
- Resources are allocated to specific project tasks or work packages. A work breakdown structure can be used to identify work needed and then the resources can be allocated.
- It involves upfront planning and estimation to determine resources needed.
Resources categorised and allocated to linear life cycle schedules; Why would this approach to resource allocation be challenging for iterative life cycle schedules?
- As iterative life cycles have more flexibility/less structured, resource requirements can be more uncertain/fluctuating/changing.
- As iterative life cycles have fixed/pre-allocated resources, it can be difficult to adapt to the project requirements/needs.
- As iterative life cycles have fixed/pre-allocated resources, it could lead to under/over-utilisation of resources depending upon the project requirements/needs.
How is the end date of a project impacted by:
resource smoothing?
resource levelling?
resource smoothing impacts the end date of a project:
The end date stays the same/is maintained/is not impacted.
The end date is prioritised.
The time of the project is not impacted.
resource levelling impacts the end date of a project:
The end date may change/is impacted/is not maintained.
The end date is not prioritised.
The time of the project is impacted
When are estimates used?
- enable budget setting and considerations of affordability.
- assist judgements on value for money for the solution chosen.
- provide an essential input into creating a resource schedule, which then, in turn, provides the cost view of the project.
What factors should you consider when budgeting?
- The different types of costs involved and when they will hit the project to know when money will be needed to budget accordingly i.e., funding drawdowns at the right time to cover payment milestones.
- Information required from external sources, such as supplier costs, and how these align with the plan to enable budgeting.
- The assumptions being made on the project and how they are underpinning the cost estimates so they can be understood, validated, and budgeted for.
What is used to create the CBS
The work breakdown structure (WBS) is used to create the cost breakdown structure (CBS)
What does the CBS identify
The CBS identifies all activity that has a cost associated with it, both labour and non-labour, in each work package. These costs can then be collected, recorded, monitored, and controlled as part of the financial reporting system. Costs can be attributed to:
people.
equipment.
materials.
other resources required.
Describe the four different types of cost planning.
- Fixed: A set monthly cost is agreed for the resources with the supplier regardless of the actual requirement of the supplier in that month, which is likely to fluctuate over the course of the project life cycle.
- Variable: Resources or materials are paid for as and when they are required or delivered meaning the cost could fluctuate from month to month.
- Recurring: Some costs are frequent enough that they reoccur at set periods and require regular payments, for example, software licenses.
- Non-recurring: Often one-off requirements like equipment set-up costs. Non-recurring won’t always be at the start of the project but will be for resources or materials that incur a single charge.
Project managers use cost control techniques to achieve what?
- minimise costs where possible.
- identify areas of overspend.
- correct unacceptable levels of overspend.
- inform future projects by providing insight into lessons learnt.
Describe Cost and schedule performance indicators
The efficiency of spend is looked at through the cost performance indicator (CPI) and productivity through the schedule performance indicator (SPI).
E.g. if tracking earned value for project progress on a graph, with time on the x-axis and cost on the y-axis. There would be three lines plotted:
Actual cost
Budget
Earned value
Actual cost and earned value are plotted to present time (time now). Budget, is the estimate for the whole project timeline, which increases in line with the lines for actual cost and earned value, sitting between the two.
monitor progress against baselined budgets, timelines, and success criteria is completed in what forms
Decision gates
Benefit reviews
Stage reviews
Audits
What is included within reporting
actual costs versus forecasted costs.
actual spend versus forecasted spend against a set spend curve.
actual spend versus actual work achieved by looking at the efficiency of spend (earned value analysis).
estimated project budget and the forecasted cost overrun based on planned completion dates.
cashflow and drawdown requests.
resource costs.
change request costs.
contingency drawdown requests.
financial benefit realisation.
What is required when closing down finances
Reassign resources
Formally close contracts
Accounting and management systems updated
Surplus funding returned
You are the project manager for a project due to go into definition phase. Your task is to complete a project budget, including a cost breakdown structure (CBS).
Explain what a cost breakdown structure is
Identifies all activity within a project that has a cost associated with it.
Breaks down project activity into work packages and assigns costs to each work package.
Breaks down a high-level project budget into individual costs associated with the work required to produce deliverables.
You are the project manager for a project due to go into definition phase. Your task is to complete a project budget, including a cost breakdown structure (CBS).
Explain: four types of costs that could be included in a CBS.
Fixed cost – supplied at a fixed price, no matter the level of resource used.
Variable cost – these vary according to the level of resource used.
Recurring cost – these recur at set periods within a project / are event-driven and recur throughout a project.
Non-recurring cost – these happen once in a project and contribute a single cost to the project.
Direct cost – these are directly related to the production of the project outputs.
Indirect cost – these are associated with the cost of operating the business, not specific to the project
State two review points during a project where it would be appropriate to report on financial performance
Decision gates
Benefit reviews
Stage reviews
Audits
Post-implementation reviews
A key step in closing down project finances is to _______(a)_______ to make sure that the project is not over-charged.
If there is any surplus budget at the end of a project, it should be _______(b)_______…
(a) Reassign resources
(b) Returned to the business
What is Risk management
Risk management ensures that overall or individual risk events can be understood and managed effectively.
What are the benefits of risk management
- more realistic plans, schedules, and budgets.
- increase in the likelihood of schedules and budgets being met.
- greater accuracy in predicting and allocating contingencies through thorough assessment.
- more support for continuous learning and improvement.
- increasing stakeholder confidence.
What is issue management
issue management is there to address the problem, understand how it happened, and what it is. Once the issue is understood, it can be prioritised and assigned to the correct people or teams and resolved.
PS relied upon to support on resolution.
What are the benefits of issue management:
- Provides structure and escalation routes to resolve issues quickly.
- Raises visibility amongst senior stakeholders who have access to organisational resource to support resolution.
- Provides a consistent way to document issues so they can be assessed against the plan.
- Enables re-prioritisation and decision making.
- It enables issues to be resolved efficiently so work can progress preventing further delays.
- Informs continuous learning and improvement.
Contingency is expressed in which 2 ways
Budget
Time
What is contingency
carefully considered resource set aside for responding to identified and unidentified risks, also known as the unknown unknowns. It is not merely hidden budget.
What is the Risk management Process
- Identification - SWOT, check lists
- Analysis
- Monitoring and escalation
- Response
- Closure
What is the Issue management process
- Log and analyse
- Escalate
- Assign actions
- Apply change control
What is meant by being proactive to a potential risk/ issue
To be proactive means preparing for or addressing a potential risk or issue before it arises. Planning for a risk or issue even though it hasn’t happened yet allows for you to be responding to mitigate the size of the impact if the risk or issue did occur
How would you react to a risk or issue proactively: if there are threats to the project
- Avoid the risk or issue by changing project objectives or practices so that they can’t happen.
- Reduce the probability of the threat occurring or the impact on the project by acting ahead of time.
- Transfer the impacted process or workload from one team to another where appropriate or recommended if it might reduce the impact of the threat. A different team might be better placed to be responsible for that impact.
How would you react to a risk or issue proactively: if there are opportunities to the project
Exploit the risk or issue by finding ways in which you can change objectives or practices as part of the response to gain maximum benefit or advantage.
Enhance the probability of the opportunity eventually being exploited by increasing the likelihood and/or impact.
Share with other teams, colleagues or organisations and collaborate to increase the chances of the opportunity being realised.
Reject the opportunity if it is of little value to the project or the work to gain the result is too great.
What is meant by being reactive to a potential risk/ issue
There is often little value to be gained at this point as the risk or issue has already happened, though that doesn’t mean advantages can’t be found as part of the solution.
Accept that the risk or issue has occurred, it can no longer be avoided or reduced, the threat and any residual risk must be managed, and contingency plans implemented should the risk materialise.
What are five reasons why risk management is important in projects?
- Supports more realistic/accurate plans/schedules.
- Supports more realistic/accurate budgets.
- More likely that schedules/budgets will be followed.
- More accurate project/schedule/budget estimates can be made.
- Helps engage stakeholders by showing that risks are being considered.
- Helps build confidence that the project will be successful as risk is being managed.
- More accurate requirements for any contingency can be made.
- Supports continuous learning and improvement.
- Allows the project manager to know the tolerance levels for each risk.
- Contributes to project success as threats can be minimised.
- Contributes to project success as opportunities can be maximised
You are managing a project to implement a new financial management system. During testing, the software crashes unexpectedly under specific user conditions. The testing team chose not to log this bug as an issue.
What two impacts could choosing not to log this as an issue have on the project?
- No official record of the project means other people /stakeholders / the project manager / other testers / developers are unaware of the problem.
- If the issue isn’t known, it cannot be resolved / risk it may never be fixed.
- The bug could lead to other issues during future testing / when the system goes live.
- The testing team cannot have support from the wider project team in fixing the bug.
- Overall quality of the project is impacted by the bug not being fixed / issue not being resolved.
- Miss the opportunity to learn from the bug / from the issue.
As a project progresses, the project team recognise that an identified risk has exceeded the tolerated threshold.
____(a)____ provides the project team with an overview of what is expected of them when managing risk throughout the duration of the project.
When a risk exceeds its tolerated threshold, the first step of a project team member should be informing the ___(b)____.
(a) Clear roles and responsibilities
(b) Project manager
What does CPI stand for
Cost Performance Index
What does SPI stand for
Schedule Performance Index
Explain when CPI is below and above 1
Cost Performance Index
<1 = over spent
>1 = under spent
Explain when SPI is below and above 1
Schedule Performance Index
<1 = late
>1 = early
What are four types of budget and cost control
Variable: change with production
Fixed: remains consistent
Recurring: regular outgoing, e.g. monthly subscription.
non-recurring: big one off expense
What is change control
Change control is a pivotal process that ensures any alterations to project scope, timelines, or resources are managed systematically. They allow you to maintain control over the project despite unexpected alterations to the scope of the project or elements within it.
Change controls allow you to remain adaptive without being detrimental to the budget of the project, whether that’s in time or cost.
How do you manage requests for change
the client or key stakeholders, though they will always have final say if queries arise from elsewhere in the project.
Once identified, a change request needs to be raised in a formal manner so that it can be evaluated, by the correct department or stakeholder, before being approved, rejected, or deferred.
What is included in a formal change request
the change required.
the reason for the change.
the impact on the project timeline.
the impact on the project baseline.
considered risks.
What is an uncontrolled change
Where a change does occur beyond your control, or without going through the proper channels, you can put a retrospective plan in place.
How does a linear and iterative change control differ:
Projects using an iterative life cycle embed change control as part of the development process, starting each iteration with a planning meeting that clarifies the goals and items to be delivered.
What is the change control process
- Request
- Initial evaluation - overview, reason, request owner, date raised, status, etc.
- Detailed evaluation - Impact on; Benefits, Scope, Schedules, Costs, Quality, Resources, Risks, Stakeholders
- Recommendation - defer, reject, approve.
- Update plans and implement including communicating the change
When Justifying recommendations, what should be considered
- Which areas of the project will be affected, how will they be affected, and does the project have the skills and resources needed to manage it?
- Does the project have a sufficient contingency budget to drawdown, or would further funding need to be requested?
- If additional resources are needed, does the business have the capacity and the capability to source them, or would external (to the project) help be needed?
- Does it affect the end date, or can the project maintain delivery on time? If they can’t, will the project outcomes still be of use to the business?
- Are the benefits listed in the business case going to be materially impacted in any way, if so how and what does that mean both for the project and the business?
You are managing a project in a linear lifecycle. A change request has been raised.
(a) Explain the importance of change control in a linear lifecycle. (4 marks)
(b) Following a detailed evaluation, state the 3 possible recommendations arising from a change request
(a) Identifying linear projects are scope and quality fixed (rather than iterative which tend to be time and cost fixed).
Ensures changes to scope/requirements/deliverables are made in a controlled way with appropriate assessment.
Ensures alignment of agreed changes with project objectives/business case.
Controls scope creep.
Stating the project could go over budget and/or over schedule due to uncontrolled change.
Supports management of risks and impacts on dependencies elsewhere in the project by having a controlled process.
Ensures effective communication with stakeholders to ensure transparency, accountability and robust decision making.
Provides an audit trail of decisions on proposed changes throughout the course of the project.
(b) Approve (Accept), reject, defer.
What are two pieces of information that should be captured and recorded in a change request?
Project overview
Description of the change
Rationale/reason for the change
Source of change/who has raised the change/change request owner
Date raised
Unique identifier
Status
Initial evaluation
Detailed evaluation/impact analysis
Decision/recommendation
Date of decision/recommendation
Priority
Approval level
Proposed solution
Follow-up actions
You are managing a project to implement a new software system for your organisation. You are 18 weeks into the deployment phase, and a change request has been submitted that proposes adding additional functionality to the solution. You progress the change request through the project’s change control process.
Alongside the team, you complete the detailed evaluation of the change request, confirming that the ___(a)___.
Next, you take the change to your Project Sponsor for approval. During this approval meeting they will either accept, ___(b)___ the change
