Project Management

Question 1

**(13-QA) **three related categories of risk: project risks, product risks, and business risks.

Fixed-price contracts, where the contractor bids a fixed price to develop a system, may be used to move project risk from the client to contractor. If anything goes wrong, the contractor must absorb cost overruns.

Explain how the use of such contracts may increase the likelihood that some product risks will arise.

Answer 1

• When things go wrong – e.g., changing client priorities, approval methods, business rules and requirements – and this results in delays, false starts, and re-work, contractors are likely to seek process shortcuts if the ability of the contractor to absorb cost overruns is greatly exceeded.
• This can result in product risks such as reliability issues, performance problems, usability issues, reduced maintainability, etc

Question 2

(13,12 - SC) Maslow’s human needs hierarchy as “being helpful up to a point” in explaining what motivates people, but feels there is a specific problem with it. Which one describes this problem?

Answer 2

• in addition to thinking about individual motivation, you also have to think about how a group as a whole can be motivated to achieve the organization’s goals.
• it takes an exclusively personal viewpoint on motivation, and does not take adequate account of the fact that people feel themselves to be part of an organization, a professional group, and one or more cultures

Other Incorrects:

• “the opportunity for self-actualization and establishing satisfying relationships in the workplace are perhaps the most important contributors to motivating team members.”
• In large projects, team members spend a smaller proportion of their time in development activities (supported by development tools) and more time communicating (with one another) and understanding other parts of the system. Development tools, Sommerville argues, make no difference to this.
• Maslow does not adequately consider the importance of allowing people to fully experience what life has to offer outside the workplace. (Sommerville quips that “all work and no play does much more harm than simply making Jack a dull boy.”)
• He feels that “praise from immediate managers, leadership attention (for example, one-on-one conversations), and a chance to lead projects or task forces” are even more effective motivators than meeting the needs identified by Maslow

Question 3

(11-QA) Identify and briefly describe the specific task(s) he associates with risk analysis?

Answer 3

Assess (1) the probability and (2) the seriousness (in terms of consequences) of each risk.

Question 4

(11-QA) Identify and briefly describe the specific task(s) he associates with risk planning?

Answer 4

Develop a strategy to manage each risk using (1) avoidance strategies to reduce risk probability, and/or (2) minimization strategies to reduce risk impact by developing contingency plans

Question 5

(QA) Identify and briefly describe the specific task(s) he associates with risk monitoring?

Answer 5

regularly assess the risk and your plans for risk mitigation and revise these when you learn more about the risk

Question 6

(11-QA) Identify and briefly describe the specific task(s) he associates with risk identification?

Answer 6

identify possible project, product, and business risks.

Question 7

(10-Drawing) Fred Brooks, author of The Mythical Man-Month, argues that adding people to a late software project can actually make it later. Graphically depict the three general relationships one would expect to see between the number of PEOPLE working (horizontal scale) vs. calendar TIME (vertical scale) for (a) perfectly partitionable tasks (i.e., tasks that can be partitioned with no additional cost or overhead), (b) tasks that are not partitionable, and (c) software development projects.

Answer 7

Question 8

(10-QA) A risk exists when there is a probability that some adverse circumstance will occur. Based on this interpretation, briefly describe the different objectives of an avoidance strategy and a minimization strategy

Answer 8

An avoidance strategy aims to reduce the probability that the risk will arise. A minimization strategy aims to reduce the impact of the risk (i.e., the adverse circumstance that can occur.)