PROJECT PLANNING

Question 1

WHICH ARE THE TWO MOST VITAL TRAITS IN A PROJECT MANAGER?

Answer 1

ORGANISATION & COMMUNICATION

• Organization

o Includes the ability to be flexible.
o If you don’t communicate your plans effectively, they are worthless.
o Lots of ways to communicate – understand which is best channel for what – e.g. an email to everybody is one-way (distribute information), a wiki page can descend into madness, a meeting needs an agenda.

• Communication

o Everybody works in their own way, so the Project manager can’t force anyone to work the way they want but they can try to figure out how people work and the best way to treat them and inspire them.

Question 2

WHAT DOES A PROJECT MANAGER DO? LIST 5 EXAMPLES

Answer 2

1) CREATE SCHEDULE
2) MAINTAIN SCHEDULE
3) MANAGE RISKS
4) DEFINE SCOPE
5) TEAM LEADERSHIP
6) ESTIMATE TIME FOR COMPLETION OF PROJECT
7) ESTIMATE COSTS
8) PLAN RESOURCES
9) REMOVE BARRIERS
10) RESOLVE CONFLICT
11) CONTROL QUALITY
12) PRIORITISE

Question 3

WHAT DOES A PROJECT PLAN CONSIST OF? (4 ITEMS)

Answer 3

1) TASKS
2) DEPENDENCIES
3) MILESTONES AND DELIVERABLES
4) RESOURCES

Question 4

WHAT IS A TASK?

Answer 4

A TASK IS SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE DONE AT SOME STAGE IN THE PROJET.

YOU NEED TO ESTIMATE HOW MUCH TIME A TASK WILL TAKE TO COMPLETE.

TIME ELAPSED, TIME REMAINING

NEED TO THINK OF SLACK TIME - ALLOWED SLIPPAGE WHICH IS HOW MUCH CAN I PUSH A PROJECT UNTIL IT STARTS TO CREATE PROBLEMS.

Question 5

WHAT IS SLACK TIME?

Answer 5

SLACK TIME IS THE AMOUNT OF TIME A TASK CAN SLIP WITHOUT AFFECTING OVERALL PROJECT SCHEDULE.

Question 6

WHAT IS A RESOURCE?

Answer 6

A RESOURCE IS TYPICALLY A PERSON

OFTEN HAVE TO THINK IF A RESOURCE IS AVAILABLE (EG: HOLIDAYS)

HAVE TO THINK OF AN EFFECTIVE WORK-RATE FOR THAT RESOURCE AS NOT EVERY RESOURCE IS CAPABLE OF HANDLING THE SAME JOB AT THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME - EVERYONE IS SKILLED DIFFERENTLY.

Question 7

WHAT ARE DEPENDENCIES?

Answer 7

DEPENDENCIES IS WHEN A TASK CANNOT BEGIN UNTIL AN EARLIER TASK IS COMPLETED.

IT IS NOT RESOURCE BASED.

IT IS SHOWN WITH LINES AND ARROWS (REMEMBER THE TEA PROJECT EXAMPLE).

Question 8

WHAT ARE MILESTONES?

Answer 8

MILESTONES ARE INTERNAL DEADLINES THAT ARE SET BY YOURSELF.

EG: TO COMPLETE A CERTAIN PART OF A COURSEWORK BY A SPECIFIC DATE.

Question 9

WHAT ARE DELIVERABLES?

Answer 9

DELIVERABLES ARE EXTERNAL DEADLINES THAT ARE SET BY THE CUSTOMER.

EG: A COURSEWORK IS A DELIVERABLE.

DELIVERABLE REQUIRES TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE.

Question 10

WHAT ARE FEATURES?

Answer 10

FEATURES ARE TANGIBLE ELEMENTS OF THE PRODUCT - SOMETHING THAT THE END PRODUCT IS GOING TO DO.

EG: WHEN I CLICK THIS BUTTON SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN.

Question 11

WHAT ARE TASKS?

Answer 11

TASKS ARE ALL THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO TO IMPLEMENT A FEATURE.

Question 12

FEATURES VS TASKS

Answer 12

FEATURES ARE SOMETHING THAT THE END PRODUCT IS GOING TO DO.

TASKS ARE ALL THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO TO IMPLEMENT A FEATURE.

ALWAYS REMEMBER:
NUMBER OF TASKS > NUMBER OF FEATURES

Question 13

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A PROJECT PLAN?

Answer 13

PLANNING SHOULD BE USED TO DRIVE THE PROJECT.

PLAN EACH STEP.

Question 14

WHAT IS A DURATION?

Answer 14

DURATION IS AN ESTIMATE OF TIME A TASK WILL TAKE

EG: 15 DAYS

Question 15

WHAT IS THE ELAPSED TIME?

Answer 15

ELAPSED TIME IS THE AMOUNT OF TIME THAT WILL BE REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE THE DURATION.

EG: 21 DAYS (FOR A 15 DAYS DURATION) AS YOU NEED 15 WORKING DAYS TO COMPLETE THE TASK (WITHOUT THE WEEKENDS).

Question 16

WHAT ARE THE THREE QUESTIONS OF USER STORIES?

Answer 16

1) WHO?
2) WHAT?
3) WHY?

EG: (WHO?) A STUDENT USING NESS,
(WHAT?) WANTS TO RECEIVE A RECEIPT EMAIL WHEN HE SUBMITS A COURSEWORK.
(WHY?) TO FEEL SAFE THAT HIS COURSEWORK WAS SUBMITTED SUCCESSFULLY.

Question 17

WHAT IS A VERY COMMON CAUSE OF LATE PROJECTS?

Answer 17

POOR ESTIMATION

EVERYBODY IS BAD AT ESTIMATING
o Optimism
o Every project is different
o The first 80% of the work takes 20% of the effort

ESTIMATING REQUIRES EXPERIENCE AND ACCESS TO GOOD HISTORICAL INFORMATION.

Question 18

WHAT IMPACTS THE RELIABILITY OF ESTIMATES?

Answer 18

1) THE PROJECT COMPLEXITY
- HOW COMPLEX A PROJECT IS.

2) THE PROJECT SIZE
- HOW BIG A PROJECT IS.

3) THE DEGREE OF UNCERTAINTY
- HOW CERTAIN YOU ARE YOU CAN COMPLETE A PROJECT.

Question 19

HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE RELIABLE COST AND EFFORT ESTIMATES?

Answer 19

1) DELAY ESTIMATION UNTIL A LATER DATE.

2) BASE ESTIMATES ON SIMILAR PROJECTS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED.

Question 20

HOW TO USE A PROJECT PLAN?

Answer 20

• Planning should drive the project.
• Identify what is going wrong, spot risks before they become problems, and adapt the plan to suit.
• Plenty of project managers spend all week keeping the plan up to date, but never take the tricky decisions.
• Also, the plan needs to be communicated in a useful way.
  Its easy to keep the plan up to date, but the tricky bit is to actually use it.
  Different types of people perform better with different amounts of information; in general, more is better especially for clever people.