Devry PROJ586 All Assignments Latest 2018 September

PROJ586 Project Management Systems

WEEK 2 RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION

Signature Assignment

We will be utilizing Microsoft Project to create our Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) in week 3 and will continue to use this software for a method to control the project schedule, costs, and resources. However, many other software tools are in the market to help with the management process of a project including the control of the schedule, resources, and costs. You are to find another project management tool other than Microsoft Project and research the tool. Then you will prepare a Power Point Presentation with your recorded voice that reflects your research and adequately compares and contrast the tool with Microsoft Project. You will conclude with your appraisal of the software along with your recommendation to keep Microsoft Project or use the researched tool. Provide solid reasons for your conclusion and include a resources slide or frame at the end. You will need to set the voice playback (sound) and the slide transitions to automatic in PowerPoint. You may wish to convert the presentation to a MP4 video. Either you will submit the PowerPoint presentation with automatic slide transitions and sound playback, or you will submit the converted video this week. Canvas will automatically assign you two other students' video or PowerPoint Presentation to complete a peer review in the next week. The presentation is worth 80 points and the Peer Reviews are worth 15 points.

Reminder: You should use at least two scholarly resources to validate your presentation and present all resources in a slide or frame near the end of your presentation. This listing should be in APA format.

This assignment is a signature assignment, as you will utilize a digitized and dynamic method of communicating your research results with an open mindedness towards adaptability towards change and evaluating such change with the expectation of receiving feedback from your peers (people). This assignment will present you into a role in investigating new innovative processes and specializing in how it compares and contrasts to the current known processes. It will help address the ability to investigate adaptive systems to respond to the dynamic needs of an organization for the management of strategic projects (process and data). Finally, you will utilize technology and systems to communicate from your location to the location of others that is necessary for a globalize business world (devices).

 

PROJ586 Project Management Systems

Week 3  HOMEWORK—AIB PROBLEMS

Before starting this homework assignment, please review the AIB simulation in this week’slesson. This simulation will provide you with an understanding of how to create a network diagram, and how to do a forward and backward pass to determine the ES, LS, EF, LF, and slack (float). You will also learn how to determine the duration of the project, and the critical path.

In this homework assignment, you will be working through four Activity In Box (AIB) problems. Using the activity, duration, and predecessor information given in this document, you should first construct a network for each project. [Each problem will have its own network.]

Once you have constructed the network, please answer the corresponding questions. Once you answer the questions, please submit your responses. You do not have to submit your network diagrams, the answers to the questions are sufficient.

Good Luck!

Problem 1

The following data were obtained from a project to create a new portable electronic.

Activity  Duration              Predecessors     

A                            5 Days                  ---

B                            6 Days                  ---

C                            8 Days                  ---

D                           4 Days                  A,B

E                            3 Days                  C

F                            5 Days                  D

G                           5 Days                  E,F

H                           9 Days                  D

I                             12 Days G

Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.

Step 2: Answer the following questions. (14 points total)

a)            What is the scheduled completion of the project? (5 points)

b)            What is the critical path of the project? (4 points)

c)            What is the ES for activity D? (1 points)

d)            What is the LS for activity G? (1 points)

e)            What is the EF for activity B? (1 points)

f)            What is the LF for activity H? (1 points)

g)            What is the float for activity I? (1 points)

Problem 2

The following data were obtained from a project to build a pressure vessel.

Activity  Duration              Predecessors     

A                            6 weeks               ---                                        

B                            6 weeks               ---                                        

C                            5 weeks               B                                          

D                           4 weeks               A,C                                      

E                            5 weeks               B                                          

F                            7 weeks               D,E,G                   

G                           4 weeks               B

H                           8 weeks               F

I                             5 weeks               G

J                             3 week                 I

Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.

Step 2: Answer the following questions. (12 points total)

a)            Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points)

b)            Identify the critical path. (3 points)

c)            What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points)

d)            What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points)

e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points)

f) What is the slack time (float) for activity G? (1 points)

Problem 3

The following data were obtained from a project to design a new software package.

Activity  Duration              Predecessors     

A                            5 Days                  ---                                        

B                            8 Days                  ---                                        

C                            6 Days                  A                                          

D                           4 Days                  C,B                                      

E                            5 Days                  A                                          

F                            4 Days                  D,E,G                                  

G                           4 Days                  B,C

H                           3 Day                    G

Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.

Step 2: Answer the following questions. (12 points total)

a)            Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points)

b)            Identify the critical path(s). (3 points)

c)            What is the slack time (float) for activity B? (1 points)

d)            What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points)

e) What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points)

f) What is the slack time (float) for activity G? (1 points)

Problem 4

The following data were obtained from an in-house MIS project.

 

Activity  Duration              Predecessors     

A                            5 Days                  ---                                        

B                            8 Days                  ---                                        

C                            5 Days                  A                                          

D                           4 Days                  B

E                            5 Days                  B                                          

F                            3 Day                    C,D                       

G                           7 Days                  C,D

H                           6 Days                  E,F,G

I                             9 Days                  E,F

Step 1: Construct a network diagram for the project.

Step 2: Answer the following questions. (12 points total)

a)            Calculate the scheduled completion time. (5 points)

b)            Identify the critical path. (3 points)

c)            What is the slack time (float) for activity A? (1 points)

d)            What is the slack time (float) for activity D? (1 points)

e)            What is the slack time (float) for activity E? (1 points)

f)            What is the slack time (float) for activity F? (1 points)

 

PROJ586 Project Management Systems

WEEK 4 HOMEWORK—EARNED VALUE PROBLEMS

In this homework assignment, you will be working through two crashing problems and four earned value problems. All the information you need is included within this Homework packet. Make sure you answer all parts of the questions in their entirety.

 

Once you have worked through the problems, please post your responses to the Dropbox. Please refer to the course Syllabus for the due date.

 

PROBLEM 1

Use the network diagram below and the additional information provided to answer the corresponding questions. [15 points]

 

a) Give the crash cost per day per activity. [10 points]

b) Which activities should be crashed to meet a project deadline of 10 days at minimum cost? What is the cost impact of crashing these activities? [3 points]

c) Find the new budget (or cost of the project). [2 points]

 

 

The new budget of the project is $1750

 

PROBLEM 2

Use the network diagram below and the additional information provided to answer the corresponding questions. [13 points]

              

a) Give the crash cost per day per activity. [10 points]

b) Which activities should be crashed to meet a project deadline of 13 days at minimum cost? What is the cost impact of crashing these activities? [3 points]

 

 

 

PROBLEM 3 [8 points]

Month	AC	PV	EV
22	$540	$523	$535

 

a)            Calculate the CV (Cost Variance). [2 points]           

b)            Is the CV over or under budget? [2 points]

c)            Calculate the SV (Schedule Variance). [2 points]

d)            Is the SV ahead or behind schedule? [2 points]

 

 

PROBLEM 4 [8 points]

Month	AC	PV	EV
5	$34	$42	$39

 

a)            Calculate the cost performance index (CPI). [2 points]

b)            Is the project cost efficient or not efficient? [2 points]

c)            Calculate the schedule performance index (SPI). [2 points]

d)            Is the schedule efficient or not efficient? [2 points]

 

 

PROBLEM 5 [8 points]

Day	ACWP	BCWS	BCWP
65	$550	$735	$678

 

a)            Calculate the CV (Cost Variance).  [2 points]

b)            Calculate the CPI (Cost Performance Index). [2 points]

c)            Calculate the SV (Schedule Variance). [2 points]

d)            Calculate the SPI (Schedule Performance Index) [2 points]

 

 

PROBLEM 6 [8 points]

Day	ACWP	BCWS	BCWP
65	$750	$735	$678

 

a)            Calculate the CV (Cost Variance). [1 point]

b)            Calculate the CPI (Cost Performance Index). [1 point]

c)            Calculate the SV (Schedule Variance). [1 point]

d)            Calculate the SPI (Schedule Performance Index) [1 points]

e)            Explain the project performance in terms of efficiency, budget and schedule. What should the project manager do for the project? [4 points]

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROJ586 Project Management Systems

WEEK 5 CASE STUDY - RISK EVENT

There was a company (XYZ Cruise Lines) in the vacation industry that had a reservations system for their cruise operations that was designed for agents to book cruise passengers for individual bookings within five to seven minutes. This system created a competitive advantage among travel agents as they can book their clients fast from the start of the process to the payment screen. Their largest competitor had a reservation system that took approximately 15 minutes, which was a clear competitive advantage for XYZ Cruise Lines. However, the competitor had an automated process to check in customers at the pier and provided for an electronic boarding pass where the passengers would carry an identification card with a magnetic strip to allow for faster embarkation of the ship at the pier and at the ports of call. XYZ Cruise Lines was still utilizing a manual system for embarkation and utilized paper-boarding passes. Since customers tend to remember any bad experiences with the beginning (embarkation process) and the end (disembarkation process) of the trip more than during the trip, the embarkation process has caused a lot of dissatisfaction especially among those passengers who sailed with the competitor in the past. In an effort to improve the process, XYZ Cruise Lines a state-of-the=art Ship Embarkation System was being developed. This new planned system will allow the passengers to be processed faster for the embarkation process and a plastic card with a magnetic strip will be activated and utilized as the electronic boarding pass. Additionally, this same card will also be utilized as the Point of Sale purchase card creating a cashless process for the passengers to buy drinks and other extras on board the ship during the voyage. This will further XYZ as the completive leader in the industry.

This new system will have to communicate with the current reservations system via satellite connectivity. This software development project had four main components: (a) Ship Embarkation System, (b) Point of Sale System (POS), (c) Satellite Technology Utility for connectivity from the HQ's Reservations System to the Ship, and (d) Upgrade to the existing Reservations System to generate the upload to the Ship's Embarkation and POS systems. All components were completed by December 1st and was ready for the integration testing process so that the project can be implemented on December 15th just before the start of the busy season at which time further software project implementations are not permitted for six months due to the heavy volume impacting the Reservations System.

When it came time for the integration testing, the upgrade for the Reservations System could not be made for the test environment because the upgrade was not moved to the Quality Control environment and the software changes was still in the programmer's work file. No other developer or anyone in IT management had access to these files. The programmer that had worked on these changes had a heart attack and was in the hospital. As a result, the Project Manager informed everyone that they were going to miss the deadline and now had to wait six more months before this project could be implemented and the Business Sponsor was furious.

The Quality Assurance Manager asked the reason for the missed deadline and when she heard the story, she asked the IT Project Manager for the Risk Management Plan. He said that they do not believe in planning for risk events because this was a negative process and they support a positive approach towards the systems development process. Since there was not a risk matrix created and the risk for the developer to have a heart attack was not considered, the project was delayed and the company lost an opportunity to improve their competitive advantage, which equaled to millions of dollars in potential future bookings.

Questions by Senior Management after reading the Quality Assurance Manager's report included:

What does PMI recommend about Risk Management Planning, Monitoring Risk, and Controlling Risk?

Explain why a project manager or any stakeholder should not view risk planning for projects as a negative activity?

Did the organization follow due diligence regarding the creation of a risk management plan, assess all major risks, and developing appropriate risk responses and a plan for monitoring and controlling risks? Explain your rationale. Should this risk event in this case been identified in the beginning? Why or why not?

What are some contingency plans or actions that could have been taken to limit the impact of this possible risk event and other such related events such as a key team member leaving for any reason?

What would be your recommendations for such projects in the future based upon this case?

Assignment: Management is upset that there is an occurrence of a major risk that could affect the project is a large fashion. Your job is to prepare a 5 to 8 minute presentation by preparing a Power Point Presentation with your recorded voice that reflects your research and adequately analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating the case, which includes addressing the five questions specified above. You will need to set the voice playback (sound) and the slide transitions to automatic in PowerPoint. You may wish to convert the presentation to a MP4 video. Either you will submit the PowerPoint presentation with automatic slide transitions and sound playback, or you will submit the converted video this week. Canvas will automatically assign you two other students' video or PowerPoint Presentation to complete a peer review in the next week. The presentation is worth 80 points and the Peer Reviews are worth 15 points.

Reminder: You should use at least two scholarly resources to validate your presentation and present all resources in a slide or frame near the end of your presentation. This listing should be in APA format.

NOTE: The case study will involve a process-orientated task by reviewing the case presentation, analyzing the data provided in the text and evolving transformation of the issues into a practical solution (Processes). The collection of data in the case information would be conducted by the student, which will be analyzed and synthesized. (Data). After analyzing and synthesizing the data, the student will use a Microphone to create narration for a slide presentation via PowerPoint with automatic transitions, Movie Maker, PowerPoint Video Tool, or other such presentation/video tools available to the student. Either the PowerPoint or resulting MP4 video will be embedded to a discussion thread for asynchronous discussion activity (Devices). Finally, a peer review of this activity will follow the submission of the presentation that provides an integral network of outsiders analyzing and evaluating the solution provided (People).

 

PROJ586 Project Management Systems

WEEK 7 PROJECT PRESENTATION

You will create a 12 to 15 minute presentation via a Power Point Presentation that is set up for automatic transitions of slides with voice narration or a Narrated Video Presentation. You will present an overview of the project and provides the project sponsor with an overall view of the project plan. In some cases, the business sponsor/executive will not have time to read the entire plan, so they would prefer a presentation highlighting the key points of the project. You should include the project baseline start and finish dates for the project. You should also include a short table with the high-level budget that indicates the baseline total planned budget amount for the overall project within your presentation. The following information should also be included.

Summary overview of project description

Project Plan Dates

Project Budget (Planned vs. Actual Budget)

Business need and benefits

Summary of present plan status

Finally, you will have a Lessons Learned section in your presentation of what you learned from this Project, which includes how you will apply the lessons learned into your next project. This presentation will be submitted by the end of week 7 (75 points). Then, you will automatically be assigned to two other presentations to conduct a peer review that will be due by Saturday of Week 8 (10 points).

NOTE

The video or presentation will involve a process-orientated task by analyzing the process of completing the project, analyzing the results of the project, and evolving transformation of the results and issues of the project into a summary of the project along with a lessons-learned report (Processes). The collection of data from performing the project would be conducted by the student, which will be analyzed and synthesized. The student through whatever means that is effective that can include Excel and/or Microsoft Project will transform this data into a final management report (Data). After using tools such as Excel and/or Project, the student will use a Microphone to create narration for a slide presentation via PowerPoint with automatic transitions, Movie Maker, PowerPoint Video Tool, or other such presentation/video tools available to the student. Either the PowerPoint or resulting MP4 video will be embedded to a discussion thread for asynchronous discussion activity (Devices). Finally, a peer review process will follow the submission of the presentation that provides an integral network of outsiders analyzing and evaluating the course project summary and lessons learned provided (People).