IFSM 438 Effective Communication - tutorialrank.com

1. IFSM 438 ITP-1 Project Charter Final For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-1 Project Charter Final ************************************************* IFSM 438 ITP-3 WBS Word Document For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-3 WBS Word Document *************************************************

2. IFSM 438 ITP-4 Project Resources and Cost Final For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-4 Project Resources and Cost Final ************************************************* IFSM 438 ITP-5 Project RiskAssessment For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-5 Project Risk Assessment ************************************************* IFSM 438 ITP-6 Presentation

3. For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-6 Presentation ************************************************* IFSM 438 ITP-7 Word Document For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 ITP-7 Word Document Brief Overview of Our Changes to the WBS What was the effect of the changes on your project cost? How much did it increase? Are you still on budget or are you over budget now?

4. What was the effect of the changes on your project cost? How much did it increase? Are you still on budget or are you over budget now? What would you recommend doing to handle these changes and risks, assuming that the client cannot get any more money (it's a fixed grant) and that it still has to be installed by the original deadline (before? Do not make changes in your project schedule .mpp or budget or documents to reflect this recommendation. Simply state what things you would recommend doing to handle the situation. ************************************************* IFSM 438 TPP-1 Team Process Plan and Schedule For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com IFSM 438 TPP-1 Team Process Plan and Schedule ************************************************* IFSM 438 Week 1 Discussion

5. For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com How can we define project success? Based on what you have seen in your own experience, and based on what you have read so far, how would YOU define a successful project? What do you think contributes to a project being unsuccessful? And, when you read about HUGE failures, do you believe they are, in fact, failures? Please provide examples and explain your answers. One or two paragraphs is all that is required. Remember that the quality of your participation and contributions to these discussions can and does make a difference in your overall course grade. (As a model for excellence, please consider this process, courtesy of Dr. Donna McKalip): • Answer the question in your own words. • Provide a quote, paraphrase or reference from our textbook or other source. • Provide examples that demonstrate your answer and understanding of the concept. This is a good model you can use in this class and ALL of your classes as a way to work toward excellence and the corresponding grade.) *************************************************

6. IFSM 438 Week 2 Discussion Project Scope Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 2 Discussions - Project Scope Management Scope Creep (1) What is scope creep? (Note: The textbook seems to have a partial definition, leaving out some factors. So while you may wish to start with the textbook, don't end there. Do a little research on the Internet or in a library, for instance, to see what factors are involved. Then give a better definition of Scope Creep in your own words (but also properly citing any references you used).) (2) (or at least, usually) have to deal with scope creep on any given project? Why or why not? Is scope creep inevitable? That is, is it normal? Will we always (3) and especially what can we do to handle it if and when it does occur? How can we deal with scope creep? What can we do to prevent it, *************************************************

7. IFSM 438 Week 3 Discussions Project Time and Schedule Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 3 Discussions First, consider the following case study scenario: You are the newly appointed PM for a major new project in your company. You just stepped in and haven't yet had a chance to analyze the project. This project has significant executive support and an engaged executive sponsor. The project's executive sponsor catches you in the hallway on your day first or so on the job and asks you whether you will be able to complete the project in less than 6 months. Then answer the following questions: a) executive sponsor an answer at this time? Based on what has been presented in this Module, can you give the b) Why or why not? c) So what do you say to the sponsor? How can we respond?

8. d) must do from a project Time and Scheduling* perspective before you can give an answer. More specifically: Describe to the executive sponsor what you ************************************************* IFSM 438 Week 4 Discussions Project Cost and Resources Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 4 Discussions Estimation Inaccuracies Consider a situation you've experienced when you made an inaccurate estimation for the duration of some activity. It doesn't necessarily need to be during a project (though that would be desirable if possible). a) What was the situation? b) estimating the duration of the activity the way you did. Describe how you made the estimate. Discuss your reasoning for c) estimate to be inaccurate. In what way was it inaccurate? Discuss the factors that caused your

9. d) What was the outcome of the situation? e) What were the consequences of the inaccuracy? ************************************************* IFSM 438 Week 5 Discussions Project Risk Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 5 Discussions First, consider the following case study situation: Risk management often brings up ethical issues for project managers. For instance, software testing can be done in several different ways and with several different levels of rigor and comprehensiveness. Simpler tests may be faster and cheaper and may involve less system downtime, possibly using fewer test cases and fewer test runs. More robust testing may be rather expensive and time consuming, including extensive and rigorous test cases, many test runs, regression testing of previously completed production software, and so forth.

10. The PM often must balance robustness of testing with time and cost. (Recall the multi-way balance of the triple constraint.) Sometimes, it can boil down to a trade-off between acceptable quality and delivering a system on schedule and on budget. Either way it goes, that is a risk. The approach usually depends on both the criticality and the context of the system. Then answer these questions: a) what situation(s) should a system be more robustly tested? From a risk management and project management point of view, in b) In what situation(s) might less testing be acceptable? c) customer or executive sponsor to reduce testing time when you believe more robust testing was needed. What approach would you use to try to convince the executive manager to follow your advice? Suppose you were the project manager facing pressure from your ************************************************* IFSM 438 Week 6 Discussions Project Quality Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com

11. Week 6 Discussions First, consider the following case study background: In this modern economic era of tight budgets, cutbacks, and shortfalls in both budgets and staffs, most organizations are pressured to "do more with less". Customers and executive sponsors push projects tocomplete earlier and cheaper, with less budget funding, but with the same scope and quality. Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Agile and Extreme development methods are pushed. The problem, as always, is with the balance of the triple constraint (this time, with the added factor of quality). There is also a trade-off between the short-term benefits of quality (and of projects themselves, for that matter), and their long-term strategic benefits to the corporation. These economic and strategic forces often result in executives pressuring PMs to take shortcuts in IT projects. While such shortcuts may seem attractive, they usually have highly adverse consequences to the company in both the short term and the long term. One example, of many, is that poor quality could be publicized and have adverse consequences for the company. These pressures from executives, and the related economic pressures, are project risks, and the risks often manifest themselves as quality issues. Now answer these questions: a) what steps should a project manager take if he feels this will jeopardize project quality? If faced with increasing pressure to get a project done ahead of time,

12. b) that is to accomplish the same scope with staff cuts and budget cuts. Does that change your answer? That is, what steps should a PM take if he feels this will jeopardize project quality? Suppose that rather than time, the pressure is to do more with less, c) quality, what kind of short-term and long-term effects might it have on project team members? In addition to the effects that a rushed project might have on project d) organization or corporation itself? What kind of short-term and long-term effects might it have on the ************************************************* IFSM 438 Week 7 Discussions Project Execution Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 7 Discussions First, consider the following case study situation: You are the PM managing a project in which, during project execution, some tasks actually take longer than planned, some go over the planned budget, and the occasional task takes less time than planned. What's

13. more, some of each of these changed tasks are on the critical path and some are not. Due to astute monitoring, you, as PM, have noticed these changes from the plan. Now, answer the following questions: a) status of the project? What would have happened if you had not been monitoring the b) costs (e.g., a Mars mission launch window, which, if delayed, will cause the rocket to miss Mars entirely, and for which there is not another launch window for the next 3 years). However, with such a critical project, suppose that changes in actual performance occurred which greatly affected the duration of the project. What could you do about it? Suppose that it is crucial that the project complete on time at all c) the changes? That is, do they require knowing in advance that there is going to be a slippage or speed-up of a task, or not? Would taking these remedial actions depend on when you detected d) made a large change in project duration if there was nothing you could do to remediate it? What else should you do during project execution if such changes e) made a large change in project duration if youcould successfully remediate it? What else should you do during project execution if such changes *************************************************

14. IFSM 438 Week 8 Discussions Procurement and Stakeholder Management For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Week 8 Discussions "Around here, we keep half the people ignorant so they aren't prejudiced, and half the people prejudiced so they aren't ignorant." -- Dr. Jay Shulman, c.1980 First, consider the following case study background: Because people don't like to be the bearer of bad news, and are sometimes afraid that their management may "kill the messenger", employees are often very reluctant to bring unwelcome but critically important project status information to their management. (This is sometimes known as the "mum effect.") Therefore, it is common that important project status information does not make it to the level of management that can take corrective action to do something about it. In fact, it is typical that the farther up the hierarchy a manager is, the less information he or she will have about the project. Unfortunately, this sometimes means that those who have the authority to change things, are the very people who do not know the necessity of the change and/or who do not have sufficient information to enable an appropriate change.

15. Whistle blowing (see below) is an extreme case of bearing the bad news up the hierarchy. Sadly, whistle blowing can be dangerous to one's own career. Unfortunately, whistle blowing in some organizations is considered illegitimate behavior bordering on insubordination. Even when people blow the whistle, management can ignore it (sometimes known as the "deaf effect"), essentially saying "don't give me bad news that I don't want to hear." All this is counterproductive to projects, whose success depends on sound decisions and timely corrections of deviance from plan. For instance, issues that are not elevated to the proper decision-maker before they mature into full-blown problems, become a risk to the success of the entire project. If the decision-maker is kept in the dark, or refuses to make a decision, or punishes the bearer of bad news, then he or she will no longer be in a position to take timely corrective action to keep the project on track to success. Then consider these informal definitions so that we know we're talking about the same thing: • Whistle blowing is reporting someone (usually your own management) for doing something illegal or unethical. (Like intelligent disobedience from the questions on the Project Scope Module, we are well advised to pick our battles wisely. Even the Federal whistle blowing office admits that whistleblowers generally are retaliated against, even though that is illegal.) • Recall that in this context, intelligent disobedience, like civil disobedience, is refusing to go along with something that is unethical (whether it's legal or not), while fully realizing that we may be punished or penalized for disobeying, and being willing to take the penalty for the "greater cause". As Harry Truman said, "if you can't take the heat, stay

16. out of the kitchen." The "intelligent" part comes from not being belligerent and especially from picking our battles wisely. • Insubordination, on the other hand, is probably less-than-intelligent, since it seems to usually be belligerent, not pick its battles wisely, and not be for a greater cause such as ethics. It usually results in management taking career-threatening actions against the employee. • Finally, there's just garden variety differences of opinion. While it should be obvious that that should always be encouraged -- two heads are better than one, after all -- nevertheless, in some organizations, it actually isn't! Now answer the following questions: a) blowing? Why? What type of organizational culture might inhibit whistle b) willingness to report project problems? What should a project manager do to encourage his project team's c) the sponsor, stakeholders, and senior management? What techniques might the PM use? How can a project manager effectively report project problems to If you have not worked for an organization that had internal auditors, Inspectors General (IGs), or other internal inspectors then skip to Part E, below. If you have worked for such an organization, then answer Part D: d) IGs, or inspectors, were they effective? Were they welcome? What, in your experience, was done well and what was done poorly with such internal auditors and inspectors? If you have worked for an organization that had internal auditors,

17. e) inspectors, or IGs, do you think it would be beneficial, detrimental, or problematic? Why? If you have not worked for an organization that had internal auditors, *************************************************