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Tutorial 01 Questions With Possible Solutions

This document provides sample questions and answers related to project management. It discusses why project management has become popular, challenges to adopting a project-based approach, advantages and disadvantages of project management, key characteristics of projects, the basic elements of a project life cycle, factors that distinguish successful and unsuccessful projects, challenges in assessing IT project success, the goals and process of benchmarking, the purpose of project management maturity models, and compares four different maturity models highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

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Chand Divnesh
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135 views

Tutorial 01 Questions With Possible Solutions

This document provides sample questions and answers related to project management. It discusses why project management has become popular, challenges to adopting a project-based approach, advantages and disadvantages of project management, key characteristics of projects, the basic elements of a project life cycle, factors that distinguish successful and unsuccessful projects, challenges in assessing IT project success, the goals and process of benchmarking, the purpose of project management maturity models, and compares four different maturity models highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

Uploaded by

Chand Divnesh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tutorial 01 Questions with Possible Solutions

1 What are some of the principal reasons why project management has become such a popular
business tool in recent years?

In today’s market, the length of product life cycles is shortening. This means businesses are under
pressure to produce new or improved products at an increasingly rapid pace. Growing global
markets, consumer tastes, and competition demand that products constantly be improved to be
better, faster, and sleeker and offer more features. Most organizations are planning their next
product or product improvement as their latest innovation is just on its way out the door. Under
conventional business practices, keeping up with this demand for innovation can be difficult.
Project management offers companies a manner in which to become more innovative and to
develop products at a faster pace.

2 What do you see as the primary challenges to introducing a project management philosophy to
most organizations? That is, why is it difficult to shift to a project-based approach in many
companies?

Many companies encounter a resistance to change within their personnel that makes implementing
a new approach, such as project based, difficult. Employees have to be trained in the new
processes and learn to implement it into their current role. Oftentimes, employees are averse to a
large shift in current practices due to uncertainty of the outcome.

3 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using project management?

Advantages:
 Innovative, produce new ideas and new products
 Geared toward accomplishing a specific goal
 Aimed at customer satisfaction

Disadvantages:
 Inaccurate cost estimates during initial stages may cause project to fail due to lack of resources
 Low success rate in some industries
 Requires heavy commitment by staff

4 What key characteristics do all projects possess?

Projects:
 are temporary operations with a defined life span
 help develop and execute organizational strategies and goals
 are sources of innovation and progress
 stimulate internal collaboration between members of various functional areas
 are limited by resource and time constraints
 end when objectives are successfully reached

5 Describe the basic elements of the project life cycle. Why is an understanding of the life cycle
relevant for our understanding of projects?

The project life cycle includes the stages of the project’s development. The basic elements of the
cycle include:
 conceptualization: outlines project goal, scope of work, identifies required resources and
stakeholders
 planning: specifications, timetables and other plans are created, work packages are broken
out, assignments are made and process for completion is defined
 execution: actual work of project takes place, majority of teamwork is performed and,
characteristically, majority of costs are incurred
 termination: project is completed and passed on to customer, resources are reassigned and
team members disbanded

Life cycles provide a guiding point for determining the scope and resource requirements of specific
projects. By outlining a project’s life cycle, many challenges and potential pitfalls can be
pinpointed. More generally, an understanding of life cycles lends itself to a better understanding
of how projects function within an organization and how they differ from conventional forms of
corporate process.

6 Think of a successful project and an unsuccessful project with which you are familiar. What
distinguishes the two, both in terms of the process used to develop them and their outcomes?

This question is intended for classes with students who have had some experience with projects
in the past. It seeks to get them to examine the causes of success and failure from their own
experience. Instructors should then begin developing a list of the various causes of success and
failure as a point of discussion.

7 Consider the six criteria for successful IT projects. Why is IT project success often so difficult to
assess? Make a case for some factors being more important than others.

IT project success is often difficult to assess because the criteria for success—system quality,
information quality, use, user satisfaction, individual impact, and organizational impact—are not
easy to accurately measure. Customer feedback related to user satisfaction, system quality, and
impact may vary from user to user. For instance, while someone in insurance claims may find
the system user friendly and beneficial to everyday tasks, an employee in actuary may find it
cumbersome and difficult to navigate. When it comes to IT projects and the criterion above, user
background, training, and experience could greatly affect the success rate of the project. These
factors may not be fully known during initial planning and implementation stages.

However, criteria such as system/information quality and use may be easier to assess. The team
should be able to determine whether the designed system meets the specifications of the customer.
All specifications should have been determined from the beginning, so upon completion test runs
should determine if the system meets quality standards. In the area of use, following
implementation, in most cases, it is possible to track use. Due to their ability to be more concretely
measured, these factors, combined with the overall satisfaction of the customer, may be more
important in determining success of the project than other more arbitrary measures.

8 As organizations seek to become better at managing projects, they often engage in benchmarking
with other companies in similar industries. Discuss the concept of benchmarking. What are its
goals? How does benchmarking work?

Benchmarking compares the performance of a company to that of industry competitors and in


some cases, for instance, where procedures or functions are similar, to that of superior performers
in other industries. To set benchmarks for a company, first a leader in the industry is selected.
Then, the company gathers data of that leader’s performance measures. The data is analyzed and
gaps between the leader/benchmarks and the company are noted. The company then sets goals
and strives to meet the benchmarking standards. The goal of benchmarking is, therefore, to seek
out weak performance areas within the company and set goals for improvement.
9 Explain the concept of a project management maturity model. What purpose does it serve?

Implementing project management occurs in phases over time. Companies evolve through stages
of project management. Project management maturity models are a way to help ensure that
companies do so in the correct method and at a competitive pace. Maturity models provide a
starting point for companies new to project management. Project maturity models offer
businesses a way to map out necessary steps to becoming competitive through project-based work.
Maturity models assess a specific company’s current practices (related to projects), establish the
company’s position in relation to its competitors, and provide guidelines for improvement. They
use industry data to establish a series of benchmarks. Based on industry competitors, they can
then determine stages required as well as how quickly a company should develop. The company
can then follow the model to achieve the highest level of ability in each pertinent project
management area.

10 Compare and contrast the four project management maturity models shown in Table 1.3. What
strengths and weaknesses do you perceive in each of the models?

The four models each use five levels beginning with an initial ad hoc or sporadic use of project
management and ending with a fully integrated project management system with emphasis on
innovation and continuous improvement. Other similarities among the models include an element
of benchmarking or use of industry standards to measure project management performance. The
models do vary on the relative pace of innovation. For instance, the ESI’s International Project
Framework develops more slowly in early stages than that of Kerzner’s Project Management
Maturity Model. In addition, some models focus more on learning while others are more directed
at control. Kerzner’s discusses training and curriculum while SEI’s Capability Maturity Model
Integration outlines steps for control and assessment of results.

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