Scope, Time, Cost, and Quality Monitoring and Controlling in a Project
Answer: Monitoring and control processes are usually viewed together but they are two different processes. Monitoring is a process that provides information on a project and ensures that it is used to understand project effects and impacts. Monitoring involves a continuous assessment of the project as per an agreed schedule. For a project to be successful, it is essential that all its deliverables are completed within the give time and approved budget. With monitoring of project activities, a project manage can understand if the project is going as per the scope, time, and schedule constraints such that earl signs of deviations can be identified and worked upon to ensure that the project gets bac on track so that the final deliverables are not delayed nor does the project face the problems of cost overrun or scope creep. Controlling measures can be taken at these points to ensure that project progresses as per the schedule and any sources of deviation is taken care of (Abeysekera & McLean, 2000).
Answer: Scope management involves identification of deliverables defined in the scope and execution of only those activities that are within the scope and not all. A project can have certain activities defined in the scope that are referred to in the word “only” while “all” refers to all the related activities including those not in the scope of current project. For instance, a project scope may include activities of website development and configuration that would be “only” activities in scope but “all” activities could also include provision of training on website to the client or marketing on the website which may not be included in the scope and thus, despite the relation , it should not be done by the project team. Thus, project scope management ensures that the project team remains focused on the project scope and is not diverted towards performing duties that are not in the scope. To ensure this happens, project scope management plan often also covers exclusions of the project (PM4DEV, 2008).
Answer: Changes may be required on the project for a number of reasons such as addition in scope because of stakeholder demands, changes in schedule because of work pressures or resource constraints, and change in project budget requirement because of increases in expenses. First ste to change management is identification of the need for change after which the change request is raised by th person identifying need to the project manager who evaluated the change and if it does not have any severe impact on project, takes a decision but if not, he goes to the sponsor or other stakeholders to discuss if the change should be approved. Once approved, the task of incorporating change is assigned to a team member and change is executed (GOI, 2010).
Using “All” and “Only” in Scope Management
Answer: Codes of ethics refers to completion of certain objectives by a project manager and these include providing professional conduct guidelines to the team, reminding the teams of the legal and moral requirements of the project, advertising standards of conduct, promoting public confidence, and elf-regulation with an objective of reducing heading off regulations. The selection of the codes from these depend on organization and project requirements (AusAID, 2003).
Answer: A formal closure of the project is needed to get a final acceptance from the client in written as well as for recording how the project was completed including the lessons learned. The formal sign off helps project team get the payments form the client while the records of the project help in future prospects when the team has to execute a similar project such that the closure document serves as a guide. Also, it can become a reference point if any conflicts or queries arise about the project in future (PMI, 2008).
Answer: Execution phase of a project needs most human resources as in this phase, actual activities have to be carried out as per the project plan and all developmental aspects as well as changes have to be incorporated. Execution phase gives the final deliverables of the project and is the longest phase involving most workforce for performing activities, for monitoring them, and for controlling (PM4Dev, 2007).
Answer: Planning phase of the project is most time consuming, as it requires the project manager to have a complete understanding of all the requirements of the project as well as ensure how they would be met. It would need a large amount of research and extensive brainstorming with the teams or stakeholders to arrive at a final plan. Moreover, the planning stage does not complete as the project starts as it can be revised as and when the needed arises (UC Davis, 2013).
Answer: The project deliverables and objectives are recorded using planning and monitoring . while plan documents the objectives and expected deliverables, monitoring allows project manager to check if they are actually met such that if there are any deliverables not submitted or objectives not met, an immediate step would be taken to resolve underlying issue to proceed further. In the case of deviation, project manager uses control mechanisms (Freelock, 2010).
Answer: Projects can run into a trouble due to various reasons but these reasons could be foreseen with the use of risk management. If the risk management is not done then the potential risks on the project are not identified and the project can get into trouble while team would struggle to find solutions. However, if the risks on the projects are previously assed, most problems can either be avoided or mitigated to cause least impact on project outcomes such that the problems on project are resolved comfortably and on time (Institution of Civil Engineers and the Actuarial Profession, 2005).
Change Management in a Project
Answer: Considering a website development organization building website for another organization as a project, following codes of ethics would be used –
- Project team must be honest and fair with the client in terms of deliveries, timeline commitments and commercials
- The project developers must use best of their capabilities while working on a project
- The information of the client must not be shared with any third party for any reason without consent from the client
- The client should not be provided with any pirated or unlicensed software or plugin on the website
- The website development code must not leave any security vulnerabilities that can affect the website of the company
- Simplest code delivering desired results must be used on the website(UC Davis, 2013).
Answer:
Integrity: It is an assurance that the information provide is accurate and reliable
Confidentiality: It is the set of rules that limit access to information to people other than the owners
Security: Security means that the data of the clients and employees of an organization would be saved from the unauthorized users
Availability: it is the guarantee that an information would be made available to the people with authority
Answer: Integrity, confidentiality, security and availability are important but the most important is confidentiality and any loss of confidentiality can put the client or company at a loss (Institution of Civil Engineers and the Actuarial Profession, 2005).
Answer: Codes of ethics may need revision in case a conflict arise between the client and the company or the codes are insufficient to deal with the needs of the project (UC Davis, 2013).
Answer: Copyright protection is important as in case of lack of copyright, people would be easily able to copy all the content created with efforts and expenses and use for their own benefits without any efforts or cost (Freelock, 2010)s.
Question 25: (Unit ICTICT418): Why has the protection of copyright become hard with advancements in technology? What measures can the owners of an original article take to avoid (ideally) stop copyright infringements?
Answer: Copyright infringements can be avoided first by ensuring that the content is not copied from any online source and if any source is used for the creation of a content, the created content is checked with the plagiarism checker to ensure that it does not have copyright restrictions (PM4DEV, 2008).
Answer: Personally identifiable information of company clients must be protected at any cost and it can include the contact details like mobile number and address, pictures of the client, ID and passwords assigned, and other personal information registered such as blood group, medical condition, or more (Abeysekera & McLean, 2000)
Answer: Appropriate security software must be installed in the servers and on the website to ensure that the organisation data is not leaked. Date encryption can be used to ensure that unwanted users are unable to access and understand any data transferred (PMI, 2008).
Answer: The privacy policy must be updated with addition of clauses that can fill the privacy gap immediately and the same must be communicated to the stakeholders and organizational team (UC Davis, 2013).
PMI Code of Ethics for Project Managers
Answer: What if scenario defines what action can be taken in case of specific condition, situation, or instance. A typical format of What if scenario analysis (WISA) is “What if X changes, would it produce the effect Y?” Considering the situations discussed in the questions above, following WISA statements can be created:
What if project deliverables are running behind the schedule, would the delay impact the cost of the project?
What if an objective defined in the project scope is missed, will the project outcome not meed stakeholder requirements?
What if the change needed is the schedule for incorporation of new scope item is approved, will it affect the project budget?
What if a project team member violated the codes of ethics, would the person be released from the project?
What if the project sign-off is not received from the client after project completion, will it affect the realisation of payment?
What if all stakeholders are not involved in requirements gathering, will the project plan be inefficient?
What if the project activities are not monitored, will the project team discover the missed deliverables?
What if a risk occurring on the project is not predicted earlier, will it cause a severe damage to the project?
What if the developer is not honest with the client on the coding time required, will it spoil the relationship of the company with the client?
What if the customer data reaches in the hands of an unauthorized user, would he able to misuse it against client?
What if the customer data is leaked to a third party from website, will it affect the personal life of the customer?
What if there is no copyright statement posted on website and the content is copied by the third party, will the company be able to take any action against the copier?
What if person information of the client is leaked to a third party source, will it affect the life of the client?
What if there is no special security measure taken, will it result into hacking of the website?
What if the privacy policy forgot to define a privacy concern, will the user of the website be able to exploit the vulnerability? (AusAID, 2003)
References
Abeysekera, V., & McLean, C. (2000). PROJECT SUCCESS AND RELATIONSHIPS FROM A STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVE: A PILOT STUDY. New Zealan: UNITEC Institute of Technology.
AusAID. (2003). Reviewing project quality. AusAID.
Freelock. (2010). 10 Problems with Web Development Projects, and How We’ve Solved Them. Retrieved from Freelock: https://www.freelock.com/newsletters/10-problems-web-development-projects-and-how-weve-solved-them
GOI. (2010). Change Management for e?Governance Projects. Government of India.
Institution of Civil Engineers and the Actuarial Profession. (2005). Risk analysis and management for projects (RAMP). . Thomas Telford Ltd.
PM4Dev. (2007). Project Management Organizational Structures. PM4Dev.
PM4DEV. (2008). PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS . PM4DEV.
PMI. (2008). Project Management Institute. Guide to the project management body of knowledge . Newtown Square: Project Management Institute.
UC Davis. (2013). Introduction to Project Management: Principles, Techniques and Tools . UC Davis.