Charles Sturt - Mgi513 - Enterprise Project Management

Front 1

What is a project?

Back 1

A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

Front 2

Name the 5 major characteristics of projects.

Back 2

1. An established objective.
2. A defined life span.
3. Usually involvement of several departments and professionals.
4. Typically, doing something which hasn't been done before.
5. Specific time, cost and performance requirements.

Front 3

Name the 4 phases of the project life cycle.

Back 3

1. Defining
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Closing

Front 4

What is a program of work?

Back 4

A group of related projects, designed to accomplish a common goal over an extended period of time.

Front 5

What is portfolio management?

Back 5

Project management oversight at organisational level through to project level. Serves as a bridge between senior management and project teams.

Front 6

Name the major functions of portfolio management

Back 6

1. Oversee project selection
2. Monitor aggregate resource levels and skill
3. Encourage use of best practice
4. Balance projects in the portfolio to an appropriate risk level for the organisation
5. Improve communication among stakeholders
6. Create an organisational perspective that goes beyond silo thinking
7. Improve overall management of all projects over time

Front 7

What is the typical sequence of activities of the strategic management process?

Back 7

1. Review and define the organisational mission.
2. Set long-range goals and objectives.
3. Analyse and formulate strategies to reach objectives.
4. Implement strategies (through projects).

Front 8

What are the characteristics of objectives?

Back 8

Specific
Measurable
Assignable
Realistic
Time related

Front 9

What is the implementation gap?

Back 9

The lack of understanding and consensus of organisational strategy among top and middle level managers.

Front 10

What are the benefits of project portfolio management?

Back 10

* Builds discipline into project selection process.
* Links project selection to strategic metrics.
* Prioritises project proposals on criteria, rather than emotion or politics.
* Allocates resources to projects that align with strategic direction.
* Balances risk across projects.
* Justifies killing projects that do not support organisational strategy.
* Improves communication and supports agreement on project goals.

Front 11

Why should an organisation not rely only on ROI to select projects?

Back 11

Projects may have strategic value outside direct financial return:
* Capture market share
* Raise entry barrier for competitors
* Enable profit indirectly by creating enabler products or new core technology
* Reduce dependency on suppliers
* Prevent government intervention or regulation

Front 12

Name the three structural approaches to project management.

Back 12

Functional, matrix and dedicated team.

Front 13

What distinguishes a weak matrix structure from a strong one.

Back 13

Weak matrix structure is more closely aligned to the functional model - functional managers have more authority and project managers exist only to facilitate project implementation.

Front 14

What are the seven factors which should influence the choice of project management structure?

Back 14

* Size of project
* Strategic importance
* Novelty and need for innovation
* Need for integration (multiple department involvement)
* Environmental complexity (number of external interfaces)
* Budget and time constraints
* Stability of resource requirements

The high the levels of these factors, the more authority and autonomy is required by the PM.

Front 15

What are the six elements of a typical scope statement?

Back 15

1. Project objective
2. Deliverables
3. Milestones
4. Technical requirements
5. Limits and exclusions
6. Review / agreement with customer

Front 16

What questions does a project objective answer?

Back 16

What, when and at what cost.

Front 17

What are the three categories which can be applied to project priorities?

Back 17

Constrain, enhance, accept

Front 18

What are the major groupings found in a Work Breakdown Structure?

Back 18

* Project
* Deliverable
* Sub-deliverable
* Lowest sub-deliverable (can be assigned to a single person)
* Cost account
* Work package

Front 19

Name the six key elements of a work package.

Back 19

* Defines work (what)
* Defines time to complete (how long)
* Defines a time-phased budget (cost)
* Identifies resources (how much)
* Identifies person responsible (who)
* Identifies monitoring points for measuring progress (how well)

Front 20

What is an OBS?

Back 20

The Organisation Breakdown Structure is used to define the organisational units responsible for performing work within a WBS.

Front 21

What is the purpose of an OBS?

Back 21

To provide a framework to summarise organisation unit work performance, identify organisation units responsible for work packages and tie the organisational unit to cost control accounts.

Front 22

What questions does a communication plan attempt to address?

Back 22

* What information needs to be collected and when?
* Who will receive the information?
* What methods will be used to gather and store the information?
* What are the limits, if any, on who has access to certain kinds of information?
* When will the information be communicated?
* How will it be communicated?

Front 23

Name the seven guidelines used to develop useful work package estimates.

Back 23

1. Estimates should be made by the person most familiar with the task.
2. Use several people to estimate.
3. Estimate for normal conditions.
4. All estimates should be produced in the same time unit.
5. Estimators should treat each task as independent of others.
6. Work package estimates should not include allowances for contingencies.
7. Adding risk assessment to the estimate helps to avoid surprises.