Discussion Questions 1
1. Traditional project management depends heavily on being able to clearly define what the client needs. You cannot create a detailed project plan without that information. Within the framework of TPM, what could you do if it were not possible to get that clear definition 2. You have run the Conditions of Satisfaction by the book, and your gut tells you that the client's wants may be a bit too far-reaching. In fact, you have a strong suspicion that what they need is not what they have told you...
Determining Cost
The team should have access to a standard costing table. This table will list all resources, unit of measure, and cost per unit. It is then just a simple exercise in calculating the cost per resource based on the number of units required and the cost per unit. Many organizations will have a spreadsheet template that will facilitate the exercise. These calculated figures can be transferred to the WBS and aggregated up the WBS hierarchy to give a total cost for each activity level in the WBS....
Identifying a Specific Resource Needed
Knowing the need for a specific resource will occur quite often. When the situation comes up, we are faced with the question, Should we put that specific person in the plan If you do and if that person is not available when you need him or her, how will that affect your cycle plan If he or she is very highly skilled and you used that information to estimate the duration of the task that person was to work on, you may have a problem. If you cannot replace him or her with an equally skilled...
Discussion Questions Xcd
1. Discuss the concept of the work package as an insurance policy. How is it an insurance policy, and what might it contain that would make it an insurance policy 2. You have two choices for a resource to work on a programming task. One choice is Harry. He is the most skilled programmer in the company and is therefore in constant demand. As a result, he is usually assigned to several projects at the same time. He is available to your project on a half-time basis. He currently has commitments to...
Discussion Questions Oje
1. You have used the three-point method to estimate the duration of an activity that you know will be critical to the project. The estimate produces a very large difference between the optimistic and pessimistic estimates. What actions might you take, if any, regarding this activity 2. Discuss a project on which you ve worked where time was the major factor in determining the success or failure of the project. What did you do about cost considerations Did the sponsor s agree with the added cost...
Info Joy
specification of the goal and a new goal definition is produced. This new definition is probably a little more accurate than the original guess. Figure I.2 would interpret this by having the ellipse shrink in volume and move up or down. The next cycle of work is planned based on the new goal. This process continues for some number of cycles and results either in an acceptable solution or in the project being abandoned at the completion of some intermediate cycle. In most cases there is not a...
Info
This acknowledgment is really a special acknowledgment to two people who played a key role in getting this whole project started. First, Dave Crane and I had cofacilitated a three-day project management course for Boston University Corporate Education Center clients. Dave and I honed the course materials over a three-year period and then decided to turn it into a book. At that time, Bob Beck, who was recently retired after 25 years with IBM, was my business partner and volunteered to create the...