Project Management: Monitoring, Controlling, Scope Management, Change Management, and Ethics

This article discusses various project management techniques such as monitoring, controlling, scope management, change management, and ethics. It explains the importance of integrity, confidentiality, security, and availability of information in project management. It also covers the steps required to incorporate a change in the project and the need for formal closure of a project. Additionally, it highlights the challenges faced in protecting copyright and privacy in today's technological advancements and suggests measures to avoid such breaches. Finally, it provides a detailed response to the concept of 'What If' scenarios in project management.

Question 11 (ICTPMG401): Monitoring and controlling the project tasks is the key factor in the success of
a project. Describe the phenomenon in your own words with particular reference to 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).
Question 12 (Unit ICTPMG401): Define scope management. Use the terms “all” and “only” in the
definition and spell out the practical meanings of these two terms in scope management.
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).
Question 13: Change management is a formal process. What and when a change may be required in a
project. Briefly outline the steps required to incorporate a change in the project.
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).
Question 14: Unit (ICTPMG401): Briefly summarize the PMI Code of Ethics for Project Managers.
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).
Question 15: A project requires formal closure even if all the technical work is already complete. Please
explain why it is essential to formally close a project but it is considered complete?
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).
Question 16: (unit ICTPMG401): Which phase of the project requires the most resources and why?
Please provide at least two reasons.
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).
Question 17: (Unit ICTPMG401): Which phase of the project is most time consuming and why? Justify
your answer, particularly if you think that more than one phases may require equal time.
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).
Question 18: (Unit ICTPMG401): Project execution is the phase of a project when actual project work is
being carried out. At this stage, it is necessary that the project deliverables match to the project
objectives. How a project manager ensures this match between objectives and deliverables? In case of
a discrepancy, what steps must be taken by the project manager? Give at least three such steps.
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).
Question 19: (ICTPMG401): A project has run into trouble immediately after the execution phase begins.
In your opinion where the root cause lies for this situation and what should be done by the project
manager to rectify this situation.
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).
Question 20: (ICTICT418): Provide a summary of the Code of Ethics for your work or study organisation
(you can choose any other organisation, if you wish so).
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).
Question 21: (ICTICT418): Organisational policy must have procedures to maintain integrity,
confidentiality, security and availability of information at all times. Define integrity, confidentiality, security
and availability of information in your own words.
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
Question 22: (Unit ICTICT418): of the above (integrity, confidential, security and availability (of
information)), which one is most important in your opinion and Why? Justify your answer.
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).
Question 23: (Unit ICTICT418): If there is a change in Code of Ethics, it must be communicated to all
stakeholders. In your words describe at least two situations, when the code of ethics need revision and
update.
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).
Question 24: (Unit ICTICT418): Why the protection of copyright is important in today’s changing IT and
Technological requirement?
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).
Question 26: (Unit ICTICT418): Privacy needs to be protected regardless of the industry. What
information must always be protected in your opinion?

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).
Question 27: (Unit ICTICT418): A breach resulted in personal data leak in an organisation? What is
required for the organisation to ensure that such breaches do not take place in future? Write at least
three such measures that the organisation must take.
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).
Question 28: (Unit ICTICT418): An organisation has identified a serious gap in its privacy policy although
no privacy breach incident has taken place in the last seven years (since the policy was devised and
adopted by the organisation). On finding this gap what steps need to be taken by the organisation
management?
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).
Question 29 (All Units): How is “What If” scenario defined in project management? Provide a detailed
response (350 words) to this question considering all of the above unit/s and relevant questions.
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.