Project Management Best Practices

This assignment examines the crucial role of project management in achieving successful outcomes. It delves into the benefits of a well-structured business case at the project's initiation, the effectiveness of appropriate process models in scheduling and managing work, and the significance of risk management strategies in mitigating potential project disruptions. The research emphasizes how these practices contribute to overall project success.

Project Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
DELIVERABLE 1- BUSINESS CASE...............................................................................................3
DELIVERABLE 2- PLANNING.........................................................................................................3
Individual evaluation.......................................................................................................................3
Team evaluation...............................................................................................................................4
Analysis of project characteristics...................................................................................................4
Impact of project characteristics on suitability of Agile software development process model......4
Summarization of arguments to select Agile software development process model.......................4
DELIVERABLE 3- SCHEDULING, MONITORING AND CONTROL...........................................4
Analyse an activity-on-node precedence network for the project...................................................4
Critical path of the network.............................................................................................................5
DELIVERABLE 4- RISK ASSESSMENT AND CONTINGENCY PLANNING.............................6
Risk register.....................................................................................................................................6
DELIVERABLE 5- TENDERING, CONTRACTS AND MIGRATION 120.....................................7
Methods of determining the contract prices....................................................................................7
Failures that could result in changes to contracts with reasons.......................................................7
Three key points for the service level agreement with a cloud service provider.............................7
DELIVERABLE 6- ESTIMATION.....................................................................................................8
Calculation of unadjusted function point (FP).................................................................................8
Calculate the adjusted function points FPadjusted................................................................................8
Use COCOMO to calculate the required effort E............................................................................8
Would 40 person-months be an adequate amount of effort for testing, integration and debugging?
.........................................................................................................................................................9
DELIVERABLE 7- QUALITY...........................................................................................................9
DELIVERABLE 8- PORTFOLIO REVIEW.......................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Project management is an art of planning, organizing, implementing and monitoring the
activities to complete a work. It is the most important part of a project that helps in carrying out a
plan from beginning to at the end (Kerzner, 2013). The present study is based on a case of
AccessSoft organization which is selling various software products to its customers by 2005. With
the passing of time, company is generating good revenue, sales and profit. But after introducing of
low prices software by competitors in the market has cut down the sales of AccessSoft. To
overcome this problem, the different options have suggested by staffs and from this, management
has adopted the idea of business expansion to remain in competition. The feature of this project will
be membership of customers, online presence of company, change in organization profile and logo,
online sales, cloud migration and giving training to staff for new system.
DELIVERABLE 1- BUSINESS CASE
Business case of AccessSoft business expansion plan
Reason: The reason of carrying out the business expansion plan of AccessSoft is reduction
in the number of orders at the organization due to lower item price offered by the competitors.
Options: Some options in front of the cited firm to deal with issue are expand the business
with new products, reduce the existing product price, create more promotional activities as
alternative options, and migrate existing organization data into cloud.
Expected benefits and limitations: The benefits of following project to AccessSoft
Company are new branding of company profile, online based sale, cloud migration for the whole
data and online based marketing activities. De-benefits of selected project is business risk in new
marketplace, fear of high competition, threat of data and other information leak etc (Schwalbe,
2015).
Cost: The estimated cost of business expansion plan for AccessSoft Company is £2000.
Time scale: The whole .project plan will be completed within 5 months.
DELIVERABLE 2- PLANNING
Individual evaluation
On the basis of project characteristics, Agile software development has taken into the
consideration because during the use of new system, project team can make changes or
improvement in project without affecting the working AccessSoft Company other business
operations.
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Team evaluation
By considering project characteristics, there have three process models selected by other
three group members. These are Waterfall Model, V model and Prototype model.
Analysis of project characteristics
From the analysis of business expansion program, there are some project characterises have
determined. It will help the customers to get the membership of AccessSoft by online portal where
they can register their details and by suitable products. The following project will show the presence
of the company on online. It will bring the changes on firm profile and logo that improve business
portfolio. This will allow online sales of AccessSoft products and cloud migration will reduce the
operational cost. Further, business expansion program will deliver good training to AccessSoft staff
to learn new system (Wysocki, 2011).
Impact of project characteristics on suitability of Agile software development process model
As per the above stated business expansion program project characteristics, the suitable
process model has Agile software development. The impact of the following plan features on
selected process framework is it will deliver a realistic approach to develop online based portal that
will fulfil all requirements of AccessSoft Company. Along with this, it will support the changing
requirements of the firm at different stage of online portal development (Walker, 2015).
Summarization of arguments to select Agile software development process model
One of the reasons of selecting Agile Software development process model of meeting
business expansion plan of AccessSoft is decreasing resources requirements. Along with this, it will
deliver early partial working solutions to company so that any changes can be made before
completion of plan if require.
DELIVERABLE 3- SCHEDULING, MONITORING AND CONTROL
Analyse an activity-on-node precedence network for the project
Task Name Duratio
n Start Finish Predecessor
s
Early
Finish
Early
Start
Late
Finish
Late
Start
Total
Slac
k
Business case
(BC) approval 5 wks
Wed
11/23/1
6
Tue
12/27/1
6
Tue
12/27/1
6
Wed
11/23/1
6
Tue
12/27/1
6
Wed
11/23/1
6
0
wks
Project plan(PP) 10 wks Wed
11/23/1
Tue Tue Wed
11/23/1
Tue Wed 10
5

6 1/31/17 1/31/17 6 4/11/17 2/1/17 wks
Requirements(R
) 15 wks Wed
2/1/17
Tue
5/16/17 1,2 Tue
5/16/17
Wed
2/1/17
Tue
8/29/17
Wed
5/17/17
15
wks
Rebranding(RB) 20 wks Wed
2/1/17
Tue
6/20/17 2 Tue
6/20/17
Wed
2/1/17
Tue
8/29/17
Wed
4/12/17
10
wks
WP1:Web portal
design and
Implementation
15 wks
Wed
12/28/1
6
Tue
4/11/17 1 Tue
4/11/17
Wed
12/28/1
6
Tue
4/11/17
Wed
12/28/1
6
0
wks
WP2: Testing 5 wks Wed
4/12/17
Tue
5/16/17 5 Tue
5/16/17
Wed
4/12/17
Tue
5/16/17
Wed
4/12/17
0
wks
WP3: Cloud
migration 5 wks Wed
5/17/17
Tue
6/20/17 6 Tue
6/20/17
Wed
5/17/17
Tue
6/20/17
Wed
5/17/17
0
wks
WP4: Training
and Project
closure
10 wks Wed
6/21/17
Tue
8/29/17 6,7 Tue
8/29/17
Wed
6/21/17
Tue
8/29/17
Wed
6/21/17
0
wks
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Critical path of the network
Critical path A: 1-5-6-7-8: 5+15+5+5+10 = 40 weeks
Critical path B: 1-5-6-8: 5+15+5+10 = 35 weeks
DELIVERABLE 4- RISK ASSESSMENT AND CONTINGENCY PLANNING
Risk register
Risk name Causes Probability
(1 to 5)
Impact Control
strategy
Control
actions
Proximity
Scope creep Poor
requirement
analysis; Lack
of change
control;
Underestimating
the complexity
of the project
2 Final
delivery date
of project;
deviate plan
from
original
deliverables
Cleary
understand the
project
requirements;
adopt scope
change
request; break
the plan into
manageable
sections
Reduce High
Lack of
different
resources
Lack of project
prioritization
(De Bakker,
Boonstra and
Wortmann,
2010)
2 Affect final
outcomes of
plan
Create a
Resource
Management
Grid
Reduce Moderate
Low quality
design
Poor feasibility
and flexibility
of architecture
and design
3 Make delay
in delivery
of project
and deviate
plan from
original
objectives
Adopting
various quality
standards; use
proper testing
tools (Mantel,
2011).
Fallback Low
Lack of
integration of
systems
Old
technologies,
improper
2 Affect the
major
deliverables
Adopt advance
technology
Transfer Moderate
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systems. of final
outcomes
systems
Poor
communication
Unclear project
deliverables;
disengaged of
employees
4 Unable to
meet the
requirements
and
objectives of
the project
plan (Jun,
Qiuzhen and
Qingguo,
2011)
Adopting right
communication
medium;
making clear
objectives to
team members
Reduce High
DELIVERABLE 5- TENDERING, CONTRACTS AND MIGRATION 120
Methods of determining the contract prices
For the present business expansion program project, there are some methods available of
determining the contract prices which are as follows:
 Price analysis
 Price Competition
 Catalogue or established price list
 GSA contracts or pricing agreements
 Price based on prior competition
 Comparison to prices with other similar contract prices (Caniëls and Bakens, 2012)
 Market prices
 Cost analysis
Failures that could result in changes to contracts with reasons
The first failure that increases the need to changes to contract with is cost saving. If the
accepted bid is rising the final costing of AccessSoft Company project that it will important to make
alterations in contracts. Second one is if the contractors not able to provide the supplies on time or
schedules then to avoid the delay in project plan, necessary changes to contract can be made (Artto,
Kulvik, Poskela and Turkulainen, 2011).
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Three key points for the service level agreement with a cloud service provider
To carry out the project related to business expansion project of AccessSoft Company, there
are three key points for the service level agreement with a cloud service provider. These main points
are as follows:
 Meet the service standards
 Transparency during delivery of cloud services
 Able to provide values of AccessSoft Company from the services
DELIVERABLE 6- ESTIMATION
Calculation of unadjusted function point (FP)
Formula: FP = (FU x WU) + (FC x WC)
FU: Number of use cases: 18
WU and WC: Adjustment factors: 7 and 11
FC: Number of classes: 15
FP = (18*7) + (15*11)
FP = 291
Calculate the adjusted function points FPadjusted
FP adjusted = FP x (0.65 + 0.01 x ΣFi)
Where 0.65 and 0.01 are constants
ΣFi: 45 (given)
FP adjusted = 291*(0.65+0.01*45)
FP adjusted = 320.1
How many lines of Java code will be required?
From Mapping from Functions Point to Line of Code, it has found that for Java, it will need 60
LOC (Line of Code). In this context, Java LOC will be as follows:
= FP adjusted*60LOC
= 320.1*60
= 19206 LOC
Lines of Java code will be required = 19.206 KLOC
Use COCOMO to calculate the required effort E
Effort of hours month (E) = a (KLOC) b
Optimum duration: D = c*Ed
On the basis of given case, it has found that project is classed as semi-detached. As per Parameter
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values for Basic COCOMO, the different parameter of semi-detached project are as follows:
E = 3.0* (19.206) ^1.12 = 27.3 person-months
D = 2.5* (27.3) ^0.35 = 7.962 = 8 person-months
Would 40 person-months be an adequate amount of effort for testing, integration and debugging?
For testing, integration and debugging work, there would not be a requirement of 40 person-
months. From the above calculation, it has found that project is semi-detached and it has only
require 8 person-months
DELIVERABLE 7- QUALITY
For business expansion project of AccessSoft Company, there are two key quality
characteristics have identified. These are efficiency and profitability where different measures can
be used to determine the level of quality of project. These assessment methods are as follows:
Usability: It assists the users to carry out the important tasks in quick manner by selecting the easier
path while reducing number of errors. For expansion project of AccessSoft Company, the following
framework can be used to measure level of quality of work. The scale of 1 to 10 can be used to
assess quality level. An example of usability is as follows:
Characteristic Description
Understandability Easy to understand the function of system
Learnability Time taken by the users to learn the functionality of new systems
Operability Capability of new project that can be easily use by any user with less
instructions.
Attractiveness Ability of create interest in the users to use the new system.
Compliance New system whether to develop as per the standards or not.
Reliability: It defines that system is capable to maintain its services with the passing of time by
reducing the chances of failure in future. For expansion project of AccessSoft Company, the
following framework can be used to measure level of quality of work.
Characteristic Description
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Maturity Related to number of time the new system failure to perform the tasks.
Fault tolerance Capability of new system to operate at the time of failure and able to
tolerate number of failures.
Recoverability Capable to return on work mode after the failure of operations and
establish data and network connections.
DELIVERABLE 8- PORTFOLIO REVIEW
From the entire study, I have learned that project management has an important thing to
manage a long and complex work. From that, I have gained knowledge regarding the risks that has
occurred in the project plan and what actions should take to reduce their impacts on project
outcomes. Along with this, I have taken experience that how to schedule the activities, calculating
float time, forward and backward passes etc for a project plan. I have adopted the Work Breakdown
Structure to keep the plan as per the set schedules. There were no slack or scope creep issues
identify in entire project durations.
CONCLUSION
From the above research, it can be concluded that a business case preparation at starting
phase of project plan has delivered the overall structure of work. With the help of right process
model, whole work plan has effectively scheduled and managed. Along with this, risk management
strategies have minimized the occurrence of risks in project.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Artto, K., Kulvik, I., Poskela, J. and Turkulainen, V., 2011. The integrative role of the project
management office in the front end of innovation. International Journal of Project
Management. 29(4). pp.408-421.
Bredillet, C., Yatim, F. and Ruiz, P., 2010. Project management deployment: The role of cultural
factors. International Journal of Project Management. 28(2). pp.183-193.
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Caniëls, M.C. and Bakens, R.J., 2012. The effects of Project Management Information Systems on
decision making in a multi project environment.International Journal of Project
Management. 30(2). pp.162-175.
De Bakker, K., Boonstra, A. and Wortmann, H., 2010. Does risk management contribute to IT
project success? A meta-analysis of empirical evidence. International Journal of Project
Management. 28(5). pp.493-503.
Jun, L., Qiuzhen, W. and Qingguo, M., 2011. The effects of project uncertainty and risk
management on IS development project performance: A vendor perspective. International
Journal of Project Management. 29(7). pp.923-933.
Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Mantel, S.J., 2011. Project management in practice. Wiley.
Meredith, J.R. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2011. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley
& Sons.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Wu, P. and Low, S.P., 2010. Project management and green buildings: lessons from the rating
systems. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice. 136(2).
pp.64-70.
Wysocki, R.K., 2011. Effective project management: traditional, agile, extreme. John Wiley &
Sons.
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