Project- Project Management

PROJECT QUESTIONS & TASKS

1. Provide a project objective associated with the Astin Martin Electronics project. Include a list of assumptions about the project.

The purpose of this project is to develop a specific message service for Astin Martin Electronics.

The project objectives are:

· Develop a specific message service that will be incorporated into electronic instrument interface.

· To provide software engineering support for designing, developing, and unit testing of the software (specific message software).

· Project deliverables must be completed on 15th November 2021.

· To achieve customer satisfaction.

· Deliver project in source and binary version.

· Deliver the project in a manner that meets all approved acceptance criteria, associated design documents (system and development level).

· Deliver the project within the approved budget.

The project assumptions are:

· All resources are available.

· Project will be awarded on 15th May.

· All estimates regarding schedule and cost are correct, i.e., with minimal variation.

· Personnel costs will not change, i.e., the per hour rates will remain uniform throughout the project.

· All stakeholders are supportive of the project.

· The team members have the required skills.

2. What is a work breakdown structure? What is a responsibility matrix? Using the Astin Martin Astin Martin Electronics project activity list and activity duration schedule, create a WBS and RAM.

Work Breakdown Structure (Should provide hierarchical graph)

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a “is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.”.

	Work Break Down Structure Outline
No.	Task Name
1	UML Design For Interface
1.1	Create Outline of UML
1.2	Derive Requirements Artifacts
1.3	Assistance of Software Engineering
1.4	Provide quality checks
2	System/Software Design
2.1	Appropriate software components
2.1.1	Design appropriate software components
2.2.2	Peer Review
2.2	Assistance of Software Engineering
2.3	Provide quality checks
3	Approve Design
3.1	Component Level Requirements
3.1.1	Derive Component Level Requirements
3.1.2	Designing and Coding
3.1.3	Unit test
3.1.4	System and Enterprise Test
3.2	Assistance of Software Engineering
3.3	Sell-off Acceptance Criteria
3.3.1	Derive sell-off Acceptance Criteria
3.3.2	Peer review
3.3.3	Customer Approval
3.3.4	Provide quality checks.
4	Approve Content S/W Component Design
4.1	Design artifacts
4.1.1	Provide appropriate level design artifacts
4.1.2	Peer review
4.2	Sell-off Acceptance Criteria
4.2.1	Derive sell-off Acceptance Criteria
4.2.2	Peer Review
4.3.3	Customer Approval
4.3.4	Provide quality checks.
5	Code and Unit Test
5.1	Testing Software Modules
5.2	Collecting Software requirements from System Engineering
5.3	Requirement Analysis
5.4	Collect Additional Requirements (If Required)
5.5	Test Planning
5.6	Test Case Designing & Development
5.7	Test Environment Setup
8.8	Overhead Cost (July)
5.9	Development of Software Module
5.1	Test Execution
5.11	Implement Changes (If Required)
5.12	Match Changes with Scope
5.13	Code Test Software Module
5.14	Unit Test Software Module
6	Provide quality checks
7	Function Test
7.1	Assistance of System Engineering to software engineering
7.2	Check the Function
7.3	Provide quality checks
8	Design Test Artifacts
8.1	Consultation and support from other Software and System engineers
8.2	Derive System Level Test Cases
8.3	Derive Enterprise Level Test Cases
8.4	Peer Review
8.5	Provide quality checks
9	Perform Environment Level Tests
9.1	Consultation and support from other Software and System engineers
9.2	Overhead Cost (September)
9.3	Execute Test Cases
9.4	Provide quality checks
10	Approve Test Services
10.1	Assistance from System Test Engineering for Quality Engineering
10.2	Quality Check
10.2.1	Design Review
10.2.2	Pre-Ship Review
11	Run Test on Live Environment
11.1	Assistance from System Test Engineering for Quality Engineering
11.2	Quality Check
11.3	Final Acceptance Test
12	Deploy to Operational Environment
12.1	Work with Customer facility
12.2	Overhead Cost (October)
12.3	Use of approved installation instructions
12.4	Deployment of software into operational environment

The hierarchical WBS is below:

Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Responsibility Assignment matrix also known as RAM or RACI matrix is the chart that describes the participation of people of various role to accomplish any task in the project. A responsibility matrix shows the human resources assigned to the work package. A work package is referred to as the smallest unit of work that a project can be divided into in the WBS.

Below is the RAM Chart:

3. (Major) List all activity costs. From the project activity list and activity duration schedule, estimate the cost of each activity. Then, determine the Total Budgeted Cost (TBC) for the Astin Martin Electronics project. Provide the information in table format by month. Objective evidence of derived costs is required for credit. Use labor and overhead rates as provided in your derived calculations.

The total budgeted cost of the project is calculated using MS Project. Where activities are added along with the resources. Then the given per hour labor rate of each resource is added in the resource sheet to calculate TBC. Total budgeted cost is then divided by the total working hours (8 hours shift from 15th May 2021 till 15th November 2021 – this excludes weekends) required to complete the project. This is done to calculate per hour rate to incorporate overhead rates into total budgeted cost.

The given total hour of each overhead is then multiplied with per hour rate which gives following values.

Finance: 6.4% of total hours = $14691.588

Planning & Scheduling: 5.1% of total hours = $11706.147

Management (Contracts/Senior Management): 2.2% of total hours = $5050.233

Facility: 1.9% of total hours = $4361.565

HR/Staffing: 0.62% of total hours = $1423.248

The above overhead expenses are then equally distributed in all 6 months from 15th May 2021 till 15th November 2021.

Major Tasks	May	June	July	August	September	October	November
UML Design for Interface	18269.64
System/Software Design		16368.40
Approve Design		15478.88
Approve Content S/W Component Design		7462.04	7868.56
Code and Unit Test			39203.96	37087.12
Function Test				14059.96	797.20
Design Test Artifacts					19963.76
Perform Environment Level Tests					11410.36	4839.36
Approve Test Services						16544.40
Run Test on Live Environment						18944.56
Deploy to Operational Environment						17031.88	20390.20
Total Budgeted Cost	18269.64	39309.32	47072.52	51147.08	32171.32	57360.20	20390.20
Management Reserves	13286.01

3. Provide a cumulative budgeted cost curve and monthly budget curve for the Astin Martin Electronics project. Provide in appropriate graph format. This should represent both monthly budget and TBC over the period of performance of the project.

The graph showing cumulative budgeted cost and monthly budget curve.

4. Astin Martin Electronics wants to know if you plan to use a management reserve for their project. Explain what the term reserve means and why you will use contingency reserve in the project or not. Be sure and consider the implications of using or not using the reserve. Provide appropriate detail in your response.

JBB will use the management reserve. It refers to the amount that is reserved for unforeseen or unplanned work. Usually, this work is within the project scope. This reserve is not within the project manager’s control. Instead, its control lies with JBB’s senior management. They will decide whether to release the reserve. The purpose of adding a management reserve is to deal with unplanned work. The term reserve in project management means additional financial resources that can be utilized when required. Usually, reserves are limited to managing risks in project management.

Management reserve is 5%.

The project cost is $265720.28.

After adding the management reserve, the budgeted cost is $279,006.29.

JBB uses contingency reserves for the project. They are added to manage the identified risks. For instance, a resource is not available during a critical activity. The project manager has foreseen this risk and has made the calculations for hiring an additional resource. Thus, if the resource is not available, the project manager can use the contingency reserve to pay for a temporary resource. It will ensure that the project is not impacted by the resource’s absence. The contingency reserve is calculated based on past experiences, best project management practices, and other factors. All projects must include the contingency reserve as it is considered a vital risk management response. A common misconception is that the reserve can be used at any time. For instance, if a project is over budget, contingency reserve can be used.

However, that is not the case. The contingency reserve can only be used for the identified risks and nothing else. If the reserves are not added to the project, it can cause problems. For instance, if an identified risk occurs, how will the project manager manage it? Indeed, managing the risk requires resources. Without allocated resources, the project manager will find it challenging to deal with the risk. Resultantly, the project will suffer. Thus, projects must use contingency reserves.

5. Astin Martin Electronics wants to know how JBB Software plans to employ cost management and earned value (EV) in their project. Explain to Astin Martin Electronics why it is necessary to calculate the earned value of work performed and how you plan to execute this task.

Cost management is a vital part of any project. The best practices mentioned in the PMBoK and the organization’s lessons learnt register will be used for cost management. The Figure below details the processes mentioned in the PMBoK for cost management.

Source: (PMI, 2017)

In order to estimate the costs, JBB has planned to use several techniques which improves the quality of the estimates. The techniques include analogous estimation, bottom-up, and expert judgement. A vital part of cost management is monitoring and controlling the costs. For this purpose, JBB will use different tools including the earned value (EV). The EV shows how much work has actually been performed in a project compared to the planned work. As Astin wishes to know about the cost, EV will be explained from the cost perspective. An example will help explain how JBB will use the earned value in cost management.

Example

Let us assume that the budget for the project is $1000. The total duration is 30 days. After 15 days, 40% of the project is completed. The actual cost is $650. Now, EV will be calculated as:

EV = Total Project Cost * Percentage Project Completed

= 1000 * 40%

= $400

The above EV shows the value of work performed. The actual cost incurred is $650. It means that the project is going over budget.

The purpose of calculating the earned value is to assess whether the work performed is as per the plan. For instance, is it on budget, over budget, or under budget? If there are considerable variations, it means that the project manager must take appropriate action. Otherwise, the project might get out of hand. If the project is considerably under budget, it indicates problems with the estimates.

6. Astin Martin Electronics is concerned about how JBB Software will manage risks. Describe what JBB Software plans to do to manage risk on the Astin Martin Electronics project and if a risk assessment matrix will be employed and why. Provide appropriate level of detail in your response.

All projects face risks. It is why organizations undertake formal risk management processes to manage those risks. The purpose of these processes is to prevent risks from occurring or at least mitigate their impacts on the project. For example, in a construction project, bad weather is a considerable risk. Irrespective of what the project manager does, bad weather cannot be avoided. Instead, the project manager works to mitigate its impact. The manager might schedule the activities in parallel to complete them before bad weather impacts the project or the activities might be scheduled when the weather conditions improve.

The Astin Martin project is no exception when it comes to risks. It is why JBB Software will use several risk management tools & techniques to manage the risks. For this project, the risk management process mentioned in the PMBoK 6th Edition will be used. It is shown in the Figure below.

Source: (PMI, 2017)

As the above picture shows, the first step is plan risk management. Here, the project manager and the team will utilize different documents, tools, and techniques to develop the risk management plan. This plan will tell how ‘risk management activities will be structured and performed’. In this project, the project manager is ultimately responsible for managing the risks. The manager will take help from the project team. Each risk will be assigned a risk owner that is responsible for that particular risk.

As mentioned earlier, risk management is an iterative process. Thus, new risks might be identified, while existing ones might be removed. As the project is complex, JBB will perform both, qualitative and quantitative risk assessments. The purpose is to ensure that risks are effectively managed. Another benefit of undertaking both types is to bridge the shortcomings in each other. As said before, various tools and techniques will be used. One of them is the risk assessment matrix. The matrix can be tailored according to organizational or project needs. The purpose of risk assessment matrix such as the one shown below is to provide the project manager and the team with a visual representation of the risks.

Source: (Becker, 2004)

Once the severity and likelihood are determined for each risk, they are represented on the matrix based on their score. It can help the project manager in prioritizing the risks based on their score. The matrix can be tailored based on organizational requirements.

References

Becker, G. M. (2004). A practical risk management approach. Retrieved 2 April 2021, from Project Management Institute website: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/practical-risk-management-approach-8248

PMI. (2017). PMBOK® Guide (6th ed.). PMI. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok

Astin Martin LLC

UML Design For Interface

Create Outline of UML

Derive Requirements Artifacts

Assistance of Software Engineering

Provide quality checks

System/Software Design

Appropriate software components

Design appropriate software components

Peer Review

Assistance of Software Engineering

Provide quality checks

Approve Design

Component Level

Requirements

Derive Component Level Requirements

Desiging and Coding

Unit test

System and Enterprise Test

Assistance of Software Engineering

Sell-off Acceptance Criteria

Derive sell-off Acceptance Criteria

Peer review

Customer Approval

Provide quality checks

Approve Content S/W Component Design

Design artifacts

Provide appropriate level design artifacts

Peer review

Sell-off Acceptance Criteria

Derive sell-off Acceptance Criteria

Peer Review

Customer Approval

Provide quality checks

Code and Unit Test

Testing Software Modules

Collecting Software requirements from System Engineering

Requirement Analysis

Collect Additional Requirements (If Required)

Test Planning

Test Case Designing & Development

Test Envrionment Setup

Develpoment of Software Module

Test Execution

Implement Changes (If Required)

Match Changes with Scope

Code Test Software Module

Unit Test Software Module

Provide quality checks

Function Test

Assistance of System Engineering to software engineering

Check the Function

Provide quality checks

Design Test Artifacts

Consultation and support from other Software and System engineers

Derive System Level Test Cases

Derive Enterprise Level Test Cases

Peer Review

Provide quality checks

Perform Environment Level Tests

Consultation and support from other Software and System engineers

Overhead Cost (September)

Execute Test Cases

Provide quality checks

Approve Test Services

Assistance from System Test Engineering for Quality Engineering

Quality Check

Design Review

Pre-Ship Review

Run Test on Live Environment

Assistance from System Test Engineering for Quality Engineering

Quality Check

Final Acceptance Test

Deploy to Operational Environment

Work with Customer facility

Overhead Cot (October)

Use of approved installation instructions

Deployment of software into operational environment

Cost

May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 19389.53 41549.11 49312.31 53049.67 34748.31 46796.86 34160.51 Cumulative Cost

May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 19389.533563218392 60938.640689655171 110250.94781609197 163300.61494252874 198048.9220689655 244845.78068965516 279006.28999999998

Cost

May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 19389.53 41549.11 49312.31 53049.67 34748.31 46796.86 34160.51 Cumulative Cost

May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 19389.533563218392 60938.640689655171 110250.94781609197 163300.61494252874 198048.9220689655 244845.78068965516 279006.28999999998

10

WBS Activities

Poject managerChief Engineer

System Engineer |

System Engineer ||

System Engineer |||

Lead System Engineer

Software Engineer |

Software Engineer ||

Software Engineer |||

Lead Software Engineer

System Test Engineer |

System Test Engineer ||

System Test Engineer |||

Lead System Test Engineer

Quality Engineer |

Quality Engineer ||

Quality Engineer |||

Lead Quality Engineer

UML Design for InterfaceIARRRRCCCCCCCC

Create Outline of UMLIARRRRCCCCCCCC

Derive Requirements ArtifactsIARRRRCCCCCCCC

Assistance of Software EngineeringARRRR

Provide quality checksIRRRA

System/Software DesignIRRRACCCCCCCC

Appropriate software componentsIRRRACCCCCCCC

Design appropriate software componentsIRRRACCCCCCCC

Peer ReviewARRRRCCCCCCCC

Assistance of Software EngineeringARRRR

Provide quality checksIRRRA

Approve DesignICRRRACCCCCCCC

Component Level RequirementsIRRRACCCCCCCC

Derive Component Level RequirementsIRRRACCCCCCCC

Designing and CodingIRRRACCCCCCCC

Unit testIRRRACCCCCCCC

System and Enterprise TestIRRRACCCCCCCC

Assistance of Software EngineeringARRRR

Sell-off Acceptance CriteriaIRRRACCCC

Derive sell-off Acceptance CriteriaIRRRA

Peer reviewARRRR

Customer ApprovalARRRR

Provide quality checks.IRRRA

Approve Content S/W Component Design ICCCCRRRACCCC

Design artifactsICCCCRRRACCCC

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Peer reviewACCCCRRRRCCCC

Sell-off Acceptance CriteriaIRRRACCCC

Derive sell-off Acceptance CriteriaIRRRA

Peer ReviewARRRR

Customer ApprovalARRRR

Provide quality checks.IRRRA

Code and Unit Test ICCCCRRRACCCC

Testing Software ModulesICCCCRRRACCCC

Collecting Software requirements from System EngineeringICCCCRRRACCCC

Requirement AnalysisICCCCRRRACCCC

Collect Additional Requirements (If Required)ICCCCRRRACCCC

Test PlanningICCCCRRRACCCC

Test Case Designing & DevelopmentICCCCRRRACCCC

Test Environment SetupICCCCRRRACCCC

Development of Software ModuleICCCCRRRACCCC

Test ExecutionICCCCRRRACCCC

Implement Changes (If Required)ICCCCRRRACCCC

Match Changes with ScopeICCCCRRRACCCC

Code Test Software ModuleICCCCRRRACCCC

Unit Test Software ModuleICCCCRRRACCCC

Provide quality checksIRRRA

Function TestICCCCRRRACCCC

Assistance of System Engineering to software engineeringARRRR

Check the FunctionICCCCRRRACCCC

Provide quality checksIRRRA

Design Test ArtifactsCCCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

Consultation and support from other Software and System engineersARRRRRRRR

Derive System Level Test CasesCCCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

Derive Enterprise Level Test CasesCCCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

Peer ReviewCCCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

Provide quality checks RRRA

Perform Environment Level TestsICCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

Consultation and support from other Software and System engineersARRRRRRRR

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Provide quality checksIRRRA

Approve Test ServicesICCCCCCCCRRRACCCC

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Design ReviewIRRRA

Pre-Ship ReviewIRRRA

Run Test on Live EnvironmentICCCRCCCCRRRACCCR

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Final Acceptance TestAACCCRCCCCRRRRCCCR

Deploy to Operational EnvironmentARCCRRRRC

Work with Customer facility IRCCRRRRC

Use of approved installation instructionsARCCRRRRC

Deployment of software into operational environmentARCCRRRRC

Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)/RACI Matrix