Day 28- Project Plan

Today lecturer started the lecture by mentioning the facts discussed in the previous project management lecture. Today lecturer mainly focused on the project plan which is very useful for project management. Lecturer mentioned characteristics of a project as,

• Clear time frame- Clear time period with starting date and end date
• Clear budget- Make a budget which can enough to gather requirements for the project
• Over all goal-What are the things try to achieve from the project

After that lecturer discussed about four phases in project. They are,

• Initiation
• Planning
• Controlling 
• concluding

figure 1: Project Management Triangular (123rf, 2012)

When it comes to project management above mentioned four pillars are very important. Because when work according to these four pillars the development team can have an effective output. After that lecturer discussed about project management triangle which represent quality, cost and time. Lecturer mentioned that quality also named as scope by some authors because quality and scope both represent what client expect from the project. Because of that lecturer told it does not matter of substitute quality with scope. 

After that lecturer started to discuss about one more important aspect  in project management which is the risk management. In the risk management what does it find out the risk that can be arise during the project and get prepare with the solutions for the problems. Then when the problem arises development team will not be faced any risk because they already had come up with the solutions. To explain about risk management lecturer took the example of Virtusa. The people at the bench always ready to substitute when a member of a project face any problem and had to leave the project. People at the bench also have the idea of what happen in the project since they have good internal communication through the PEGA system.

Then lecturer discussed about some software development methodologies. First lecture discussed about SSADM. Lecturer stated that SSADM is a well structured methodology. Also lecturer mentioned that SSADM is a document driven methodology which means many documents involves in this methodology. Lecturer also mentioned the main disadvantage of this methodology as the project does not focus on the development level of the project. 

Lecturer discussed about the Gantt chart. Which plays a main role in the project management. The work break down of the project, reflects in the gantt chart. It also identifies the time allocated to the each task and identify the task dependencies until the predecessors complete the task cannot be completed.

After the brief discussion about Gantt charts lecturer moved on to PERT charts. Lecturer started the discussion with mentioning the principles in PERT charts. They are,

• In last node LCT (Least completion time) = ECT (Earliest completion time)
• Dummy nodes always start with 0

After that lecturer explained main areas that discuss in PERT charts.

• Critical Path- Significant of the critical path is cannot delay any activity, if one activity got delay then it is going to affect to the whole time period.
• LCT- Total time period of the entire task
• Slack time- Idle time. Which helps to have some more time in certain tasks. Because some tasks need more time without affecting to the whole task. 

Lecturer mentioned there different time estimation ways like Cocomo and functional points. From these can identify the how much time will need to complete a project.

Then lectured carried lecture to the topic of project manager. The project manager's task is to guide the project management team and make sure to complete the time within allocated time period and budget. Then lecturer discuss about project log sheet. Project log sheet useful when conducting meetings with the project manager or supervisor.There are different areas need to be in a log sheet they are,

Figure 2: Project Manager (Civil Engineering, 2012)

• Things that is going to discuss with the supervisor
• The things that discussed in previous meetings
• Actions that is going to be taken for the discussed things

After that lecturer stated that how to prepare for the supervisory meeting

• Project Plan - Whether you are in  the schedule or how far have u gone or are you below the schedule. What stage currently in etc.
• Prepare set of questions need to ask from the supervisor
• Have a proper knowledge about the content of the project
• Clear doubts that have with the project

Lecturer gave an activity to students. It is PERT chart. The lecturer gave a scenario and asked students to draw a PERT chart for that.

Activity:-

Draw a PERT chart for the given scenario, find out the critical path and calculate ECT, LCT and Slack time.

Figure 3: Scenario

Figure 4: PERT Chart

ECT=53

LCT=155

Critical Path=A,C,E,H,G

Slack time= 130-53=77

Learning Outcomes:-

From today lecture I understood the importance of the project management and the project plan. The four phases of project project importance in-order to get an effective output. The project management triangular helps make sure the project is managing with the scope of the project. I understood the task of the project manager. Before the lecture I did not have a proper idea about what is a log sheet and importance of the log sheet. Now I am aware of what exactly is a log sheet. I refreshed my knowledge of PERT charts from the activity done in the class. I also understood the main components like critical path, LCT,ECT and slack time. of the PERT chart and how useful those components for managing the time period of the project.

References:-

1234rf. (2012). Project Management Triangular. [Online]. Available at:  http://www.123rf.com/photo_11066583_rendered-concept-of-a-project-management-triangle.html 

[Accessed 17th September 2012]

Civil Engineering. (2012). Project Manager. [Online]. Available at:  http://civilengineerlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/project-management.jpg 

[Accessed 17th September 2012]