Question 1 Problem Statement: Stakeholder and Project Quality Management “Hercules Creative Solutions” has successfully bagged two research and development related projects from ministry of science and technology. You are working on one of a project as senior project manager which is related to develop a gadget for the help of physically disabled persons in their day to day commuting. The main challenge for you and your team is that neither you nor any of your team members have ever done this type of project. USAID and one of a leading bank are the sponsors of this project. The designing of the product has been outsourced to one of a very famous engineering firms of the country. For the procurement purpose, two potential vendors are on board. The company you are working for is a multinational company and has very strict procurement procedure and procurement audit is mandatory at the end of the project. Stringent quality standards have to be followed which includes but not limited to rigorous testing of all the features, user friendliness and ability to recover in case of software/ hardware errors. After completing the pilot, the product was released for beta test to selected users that were arranged by the sponsors. Multiple users complained that this product is difficult to use and at times does not work as expected. In other words, end users were not satisfied with the design and working of this product. Hercules Creative Solutions has decided to recall all the pieces from the end users and planned to perform a hardware/ software upgrade. The main stakeholders are not happy with this situation as have complained earlier multiple times during the course of this project for not being involved. The external auditors have also pointed out some serious compliance issues related to procurement process. After getting know about the situation of this project, answer the following questions. Required: 1.Identify all the internal and external stakeholders of this project. In which category, the cost of recalling the product will fall? List down some of the risks while working on this project. In your opinion, what were the reasons of this project’s failure? What could have been done by Hercules Creative Solutions to avoid or minimize the situation faced due to product failure? Question 2 Problem Statement: Project Control and Monitoring You are working on a manufacturing project having a budget of PKR 3,600,000 and expected time of its completion is one year. There is an ideal condition that your budget and work are evenly spread across the duration of the project that is twelve month. At the end of forth month, the senior management has called a meeting and invited all the stakeholders to brief about the status of the project. You being the PM of this project is giving the presentation to all the attendees and informed that project is on schedule and PKR 1,800,000 have already been spent on the project. Required: Calculate Cost and Schedule Variance What is SPI and CPI of the project? Estimate at completion and Estimated time to complete? Question 4 Problem Statement: Procurement Management Aisha wants to join Pakistan’s biggest construction firm as a project manager. She is giving a case study to read it thoroughly so that a discussion could be made on this as part of interview. The project was about to construct a road between two mega cities. It was a mega project involving a lot of contracts with different vendors. The project manager had made a number of cost plus fixed fee (CPFF) type of contracts with multiple vendors. For example, a contract was made with a vendor to lease a machine. The cost of leasing the equipment is 1200 $ per day while the cost of an outright purchase is 96000 $ and a daily maintenance cost of 200 $.The duration of completing the activity for which this equipment was leased is 150 days. No evidence of contract closing were found in the documentation of project. The firm and their sponsors bear a loss at the completion of this project. Required: Identify all the mistakes made by the project manager by providing proper justification.
Critical Path Method
The critical path is the longest succession of tasks that has to be successfully completed to conclude a project entirely. The tasks involved in the sequence are called critical activities, as any task getting delayed will result in the whole project getting delayed. To determine the time duration of a project, the critical path has to be identified. The critical path method or CPM is used by project managers to evaluate the least amount of time required to finish each task with the least amount of delay.
Cost Analysis
The entire idea of cost of production or definition of production cost is applied corresponding or we can say that it is related to investment or money cost. Money cost or investment refers to any money expenditure which the firm or supplier or producer undertakes in purchasing or hiring factor of production or factor services.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is the process or system of handling all the goods that an organization owns. In simpler terms, inventory management deals with how a company orders, stores, and uses its goods.
Project Management
Project Management is all about management and optimum utilization of the resources in the best possible manner to develop the software as per the requirement of the client. Here the Project refers to the development of software to meet the end objective of the client by providing the required product or service within a specified Period of time and ensuring high quality. This can be done by managing all the available resources. In short, it can be defined as an application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet the objective of the Project. It is the duty of a Project Manager to achieve the objective of the Project as per the specifications given by the client.
Question 1
Problem Statement: Stakeholder and Project
“Hercules Creative Solutions” has successfully bagged two research and development related projects from ministry of science and technology. You are working on one of a project as senior project manager which is related to develop a gadget for the help of physically disabled persons in their day to day commuting. The main challenge for you and your team is that neither you nor any of your team members have ever done this type of project. USAID and one of a leading bank are the sponsors of this project. The designing of the product has been outsourced to one of a very famous engineering firms of the country. For the procurement purpose, two potential vendors are on board.
The company you are working for is a multinational company and has very strict procurement procedure and procurement audit is mandatory at the end of the project. Stringent quality standards have to be followed which includes but not limited to rigorous testing of all the features, user friendliness and ability to recover in case of software/ hardware errors.
After completing the pilot, the product was released for beta test to selected users that were arranged by the sponsors. Multiple users complained that this product is difficult to use and at times does not work as expected. In other words, end users were not satisfied with the design and working of this product. Hercules Creative Solutions has decided to recall all the pieces from the end users and planned to perform a hardware/ software upgrade. The main stakeholders are not happy with this situation as have complained earlier multiple times during the course of this project for not being involved. The external auditors have also pointed out some serious compliance issues related to procurement process.
After getting know about the situation of this project, answer the following questions.
Required:
1.Identify all the internal and external stakeholders of this project.
- In which category, the cost of recalling the product will fall?
- List down some of the risks while working on this project.
- In your opinion, what were the reasons of this project’s failure?
- What could have been done by Hercules Creative Solutions to avoid or minimize the situation faced due to product failure?
Question 2
Problem Statement: Project Control and Monitoring
You are working on a manufacturing project having a budget of PKR 3,600,000 and expected time of its completion is one year. There is an ideal condition that your budget and work are evenly spread across the duration of the project that is twelve month. At the end of forth month, the senior management has called a meeting and invited all the stakeholders to brief about the status of the project. You being the PM of this project is giving the presentation to all the attendees and informed that project is on
Required:
- Calculate Cost and Schedule Variance
- What is SPI and CPI of the project?
- Estimate at completion and Estimated time to complete?
Question 4
Problem Statement: Procurement Management
Aisha wants to join Pakistan’s biggest construction firm as a project manager. She is giving a case study to read it thoroughly so that a discussion could be made on this as part of interview. The project was about to construct a road between two mega cities. It was a mega project involving a lot of contracts with different vendors. The project manager had made a number of cost plus fixed fee (CPFF) type of contracts with multiple vendors. For example, a contract was made with a vendor to lease a machine. The cost of leasing the equipment is 1200 $ per day while the cost of an outright purchase is 96000 $ and a daily maintenance cost of 200 $.The duration of completing the activity for which this equipment was leased is 150 days. No evidence of contract closing were found in the documentation of project. The firm and their sponsors bear a loss at the completion of this project.
Required:
Identify all the mistakes made by the project manager by providing proper justification.
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