Management

Background
RAM stands for ‘Responsibility Assignment Matrix’. It shows who is involved, in which task, and the associated responsibilities that help

to support successful completion of the project. It can be used at high level or at low detailed level of WBS, using the letters RACI to

present: Responsible (R), Accountable (A), Consult (C), and Inform (I).

Tasks:
Use the details of the WBS developed for your selected project to assign the RAM attributes for key tasks to appropriate stakeholders.

Review Questions:
a) Explain the difference between responsibility and accountability.
b) List four reasons on how these assigned letters (R, A, C, and I) are used for successful completion of the project.
c) What logic you would follow to select project tasks that RACI can be applied to? How this logic can be extended to projects with

large number of tasks.
Introduction:
See the lecture slides for basic definitions, approaches, and guidelines to develop and manage the WBS.
Instructions:
1. Study the specifics of your business and link them to the expected deliverables of your selected project.
2. Work with your group members to review and understand the project scope statement (developed in an earlier practical session).
3. Decide on the format you will use to develop and list the WBS.
4. Follow the guidelines published on the lecture slides to develop appropriate WBS.
5. Be ready to share and discuss the contents of your WBS.

Review Questions:
a) Study the WBS proposed by the instructor and compare it with your own to determine the gap.
b) Defend how your approach differs from that of others and the proposed WBS by the instructi

Tasks:
1. Select up to five key tasks listed in the project’s WBS.
2. Discuss and assign with your team members values for: Optimistic, Most Likely, and Pessimistic.
3. Calculate the time duration for the selected tasks.

Review Questions:
a) What you think are some key issues with the usage of PERT approach?
b) Do you think usage of PERT approach can be extended to estimation requirements of more project management variables, such as cost?
Instructions:
• Work with your team members to list at least three points for each of the below boxes.
• Use the information related to the selected project to agree with the team on which of the below technique is most suitable.
• Prepare to share and discuss your findings with other groups.

Advantages of Analogues Approach Disadvantage of Analogues Approach
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Advantages of Bottom-Up Approach Disadvantage Bottom-Up Approach
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Advantages of Top-Down Approach Disadvantage Top-Down Approach
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Instructions:
1. Reduce the WBS of your project to only 5-8 tasks (mainly focus on the summary tasks).
2. Draw the corresponding network diagram.
3. Use PERT (or other estimation techniques) to estimate the duration of each task.
4. Schematically draw a ‘Frame for the Gantt Chart’; basically a simple 2-D chart with upper horizontal axis represents time (can be

hours, days, weeks, or months) and the left vertical axis represents the list of the project tasks.
5. List and draw the project tasks within this frame and take due considerations to the sequence, duration, and interdependencies

between these tasks.

Review questions:
1. From project management perspectives, list five advantages of adopting the Gantt chart approach, and for completion, list some

advantages of adopting Gantt approach.
2. In complicated projects with tens of tasks, do you think Gantt chart can still be applied? And if yes, what you suggest a suitable

tool?
3. Once the Gantt chart is completed, what you think is the next step(s) to manage the project?
4. In terms of team responsibility, who you think should be in charge of managing the Gantt chart? and how much efforts is required

to manage it?
Instructions:
Assume that a marketing campaign of a new product will require performing the tasks:

Task Description Predecessor Duration (days) Slack
A Contract Signing None 5 0
B Questionnaire Design A 5 1
C Target Market Identification A 6 0
D Survey Sample B,C 13 0
E Develop Presentation B 6 12
F Analyze Results D 4 0
G Demographic Analysis C 9 8
H Presentation to Client E, F, G 2 0

Answer the following questions:
1. Construct an AON diagram
2. Determine the critical path; what is the special about the tasks that constitute the critical path?
3. What is the expected project completion time?
4. With due considerations to the slack of each task, answer:
a) Identify a task(s) that can be delayed without delaying the project completion date.
b) Identify two tasks that if delayed by any amount will delay the project completion date.

5. Explain the observations from step 4.
6. Suggest two possible scenarios such that the project can:
a) Have two critical paths and
b) Have a new critical path

7. What are the consequences of having more than one critical path? Explain your answers.
Instructions:
• Refer to lecture slides to review meaning and purposes of the progress reports.
• Use the specifics of your project to determine the progress to date and report to inform the project key stakeholders.
• There are many templates with different contents and details level, you may perform Internet or/and literature review to select a

suitable report for you to use. Check with the instructor to show a sample of progress report. However, a typical ‘Progress Report’ will

contain (but not limited to) the following sections:
• Progress Report
• Date
• Project Name
• Reporting Period
• Work completed this reporting period
• Work to complete next reporting period
• What’s going well and why
• What’s not going well and why
• Suggestions/Issues
• Project changes
Suppose your department proposed four projects (A, B, C, and D) to support business strategic objectives. The projects were submitted to

the board of directors, and after heated discussions, all agreed that these projects are crucially required. However, they disagree on the

schedule of when these projects should be carried out. Eventually all agreed to start with the most operationally critical project. The

CEO requested the head of department to make the selection using a weighted score approach, via the following steps:

1. Identify the four criteria;
2. Assign appropriate weights for each criterion;
3. Allocate a value to each project against each criteria; and
4. Determine the overall score.

Review Questions:
1. Would system approach help in such exercise? Why and why not.
2. Discuss the limitations of such an approach in selecting right business projects.
3. In your views, why you thing project and business managers underutilize such scoring based selection approach?
4. Preform Internet search to identify other complementary selection techniques; our slides may help in this exercise.
5. What is the difference between reliable and valid selection approach? How you think such difference contribute to the project

selection practices?
6. Give examples for selecting business projects where nonnumeric models are more suitable than numeric models.
7. What are the difference between subjective and objectives measures? Explain your answer in terms of this selection exercise.
Notes:
1. Use the table below to perform the selection process.
2. Covert the results to an Excel worksheet for dynamic comparison and selection.
A B C D
Business Criteria Criteria Weights

 

Score

Instructions:

• Study the specifics of your project.
• Identify possible changes that may arise as the project progresses and different management challenges are faced.
• Develop a suitable lesson learned template to document lesson learned throughout the project management lifecycle. Below is a list

of potential contents of this template (please feel free to change as you see appropriate). Use separate sheets to further explain and

document the lesson learned.

Project Name:
Project Sponsor:
Project Manager:
Project Dates:
Final Budget:
1. Did the project meet scope, time, and cost goals?
2. What was the success criteria listed in the project scope statement?
3. Reflect on whether or not you met the project success criteria.
4. What were the main lessons your team learned from this project?
5. Describe one example of what went right on this project.
6. Describe one example of what went wrong on this project.
7. What will you do differently on the next project based on your experience working on this project?
Instructions:

• This is the final document developed and published by the project manager after all project expectations are met. This closure

report is directed to the key stakeholders to formally signoff and declare that the project is closed. It also highlights a suitable

approach to manage any outstanding issues.
• To complete this report, start by studying the running case and the specifics of your project, then develop a suitable project

closure template to document the lesson learned throughout the project management lifecycle.
• Below is a list of potential contents of this template (please feel free to change as you see appropriate). Use separate sheets to

further explain and document the lesson learned.

Executive Summary
The section is meant to give an overview on the project with relevant high-level details. Present basic information on the project:

Purpose of this closure report, Project background, Project highlights, Best practices followed, Why the project is closed, and list key

summary of your recommendations.
Project Goals and Objectives
What the project is aims to achieve.
Project Success Criteria
What criteria is used to declare project completion, which (if any) of this this criteria were not met, why, and how is responsible to

follow-up?
Project Milestones and Deliverables
What milestones agreed to be delivered, any milestones missed, and if yes, which and what actions are in place to follow-up and complete?
Project Schedule Performance
Present an overview of the project schedule, how it was management, control processes, and corrective actions.
Financial Management
Give an overview on the financial resources used with key description of related matters.
Project Recourses
List the resources used in the project, how these resources will be returned back or used in other projects, and how the knowledge gained

can be useful for future projects. These resources includes human resources, assets, …etc.

Issues Management
List outstanding issues that are still unresolved and what actions are proposed to continue management of these issues.
Risk Management
What risks were identified, mitigations, and any outstanding risks.
Quality Management
Describe what processes are followed to meet project quality expectations.
Communications Management
The processes and practices used to communicate with the project stakeholders to keep them aware of project progress and development.
Lessons Learned
List key lessons with recommendations that were learned during the lifecycle of the project.
Outstanding Tasks
List matters that are not yet completed but agreed with the stakeholders to be followed.
List actions that are yet to be taken, how, by whom, and when.
List the project success criteria that were not met

Recommendations
Give your recommendation to close the project and explain your justifications, such as fulfillment of all project expectations.
Approvals:
Dedicate a section to be signed by the reported generator and the persons approved it. At minimum it includes: ‘Prepared By’, ‘Approved

By’, and Date. The approved by may include more than one person.
Appendices
List all support documents required for the completion of the report.