M
Type your scope overview into this text box
As the apparent hair to the old house that lay unoccupied in rural area in an acreage piece of land, upon inspecting the house on a visit, you have officially decided to renovate it and make it look good. The house is old enough to threaten the health and safety of its occupants but since your motive is to convert it into a vocational home and probably list it in Airbnb to attract tourists and made some profit from it, you have decided to repaint it and make it look like a new one. Your parents offered to support your initiative with a soft loan of $10,000 which you intend to repay after two years. During your vacation, you volunteered to work along the contractor to cut down on expenditure. Although you will work for 80 hours, others will work for 40 hours every week. The project subjects wages and other constraining factors into constant assumption. NG91217 Project Management Principles
Assessment 2: Workbook
| Assessment type | Report |
| Word length | N/A |
| Learning Outcomes | 2, 3 |
| Weighting | 40% |
| Due date | 11pm Sunday Week 5 |
The workbook has five topics to align with Weeks 1-5 of the unit. Each topic is worth 80 points adding to a total of 400 points. Your total point tally will be divided by ten to determine your mark for the assessment. For a detailed scoring table per exercise, please see the ‘Assessment 2 – Rubric’ under ‘Assessment Tasks and Submission’ > ‘Assessment 2 – The Workbook’.
Contents
1 Topic 1: Project Management Introduction, Charter and kick-off 4
1.1 Project Selection Prioritization Matrix 4
1.2 Scope Overview (word limit: 200) 7
1.3 Milestone Schedule and Deliverables 8
1.4 Initial Risk Identification 8
1.5 Resources Required 9
1.6 Initial Stakeholder Identification 9
1.7 Team Operating Principles 9
1.8 Lessons Learned 9
1.9 Commitment 10
2 Topic 2: Communication plan, WBS, and RACI 11
2.1 Stakeholder Prioritization Matrix 11
2.2 Project Communications Matrix 11
2.3 Work Breakdown Structure 12
2.4 The RACI chart 13
3 Topic 3: Time management and Cost Management 14
3.1 AoN 14
3.2 Time estimation 14
3.2.1 Time estimation – Enumeration method 15
3.2.2 Time estimation – Two Pass method 15
3.3 Critical path 15
3.4 Resource Loading 15
3.5 Gantt chart 16
3.6 Resources and cost to activity 16
4 Topic 4: Progress reporting scope change, and crashing 17
4.1 Crashing your project 17
5 Topic 5: Risk management, and Quality management 18
5.1 Risk identification I 18
5.2 Risk identification II 18
5.3 Risk identification III 18
5.4 Quality tools 19
Week 1: Project Management Introduction, Charter and kick-off
Project Selection Prioritization Matrix
Below is an example of how calculations in a trade-off matrix are performed:
| Project/Selection Criteria | Criteria A | Criteria B | |||
| Weight: | 5 | 10 | Total | ||
| Landscaping project | 7 | 5 | |||
| (5*7=) 35 | (5*10=) 50 | (35+50=) 85 |
Using the example, score each of the projects in the table below. Based on the score, which project would you choose?
| Project/Selection Criteria | Potential Monetary Gain | Success Probability | Social Opinion | ||||
| Weight: | 5 | 10 | 3 | Total | |||
| Construction Project: International Hotel, Hawaii | 8 | 5 | 5 | ||||
| 8×5 =40 | 5×10=50 | 5×3=15 | 40+50+15=105 | ||||
| Construction Project: Local Hotel, Brisbane | 10 | 6 | 4 | ||||
| 10×5=50 | 6×10=60 | 4×3=12 | 50+60+12=122 | ||||
| Infrastructure Project: High Speed Rail – Sydney to Melbourne | 9 | 3 | 8 | ||||
| 9×5=45 | 3×10=30 | 8×3=24 | 45+30+24=99 | ||||
| Investment project: The Old Farm House | 7 | 7 | 10 | ||||
| 7×5=35 | 7×10=70 | 10×3=30 | 30+70+30=135 |
Answer:
- Investment project : The Old Farm House
Based on the prior Project Selection Prioritization Matrix, you undoubtedly have surmised that the Old Farm House investment project is the best option for you at the moment. Following this decision, the following project brief below has been developed for you.
Old Farm House Business Case
You have inherited a century old farmhouse and acreage in a rural area. You have visited the site and inspected. The house needs a great deal of repair work to get it marginally liveable. You have itemized the most important things that need to be done and estimated the time required as shown below.
You plan to use this house for vacations and as a rental property through Airbnb. In fact, your work colleague as already expressed interest in staying over as soon as the property is finished. Your parents have sponsored you with a personal loan of $10,000 – that will give you enough money to buy the supplies and have a spending budget on help from a local contractor and two of his apprentices. You yourself have committed to working 80 hours over your vacation to fix up the house, but you are terrible at carpentry and painting. Your vacation of two weeks starts on Monday the 1st of June, and you prefer to be present when the contractor is on site. Assume you, the contractor and his apprentices1 all can work up to 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week.
You expect that within 2 years of renting the property you will have earned enough money to repay your parents.
Each activity is to be performed by one person only.
Continually ask yourself the question “when this is done, what else can I start now, or which things can I do at the same time?”.
| Resources | Cost | Note |
| Supplies needed | $5,000 | |
| You | $0 | Can do all jobs except carpentry and painting |
| Contractor | $125 per hour | Expert in carpentry |
| Apprentice I | $60 per hour | Expert in painting |
| Apprentice II | $40 per hour | Can do all odd jobs (except carpentry and painting) |
Please note while working on this project, many assumptions are made that appear unrealistic, such as for example the wages, or constraints around who can do what. The main reason behind these decision has been to create an example that is easy for you to work on, while keeping it within small boundaries.
The following List of Most Important Fixes and Project Customer Trade-Off Matrix are provided to you as background to the project; they are part of the Business Case.
| List of Most Important Fixes (not necessarily in order of schedule or priority): | |
| 1 | Purchase supplies |
| 2 | Hang new curtains |
| 3 | Repair wooden shutters |
| 4 | Paint shutters |
| 5 | Hang shutters |
| 6 | Repair wooden porch |
| 7 | Paint porch |
| 8 | Repair wooden floor |
| 9 | Sand floor |
| 10 | Refinish (paint) floor |
| 11 | Paint ceilings |
| 12 | Paint doors |
| 13 | Paint interior walls |
| 14 | Paint exterior walls |
| 15 | Wash exterior windows |
| 16 | Wash interior windows |
Project Customer Trade-off Matrix
| Old Farm House | Enhance | Meet | Sacrifice |
| Cost | Cannot go over $10.000 | Spend full budget to save time | |
| Schedule | Save time (you are allowed to spend the full budget if it enhances time finished) | Must finish in two weeks (10 business days) | |
| Quality | Must meet | ||
| Scope | Must meet |
Scope Overview (word limit: 200)
Use your own words to convert the project brief into a scope overview:
Type your scope overview into this text box
As the apparent hair to the old house that lay unoccupied in rural area in an acreage piece of land, upon inspecting the house on a visit, you have officially decided to renovate it and make it look good. The house is old enough to threaten the health and safety of its occupants but since your motive is to convert it into a vocational home and probably list it in Airbnb to attract tourists and made some profit from it, you have decided to repaint it and make it look like a new one. Your parents offered to support your initiative with a soft loan of $10,000 which you intend to repay after two years. During your vacation, you volunteered to work along the contractor to cut down on expenditure. Although you will work for 80 hours, others will work for 40 hours every week. The project subjects wages and other constraining factors into constant assumption.
Milestone Schedule and Deliverables
Based on the project brief and the list of work packages, please list the milestones you would identify for this project. The first and last are already given for you. Estimate a completion date for each milestone, as well as what the acceptance criteria would be. Also think about who should judge whether the criteria have been met.
| Milestone | Completion Date | Acceptance Criteria | Stakeholder Judge |
| Charter signed off | |||
| Project completion |
Initial Risk Identification
Based on the project brief, examples from the textbook and your own interpretation, please identify at least four potential risks to the project.
| Project (Potential) Risks | Risk Owner | Contingency Plans |
- The unrealistic plan and it is owned by the inheritor (the person inheriting the house); The contingency plan of the said risk to amend the plan and remove all the unnecessary assumptions so that it can be a realistic plan that can withstand the test of time.
- Risk of under-working, owned by the apprentices; The contingency plan of the said plan requires both the contractor and the person to be present on site at all time. This way, they will manage the apprentices’ work equitable throughout the renovation process.
- Under-performance, owned by both the contractor and apprentice I; He should hire another third party to help in evaluating the quality of work done by both the carpenter and the painter since he’s not so good in both. The chances of the two using the opportunity as a leverage to provide low quality painting and carpentry is high hence forth a mitigation process is required to curb the situation.
- Cost and other expenses management, owned by the inheritor (the person inheriting the house); Due to constant increase in prices of goods and services, he is likely to realize a project under budget.Should be mitigated through hiring cost analysis and expense manager or expert.
Resources Required
Based on the project brief, examples from the textbook and your own interpretation, please identify the funding, workers and equipment required for this project, as well as potential other resources. Don’t overthink this exercise and keep it short and simple.
| Funding: | |
| People: | |
| Equipment: | |
| Other: |
Initial Stakeholder Identification
Based on the project brief, examples from the textbook and your own interpretation, please identify at least four stakeholders to the project, their interest and priority to the project.
| Stakeholder | Interest in Project | Priority (High/Medium/Low) |
Team Operating Principles
Please list at least three Team Operating Principles you believe are important for your project (refer to textbook):
- _________________
- _________________
- _________________
Lessons Learned
Please list at least three Lessons Learned you believe can contribute to your project:
- ________________
- ________________
- ________________
Commitment
Fill out the first column of the table below:
| Sponsor | Department / Organisation | Signature |
| N/A | ||
| Project Manager | Department / Organisation | Signature |
| N/A | ||
| Core Team Member/s | Department/ Organisation | Signature |
| N/A | ||
Week 2: Communication plan, WBS and RACI
Stakeholder Prioritization Matrix
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, please identify as many stakeholders as possible. Rank their power, Interest, Influence, Impact, Urgency and legitimacy on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 = low, 2 = medium, 3 = high) and add them in column ‘Total’.
| Stakeholder: | What is the stakeholder’s main interest? | Power | Interest | Influence | Impact | Urgency | Legitimacy | Total | Priority (a score of 6-9 = low, 10 to 14 = medium, 15 to 18 = high)) |
| Example: Stakeholder A | A clean, quiet environment | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 11 | Medium |
Project Communications Matrix
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, complete the communication matrix below. (It is possible that certain cells might be left open).
| Stakeholder | Learn From Stakeholder | Share With Stakeholder | Timing | Method | Owner (responsible for communication) |
Work Breakdown Structure
Based on the project brief, examples from the book and your own interpretation, complete the WBS. Use Exercise 1.3, the milestones, to guide you. Start with the first milestone after ‘Charter signoff’ and finish with the ‘Project completion’. The number of sub-packages needed per milestone is up to your discretion and the context of the project.
While you are working on the WBS you also need to provide the predecessors for each activity – what must be completed before this activity can begin. This dependency will be needed later in Week 3 to help create the AoN.
The table below is an example. Replace the text with your own interpretation of the project at hand.
[Project Name]
| WBS code | Activity Name | Predecessor(s) |
| 1 | Charter signed off | |
| 2 | [First milestone] | 1 |
| 2.1 | [First activity needed to complete the first milestone] | |
| 2.2 |
2.1
2.3
Etc.
3
[Second milestone]
2
3.1
[First activity needed to complete the second milestone]
3.2
Etc.
3.1
4
Etc.
Etc.
n
Project completed
The RACI Chart
Based on the project brief and the WBS, as well as example from the book, finish the RACI chart below. You decide how many people should be added to the table. You may need to add rows. Please make sure you replace the text ‘Person A, and B’ with your project team member identified.
The first and second columns of this table should match the first and second columns of the table in Exercise 2.3.
| WBS Code | Activity Name | Sponsor | Project Manager (you) | Person A | Person B |
| 1 | Charter signed off | A | R | I | I |
| RACI Key: (R) Responsible, (A) Accountable, (C) Consult, (I) Inform |
Week 3: Time Management and Cost Management
Go to blackboard and download the additional information needed for this topic. Go to ‘Assessment Tasks and Submission’ > ‘Assessment 2 – The Workbook’ > ‘Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case’ and locate ‘Additional Information WEEK 3’.
Use the WBS contained therein as the foundation for this week’s AoN and Gantt chart.
It is still up to you to determine dependencies in this WBS, which you will do in activity 3.2.
Remember, the Business Case outlines the resource limitations, that is, who can work on what activity. Consider these limitations as you develop your AoN.
AoN
Based on the information provided on blackboard, use for instance MS PowerPoint to create an Activity on Node diagram based on the WBS provided in ‘Additional Information WEEK 3’. Ensure that you have one node per activity. Make sure you save your work as we will change and add to it as we advance through the Exercises.
Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4
Time estimation
Based on the information provided, give a best estimate of the duration of each activity. Make sure you mention the unit you use (i.e. hours). Not each activity will have a clear answer, so use your best educated guess. Give a short explanation to each activity why you think it will take as long as you’ve estimated. Keep your explanation2 as short and succinct as possible.
| WBS Code | Activity Name | Predecessor(s) | Duration (hours) | Explanation on duration |
Time Estimation – Enumeration Method
You can now update the AoN diagram with the time estimates. This is your basic project schedule.
Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4
Time Estimation – Two Pass Method
Now use Exhibits 8.11-8.14 (Pages 260-263) to create a Two-Pass schedule for your project.
Post the interim step here. Save your work. You will post the final schedule under 3.4
Critical Path
Identify the critical path in your project:
The critical path in my project is_________________, and takes ___________ (hours)
Resource Loading
In your project, assign your resources to the activities and optimise the project schedule as best as possible. With the limitation of your resources, your project might again increase in time. Don’t worry about this. In topic 4 we will discuss project crashing and try to improve the project timeline.
Please post here your re-adjusted Two-Pass AoN including the resources:
*There will be no point deductions for project running over time or budget in this week*
Gantt Chart
Go to blackboard and download the Gantt Chart Template. Go to ‘Assessment 2 – The Workbook’ –> ‘Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case’ and locate ‘MNG91217 – Gantt Chart Template’
Using the template provided, create your Gantt chart based on the AoN developed before.
Instructions:
In column A name the activity, in column D enter the start (in hours) and in column E enter the duration (hours). Leave the resource column (F) empty for now as we’ll fill it under Exercise 3.6 Resources and cost to activity.
From column H onward, simply place a ‘1’ in each cell corresponding to your start time and duration. As an example, activity 2 – buying supplies has already been entered for you.
There is no need to post anything here. Just save your work and post the final chart under 3.6
Resources and Cost to Activity
In the excel template, assign a resource to each of the activities from the dropdown box in column ‘F’. As a result, a project cost overview for your project will be updated in the graph below the chart. The graph can be used to help control the project budget.
Post here your final Gantt chart with resource allocation, including the histograms and budget graph.
Tip: select the cells in excel you want to display here, for example A17 to CI37, and press CTRL-C. Switch the window to Word and select the location you want the graph to appear and press CTRL-ALT-V – and select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) for the best result.
Please do not paste as a Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.
You can leave the picture in the size it appears, the marker will be able to zoom in and see the details.
You can follow the same process to copy the graph. Simply select the graph in excel, and press CTRL-C. Switch the window to Word and select the location you want the graph to appear and press CTRL-ALT-V – and select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) for the best result.
You can leave the graph in the size it appears, the marker will be able to zoom in and see the details.
Week 4: Progress reporting scope change, and crashing
Go to blackboard and download the additional information needed for this topic. Go to ‘Assessment Tasks and Submission’ > ‘Assessment 2 – The Workbook’ > ‘Additional Info on the Old Farm House Business Case’ and locate ‘Additional Information WEEK 4’
Use the information contained therein as the foundation for this week’s Two-Pass AoN and Gantt chart.
There is only one exercise this week, but it is a big one and will require some experimentation. Use the example provided to your advantage to understand the effects of crashing one or more activities in your project.
Crashing your project
Use the information provided in the updated information, your project brief and the requirements given in the Project Customer Trade-off Matrix, to optimize your project.
Provide a new Two-Pass AoN (including resource loading), Ganttchart, histograms andbudgetgraph based on the crashed project.
Week 5: Risk Management and Quality Management
Risk identification I
Look at the risks identified in Exhibits 11.5, 11.6, and 11.7. Compile a list of risk categories you believe are relevant to your project. (Identify at least 3)
- …
- …
- …
Risk identification II
Using the first three categories of risk you compiled in the previous exercise, now identify the one risk for each category that may impact on your project. Add them to the table below following the example, and score the probability and impact on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is lowest, 10 is highest).
Fill out all columns except for the last two. This will be done in the next exercise.
Risk Register
| Risk Description | Impact (Descriptive) | Category | Probability (P) (1 to 10) | Impact (I) (1 to 10) | Score (P*I) | Prevention Strategy | Mitigation Strategy |
| [example] Breaking of carpentry tools | Potential loss of time as work cannot be done | Material, equipment and labour cost | 3 | 9 | 27 | Have a spare set of tools available at all times | Have a small portion of the budget set aside to replace tools when necessary |
| 1 | |||||||
| 2 | |||||||
| 3 |
Risk identification III
Now complete the last two columns in your risk register for your risks. Keep in mind that while we may identify both a prevention and a mitigation (you may need to check your understanding of this word in a dictionary) strategy at this stage, only one of the two might actually be implemented at time of project start.
Quality tools
Identify at least three quality tools based on Exhibit 14.9 that are applicable to your project and explain why.
| Quality tool | Explanation |
| [example] Charter | Provides guidance for the project; establishes a rationale for the project; establishes a baseline for execution of the project. The Charter is important for my project in order to initially establish the work to be done, but also establish project boundaries – what won’t be done. |
| 1. | |
| 2. | |
| 3. |
Next, select three work packages from your project, and using the quality tools you have nominated above, explain how you would maintain its quality, as well as identify who is responsible for each quality tool:
| Project Deliverables | Work Processes | Quality Control Activities: | Quality Assurance Activities: | Quality Roles & Responsibilities: |
| [Repair Porch] | [4.1] | Charter | Ensure that ONLY repairs are carried out as per Charter and agreed activities. This activity does not include modifying or improving porch. It is important to adhere to this to mitigate against scope creep. | Owner to ensure repairs only are carried out. Contractor to ensure apprentices do not engage any additional work. |
| 1. | ||||
| 2. | ||||
| 3. |
1 For this case the contractor does not need to be present to have an apprentice working on site
2 There is not a right or wrong answer in this section on the time you’ve estimated, it is designed to stimulate your estimation skills. However, there is a reasonable expectation on timing. An estimate of multiple months on one activity for a project that is planned to take two weeks is unreasonable.