FINAL EXAMINATION
PROGRAMME
Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management
MODULE
Project Scope and Scheduling
INTAKE
January 2019
DATE
28 May 2019
TIME
09h00 – 12h00
DURATION
3 hours
TOTAL MARKS
100
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CANDIDATE
1. Questions must be attempted in the answer book provided.
2. All queries should be directed to the invigilator; do not communicate or attempt to communicate with any
other candidate.
3. You have THREE HOURS to complete this paper. You are not allowed to leave the examination room within
the first hour and in the last 15 minutes of this examination.
4. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination.
5. Read ALL instructions carefully.
ID
SECTION A
Read the case study below and answer ALL the questions that follow.
[40 MARKS]
CASE STUDY: Dotcom.com
Dotcom.com, a software engineering and systems development-consulting firm, sells a wide assortment of Internet and
computer-based solutions for resource planning, administrative and accounting networks to organisations in health care
delivery, financial services and hotel management. Typically, a service provider approaches Dotcom.com with a list of
problems it has some targets for organizational improvement. Because most of Dotcom’s clients are not themselves
computer savvy, they tend to rely heavily on dotcom to correctly diagnose their difficulties, propose solutions to correct
these problems, and implement the new technologies. The industry Dotcom operates in is extremely competitive, forcing
successful organisations to make low bids to win consulting contracts. In this environment, project management is vital
for Dotcom’s success because poorly managed projects quickly “eat up” the profit margin for any job.
Unfortunately, dotcom’s senior management team has noticed a recent upsurge in project operating costs and related
drop-off in profitability. In particular, dotcom’s executives are concerned because the last seven consulting contracts
have resulted in almost no profit margin because the software systems were delivered late and required several rounds
of network to fix bugs or correct significant shortcomings in the software. The firm decided to hold a weekend off-site
retreat with the project managers responsible for these most recently completed projects in order to learn why project
management was being done so poorly.
To a person, the project managers fixed the blame for their problems on the clients. Susan Kiley, a project manager with
over five years of experience stated, “We are put in a very tough position here, made a typical response. Most of the
customers don’t know what they really want so we have to spend hours working with them to get a reasonable
Statement of Work that we can develop the project scope around. This takes time. In fact, the more time I spend with
the customer up front, the less I have to get my team to actually develop the system for them. It’s a Catch-22 – If I want
to get things right, I have to pry information out of them. The better I do getting a sense of their problems, the less time I
have to develop and run the project!”
Jim Crenshaw, another project manager, spoke up, “It doesn’t stop there, unfortunately. My biggest problems are
always on the back end of the project. We work like dogs to get a system up that corresponds to the client’s demands,
only to have them look it over, push a few buttons, and start telling us that this was not anything like what they had in
mind! How am I supposed to develop a system to solve their problems when they don’t know what their problems are?
Better yet, what do we do when they ‘think’ they know what they want and then when we create it, they turn around and
reject our solutions out of hand?”
After two hours of hearing similar messages from the other project managers, it became clear to the senior
management team that the project management problems were not isolated but were becoming embedded in the firm’s
operations. Clearly, something had to be done about their processes.
Source: Kerzner (2013)
ID
1
QUESTION 1
(20 Marks)
“My biggest problems are always on the back end of the project. We work like dogs to get a system up that corresponds
to the client’s demands, only to have them look it over, push a few buttons, and start telling us that this was not anything
like what they had in mind!”.
1.1
Discuss what the Dotcom project managers had to deal with from clients constantly changing the scope and
explain how this problem directly affected the late delivery of projects?
(10 marks)
1.2
When is scope creep useful and when is it dangerous? Under what circumstances should an organization
refuse to freeze project design specifications for valid reasons?
(10 marks)
QUESTION 2
(20 Marks)
“Project scope management involves work with stakeholders to define, gain written agreement on, and manage all work
required for project success”. With reference to the case study discuss:
2.1
2.2
Objectives of project scope management.
The benefits of project scope management.
(10 marks)
(10 marks)
SECTION B
Answer ANY THREE (3) questions in this section.
[60 MARKS]
QUESTION 3
(20 Marks)
A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, devised by Henry Gantt in the 1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts
illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and
summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Modern Gantt charts also show the
dependency (i.e., precedence network) relationships between activities.
3.1
3.2
ID
Discuss the variations of the Gantt chart that are available to projects of differing complexities.
(12 marks)
As a project manager, how would you motivate your team to use a Gantt chart and also describe to the team
the major shortcomings of this tool?
(8 marks)
2
QUESTION 4
(20 Marks)
A manufacturing company will have to change the layout configuration of the production plant to accommodate a major
new contract. The data for the activities, dependencies and durations (all in days) for the reconfiguration are listed in the
following table:
4.1
4.2
4.3
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Optimistic
Most
Likely
Pessimistic
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
------------------------B
A
E
D
C, D
F, G
H
4
2
1
6
2
6
1
3
5
6
6
4
2
7
4
10
3
6
11
8
8
6
3
8
6
14
5
9
17
10
Determine expected time for each activity.
Draw a AON diagram for this project.
Calculate the slack time for each activity to determine the critical path for the project.
QUESTION 5
Expected
Time
(5 marks)
(5 marks)
(10 marks)
(20 Marks)
With the aid of an example, critically discuss how performing activities in parallel may accelerate project duration.
ID
3
QUESTION 6
(20 Marks)
Your project is running behind schedule and crashing is the only option available. The following table contains the project
data.
Normal
6.1
6.2
Crashed
Activity
Immediate
Predecessor
Duration (Days)
Cost (Dollars)
Duration (Days)
Cost (Dollars)
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
B
A
E
D
C,D
F,G
H
6
4
2
7
4
10
3
6
11
8
1500
3500
6800
2500
4200
2000
2400
9000
8000
7500
5
3
1
5
3
8
2
5
8
5
2000
5000
7500
6000
5400
2700
3000
15000
11000
9000
Calculate the cost per day to crash each of the activities.
Determine the total time and the cost involved by which the project duration can be reduced.
(10 marks)
(10 marks)
END OF PAPER
ID
4
Appendix A – Data Sheet
ID
5
ID
6