Student ID
Semester / Year:
Semester 1 2019
Faculty / Dept:
Management and Marketing
Subject Code:
MGMT 90031
Subject Name:
Project Management
Writing Time:
2 hrs
Reading Time:
15 minutes
Open Book Status:
Yes / No
Number of Pages (including this page): 14 pages
Authorised Materials:
Approved Calculator
Instructions to Students:
This examination contributes 60 % to the final subject mark.
This examination paper includes 4 sections:
Section A
Contains 20 multiple choice questions. You are required to answer all 20 questions
on the Multiple Choice Answer form provided. This section accounts for 10 marks
Section B:
Contains 6 short answer questions. You are required to answer 5 short answer
questions. This section accounts for 10 marks.
Section C:
Contains 2questions. You are required to answer both questions. This section
accounts for 20 marks.
Section D:
Contains 4 essay type questions based on a common seen case study. You are
required to answer only Two (2) of Four (4) questions. This section accounts for
20 marks.
Instructions to Invigilators:
Student may keep the paper: Yes / No
Student may annotate the paper during reading time: Yes / No
Paper to be held by Library: Yes / No
Extra Materials Required:
Multiple Choice Answer form
Page 1 of 14
Section A 10
Marks
This section contains 20 multiple choice questions. Answer all questions on the multiple choice
sheet provided.
1.
Which dimension of project management centers on creating a temporary social system
within a larger organizational environment that combines the talents of a divergent set of
professionals working to complete the project?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
2.
All of the following are disadvantages of organizing projects within a matrix arrangement
EXCEPT
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
3.
Dysfunctional conflict between functional managers and project managers.
Expensive.
Infighting.
Stressful.
Longer project duration.
An activity that has more than one dependency arrow flowing into it is termed a(n)
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
4.
Communication
Sociocultural
Social
Technical
Scheduling
Parallel activity.
Critical path.
Burst activity.
Merge activity.
Independent activity.
Laura is forecasting the time and cost of developing an intranet for a new customer. Her
department has completed six such intranets for customers during the last two years.
Although the proposed system is about the same size as the others, she estimates that it
will take about 10 percent less time and money. Which of the following methods is she
using?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Ratio
Template
Apportion
Function point
Learning curve
Page 2 of 14
4.
One way for a project manager to communicate the authority granted to individual project
members is to publish a
A.
B.
C.
D.
5.
Work Breakdown Structure.
Project Plan.
Responsibility Matrix.
Project Communication Plan.
Jose is looking at a document that outlines the specific deliverables and sub-deliverables
required to complete the writing of a technical support manual. He is most likely viewing
the
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
6.
Resource levelling or smoothing can have all the following results on a project EXCEPT
A
B.
C.
D
E.
7.
Lower peak resource demand.
Reduced resource need over the life of the project.
Reduced fluctuations in resource demand.
A longer project duration.
A more sensitive network.
Who is responsible for determining how tasks will be done in a weak matrix project
management structure?
A
B.
C.
D
E.
8.
Responsibility matrix.
Organization breakdown structure.
Work breakdown structure.
Priority matrix.
Work package.
The functional manager
The project manager
Both the functional manager and the project manager are responsible
There is no rule established for who takes responsibility.
This is negotiated
_____________ is a measure of how easy it would be to notice that a risk event was going to occur
in time to take mitigating action, that is, how much warning you would have.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Detection difficulty
Impact scaling
Probability analysis
Awareness level
Warning assessment
Page 3 of 14
9.
Before an evaluation of the project team can be effective and useful, a minimum core of
conditions needs to be in place before the project begins. Which of the following would
NOT be one of those conditions?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Individuals have the skill set necessary to successfully complete the project
Evaluation criteria beyond time, cost and specifications has been established
Rewards are adequate
Individual, team responsibilities and performance standards are known by all team
members
E. Standards for measuring performance exist
10.
What is the relationship between organizational culture and estimating?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
11.
_______________ is the Agile principle in which the team creates a flow of value to the
stakeholder(s) or customer(s) by delivering smaller, functional increments of the project.
A.
B.
C.
D.
12.
There is no relationship.
Cultural norms affect the accuracy of estimates.
Culture determines whether estimates are made.
Estimating alters cultural norms.
Estimating and culture are independent.
Focus on Customer Value
Experimentation and Adaption
Self-Organization
Iterative and Incremental Delivery
The attempt to recognize and manage potential and unforeseen trouble spots that may occur
when a project is implemented is known as
A.
B.
C.
D.
Risk forecasting.
Risk management.
Contingency planning.
Scenario
analysis.
E. Disaster protection.
Page 4 of 14
13.
Tom is responsible for ordering hardware for a custom home his company is building. The
contractor installing the hardware is scheduled to start in 5 working days, but the
hardware is on backorder and will not arrive for another 9 working days. Fortunately, Tom
has 10 days of slack; however, he shares this slack with the hardware installer. He will have
to let the contactor know that the hardware will be ready 4 days later than expected and
that the slack for the installer has been reduced by 4 days. Tom and the installer share 10
days of
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
14.
Bill is working on a project involving the upgrading of a management information system.
The project is being managed by the information systems department with the
coordination of other departments occurring through normal channels. He is working in a
_________ organization.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
15.
Free Slack.
Shared Slack.
Total Slack.
Critical Slack.
Functional Slack.
Functional
Balanced matrix
Weak matrix
Strong matrix
Projectized
The following are responsibilities of the governance team when managing a portfolio
system EXCEPT
A. Deciding how organizational resources are allocated among the different types of
projects.
B. Publishing the priority of every project and ensuring the process is open and free of
power politics.
C. Evaluating the progress of the projects in the portfolio.
D. Constant scanning of the external environment to determine if organizational
selection criteria need to be changed.
E. Communicating which projects are approved.
16.
Companies are using which of the following for improving the estimating process for future
projects?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Adjusting estimates based on individual forecasting abilities
Benchmarking and using the experience of other companies
Using time and motion studies
Creating historical databases of previous projects
Establishing an estimating training course for all employees
Page 5 of 14
17.
Janet is forecasting how much money her department needs to support a new project. She
estimates that two people and $25,000 in expenses will cover her needs. Because
management typically insists on reducing forecasts by 20 percent, she increases her
estimates to allow for that reduction. Which of the following factors is illustrated in this
situation?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
18.
There are 5 steps involved when defining a project; which of the following is the second?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
19.
Padding estimates
Planning horizon
Project structure
People
Organization culture
Analyse the strategic plan
Analyse the current budget plan
Establish project priorities
Select team members
Define the major objectives to meet the customer's needs
Project managers who understand the role that their project plays in accomplishing the
organization's strategy will be inclined to do all of the following EXCEPT
A. Demonstrate to senior management how their project contributes to the firm's
mission.
B. Explain to team members why certain project objectives and priorities are critical.
C. Explain to stakeholders why certain project objectives and priorities are critical.
D. Be able to respond appropriately to delays and/or questions about product design.
E. Be able to focus on problems or solutions if the project is a low priority strategically.
20.
A project selection process that is strongly linked to strategy results in
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
The most profit.
Better utilization of the organization's resources.
More projects.
A larger and more diverse organization.
Stronger core competencies.
(20*.5 =10 Marks)
Page 6 of 14
Section B 10 Marks
This section contains 6 short answer questions. You need to answer 5 out of the 6 questions.
Q1. Identify and describe two limits or concerns associated with agile project management.
Q2
During the closure process, how can a project manager meet the challenge to keep the
project team focused on the remaining project activities and delivery to the customer until
the project is complete?
Q3. What are three common barriers to effective lessons learned from projects?
Q4. Compare and contrast traditional approaches to project management and agile approaches
to project management.
Q5. What is the difference between lessons learned and retrospectives? Why is the retrospective
methodology more effective?
Q6. Identify three reasons it is important to use an independent facilitator to collect and
implement lessons learned to improve management of current and future projects
(2 +2+2+2+2 =10 Marks)
Page 7 of 14
Section C 20 Marks
This section contains two question you are to answer both questions
Q1. As part of a nearly established Project Management Office you have been asked to evaluate two
marketing activation projects for Bently Organic Fruit Drinks. Both projects started on the same
date and are expected to last 40 days with an overall budget of $40,000 each. On day 12 of the
Green Energy Drinks project (Project A) its Project Manager estimates that the amount of value
created is $6500, but it has actually cost $7,500 so far and the planned cost of at this stage was
expected to be $7,600. On Day 12 of The Red Energy Drink project (Project B) Project Manager
estimates that estimate that the amount of value created is $6000, but it has actually cost
$6,500 and the planned cost of at this stage was $7,000.
(a) Which of the two projects is performing better and are both likely to be completed in time
and within budget? Please state all assumptions made and describe all appropriate analysis
used to justify your answer.
(5 marks)
Q2. As part of a market activation strategy, Bently Organic Fruit Drinks has identified the following
eleven initial activities (All times are in days). Indirect costs are $500 per day
Activity
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Predecessor
—
a
a
a, b
a, b
c,d
f
e, f
h
g,h
i
Normal Time
Days
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
6
2
3
2
Normal
Cost
$500
400
700
200
300
800
500
600
200
400
500
Crash Time
Days
2
1
5
1
1
3
3
2
1
1
1
Crash Cost
$2000
1600
1600
1000
600
2400
1000
1200
400
800
1000
(a) Draw the network diagram for normal time and use it to formally explain the following:
(i) Find each activity's ES, EF, LS, and LF
(ii) Identify all paths. Calculate all path lengths
(iii) Identify any critical path? Are there any near critical paths
(iv) Calculate the slack for each activity and determine the total slack for each path
(v) For an all-normal level of project activity calculate the time and cost
(5 marks)
Page 8 of 14
(c) Activities d and e both start at the same time but currently have resource loading problems and the project
also has a low staff utilization rate. Suggest a possible cost-effective solution to this problem for the above
project. Does this make the project more sensitive? Clearly explain your reasoning.
(2 marks)
(d) Calculate the crash cost-per-day (all activities may be partially crashed and assume d and e have no
resource loading problems). Find the optimal project duration. What is the project cost? Calculate
the shortest delivery time for the project. What is the cost? If the Indirect costs were changed to
600 dollars per day would the optimum and shortest delivery times change for the project? Justify
your answer and fully explain your reasoning.
(6 marks)
(b) How might probabilistic rather than deterministic estimates change how you might calculate and explain
the optimal project duration and the shortest delivery time for the above project to a project governance
committee? How might this most likely impact on your time estimates?
(2 marks)
(5+2+6+2 =15)
(5 + 15 = 20 Marks)
Page 9 of 14
Section C (20 Marks)
Seen Case Questions: Alexandria and Quantum’s new Gaming Folding Smartphone
Quantum has a range of existing gaming laptops and gaming peripherals that are distributed through a
network of value-added resellers. The company is now planning to make a first to market gaming
smartphone. To do this they will for the first time be using an 8 inch flexible AMOLED display.
Quantum motto had just his week been changed to “For gamers on the move”.
Alexandria Brandy is an expert in digital signal processing and was promoted to Senior Design Engineer
after just two years with Quantum. After serving as a Senior Design Engineer for just three years, she
was promoted to Project Manager and asked to oversee a product development project involving a
relatively minor product line extension to one of Quantum’s gaming keyboards. After completing the
gaming keyboard product line extension project about nine months ago, Alexandria was asked to serve as
a Senior Project Manager for a project to develop a brand new line of gaming smartphone. She was excited!
Some of her friends called her the rising star at Quantum.
She has even received an email from the CEO Tia Maria which said she expected great things from her and
this project, and that Tia needed her to ensure that this product got to market as soon as possible as there
was an opportunity to create substantial new revenue for the company. Alexandra was excited to lead, for
the first time, a major strategic project for the organization and she knew she had to get it done as soon as
possible.
In her first meeting with James Beam, the Vice-President of New Product Development, he said she
would almost have enough information to plan the project already. James commented, “It’s just
basically a little laptop that bends and has a phone circuit added - just a recombination of parts - so do
not make it too fancy”. After this meeting, Alexandria decided she not want to waste too much time in
planning the project as it was clear what needed to be done. There was not enough time for detailed
planning as she felt James, like Tia, really wanted to have the new smartphone finished and launched
as soon as possible.
Based on the success of her previous product line extension project, she decided she could just develop the
work breakdown structure she had used for the product line extension project. She recalled the weeks of
planning and endless discussions that went into developing that work breakdown structure. The entire
project team had been involved, and that was just for a relatively straightforward product line
extension and then they keep on changing everything. The current project was more complicated, and
there simply was not sufficient time to involve all team members. “What was the point of wasting
valuable time and resources to re-invent the wheel?” Alexandria thought.
After modifying the work breakdown structure by herself, Alexandria scheduled another meeting with the
Vice-President of New Product Development James Beam to discuss staffing the project. He was
impressed with how quickly she had done the work breakdown structure and said she had the “can do
attitude he wants in future senior managers”. As was typical of other product development projects at
Quantum, Alexandria and the Vice-President agreed that the project should be housed within the engineering
division and bring people in from other areas as needed. Five years ago Quantum had moved to a functional
structure to create process efficiencies after the success of its revolutionary gaming laptop which still created
most of the revenue for Quantum. Quantum hated inefficiencies and time wasting since it got listed on the Stock
Exchange. Alexandria thought as she was leaving she heard James say, “Make sure all this is ready for Christmas”.
In her capacity as Senior Project Manager, Alexandria would serve as the liaison to other functional areas such as
marketing, purchasing, finance, and production. However, Alexandria thought that since engineering had finished
the desktop product line extension project they should have plenty of spare capacity for this small bendable
computer with a phone circuit in it. Alexandria was concerned that half the engineers she knew had already
been assigned to other projects and some others she spoke to said they were planning to take leave.
Nevertheless, she thought it should still work out well as there had been a number of recent new recruits
who had yet been assigned to projects. They would be keen and willing to work hard on this new exciting
project, she thought. They would see a gaming bendable smartphone as cool.
As the project progressed, it continued to slip behind schedule she had put up on the wall. Many of the new recruits
Page 10 of 14
were constantly being called away to induction and safety training sessions by their line Managers. Alexandria also
found it necessary to schedule a meeting each week to address how unanticipated activities would be completed.
For example, last week the team realised that no one had been assigned to design a lighting system to allow the
phone to use its augmented reality function when the light dropped. Alexander started to feel she had to think of
everything.
One of the younger engineers called the Smart Game Phone project the “Bendy Phone Project” and now
everyone is saying it and they were starting to make jokes about the name. Just the other day she had to tell off
some of the new engineers and remind them that they had to come to work at the same time in the mornings as
the manufacturing workers. One new recruit even complained that he had worked back very late the night before
to solve a technical problem. Later Alexandria even had to have a short performance review session with him
where she said, “If you having trouble managing your work hours then you need to manage your time better. I
have done that sort of work and I do not know why it is taking you that long.” Some of these new recruits she
thought do not seem to know anything! Quantum hates people wasting time and being inefficient and she knows
other managers have commented on her project team members coming in late in the mornings saying they use
“bendy time”.
Increasingly, Alexandria found himself in crisis mode. For example, this morning the manufacturing group
sent a heated email to Alexandria complaining about her conflict management style which was described as
aggressive. The manufacturing group noted that they had just learned of the 8 inch flexible AMOLED display gaming
smartphone and based on the design presented to them, they would not be able to manufacture the printed circuit
boards because of the extensive amount of flexibility needed in the components. Alexandria responded to this message
by saying that the engineering group was doing its job and she had designed a state-of-the-art gaming smartphone
and manufacturing needs to “get its act together”.She added to the message is it is just a recombination of parts,
she thought She added that it was the manufacturing group's problem to decide how to produce it. She thought
some people just do not have a "can do" attitude and wanted to spend too much time talking about problems.
Most troubling was the crisis that had occurred earlier in the week. The Vice-President of Product
Development had requested that any phone had to be 5G compatible. Alexandria explained this would delay
the introduction by a minimum of several months and that marketing had noted that some markets were not ready for
this. Nevertheless, the Vice-President was adamant that the change be made. The Vice-President of Product
Development said to Alexandria it was pretty obvious from Tia Maria, Quantum's CEO's, speech last week that all
Quantum’s products would at the leading edge of technology and expressed concern that Alexandria seems to be
losing her "can do" attitude and wanting to spend too much time talking about problems. The Vice-President of
Product Development thought it was time to get a new project manager. He felt Alexandria did not know
how to play the game and was disappointed that Alexandria was delaying such a simple project. “It’s
basically just a little laptop that bends with a phone circuit. They had even agreed on a timeline in their
first meeting.”, James thought.
When Tia Maria, the CEO of Quantum, met with James he said the new foldable gaming smartphone
might not be ready for a Christmas launch as hey had planned she had to remind him a Christmas
launch was a fixed date as they had already started the advanced Marketing. He replied he thought he
could fix it with some additional money. She only agreed to approve the project because James over
lunch one day had said that it would be an innovative product but that from a technical point of view
it was just a variant on their gaming laptop technology with a bendable screen and a phone chip.
James said the delay was due to the “project manager stuffing it up and letting people come in late and
wasting time”.
Though Tia believes she is locked into this new foldable gaming smartphone project but her gut is
telling her the project will never materialize and they may again be wasting more money on failed
projects. The company's board was constantly talking about not wasting money and growing profits.
Tia felt a lot of projects have been delayed or merged with others since James became New Product
Development Manager. She said she would back to him about the additional fund by the end of the
week.
Page 11 of 14
Before deciding to put more money into the project Tia called her friend a senior consultant at
McFriendly Louse Lane and asked her, “What do you do when project costs and deadlines escalate
drastically? How do you handle doubtful projects?” Her response was, “Let another project manager
look at the project. Ask: ‘If you took over this project tomorrow, could you achieve the required
results, given the extended time and additional money?’ If the answer is no, I call my top management
team together and have them review the doubtful project in relation to other projects in your firm’s
project portfolio.”
Tia felt this was good advice. Unfortunately, the “Bendy Phone Project” as it was called was not an
isolated example. Over the last five years even before James took ov
er the role as New Product manager there have been three major projects that were never completed
and a number had been merged to create, “strategic synergies” some of these had then even been
merged again. “We just seemed to pour more money into them, even though we had a pretty good
idea the projects were dying. The cost of those projects was high; those resources could have been
better used on other projects.” Tai wonders, “Do we ever learn from our mistakes? How can we
develop a process that catches errant projects early? More importantly, how do we ease a project
manager and team off an errant project without being embarrassed as a CEO?” It would be shame to fire
her. Tia thought she had potential and had even sent her a motivating email. Alexandria later that day
received an email from James thanking her for her work saying that she was reassigned to help with a
new gaming laptop keyboard where her expertise was urgently needed.
Tia started to contemplate how her growing electronic company, that she had founded ten years ago as
a startup, should deal with the problem of identifying projects that should be terminated early. “How
do stop having to fire otherwise hardworking project managers who make mistakes that cost the
company a lot of money and sometimes public embarrassment?” She thought. Siting back in her chair
she remembers fondly the early days when she developed her revolutionary gaming laptop that was
still the market leader. It all seemed much easier then. If the Quantum’s board heard about this they
would not be happy. A couple of days later Tia received a call from her consultant friend, Louse, to
say McFriendly was running some Agile Project Management courses for some of their clients,
especially startups doing new product development projects, and they have found them very useful.
“All the leading companies are doing Agile”, Louise said. Tia thought could the solution to
Quantum’s problems be to use Agile Project Management?
Answer only two (2) of the following (4) questions:
Q1
Using the project management maturity model to describe the stage Quantum is at?
What is the Project Management Maturity Model clearly describe the model? Use
specific examples to justify your answer. What actions would be needed to move
Quantum to the next level of the Project Management Maturity Model?
10 marks
Q2. Briefly identify your technical and social-cultural project management strengths as a
project manager. Which two of your strengths could you have used if you were
Alexandria Brandy that you feel would have significantly enhanced the chance that you
would have been more successful with this project. Define your strengths using relevant
concepts and examples of how these were displayed in the course assignment and
provide two specific examples from the case to justify why you believe these strengths
would have made a difference.
10 marks
Page 12 of 14
Q3
What challenges does an organisation face when adopting agile project management.
Identify two challenges that might confront Quantum if they were to adopt an agile
project management approach. Clearly, describe them and illustrate how they might
impact on Quantum’s ability to successfully implement Agile Project Management
System. Provide a detailed rationale. Use concepts from the course, define all terms used
and link specific elements of the case to justify your answer.
10 marks
Q4
Quantum’s Board has asked you as a consultant to identify why there are problems with
the successful implementation of new product projects within Quantum. Identify two
problems that you believe are the most important to solve in the short term. Justify your
choice. Which of these two problems would you address first? Provide a detailed
rationale for your choice of this problem and identify in detail the actions you would
recommend. Use concepts from the course, define all terms used and link specific
elements of the case to justify your answer.
10 marks
(10 + 10 = 20 Marks)
END OF EXAMINATION
Page 13 of 14
Standard normal distribution table