Project Management in the Information Age Essay Questions: Management Essay
Project Management in the Information Age Essay Questions
There are 6 essay questions in the doc attachment.Make sure you answer all the questions. Don't need to copy the questions.
TestBook in the PDF attachment you could use.
You are expected to answer all of them. You should read each question carefully and be sure to understand any details, constraints or qualifications which might be included in them.
• You are allowed to consult the course textbooks, lessons, pre-recorded and online session videos, and any notes you have taken.
• You are NOT allowed to consult other individuals, whether or not they are students in the class. You are expected to do your own work. (You may NOT lift entire sentences or paragraphs from texts or lesson materials!!!)
• Questions may or may not focus on a single project management knowledge area. Remember what we’ve emphasized in class: work in one area is often influenced by that in another.
• You may contact the instructor with clarifying questions, or to ask if you are on the right track in formulating an answer. However, he will NOT review draft answers.
• You are to be bound by an honor code to abide by that commitment. Failure to do so will result in penalties to be determined by the instructor.
These essay questions are intended to be completed two to two-and-a-half hours. Keep it in mind as you craft your answers, as it may help you focus on the heart of each question and avoid being overly wordy.
Answer each question as best as you can. Enter your answers directly below each of the questions. There are no minimum or maximum length requirements, or restrictions on formatting. Answers will be evaluated and graded on the basis of how well and completely they address the question asked, the logic and persuasiveness of the arguments expressed AND how well they apply the concepts and best practices provided in course materials. Students are advised NOT to try to answer the questions by inserting every scrap of knowledge available about a relevant project management knowledge area into their responses. That will lead to a lower, not a higher grade! While your content is expected to be legible and understandable, your answers will NOT be judged on the basis of spelling, grammar or English usage.
You do NOT have to provide citations for any sources which you use, or to provide a bibliography. It is, however, acceptable to say things like “PMBOK recommends…” if you like.
A final note: In each question, you are expected to pretend you are a credentialed Project Management Professional. I realize no student in the class is. The reason that constraint is imposed is because you are expected to answer as though you have received the project management training you’ve gotten in this class up until now. It is acceptable for you to venture opinions which are not endorsed by PMBOK, but you need to at least mention PMBOK’s view of the world and differentiate your views from that.
NEED TO SUMBIT ON THE Turnitin. Will check similarity.
Make sure you did your own work, use your own language to answer all the questions.
Submission will be sent to Turnitin to be electronically reviewed for plagiarism.
You are an experienced project manager and a Project Management Professional on a job interview for a project management position at a large company. You’ve completed the screening interview and have just been led to the office of the hiring manager for the position. After several minutes of casual conversation, she tells you she has a delicate question to ask.
“I feel it’s important for you to understand the environment you’ll be working in,” she begins. “We are undertaking a multi-million-dollar software development project involving several business units in our organization. We’re not a company which has taken project management seriously in the past, and we’ve paid for it with big cost overruns and schedule delays on similar systems we’ve built in the past.”
“I had to persuade some senior managers that our customary way of doing things wasn’t working, and it was time to embrace project management as a discipline. They authorized me to create this job opening, but I can tell you there’s a lot of skepticism about project management here. Whoever takes this job is going to have to be able to articulate its value to the project team and a lot of the key stakeholders.”
She nods in your direction, and says “You’re a PMP, so you tell me how we can justify the use of project management processes and best practices for this project to the people we’ll be working with? What’s in it for the organization as a whole, and what’s in it for them?”
Response
In this project, project management processes and best practices will help in various ways, and that is why I feel that they are needed. The processes and practices will enable us achieve the following;
Better efficiency; effective processes and practices are crucial in ensuring efficiency in the delivery of services in this project. The processes and practices will ensure that management is efficient during the project, and this will provide a roadmap that we can follow easily and ensure successful completion of the project. It will help in understanding the bumps and pot holes to avoid and thus work smarter, improving productivity and fast delivery of the project.
Enhanced client satisfaction; one of the aims of this project is to improve customer satisfaction. As such, there is a need to ensure the project is completed on time and within the set budget, thus making the customer happy and satisfied. This will help our company’s client retention rate and positive feedback from the customers that we serve. As such, I believe that we all need to use tools to promote the relationship between the company and the client through smart management of the project.
Improved efficacy; we are seeking to ensure that we complete the project successfully and that future projects will also be successful. As such, the strategies that we use in this project will serve us in many future projects. As such, project management practices and processes play a crucial role in this course.
Improved growth and development within the project team management team; the processes and practices will help us in achieving positive results and meeting the project milestones. As such, such positive results will inspire the entire team here and this will motivate each one of us to continue looking for ways through which to enhance efficiency.
Question 2 (15 points) Your Score:
You are the same project manager described in Question 1. You make such a good impression during the job interview that the hiring manager hires you immediately. You hit the ground running and persuade a lot of skeptical team members to give the PMBOK-compliant predictive life cycle processes you recommended a shot. They include a well-developed integrated change management process which includes a Change Control Board (CCB). The CCB consists of the project sponsor, the functional managers involved with the project and you. The change management process requires all requests for requirement changes to be submitted to the CCB for evaluation and possible approval.
Two months have passed since the project requirements gathering was completed. The software construction is in full swing, a senior stakeholder who had some input into the requirements and is not a member of the CCB comes by your cubicle with a sour expression on his face.
“I was talking with one of the software developers on the project and happened to see some of the web pages she was putting together. I was the one who provided the requirements for the features she was working on. When I saw what she did, I realized that there were more details than I originally thought of to be considered. I told her she needed to change what was there, and she told me she couldn’t just do it on my say-so, that I had to fill out something called a ‘change request.’”
“What’s the big deal?” he complains. “These changes are essential, and I think she should just do them. Why do I have to go through all of this ‘change request’ nonsense to get this done?”
How would you respond?
A change request is a crucial aspect of project management when there is a need to change the milestones or approaches used in a certain project. As such, I would advise someone to go through the change request process as it will enable them to get the document that contains the call for a change in the project implementation approach. The document will show why the change is needed as well as the individual who has made the call for the change. The change request is declarative, and this means that it will show exactly what needs to be done so that the project milestones are accomplished. This will guide the project implementation team on what they need to do to accomplish the set milestones. However, the document will not show what exactly needs to be done so as to carry out the change. This will create room for brainstorming and strategizing within the project implementation team so as to come up with the strategies that they will implement to achieve the change. Although this may create confusion and uncertainty within the team, it will create room for the team to explore and assess the strategies that could be implemented to achieve the change. I would also encourage one to follow the change request process as they will help them in understanding the process better. For instance, they will understand that the process contains such important elements as the ID of the individual making the call for the change, the ID of the customer, the deadline by which the change should be completed, and whether or not the change is optional or mandatory. As such, this will give more details on the call for the change. In the event that the change made affects the project negatively, the individual who made the call is held accountable and can be called to give details on the same.
Question 3 (15 points) Your Score:
You are an experienced project manager who has successfully led a number of large projects involving multi-disciplinary teams whose members were drawn from around your organization and even included some members from outside vendors. One afternoon, a junior project manager in your organization asks to speak to you about a project he has just been assigned to manage.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’ve just been assigned to manage Project Genesis. I’m happy to have the opportunity, as it’s the largest project I’ve been asked to lead so far in my career. I am a little concerned about leading the project team effectively and hoped I could get some advice from you.”
“So far, all of my projects have involved people who were all part of a single department and had worked with each other for at least a couple of years. Some of those projects involved months of work and thousands of hours of effort. We did have to deal with a lot of scope changes and a variety of other problems but were able to complete the projects successfully in the end. A large part of our success was due to the team members knowing each other for years and working quite well together. Actually, I felt blessed!”
“Project Genesis is a different story! Members of the team include technical specialists drawn from all over the company. Most have them don’t even know each other at all and have never worked with each other. They have different skill sets and levels of experience.”
“You’ve been in situations like this before yourself. What advice can you give me about managing and leading a team life this effectively?
What advice would you offer to the junior project manager?
Despite my experience, I would honestly tell you that managing a team in project management and implementation is a process that requires you as the project manager to learn from scratch. As the manager, you have to do all the activities, ranging from hiring the team members and workers, ensuring optimum productivity during project management, and ensuring that the project is delivered within the given time and budget. However, I have learned a few tips that can help you successfully manage a team in project managemen...