BSC203 Introduction to ICT Research Methods - Assignment 2 - Project Management Portfolio: Develop a

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Assignment 2

Project Management Portfolio

By May Gainmann Oo 33678843

Table of content 1. Scope statement – from Tutorial 2 Activity 4 (12 marks) 2. Gantt chart – from Tutorial 3 Activity 3 (12 marks) 3. Stakeholder matrix – from Tutorial 5 Activity 3 part 2 (8 marks) 4. Key stakeholder analysis – from Tutorial 5 Activity 3 part 3 (8 marks) 5. Tutorial 6 Activity 1 – answers to questions in parts 2 to 4 (12 marks) 6. Tutorial 6 Activity 2 – the information about 3 quality tools from question 2 (10 marks) 7. Tutorial 8 Activity 3 – answers to the questions in steps 3,6,7,9,10,11,15 and an image of your tracking Gantt chart at end of step 16 and explanation of it (20 marks) 8. Tutorial 9 Activity 3 – Lessons Learned Report (8 marks)

1. Scope statement – from Tutorial 2 Activity 4 (12 marks) Project Title: Develop a prototype of a smartwatch-based system that uses camera and GPS Date: 4 March 2019

Prepared by: May

Project Justification: (What is this project trying to achieve and why?)

To identify what the wearer is eating to track energy intake and provide support to the person using it.

Major Deliverables: (What will be produced during the project?)   

Prototype of a smartwatch-based system that uses camera and GPS to determine what the wearer is eating – both food and quality Evaluation report – the test results of individual test subjects captured by the prototype and the list of what the subjects have eaten Report with the outcome of whether the prototype works or not

Project Success Criteria: (How will we know if it is successful?)   



Within time constraint Within budget According to specification, whether have we met the objective and how accurate the prototype has captured the food of what students had consumed and support students with it Feedbacks from students

Constraints and Assumptions: (Constraints – e.g. time frame; budget; other systems involved; assumptions – e.g. specific resources are available) Constraints:  Researchers are hoping to receive 2 years of funding from a university grant scheme and will only undertake the project if they receive the funding  Whether will the project be under the timeline as there is only 1 prototype and 7 students will be testing on it Assumptions:  Internet connection is accessible anywhere as GPS is needed  A group of Polytechnic students of 7 will be participating in this experiment whereby they will take turn to use the prototype for 2 days to monitor the result  Resources are limited and can only make 1 prototype

2. Gantt chart – from Tutorial 3 Activity 3 (12 marks)

Tutorial 3.pdf

The 5 additional tasks I have added are: 1. Initiating: 1.5 Project initiation – duration of 1.2 weeks 2. Planning: 2.2 Communication plan – duration of 2 days 3. Executing: 3.2 Status and tracking of execution – duration of 56 days 4. Monitoring and Controlling: 4.5 Tracking of KPI – duration of 56 days 5. Closing: 5.4 Post project review – duration of 1 day

3. Stakeholder matrix – from Tutorial 5 Activity 3 part 2 (8 marks) Keep satisfied

High  

Encourage and influence

Ministry of Health Board of Directors (Hospital)

  

Oncologists Specialist Bioengineers Computer scientists

Power Monitor  

Keep informed

Test subjects Nurses

  

Human patients with bone cancer Doctors Singapore Cancer Society

Interest

HighLow

4. Key stakeholder analysis – from Tutorial 5 Activity 3 part 3 (8 marks) Stakeholders

Stance

Issues

Ministry of Health

Limited support

 

Board of Directors (Hospital)

Support





Ethical considerations – test subjects will be on human or animals To purse medical excellence Boost the reputation of the hospital of having to come up with this technology that helps patients with bone cancer Increase in stock market shares of hospital

Oncologists Specialist

Support

 

Recognition Beliefs in curing and helping patients with bone cancer

Bioengineers

Support

  

Medical advancement Recognition Breakthrough in medical technology

Computer Scientists

Support

  

Medical advancement Recognition Breakthrough in medical science

5. Tutorial 6 Activity 1 – answers to questions in parts 2 to 4 (12 marks) Question 2a Explain what a critical path is.

Critical path is the sequence of project network activities that directly affects the project finish date and adds up to the longest duration.

Question 2b Which tasks in this project are NOT on the critical path?

There are two tasks in the project that is not on the critical path. They are “Search library database for relevant material” and “Assess the credibility of the each source”.

Question 2c How much slack time do these tasks have? What does this mean in terms of project completion?

There is a total of 4 days of slack time. This means that the project will be able to finish 4 days earlier if there is no delay in other tasks. However, if there is any delay in other tasks, the project will still be able to end on time depending how delayed the other tasks are as there is only 4 days of slack time to cover up for all the delays in other tasks.

Question 3 Yes, it helps with understanding of the time available for each task as they show the number of slack days I have which is the buffer time. For emergency use just in case any of the other task has a delay in completion, there are slack time for me to play around and cover for the delay in time. It also shows the start and end date of a particular task.

Question 4 This view shows the link of each task as well as the critical path and slack. Now I can tell the critical path and which route will take the shortest time for the project to complete and identify which tasks directly will affect my project timeline should it have any delay. At the same time, I am able to see which tasks has spare time called slack for me to utilize and cover up for the delays in other task. There is also indication of how much work was done for a task with the percentage of completion as well as the finish date and the due period.

6. Tutorial 6 Activity 2 – the information about 3 quality tools from question 2 (10 marks) Control charts a. Brief description of the tool: According to Bojan, Sarkocevic & Zivce 2013, control charts are used to monitor, control and improve process over time. It helps to ensure that repeatable process gives the same outcome giving it the stability. While it helps to monitor the processes, it shows how a process changes over time and how much of a variation they are willing to take in since there will be bound to have a slight difference in the outcome of the process.

(Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for your PMP Exam, 2017) b. Explanation of how it can be used in project management: It ensures that a regular frequently done process gives the same patterned outcome instead of drifting and giving different outcome knows as special variation. (Rowley, 2013) Control charts will be useful for monitoring processes and see whether if it works and is stable or not to check on the quality of a project. (7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management, 2017) Other than helping to monitor the process, it helps to identify the irregularities and point out the period whereby it reacts differently and the reason behind it. (Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for your PMP Exam, n.d) Not just pointing out the errors in a process but also figuring out the correct way to go about doing the process. This will ensure that the quality of the project is always there. c. Reference list: Sarkocevic, Zivce, and Bojan V Stojčetović. “QUALITY TOOLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/5720713/QUALITY_TOOLS_IN_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT. (2013) Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for Your PMP Exam.” ExamsPM.com, 24 Aug. 2017, www.examspm.com/2016/07/11/understanding-7-basic-quality-tools/#control.

7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management. [online] KnowledgeHut Blog.

Available at: https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/7-basic-qualitytools-for-efficient-project-management (2017)

Cause - Effect Diagrams a. Brief description of the tool: Cause and Effect Diagram is a diagram that represents the cause and effect like a fishbone. The head represents the problem or objective of the project and the body represents the causes of the problems or the actions that should be performed to reach the objective. (7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management, 2017) The Seven Basic Quality Tools (n.d) states that the head is where the problem statement lies, and it is a starting point for us to find the root of the problem. b. Explanation of how it can be used in project management: It helps in linking the undesirable effects such as special variation to assignable cause which project team should implement doing the right method and ways to eliminate the special variation mention in the diagram. (The seven basic quality tools, n.d) It clearly shows the problem and the actions that project team needed to do to ensure the quality of the project is met. According to Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for your PMP Exam (2017) and supported by Rowley (2013), cause – effect diagrams help to identify the root of the problem and solving it immediately thanks to the fishbone diagram that easily allow us to identify the root of the problem and the possible cause of the problem.

It helps project team to oversee the whole problem of the project and eliminate bottlenecks. (Rowley, 2013) c. Reference list: ProjectManagement.com - The seven basic quality tools. [online] Available at: https://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/460921/The-seven-basic-quality-tools Rowley Jerome (2013) 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide-Chapter 8: Seven Basic Quality Tools.” 4squareviews, 24 May 2013, 4squareviews.com/2013/05/23/5th-edition-pmbokguide-chapter-8-seven-basic-quality-tools/ Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for Your PMP Exam.” ExamsPM.com, 24 Aug. 2017, www.examspm.com/2016/07/11/understanding-7-basic-quality-tools/#control 7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management.(2017) [online] KnowledgeHut Blog. Available at: https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/7-basicquality-tools-for-efficient-project-management

Pareto Charts a. Brief description of the tool Pareto charts are bar charts that organised tasks or issues according to priority.

(Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for your PMP Exam, 2017) Further explanation to the definition will be provided by Bojan, Sarkocevic & Zivce 2013, Pareto charts helps to breakdown a big problem into smaller issues and arranging it according to how important it is. It can either be categories by frequencies of how the issue keep happening or by consequences of the impact on the project. (The Seven Basic Quality Tools, n.d) The issues that causes the most problem will be listed to the left (Rowley, 2013) and moving on the right that causes the least of a problem. b. Explanation of how it can be used in project management It identifies which is the most problematic issue that is causing the quality of the work.

According to 7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management, there is an 80/20 rule whereby 80% of problems comes from 20% of causes. By identifying the 20% of the causes and understanding them, we can eliminate them and be able to solve the 80% of the problems. By using Pareto charts, we are able prioritise the seriousness and occurrence of an issue and eliminating them first as they take up more time and resources to resolve and fix to further avoid any disruptions. Since the thing that project manager fears is the lack of time and having insufficient time, Pareto charts helps to eliminate difficulties by sorting out the issues in terms of complexity and importance. c. Reference List ProjectManagement.com - The seven basic quality tools. [online] Available at: https://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/460921/The-seven-basic-quality-tools Rowley Jerome (2013) 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide-Chapter 8: Seven Basic Quality Tools.” 4squareviews, 24 May 2013, 4squareviews.com/2013/05/23/5th-edition-pmbokguide-chapter-8-seven-basic-quality-tools/ Sarkocevic, Zivce, and Bojan V Stojčetović. “QUALITY TOOLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/5720713/QUALITY_TOOLS_IN_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT. (2013) Understanding the 7 Basic Quality Tools for Your PMP Exam.” ExamsPM.com, 24 Aug. 2017, www.examspm.com/2016/07/11/understanding-7-basic-quality-tools/#control.

7 Basic Quality Tools for Efficient Project Management.(2017) [online] KnowledgeHut Blog. Available at: https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/7-basicquality-tools-for-efficient-project-management

7. Tutorial 8 Activity 3 – answers to the questions in Steps 3,6,7,9,10,11,15 and an image of your tracking Gantt chart at end of Step 16 and explanation of it (20 marks) Step 3 Make a note of the projected date for submitting the final report The date is 29/04/2016 Step 6 It took an additional day to search Google Scholar beyond the original estimated duration. How does this impact on the tasks that follows? Why? It pushes all the other tasks back 1 day. Instead of finishing the whole project on 03/05/2016, it will end on 04/05/2016 due to extra day needed for searching Google Scholar. This is because of the predecessors that links “Retrieve papers” and “Assess the credibility of the each source” to task “Search Google Scholar for relevant material”. We cannot retrieve papers and assess the credibility of the each source until we are done with the search Google Scholar for relevant material.

Step 7 Look at the project finish date. Is the additional day taken to search Google Scholar likely to influence the submission of the final report? If so, how?

It may or may not have the likelihood to influence the submission of the final report. For task “Assess the credibility of the each source”, there is slack time of 2 days. This means that there is buffer time and it can be delayed a bit without delaying other tasks or affecting the project. Instead of having more manpower in starting to assess the credibility of the each source, we can allocate more manpower to retrieve the papers. Instead of having to finish retrieving papers on 30/03/2016, with the additional manpower from assessing the credibility of the each source, the task can end slightly earlier depending on how many manpower was given to help.

Step 9 It took an additional day to assess the credibility of the sources. How does this impact on the tasks that follow? Does it influence the projected submission date of the final report? If so, how?

There was no impact on the tasks that follows. It does not influence the projected submission date of the final report. There is slack time of 2 days and thus the task can be delayed for 2 days without having to affect the project timeline.

Step 10 The tracking Gantt chart also shows percentage completion information. You start the task “Use evaluation guides to determine if the article is relevant” on 30/03/2016 and are 30% through it. Enter this information and note how it is displayed on the chart. How far are you estimated to be through the summary level task “Content Evaluation”?

After entering 30% completion for “Use evaluation guides to determine if the article is relevant”, the “Content Evaluation” became 15% complete and there is a shortfall of 85% more to completion.

Step 11 Switch to Network Diagram view. How are the completed tasks identified?

The completed tasks are identified by having a “X” in the box like the one below.

Step 15 Does this earlier start impact on the projected completion of the project?

Yes, the projected completion of the project is shortened.

Step 16 Experiment with ways of bringing the project back on track to submit in time.

When you identify one plausile way you can do this, both explain it and include the tracking Gantt chart that illustrates it in your Project Management Portfolio.

Tutorial 8.pdf

Since task “Use evaluation guides to determine if the article is relevant” and “Use evaluation guides to determine quality of research” is doing similar things and it can be done at the same time together, I have set both of the start date to be the same. I have added the predecessors for task “Use evaluation guides to determine quality of research” to 8FS-1day meaning that it will start 1 day before the actual start date of 31/03/2016.

This way, there is 1 extra day cut short and now the project can end 1 day earlier on 29/04/2016

8. Tutorial 9 Activity 3 – Lessons Learned Report (8 marks) 1. Introduction This report is on a project that I have done recently which is on assignment 1 for this unit. We were supposed to do a Literature review supported with 10 research articles and submission was on 1 March 2019.

2. Achievement of scope and time constraints The dateline was on 1 March 2019 at 11.55pm and I submitted mine just 40 minutes before the dateline. I did what was expected such as having to find 10 research articles for the Literature review as well as a word count of 1500 whereby mine was slight more than that. Ensure that the format is right with the font size and APA referencing.

3. What went right?

Timeline was met even with hectic schedules from work even though it was done last minute just 1 week before the dateline. There was a sense of urgency that made me do the assignment every day for a week.

4. What went wrong?

I did not follow the schedule that I have planned out for myself. The schedule of doing the assignment – like example 1st week I will start on choosing a topic and coming up with the problem. Subsequent week I should come up with the research articles. I did come out with a timeline of what I should be doing but I did not follow through.

5. Lessons learned Discipline is a key factor in completion of the assignment. Ensuring that you come up with a timeline of what you should do and complete by the day just like how we use Gnatt chart to keep track of the progression of the project. Ensure that we are always on the right track and not be falling behind time.

6. Implications for the Poster Presentation project Not only to come up with an achievable and realistic timeline but also to make sure that we stick to it. Procrastination does not help in completion of project, so just do it and get it done and over with it.